The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1937 Chevy 1/2 ton step side truck resurrection

Hi,

My name is Ron and I have a story...

My wonderful wife Karen of 43 years, I love that girl, finally convinced me to retire and bought me a retirement encouragement present, a 1937 Chevy 1/2 ton step side truck. The model I have wanted for a long time! Pictures attached.

We bought it and I thought I had checked it well, well I didn't. The body is beautiful, restored in 1996 I was told and "ran when it was parked". The fan spun, I accepted that the engine was fine. I should have thought hard about about that but we bought it.


I got a 6 volt battery and i just smoked the starter, great now what.

Upon returning to the updates focusing on the brakes and wiring I saw amongst other cosmetic issues I understood were an issue I found the 216 I6 was seized! I drained a gallon of anti-freeze from the crank case, wonderful I know. I understood it was worse when I pulled the distributor, as you can see from the picture i was bad, real bad. Picture attached.

So I pulled the engine and disassembled it for discovery. But to get the engine to rotate I needed to remove the pistons. Understanding that to pull the bell housing I needed to rotate the flywheel to unbolt the clutch, then unbolt the flywheel then get to the bellhousing bolts behind the flywheel to remove it. Not being able to rotate the crankshaft was an issue, hence the teardown.

During the teardown, but couldn't remove the clutch because it didn't have the clearance to escape the bell housing. It's a spring pack clutch meaning that I had to remove the carbon clutch pilot bearing to remove it.

Yes in 1937 the throw-out bearing is a carbon bearing that is not like anything we see today.

Upon disassembly the crank to number 4 piston showed more than 40 thousands of scoring. Picture attached. Again very bad news the engine is done! I can't grind this any more and have it work. It's a "poured babit bearing main". And the piston to crankshaft damage is real bad!

So we decided to swap the engine, we picked up a 1956 235 I6 to install, high pressure oiling system, insert crank bearings, 120 psi compression across all 6 cylinders, Great. All documentation I found said that it was a direct swap, Great! Not so great. For the Chevy Veterans out there you already know the issue. For everyone else, the issue is that in 1937 the 216 I6 has a 4 bolt crankshaft to flywheel bolt pattern that was changed by Chevy around 1938 to a 6 bolt pattern to the flywheel.. Picture attached.

More to come, wish me luck...

Thanks

Welcome RonG! I moved your thread to the DITY forum, because the Project Journal is by invitation only. I also sent you a PM (Private Message) explaining the process. In case your not aware, you can access the PM’s with the flashing envelope on the top header on all pages.

Looks like a good project. Will the later 216 fit in your truck or are you going for a stock setup? Welcome to the Stovebolt. Lots of great information here.

Nice truck Ron. Lot's of info here to help you get it up and going.

John

Thank you for moving the post.

John,

I agree there is a lot of knowledge on this forum. I've been using it heavily since joining.

Utah,

Chevy changed to a 6 bolt crank to flywheel pattern after 1938. So I opted for a 1956 I6 235 and started the reengineering. I moved from the 1937 spring pack clutch and flywheel to the 1956 flex pack clutch and the 1956 flywheel. I used the 216 bell housing for several reasons. In 1937 the brake, clutch and safety brake all bolt to the 1937 bell housing. Picture attached. I want to keep as much original as possible with the newer 235.This allows me to reuse the transmission, brake, clutch, safety brake, torque tube and rear end. now I'm in reassembly. The 235 engine and transmission are back in.

It's slow but I want it back together, so I keep working on it.

Thanks

Welcome to the Bolt!

I would assume your '56 engine has 12 volt starter. Will you be switching the truck over to 12 volt, since you said you toasted the original one?

Rich,

Yes the 56 is a 12 volt starter etc. I am converting the truck to 12 volt. I got a conversion package from Vintage. Including the old style generator. It just makes sense.