The fire threat should be greatly reduced.

It has rained for 3 days straight in Edmonton and there is water laying around everywhere. We really needed this rain, but enough already the old Fargo is gonna float away soon. It is cold and miserable working on the truck outside through this monsoon. I need to get the truck inside as soon as the engine is out.

Pulling the 218

With the bad news on the 1950 block, engine removal work has commenced in earnest on the 1951 1/2 ton. I'm preparing to remove the front clip from my truck. I've taken some measurements from the firewall to the rad housing so when I refit the front end I have some references. I suspect it will be a bugger to get it back on right, because there is so much rust and body damage that needs to be fixed.

The firewall to rad support measurements are 30 1/16" on the passenger side and 30 5/8" on the drivers side.

Things don't always go your way.

I contacted Prostock Performance Parts & Machine for an update on my engine. The news was not good the block was badly cracked. I had not expected that, it seemed like such a solid old engine. I had not seen any signs of cracks or visual damage. The crank is good once it is reground and the rods and pistons are OK too. The head also checked out fine. Well I've started hastily removing my 1951 engine from the 1/2 ton. Sieggy is only around for a few more days before he is going back to Fort McMurray now that the fires are less of a threat. I'd like his help un-seizing the the frozen piston in the block of my 1951 218. If I get lucky maybe I can bore out the 218 to the 237 cubic inch and use the rotating assembly from the 1950 engine. I sure hope so.

Engine Rebuild Step 3: At the machine shop

I found an Edmonton area machine shop that has flat head experience Prostock Performance Automotive Parts and Machine Ltd. Their prices seem reasonable so I'm letting them hot tank, mag particle and measure my flat head 6. In addition because I couldn't find a flat head valve compressor tool locally (I had to order one) I've asked Prostock to remove the valve train as well. They are also going to remove the single broken stud we had during tear down. They've quoted 1 hour to do the work. I can't wait to see how good it looks all cleaned up. I'm really curious about the condition of the bottom end and it's suitability for rebuild. I'm hoping my luck holds out, this engine has been pretty encouraging during initial tear down and garage inspection.

Making running boards

I had the remains of the old running boards from the 3/4 ton truck and they were in a little better shape than my originals. The problem was that the 3/4 ton had an 8 foot box my truck has a 6 foot box. So a whole bunch of hammering, grinding and cutting later the running boards were trimmed to size. Alicia is my grandson's lady and she just happens to be a welder so lucky me.

She fixed up the mess I made of the welding and tomorrow I can grind and fit the thing properly. Its looks pretty good for home made fabrication.

Motor rebuild: Step 2 What we have for wear and tear

The engine tear down went well with Sieggy's over-sight. He had me tear most of it down myself and provided guidance where required. As we suspected the cylinders were pretty good, the pistons show some wear and the crank well it's not so good. The cam appears to have extensive damage as well, it almost looks like it was dropped on a floor at some point. I didn't have a valve spring tool so we had to stop at that point and evaluate what we have to work with in the bottom end. We will pull the top end out in a few days. After that is done a visit to a good machine shop for a caustic bath, mag particle test and complete measurement of key components will happen.

Garage therapy

The engine tear down started on the 1950 228 engine. The fire in Fort McMurray have caused tens of thousands of citizens to evacuate the city. Many of these folks are my friends and family. After things had settled down for a few days my buddy started to get bored with sitting around. So we did a little garage therapy, Even though his home was a complete loss he wanted something to do to take his mind of things for a while.

228 Rebuild: Step 1 Evaluation

Today we are going to do some basic measurements to see if the cylinders of my donor engine are out of round. It's nice having a millwright in the family to do the measuring, he has all the right tools and the know-how. My 228 engine does appear to have been rebuilt at some point the factory engine numbers have been ground off and re-stamped. The correct number should have started with the letter "T" and had seven digits following that. The second picture shows the factory stamping on my original, but seized 1951 218 engine.

I've been getting some feedback from other owner/builders about looking for a larger slightly newer version of the flat head 6 engine. The newer versions offer spin on oil filter, better crankshaft, more displacement and it still looks correct for my truck. I'm not sure I'd consider the change because I've already got 2 engines. But, if the price is right... I suppose I'd have to consider it because building a slightly newer engine is the same price as building mine with several performance advantages.