I woke up today and came to my senses. I'm gonna throw the old 235 back in and do a full rebuild, including a full flow filter conversion on the new 235 and call it a day. I'm just going to stock up on core motors just in case
That's one way to do it....should be fun! Try not to get too carried away, if you want to keep it sort of traditional (yeah, I spent a lot of money rebuilding a 235 years ago. It works fine still, it's in my son's truck. And I worked at a machine shop at the time, so the extra machining I did wasn't that expensive)
I'm thinking with full oil filtration it should last for at least 150k, if not longer. I just need to figure out a way to use the factory style oil filter canister since I reeeeeeally don't want a spin on filter on the motor
I doubt that full oil filtration will do that for it. But you might look into efi, it will do a much better job of controlling fuel mixture when cold, which seems to be when a lot of wear happens in the bores. Also, make sure to run a 195 degree thermostat, since running at colder temperatures dramatically increases cylinder wall wear.
When I had my '54 I looked into the clifford intake and a Howell throttle body but I was told it wouldn't work correctly on the 235 for whatever reason. If I run a 195° thermostat, should I do it in the fall/winter and stick to my 180° for spring/summer or run the 195° all year?
If you only want it to wear more in the summer, then you can change it. New cars have had 195 thermostats for the past 50 years....year round. I'm impressed that you want to put 150k miles on the old car. They were designed to be traded in every few years, you know. I hope you actually keep that interest in driving it.
This is literally my daily driver with my CJ7 being used mostly for the snow. I plan to drive it every day, except in snow, for...well, forever if I can. That's the exact reason I was considering a small block. When one wears out, there's another one waiting to be put in the next day.
When I switch back to my old 235 I'll be putting a 195° thermostat in it, for sure. I just figured they used a cooler thermostat the newer Motors due to cooling system inefficiency since the coolant is being pushed and pulled through those two small holes as opposed to the impeller being inside the block.
I've been driving my old truck around more, lately, and I plan to drive it more often. I've had it 40 years, the 235 left it long ago. But I was a teenage kid, in a hurry. I'm not sure how long my son will keep his truck 235 powered, right now he doesn't seem to have the means to do much with it besides keep it running. The main reason I think for the thermostat change was to control emissions better, but a side effect is that the engine lasts longer, Same with efi....and overdrive was introduced mostly to meet CAFE standards, but it also helps engines live longer. Strange about those unintended consequences.
Yeah, gotta love positive side effects. The 5 speed definitely made it a little easier on the motor, although I haven't run it in 5th with the vac*** gauge connected yet. I may find I have to swap to a 4.10 rear but we'll see. I'm going to buy the motor stand today so I can clean my old motor up before I put it back in and then start tearing down this motor. I've read a few write-ups on the full flow oil conversion so I'm trying to decide if I want to try and tackle that myself or not. I freehand drilled the crank nose for a bolt and it turned out perfect so I'm thinking it can't be any harder to drill the block out where it needs to be drilled
How do you feel about the PCV conversion, and is there a way to make it look decent without sticking out like a modern sore thumb?
PCV was an option in the old days, very rare as I think it was mostly only ordered on fleet vehicles (that were expected to get a lot of miles). RPO 417 on cars, RPO 217 on trucks. Here are the 1955 instructions from the factory ***embly manuals. Yes, you want PCV if you expect to get 150k miles out of an old engine.
I just finished reading an article on devestech that describes how to convert the motor over to pcv, so it looks like I'll be doing that as well. The ways he did his, it looks like it could have come from the factory.
It's not exactly like that. The draft tube gets removed and the pcv valve goes into the hole. Then the line goes around the front of the block between the w/p and water outlet, into a tee in the intake where the wipers connect. I'll be running mine along side of the fuel line in front of the valve cover instead of above the w/p though.
the right parts show up occasionally on ebay....this is off a 261, which would be more likely to find. http://www.ebay.com/itm/132226223562?
Hey Squirrel, question for you. Being as that you worked in a machine shop and built 235s, do they require balancing during a rebuild or no? I'll never take it past 3500 RPMs, and that's only if I take it to the drag strip, which I won't do but maybe once a year at most
I would not bother balancing it. Unless you replace some of the connecting rods, or something like that. A straight six is naturally balanced, as long as the crankshaft is balanced by itself, and all the pistons weigh the same as each other, and the rods weigh the same as each other. Not like a v8 that needs the crank balanced to match the rods and pistons.
The Jalopy Journal
