I am close to getting my 50 Chev on the road with its stock 216. This is my first experience with an oilslinger and have been advised to keep it under 50mph or so on 1-hour-plus trips to ensure proper oiling to the front bearing. Does anyone have any information or advise on this? Is there a "accepted" speed that these 6's shouldn't be run over for an extended period of time? Thanks for your help. James
i drive my 52 chevy 216 at 55 just made a 2 hour trip last weekend they pur if yours is a automatic it will cruise even faster they had better gears
That bit of info is more for a Model T. The Chevy babbit pounder's had pressure oiling to all the mains. The rods are the limiting factor here. Got a buddy that has a 51 and he has run it at 80+ for miles. Depending on your rear gears 60 to 70 is workable. Your car should have 4.11s ,53-54 'Glide's had 3.55 and the stick's 3.70's. If the engine condition is unknown drop the pan and adjust the rods, once they get a bit loose things go pear shaped FAST. To adjust remove shims from each side of the cap equally,sometimes you have to leave one more on one side, then with a 4oz hammer a LIGHT tap should slide the rod side to side on the crank. If you can slide it by hand too loose,a harder hit too tight. Be careful you do not mess up the alignment of the oil squirters. A good investment would be a "Motors" manual from the early 50's ,have all the info needed.Was shown how to do this MANY years ago by my friend's Uncle when many old babbit pounders were still in everyday use. By the way these things were raced 30s-50s and they wound them 5000+ on splash oiling.
all I know is the machine shop where I go built a 216 for a 51 and it was back getting redone again with in a year. the guy drove it like it was a regular car but refused to have a later 235 installed. I used to see it all the time.... haven't seen it for a while now. maybe he came to his senses.
Before I swapped over to a full pressure engine in my '53 standard shift car, I ran the babbit rod 235 at sustained speeds of 60-65 mph regularly with no problems. The '53s will run at a slightly lower rpm than the earlier cars, due to the 3.70 gears as opposed to the 4.11s that the '49-'52 stick cars used. By the way, only the rods are "babbit"; the mains are normal looking inserts. Keep in mind that people used to drive these cars from NY to CA without blowing them up, so they couldn't have been THAT bad.
I'm a oilslinger! get a rear end & tube from a 49-54 with a powerglide. It's a higher gear ratio and will allow you to drive faster. You can also get the gears new from patrick's antique trucks.
i drove mine like a bat outta hell from merced to sacramento which is about a 2hr + drive. we were passing big rigs and keeping up with most of the traffic so i figured 65-70
I blew mine up at 70-75mph! the number 1 rod blew out the side of the block just like the cool-aid man! Now i have a 56 235.
Lots of variables: tire size, rear gear ratio, condition of the engine, etc. I wouldn't drive a 216 any faster than 3600 RPM.
Thanks for all the input. Mine is a '50 216, 3 on the tree, stock gears (4.11 i'm assuming from the above responses), and coker G78-15. Sounds to me like 60mph is reasonable and safe. There is an ol' fella in this area thats "been working on these since they were new" so once I get the brakes finished up i'm going to pop it over to him to check the heartbeat of the 216.
I use my 235 splash oiler, as a daily driver, and often drive it on long trips. As was said before, these cars drove all over the country, back in the day, so just keep it full of oil, and service regulaly, and it will do as good as any other. As with all things, its a lot how you take care of it.
I drove my 50 back from PA to Cali with no problems with the motor. With the 4.11's , best to keep it around 60 mhp and it will oil just fine.
My uncle usually runs his at about 65. He say's he gets away with going faster because his rods have been machined for insert bearings. Problem is, he doesn't make any long trips. Longest he said he's went is about an hour. I don't know how well it would do on a 2 or 3 hour trip.
The only connecting rod problem my 216 had was caused by a piece of gasket cork that partially blocked one of the oil pickup scoops at the rod bearing cap. Slight knock. I drove it for a year with no problem before I dropped the oil pan. Found one journal out of round .001 of an inch. My Pals drained the oil of a 1940, used a brick to keep the gas pedal floored and it took 20 minutes to destroy the 20 year old engine. Tougher than you think!
if it gets oil for the first 15min. at 65 70 why would it not get oil at the end of a 2-3 hr. drive ??? If my engine in my truck blows up. My engine guy didnt do his job right Bill
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