The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop The 216 is at the machine shop.

I took the 216 to the machine shop and learned about babbit bearings. Very interesting stuff but a lot time consuming to rebuild.
The idea is to machine the rods to accept inserts, and my machinest tells me that someone must have had this engine gone through before the car was made into a street rod. There is no wear in the cyl.'s and it has been bored 30 over. I still need info on weather or not the starter pedal rod and bellhousing are the same on the car as the truck? Are there any other differances from a truck engine to a car engine for 1941? Where do I find the intake manifold sleves for centering and sealing the manifold?
That all I can think of for now, I am sure i'll need more. James

Toyvo,

I can't speak for 1941 specifically, but I don't believe there's any difference between the starter pedal rod and bellhousing between the car and truck.

I recently swapped out my 46 216 truck engine, using a 39 passenger car 216. The earlier 216's had a different crank and a few other oddities that the post 40 216's didn't have. However, I don't believe I found any difference in the bell-housing and/or starter linkage.

If there was any, it would have likely been the alignment of the tranny mounting holes as the car was a 3-speed and the truck a 4 speed. (The truck transmission was considerably larger). Even then, If I recall correctly, they were the same.

As for the intake manifold sleeves, I think you should be able to find those at most any of the vendors. Check The Filling Station, Chev's of the 40's, Jim Carters, or American Classics.

I think you'll like that 216. Good Luck.

Jed's right on about you liking the 216. It's a solid engine that will last a long time if you take care of it. It doesn't have a boat load of power. None of the engines back then did. That's why everything was geared so low. My car 216 has 85 HP & the truck 216 only has 78 HP at 3200RPM. My old Shovelhead made 65 stock HP on two cylinders. Another plus is the fact the 216 is dirt simple to work on.

Thanks tiny and jed. I should here from the machinest this week. Hell he is in machinest heaven, he was stoked about a jig he made to bore the rod out for the inserts. He even dug around and found a little used tool he had to align the squirters. LOL Like I said "machinest heaven"