My son is using his truck for his business which runs
from the end of April to the beginning of December.
The business starts slow and ends slow. Authentic
Neapolitan pizza truck. Flower, water imported from
Italy. Makes his own fresh mozzarella.


Last summer his engine had to be rebuilt. His first
and only experience with old truck (1946 2 Ton) and
a crash box.

Even though the engine ran smooth it was tired.
He used the truck in the fall of 2015. Then in
the spring of 2016 he started up again but come June
his engine died.

At that point he felt the truck was under powered.
And his friend that was working with him that summer
was trying to convince him to put a small block in.

I told my son that there is too much involved. Not
only engine mounts, transmissions, driveshaft's,
exhaust and switch the truck over to 12 volts.

At that point I got a free 1954 235. I told my son
19 more HP and 8 LB more torque. And being it is a
1954 it will JUST drop in.

It just dropped in and no water pump problem.

However the 54 engine came out of a 1 ton truck
so my son went from the 11" clutch down to the 10"
clutch. The full pressure oil required another oil
pressure gauge.

I found a NOS GMC 1946 gauge because they could handle
the higher pressure of the 54 engine.

Time to put in the new gauge and the GMC gauge used
larger diameter line. Lucky for me there is an old
time parts store with a 70+ year old owner. Told him
what the problem was and he pulled out a 1" length
of tubing with a different sized female coupling on
each engine so one side matched up the original oil
line and the other matched up the 46 GMC gauge.

Problem solved?

No because the pressure numbers are printed onto the
instrument panel glass. So the gauge reads 15 LBs
instead of the 35 LBs.

I think it is the filling station that sells new
instrument panel glass for 1946 GMC. That will just
fit right in.

Problem fixed?

No. Because the oil pressure will now read correct
but the GMC speed numbers on the glass are not the
same as on the Chevy. Good thing I found out before
I bought the GMC IP glass.

Now there are competitors out there. Some started
with an old truck from the 40's or 50's. Though they
have modern running gear. So they only look old.
Then the one's that when the expanded they added
modern trucks.

Customers are impressed that his truck is authentic
as is his food. My son now misses being able to say
his truck has the original engine. I miss that as well.

Though on the bright side we still have the original
engine and when the time comes it will be rebuilt and
put back in. Jeffrey