Get your motor running…

This car arrived with a 1940 engine in it. People have told me that that was common to replace older motors with later ones - that it was cheaper to throw in another motor than to rebuild the original one - and probably more desirable to have a newer, more powerful version of their basic flat head six.

As it happens, I had an extra motor I got from a parts car back about 1988. In 1991, it was time to rebuilt my coupe motor, but since I was living in a condo, I had no place to store and engineless car while the work was being done. I rebuilt this one instead and put it in the coupe.

But early production 36 motors were different than later versions. The biggest difference is the number of casting plugs. Early versions have four small ones, late versions two large ones. I had the coupe repainted in 2002 and also had its original motor rebuilt at that time and swapped into the car, restoring it to original. The later production engine went into storage and lo and behold, it is correct for this car.

I took it to my machinist, Gary Pulsifer at G&R Automotive in New Gloucester, ME to check it all out. The engine had a lot of blow-by ever since the 1991 rebuild and I was afraid I might have cracked the rings by starting it for the first time with gas poured down the carb. That can wash the lubrication out of the cylinders, hence the cracking. As it happened, the rings weren't cracked, but there was a lot of carbon in the engine. Apparently it had been running very rich - maybe the automatic choke being not set correctly? – and there was more wear than there should have been, probably because of gas washing down the cylinders. The exhaust valves looked iffy, as did the rod bearings. I replaced those with new, plus a new set of 0.40 rings.

Here's Gary and some shots of the motor, now awaiting rings (the first set were incorrect and had to be returned) and a final paint job.