Those photos are a bit dark but it looks to me like the babbitt on the rod has dropouts. You don't really want to put it together like that. Mine looked very similar and I had the rods machined to take inserts. I am happy with my 216 and it doesn't burn oil. I bought aliminum pistons on Ebay. The compression rings are locate a litle lower than on the original cast iron pistons, probably for strength. That means that the top ring does not go as high as the maximum wear area.
The 216 served well for many years and was used in some pretty heavy trucks. The 235 version was almost identical during those years and they were used in even larger trucks. The full pressure 235 was a more modern engine. The 1954 235s generated around 120 hp I believe and by 1960 they were up around 140 hp. However, as stated about, the 1954 motor is the easiest to substitue.
Last edited by truckernix; 01/08/2009 9:39 PM.
