Projects 1949 M47 pickup. Basement barn find!

To be honest I didn't realize how much I needed today. I rode my bicycle around town running errands then wrapped it up with a couple hours in the garage with the garage door open and I was just very very glad I was able to do that. I needed that sense of normalcy after this brutal consistent cold of January we've had.
Spring will be here soon enough and I can have some buds drink a beer on a milk crate while working on the truck. Good days ahead.

 

beer?

 

It's what us commoners drink, it's good

 

Funny enough I've never drank before.
But I always have beers in my shop for buds.
I'll toss back a cold can of coke

 

If your buds are there to help remember the cardinal rule, Work first and then the beer. Don't ask me how I know

 

if ya wanna see me bumble around and hammer at the rear suspension of the truck....
here ya go!

 

Alriiiight.
I ran out of propane for my heater!
I reattached the fan and generator!
Put on the belts!
Installed the clutch!
Reinstalled the transmission!
Installed the starter!
Installed all the coolant lines!

I AM SO CLOSE TO FIRING OFF THIS MOTOR!!!

 

Starting a build and question for the HAMB: is that fan close enough to the rad shroud?

 

Yer fuel pump bowl looks like my morning 'spresso cup.

 

It's filthy.
I just mounted it but didn't clean it at all.

I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say. I don't think I can adjust it out because then the belt won't line up, and the actual fan looks backwards to me too....
I've tried looking for other pics and everyone's fans are tucked in so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, if anything. Unless those two bolts let the fan slide out without messing with the pulley spot.

I haven't fine tuned anything. Literally throwing it all together right now! So any comments are helpful for sure.

 

I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say. I don't think I can adjust it out because then the belt won't line up, and the actual fan looks backwards to me too....
I've tried looking for other pics and everyone's fans are tucked in so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, if anything. Unless those two bolts let the fan slide out without messing with the pulley spot.

I haven't fine tuned anything. Literally throwing it all together right now! So any comments are helpful for sure.[/QUOTE]



There are 2 positions that the radiator can be mounted. One for 6 cyl engines and one for V8.
Check on the fenders and you will see the mounting holes. Yours is probably in the 6 cyl position at the moment. When you put body and fenders on, it should sort itself out. You might have to shorten the hoses a bit, but for now it should be fine. Also check frame for the bottom mount holes.
When putting the 302 in my '50 F1, I was told the motor was too long and wouldn't fit unless I used a serpentine system. I got to looking and saw the other mounting location for the radiator and moved it forward. Now, using the same fan shroud as you have my fan sits half in/half out of the opening. Ron

 

Damn you're right!!!

Thank you!!
I was gonna pour coolant in tomorrow so I'm glad y'all pointed this out.
I just looked through the video I made while mounting it and you can see the closer mounting holes!
Here's a still from the video(which also shows me the bolts are too tight, so I can correct that as well and throw in some cotter pins.

 

You're welcome. Every once in a while, I am good for something. Lol. Good thing you had that video. If you are anything like me you would have been driving over tonight to check it out. I know I wouldn't have been able to sleep wondering about it. You can sleep good now. Ron

 

Don't forget to use plain water first off because something will leak and you'll lose a lot of expensive coolant. Use food colouring in the water if you want to trace any leaks.

 

Because my garage is sooooo cold Im not sure I wanna chance it.
Im pretty sure I'll wanna drain it and refill it to clear out the whole motor though so not sure how to proceed.

Maybe I will try to start it with just water in it. Get it to go through the whole system for a bit, then drain it, then refill it with coolant mix and run it for a sec so I don't have just distilled water in my block.
I would never forgive myself for letting the block freeze and breaking something.

For real world numbers it's been about -15 steady as the day time high. Every liquid freezes overnight. I bought some cleaner and left it in there and it froze solid because I forgot it, it's been a few weeks and hasn't thawed yet.

 

How about getting some take-out coolant, left over from a routine service of an engine. Test the freeze point (cheap tester from the parts store) and strain out any trash and junk. That way, there is no risk of cracking the engine or radiator.

I have a few jugs here - Unfortunately, I am 2,525 miles from Montreal

 

I’m with you but go for the better Pepsi! And please make sure you have some ventilation to guard against carbon monoxide poisoning... I want to see the truck finished!

 

I would see if it will run first before i added anything,definetly do not put "raw" water in first,you wont be able to get it to mix properly without running it for an hour?.You can get recycled antifreeze at a salvage yard cheap if you want to do it that way.It wont hurt to run it for a minute or two with no coolant in it,it would be a shame to have something like this happen,Im in PEI and it gets real cold here too. harvey

 

I grew up in the south...we drink coke!!

I run the heater for fifteen minutes max and then let the three inch gap above the garage door let all the fresh air in.


Thanks again all of you for your insight. This isn't the first time y'all have saved me some future headaches and head scratching and I appreciate it a ton!!

 

A couple of gallons of 50/50 pre mixed antifreeze is cheap insurance against it freezing. You'd never be able to fully drain the block, there will always be some coolant in it.

 

Well here it is shine.

 

Was only in the garage for an hour or so today.

Hooked up all the plug wires and wired up everything very temporarily so I can connect a battery to it and it should work.

I'm going to put another wire to connect the oil pressure sending unit so I can crank the motor over a bunch of times to try to build up oil pressure before I start it.
Here are some sketchy wiring pics
I even have a push button switch in there that was in my electrical junk box .

 

i managed to get the motor to turn over a bunch of times.
it never built up oil pressure.

is the bolt that holds the top cap of the oil filter canister a regular bolt or it is some sort of banjo bolt?


i did take the top off the oil filter canister and there wasn't even any oil in the oil filter canister. i cant imagine it would take THAT long to get the oil flowing....but maybe it does.
the oil is very, very clear and there is zero carbon on the valves. the motor was supposedly rebuilt before i got it, but I didnt check to see if there was an oil pickup, or an oil pump in it because why in the world would those be missing.

i did manage to get a few small backfires out of the exhaust. so SOMETHING is happening

but i used two quite old batteries that were fully charged and a booster pack to just help them stay strong and it just wasn't enough juice to turn it over for very long at all. one of the batteries worked for like five seconds total so its likely just toast. im going to try again tomorrow morning and hopefully i will have a bit more success. im gonna take some starter fluid too to see if that will help it at least fire off.

i have never set up a distributor before so its possible that i messed that up somewhere.
i will double check the points gap tomorrow too before i drive myself too crazy.

i put an inline spark checker on two different cylinders and they were getting spark though, so the points may not be the issue.

it is still around -10 so its also possible its just too damn cold for this motor to start after sitting for so long.

all this week it hovers closer to freezing though so maybe that will help a bit.

kind of defeating, but ill keep at it and figure this out eventually!

 

If it was me I'd disconnect the oil filter and see if there was oil being pumped out of the block where the oil filter is hooked up. That way you know if its an issue with the filter/connection or something internal. JMO.

 

Does it have the truck pan on it with the big round clean out on the bottom? If it does you can drain the oil, remove the plate and look in there. Catch the oil and re-use it then see why it won't make pressure.

 

I realized too I might need to prime the pump because it's been sitting so long. I read that some folks pour some oil down the hole where the sending unit is plugged in and that helps fill the pump up.
I know in some motors you gotta fill the pump with Vaseline so it gets suction to actually pull oil.
Gonna pour some oil in right away tomorrow just to make sure.

But definitely draining and catching it is in the list.

 

Keep in mind that you do not have a full-flow filter system on that engine, it filters a bypass stream, not the whole oil pump flow. May take a while to fill that canister. And it may take longer with cold cold oil in the system.

 

Well damn.
I googled the firing order and spark plug wire routing and found an image, set up my motor off of that.
I should have just used the damn manual.
Just looked at the vanpelt firing order/wire diagram and it's 180° from whatever the image was that I had before.
I trust the vanpelt website more.

Starting over again tmrw!

 

Never trust the internet implicitly , garbage in garbage out , any fuck wit with a Computer can post anything they like, as long as it fits your search profile it’ll show up.

 

lookin' good!