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While working on the front end with my son, I took a moment to snap a few "what the...?" photos. Here are pics of the front motor mounts, and the cross member holding up the Turbo 350 trans. Note that the left front mount has a lovely galvanized lag bolt through it, and the right one has nothing! The truck was driven daily like this back in its past. I have a tubular style front motor mount cross member kit (came with the truck) to fix this problem.

The original cross member under the bell housing was removed and a cludged together member was bolted in to support the automatic transmission (the truck also came with a new tubular cross member kit for the auto). I will be building a new cross member to support the SM 420 that I acquired. The 4-speed is the later style with the angled mounts adopted in 1954, so I intend to set the block and trans in place (after installing the new front mount kit), set it to the correct angle, then fab up the new rear cross member in place.

The last photo shows a nasty surprise that reared its ugly head after my son removed the intake/exhaust manifold from the 250 motor. I can repair the crack, but at this point I don't know what other damage their may be. The motor turns over easily, so I doubt there is cylinder damage. I'll probably just look for a better motor.

Brian

Some really nice work. I get jealous of you guys who have machine skills and access to those tools.

TUTS 59, thank you for the kind words. I am lucky to have access to a shop with a wide array of tools. Unfortunately, it's not my personal shop and my time using it is limited so I'm trying to get as much of the mechanical work done as quickly as I can without cutting corners.

Brian

After the recent discovery of a couple of cracks in the 250 block in my truck, I decided to start looking for a replacement engine. That evening I started cruising Offer Up to see what was in my area. An ad for an "old 265" for $100 that was less than an hour away from my house caught my eye. The poster had the displacement wrong, but from the one photo I couldn't tell if it was a 216 or 235. I got in contact with him and set up a meeting. The next afternoon, my son and I drove out to see the motor, which was in the ground-level basement of an old house that was going to be torn down. The room was literally full of stuff and debris, and in fact had been the location for some dynamite that was recently discovered and detonated by the local bomb squad! Fortunately for us the motor was sitting on a home made cart and right by the door. A quick check of the block number confirmed it was a 1950-52 model 235. A cursory inspection also showed that the motor had been rebuilt in the fairly recent past (it actually has a tag attached to the side of the block showing it was remanufactured by PERKINS MOTORS in Seattle, WA). I paid the seller and after a couple of his buddies showed up, we loaded the motor and cart into my truck.

Yesterday, my son and I unloaded the motor into the shop with a forklift and began a more thorough inspection. After photographing all of the block and head info, the valve cover came off first. There is light rust on the two studs that hold down the cover, but everything inside was clean. The cork gasket looked like new, but had turned brittle from age. We removed the valve train and checked to see if the valves were free (which they all were). Next, the head came off revealing a beautiful set of new pistons (all stamped for .040" over). The underside of the head showed the valves to be new as well. The block was hooked up to an engine jack and lifted into the air off the home built cart so we could see about removing the bell housing. The goal was to get the block onto an engine stand after using the bell housing as a pattern to make an adapter plate. Since the motor is stuck we couldn't get at all of the clutch pack bolts (yes, the motor came with a new clutch pack on it) so the bell housing couldn't be removed. The plan then changed to freeing up the motor.

After removing the pan (spotless except for a small pool of assembly lube in the bottom) we sprayed everything with Marvel Mystery Oil, filled the cylinders with the same and left it to soak for a day or two. Before leaving, though, we decided to pull the side cover and check the valve lifters. Almost all of them were stuck, so one at a time they were carefully removed, cleaned, lubed and reinstalled. It was then time to head home for dinner and learn that the Seahawks had beat the Rams to win the NFC West spot! GO HAWKS!

I took advantage of a short spell of dry weather (and my son's free help) during a couple days of vacation and got a little further with the project. I needed to get four wheels back onto the truck so I could roll it outside for further disassembly.

First up was getting the rebuilt spindles installed. Everything went together pretty well. The Classic Parts king pin kit comes with five .005" steel shims for the top side of the axle (figuring you'll need one or two for each side to take up wear). Because I lightly faced off the top ends of the axle to get them flat, there weren't enough shims to go around. I made a couple of .010" shims from brass shim stock and sandwiched them between a pair of steel shims for each side. That got the free play below .005" per the shop manual. While I did that, my son cleaned up the front hubs and re-greased the bearings before installing them onto the spindles. I don't have any brake parts for the front end yet, so this work is temporary. We also temporarily installed the tie rod (upgraded with new sealed-type tie rod ends) to keep the front wheels parallel. Four roller wheels went on the truck and then it was pushed outside.

I am fortunate to have access to equipment that most folks don't have lying around their yard or garage. After unbolting the rear cab shackles from the frame (I inserted wood shims under the rear cab wall to keep it from dropping) and the one bolt in the right front corner (the left didn't have a nut), I removed the cab with a strap passed through the cab with the doors open. I had previously disconnected everything between the cab and the frame/engine, or so I thought. I will be purchasing a new parking brake rod. The cab was put into storage, then we removed the 250 and Turbo 350 from the frame. Now I can finish cleaning, repairing and painting the frame.

Another item we accomplished that day was getting the recently acquired 235 onto an engine stand. After my son removed the pistons (they were all stuck in their bores and had been soaking in Marvel Mystery Oil) he was able to get the crank to slowly turn, allowing him to finally remove the flywheel, and then the bell housing. I used the bell housing face to make a paper template, then fabricated a 1/2" thick adapter plate for the engine stand per Deves Tech.

Your moving right along. Nice score on your engine. It will look like its original to your truck even though it a 235 and recently rebuilt to boot!

Looking good!

I keep telling my wife I need a mini hoe. I sure hopes she understands what I mean! 😳

Hopefully it's not one of these. A friend got this for his birthday a few months ago. (the pic is a capture from a video he sent me) It's remote controlled and he uses it to terrorize his dog.

I think I'm going to be much happier with the 235 than the 250. The 250's horsepower would have been nice, but having a motor that actually fits like it's supposed to will make life easy in the end. Now I need to find all the pieces that make up the front motor mount. A trip to a local wrecking yard is in order (they have a '53 1 ton).

My step dad, who worked in construction, used to call them Barbie Hoes. You'd probably have to be careful with that one, too!