I have a 1947 Chevy truck with the 216, 3 speed, enclosed drive line, 6 volt electrical, blah, blah pretty much stock. New wire harness, rebuilt clutch, new brakes, rebuilt starter and generator. I have taken the steps to make it my daily driver around town. I know it wont keep up on the freeway at todays high speeds, but I am getting curious if I were to take it easy and stay in the right lane, is it possible to make it out of town maybe for a long weekend car show. Please let me know if you have driven on the freeway with a stock vehicle and how far/long does it take. Thanks
I've had a few stock 47-53 Chevy cars and trucks, they were actually the most dependable cars if ever had. The farthest I ever drove them was around 100 miles though, just stayed at 50-55 mph.
216 is pretty bulletproof... Upgrade trans/final drive gearing for lower cruising RPM & you'll be able to cruise @ freeway speeds. The motor itself, as long as it's not beatdown internally, is a solid powerplant. I've rolled near & far on a stovebolt w/o any worries...
I dont want to upgrade anything. This is the most complete original truck I have ever owned and plan to, yeah I know **yawn**, restore it someday. I enjoy driving it everyday. The furthest I have driven so far has been 70 mile round trip to a friends house about 4 times since January to check out a job he has for me, and when the job starts I will be making the drive everyday to build him a workshop.
I've put over 6000 miles on the 216 in my '48 truck with lots of day trips of over 100 miles and it's never failed me yet! This is a true survivor of a truck with 60000 orig. miles of it and the heads never been off of it! Truck is bone stock with the exception of a tranny swap last year to a T-5. She's a 3/4 tonner so the gears are 4.56:1 with 15" wheels so the overdrive has really made a phenomal difference! With the orig 4spd. I tried to always keep at or under 50 but now with the .73:1 overdrive I'll run her at 60 on the highway and she's fine with it. Don't be afraid to drive that truck. What do you think they did in 1950? By the way the tanny swap was a complete bolt in using the orig. flywheel, pressure plate, and throw out brg. and just changing the clutch disc to an S10 disc. Because the 3/4 tonner has a torque tube only to the carrier bearing and on open shaft from there to the rear end I did absolutely no cutting, welding, of drilling to so the swap. I found that the shaft from a 1980 1/2 ton 2WD was exactly the right length and a local shop was able to supply me with a conversion U joint to match it up with the yoke in the rear. Good luck with your truck!
The original 216 in my '49 Fleetline lasted about 5000 miles of highway driving before the fiber timing gear broke and left me and my family stranded...Paul
Hello from another Stovebolt owner. Your 216 will provide you with thousands of happy miles if its kept up. I know answers will vary, but I would recommend if you want to keep it running well, take the scenic routes instead of the freeway. Sure you can cruise at 50-55 all day with the stock gearing but today's freeways are a deathtrap if you go under 65 mph. You CAN do it but you'll be tempted to keep up with traffic & push that motor harder than it was designed to run. Not to mention its really more stressful than its worth (in my opinion.) I drove a few hundred miles recently on I-39 on a Sunday afternoon and it was white knuckle all the way. Too many morons coming up on me WAY too fast before they realized how slow I was going. I will take two lanes and alternate routes next time. Don't let it cramp your style. Get out there & enjoy your pride and joy. But for your engine and your stress level I'd keep the freeway driving to a minimum. For what its worth. With
Was it the original fiber gear from 1949? It is not too hard to replace it with an aluminum timing gear. The fiber gears don't stand up to normal use if the engine has not run in a long time.
My 1st 216 ran like a champ, pulled it apart and found it had a leather strap in place of mains, it does not get any better than that
I agree with others: drive it, but not too hard. It seems that high RPM for extended periods is hard on the rods. Daily driving is a common discussion on http://www.stovebolt.com. Cruise on over to their forum, join and post a little intro, do a search of their forums and post this question. Some serious 216 drivers there.
I drove mine all summer. 5-6000 miles or so. Changed the oil a few times, no issues. Don't be scared, our parents and grandparent all used to drive their Chevy's. Coast to coast and everywhere in between. Im sure back in the day everyone didn't stay within a 30 mile radius of their house.
Had this happen to me last week. Fiber gear wore down and lost a few teeth. That gear is a bitch to get off and a bitch to get it. Cam has to come out, if you don't want to risk messing something up. Oil pan must be dropped to get timing cover off. And steering has to be dropped down to get oil pan off. Not fun, so I'm learning. But a shame to ditch a good running motor just the same.
I too had a '47 Thriftmaster with the original (epoxied cracked block) 216 & I was always amazed at the pick up when you put the pedal down to the floor at 50 mph. As long as your steering box is tight & your suspension is trustworthy, you'll be O.K.
Only thing you may want to consider is a rearend swap that will give you a more highway friendly gear, being a truck that old it's probably like a 4.11, and 50-55 is top end for you going down the road.
Here is my 46 with a 216. I have had the truck almost 20 years and drive it regularly. The 4 speed non syncro is a pain at times, but it works very well. One of the first things i changed was the rear gear. Patricks has everything you need to do the swap. It raised my cruise speed to 65 with the engine sounding happy. Listen to the old girl, if it sounds like it is screaming back off.
A gear change in the rear end will not hurt it if you want to keep it original but will make it easier to handle todays traffic.
As a broke teenager back in the '50s I had several old 216 Chevies. They are reliable as long as you keep the revs down and I bought one that had a bad rod knock and an old timer showed me a quick fix. Drop the pan and take out the rod and piston from the bottom then put it back together and run it on five cylinders. It will idle rough but I drove it like that for over a year. For those that have never worked on them, the small end of the rod has a pinch bolt that holds the wrist pin in the piston. At bottom dead center there is enough room to loosen the pinch bolt and remove the wrist pin then pull the piston out.
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