I am working on a 53 3600 with the 216. Just got it running but no oil to the rockers ans an ominous knocking noise which sounds like the lower end. The oil pressure gauge has been disconnected in another life sometime ago. I need to get a gauge hooked up. There is a pipe plug next to the oil distribution plate where I am guessing the old feed may have come from. Just a logical guess . Pic attached shows the plug. Is my ***umption correct?
Thanks guys. That is where I will install the gauge then. I ran the block number and it comes back as a 216 3600 series. It has the full side plate which I am told is indicative of the 216s.
Only the larger trucks had a 235. https://www.gm.com/content/dam/comp...its/chevrolet-trucks/1953-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf
Well bad news, I guess. 0 on the oil pressure and a noticeable knocking sound in the lower end. Consulting with the owner he admits that he heard that noise while driving the truck last year in his yard. I dropped the pan and found over an inch of sludge in the bottom that had engulfed the pickup preventing the pump from drawing in any oil. Today I will clean the pan and drop the oil pump to check it out although the screen did not appear to be plugged you never know what else lurks in and around these things. Wonder what damage has been done to the inserts. Almost afraid to look!
Cleaned the pan of over an inch of nasty sludge and gray Babbitt material that was as hard as a stone. Managed to get the thing really clean after several washes with kerosene. S****ed all the years of crud of the outside and hit it with the metal wire wheel. Looks much better. I pulled the oil pump out and stuck the suction pipe in a pot of oil. Turned up the pump with my drill and oil pumped through quickly and a good stream but when I reinstall the pump and turn the engine over (no plugs in the motor) I get no oil anywhere including the 1/8 inch port on the side of the block shown in the pic above. Took the pump out again and it pumps oil from the container on the floor but with no pressure when I put my finger over the output pipe. Tore the plate off and inspected the gears. They look fine to me. Pulled the pressure regulator apart and cleaned that as well. Put it all back together and tested it again. Now it seems to have a little more pressure so I filled the pump with oil and reinstalled it for another test on the engine which I will not get today as the Hemmings Cruise is tonight so I am cleaning up for the event. I wonder if I should just bite the bullet and replace the pump with a new unit?
The wear in the oil pump is usually on the faceplate, where the gears run. If there is any play or wear there, it will drop oil pressure, and it doesn't need much wear there to affect it. The figure should be in the manual, but it's only a couple of thousands of an inch. New oil pumps for these are fairly cheap, so a new pump wouldn't hurt. Don't forget that these engines ran at about 5 psi on a good day, with hot, thin oil. There is a thin tube (1/8") which runs from the oil pump through the bottom of the engine, and up to the rocker shaft, and this often gets clogged and results in no oil supply to the head. There is also the oil distribution system in the oil pan which squirts oil up onto the wrist pins. These also have to be clean and aimed to the right spot. If you have the manual, it will give you all the details.
Yes, the official spec from Chevrolet on these engines was 14 psi. The stock engine in my first '53 Chevy ran around 10 psi on the open road. If it were mine, I'd also remove the cylinder head and completely de-louse it while I was at it. Like 36roadster said, the wear is going to be between the end plate and the gears; the end plate can be sanded smooth with fine paper on a piece of gl***, if need be. If you end up needing a rod or two to restore the clearance, there are plenty on eBay, some for a very reasonable price. The aiming of the oil manifold that shoots six little geysers of oil at the rods is critical; Kent-Moore made a fixture to use while aiming them properly, but good luck finding one.
Yesterday I removed the pump again and removed the cover. Lots of wear there so I sanded it with fine paper until it appeared to be even. Put it in a oil bath and spun it up. It did pump better, no question about that, but I could keep my finger over the output. I expected that it would at least force my finger off or kick the pressure relief valve open. Put it in the engine and held a paint cup of oil over the suction. It did pump oil into the galley and out of the 1/8 inch port by the exhaust manifold. Progress, I thought. So I hooked up a pressure gauge to that port and spun the pump up with the drill again but it did not even flutter the gauge. I took the distribution plate off by the exhaust. Looks clean there and blew air from the large hole right back into the block. No restrictions. The next time I am in the shop i am going to disconnect the pipe feed by the distribution plate and see if I can get free air thru to the top of the rockers. I might just buy a new pump to rule out the old one but first........ There seems to be a lot of play in the connecting rods. Enough that you can wiggle them up and down and hear a slight clicking. That certainly cannot be good. Pulled off one cap and two small shims fell off but the crank looked good and the bearing did not look awful. My 82 year old mentor says back in the day they often eliminated the shims to tighten up the tolerances. I am going to try this and will plastigauge the bearing to see where we land. I might get lucky, I hope. The owner of the truck is not going to do a rebuild so we are limited to what progress we can make here. Maybe we can get it tightened up enough to run better. I really doubt that this truck will see much use as it belonged to the owners FIL and his wife has sentimental issues with it. We will see where we end up.
If you remove the rod cap , have a look at the surface of the bearing. If there is still the shiny silver stuff on there, (which is the babbit material), then you can add/remove the shims until there is no play. Each time you adjust the shims, tighten the rod caps (just a bit past hand tight), and turn the motor over by hand. When you can't turn it, remove a shim, and you should be ok. Don't torque them up when you are doing this, only when you are finished. I have only ever done this with the motor on the stand, but you should be OK with it in the car.
Yeah, I forgot to mention to have enough shims in there to be able to turn it by hand, with lots of play (plenty of shims). Then you do each piston in turn, and that's why I mentioned not to torque it up yet, so when the shim which stops the works from turning is removed, and the rod is torqued up, you are left with a close gap and it will still turn. Some of the shims could be 0.005", so you don't need to remove much.
Final inspection has revealed that this engine had been run way too long without oil. The bearing surfaces are toasted. This thing will need to come apart to make it right. However, the owner is not in favor of doing this and is pursuing a replacement engine, so we are holding for the time being. We may be putting in a 235 that he has a lead on. Do the 235 and 216 have the same bell housings?
Yes, all 216/235/261s have the same bell housing pattern on the back of the block, as well as the inline GMCs.
The only real rubs on installing a 55 or later 235 / 261 in a 53 or older Chevy Truck are the length of the later water pump and if the front plate on the engine is set up to bolt the front motor mount on. Davis speed makes a plate that lets you use the stock 53 water pump that is a well spent 39.00 plus shipping. https://davisspeedequipment.com/product/10018-235-chevy-water-pump-adapter-plate/ They didn't drill the front plate on most 235 engines for the front mount that the AD trucks and early cars use. You have to drill that plate for the bolts for the mount. I'm thinking that some of the later 235 engines don't have that lip and you have to change the front plate that calls for pulling the damper, timing cover, cam gear or cam with gear and swapping plates. Not bad if you do it when you rebuild the engine but a pain in the *** during a quick engine swap.
Looked at the 2 engines yesterday. One is an early 235 with the drilled front mount and the other is a 216 with what appears to be an AA ******** serial number. However, it was too dirty and dark to get an accurate read. Regardless, both turn over and have been in heated dry storage for 10 years and he just wants them gone for free. We are grabbing both today with all the extra parts whatever they are. I will then get a better view of the serial numbers and go from there. Both are mounted in sturdy wooden floor frames so that will work out well when we floor fire them to see what we have.
Picked up those engines this morning. One is a AA2363I2 and is a 216 while the other is a 235 with a number of 7669059. I am going to see if I can determine what year these are from info on the web. Tomorrow we will unload these and start the process of checking them out.
Working on the early 216 today and noticed that it takes a small plug. 43s are way too large. The web didn't give me any answers other than 45s which look too big. Bet one of you guys knows the answer. This is that AA block so I suspect it may be a very early piece.
That one looks correct. A very elderly friend had to go into an ***isted home, so he gave me his old car parts. Some were the tiny plugs and he said it was for his old Chevy, he liked 40-48 so I think that's the plug. I can go look in my stuff to get one to take a pic or see what brand and number
I looked online.... One site said the m8 is not available, but saw a new number for the m8. Look in the chart below, threads are 10mm, and also gives the new part number . https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ADO-M8
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