Projects Brought home a Jimmy 302 today

Fell in to a killer deal on this. Fully rebuilt. Been sitting in a warehouse for decades.

Plans are to convert it over to civilian and swap it into my Pontiac.


I posted this mostly to show off my new toy, but any tips from the stovebolt community would he greatly welcomed

 

That will be a fun ride but man that would look nice in a pickup

 

That is one odd lookin' distributor.

 

Nice find. The flywheel and 1/2bell housing is useless. If you end up with any car/pickup bellhousing that "boss" on the side will need to be ground away to clear the stock style starter. If you use a an adapter for a late model trans you will not need to remove it.
That's also a deep 2 piece pan and 228-248-270 will work too. The pumps are the same just the oil pickup is different. The Waterproof military dist is usually 24 volt but any Chev/GMC will work. That cylinder head rear water line to the thermostat housing is important don't forget to use it.
If make everything bolt up some how to your stock drive line remember this has a lot more HP. Torque may be close to the same as your Pontiac; just be careful.

 

Military sealed distributor. Wouldn't short out crossing water. They said. Interchangable with the distributors on our Reo and Reo powered Studebaker trucks. When I was a Motor Pool troop. But the Reos turned the other direction. So when I installed a GMC distributor in a Reo it had centrifugal retard. Started good. Not much top end.

 

If it was built to military specs it might actually be a magneto. It's got some beefy looking plug wires on it, don't it? For that matter, any of the electrical stuff may be 24 volt.

 

I'm just going over the sealed distributor in my Mil 302 and it looks like it should be easy to convert it to 12V. If it works I'll share my findings.

 

Interesting that it appears to have a Mercury style Holly carb.

 

I didnt get much time to look it over yet. (Ill do it tomorrow while im suppose to be working)

One thing i did notice was the beefy ass spark plug wires. They thread onto the plugs, you would need a 5/8 wrench to get em off...

 

Part of the sealed system. Water tight. Absolutely not a magneto

 

The Carburetor is milspec and like the distributor, water tight. It is equipped for a centravac governor, the other half is located in the distributor base. The distributor has a 6 volt coil in it and the 24 volt ignition is reduced by an 18 volt resister also located inside the distributor. the whole system is quite a piece of work for it's 1953 vintage and military vehicle collectors would be interested in it, the shielded sparkplug cables and spark plugs. for what you want to do with the engine I'd replace it all with civilian stuff and sell the military specific parts.

 

If it's just a breaker point distributor, would it care what voltage you use? Maybe different condenser?

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Cool! I've always had a soft spot and interest for the 302, and should make for a fun drive in the Pontiac. A big "one of these days" projects, (maybe the next car) that I've been planning in the back of my head is putting one into a late 40s/early 50s chevy fleetline coupe

 

A lot easier to buy parts and service the civilian distributor.

 

The plan is to convert everything over to Civi. I read that a 235 distributor will drop in. Any truth to that? Same thing with the waterpump?

 

I would expect the 235 distributor works. But my GMC was a race motor so I never did things like that. JD Tone should jump in here with more info. I would advise you to check out the Inliners International web site and join up. Lots of help from them concerning street driven cars.

 

A 235 distributor plops right in. GMC Bubba did a thread about rebuilding those distributors. I rebuilt one and put in a dual point conversion breaker plate kit.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/six-cylinder-performance-ignition-bubbas.1063582/

 

The water pump is the same housing as a pre-'55 Chev, but the pullies & backing plate are different. Find a '56 - '59 GMC 6 cylinder parts truck. Virtually everything you need is there.

 

Some pics of the stuff i need to make disappear

 

That bypass line in the first two pics is supposed to help cooling by routing coolant to the back cylinders to keep the back cylinders from overheating. It will work without it but some recommend to keep it.

 

It is my belief that the rear bypass is a very good thing

 

I agree. It stays. Extra cooling makes good sense to me.

 

Where would be the best place to list these military pieces? Need to build up my Paypal account to get the new parts needed.

 

So rather than a DZ302 this is more of a DMZ302?

 

Those plug wires and plugs are expensive - don't just chuck them, they'll be valuable to a military restorer.

 

I rigged up 24volt to this. Got it to spin over pretty good, plenty of oil pressure. Takes 2 gallons of oil as is.

I thought the coil was built into that massive dizzy, but now im thinking i was wrong...

Any clue what coil to use to test run this thing? Ive never heard of a 24v coil, but this is all new to me

 

The coil is in the dizzy. I just took mine apart and rewired it to work on 12 v. There is a big resistor inside in a recess that looks like a toaster element with a bandage around it (probably asbestos)I bypassed it and tried 12V to the power and it worked. I think I'm going to need a ballast resistor in there but will have to figure out the value that I need. If you pull the tin pan off the top you'll see what I'm talking about

 

Congrats on your 302!

I have a military 302 as well that needs to be rebuilt. When I mentioned 302 GMC every machinist said “Chevy 302....”. So it maybe a very good thing that she’s been rebuilt already! I imagine I will have to drive my engine out of Montana to find someone who knows what they are doing.


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Hillbilly, please inform us when you locate a buyer for the G.I. parts ...

 

Write me with any questions you have with your conversion. I would look at the pan early as you might need some clearance and the 228/248 pans have less oil. Since you probably not going to take it all apart, a bypass filter is a must.