The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 53 chevy 3600 pos or neg ground?

just drug home an old 53 chev 3600 was going to hook up the battery and saw the ground cable was red is it pos or neg ground ? thanks tom

Negative ground.

thanks back to work !!

Whoa, hold on there, You do know it's probably six volt don't you? since you are off-line I hope you haven't burned it up already.

Yes I have had a few of these old trucks.The last one was a 55 1st GMC. I havent had one for years that was this original though!! It was an old feed mill truck that hasnt ran since 72. Last night I hooked up the battery filed the points, put fresh gas in her and it fired with in 30 seconds.She purred like a kitten. How do I tell if it is a 216 or 235? I need a water pump. Thanks for watching out for me though. Tom

Tom,

Post the code that is pressed into the block in the ledge just to the rear of where the distributor enters the block. Someone here should be able to identify the size/year/application of the engine.

Here are locations of other casting codes for high-pressure 235/261 engines. I do not know if these locations are the same on earlier 216s/235s (maybe someone will let us know if the locations are the same).

Tim

I looked on the distributer pad and there are no numbers at all .I have the right fender and inner fender off and cleaned the pad well.It does have the two studs that hold the valve cover on. I think that is a tell tail for someone out there. You can read Thrift Master on the cover also.

Two bolts on the valve cover is a 216. Also: the side cover goes all the way up to the valve cover on a 216.

There were 2 bolts on the valve covers of all pre-1954 235s, too.

The side cover goes all the way up the side of the head on all pre-1950 235s, too.

If the valve cover is on an original 1953 Thriftmaster truck engine, the engine would be a 216 (however, any 2-bolt valve cover could have found its way onto any pre-1954 engine).


Tom,

Can you find and post the casting codes?

If you have a pre-54 engine (216 or 235) and you need a water pump, the same water pump was used on all pre-55-2nd series 216/235/261 engines (however, the pulley grooves did differ over the years).

Tim

Thank you for the correct information. Sorry for my mistake. So - all the low pressure engines have high side covers. Did the '53 high pressure engine(for auto trans.) have the low side cover and two bolts on the valve cover?

All 1950-1953 (low pressure) 235s had the short side-covers.
The 1953 Powerglide high-pressure 235 also had the low side-cover and 2-bolt valve cover.

http://1954advance-design.com/Stovebolt-engine/valve-side-covers.html