The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 47-55 1st, Are there 2 types of breather pipes ?

Hello,

Did GM make two different shaped breather pipes for the 235 Six cylinder engine?

Which type of breather pipe do you have A or B ?

Picture of Breather pipe A Click Here

Picture of Breather pipe B Click Here

Both engines are 1954 year.

Thanks

jorb

What are the engine serial numbers?

The passenger car ventilator might be different from the one on a truck.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/1929_57chevyparts/57cmpc0192.htm

The link to the second picture has the 1954 valve cover on it.It was the first and only year that had the large vent slots on the valve cover.This valve cover would fit newer 235 as well.



Tim

The straight pipe "A" is for an engine with the front motor mount. The pipe with the angle "B" is for the engines with the side motor mounts. You might also notice that the "B" engine has the fuel pump with the offset inlet and outlet lines. The vacuum advances were also different. All to accommodate the side mounts used in automobiles.

I have a 1953 235 powerglide engine and it looks like the "B" engine.

Kurt

I want to know about the first picture. What is it out of? It is a hydra-matic with torque tube style transmission but the trans oil pan has an odd dip stick on it.

Pic A Engine serial numbers is F54M
Pic B Engine serial numbers is ?, But is in this Truck.

What I have concluded is: There is a passenger car engine breather pipe on a truck engine.

Thanks

jorb

You are correct here is a picture of a 235 F54Y Hydraulic lifter powerglide engine in a 54 truck
The picture shows a different fuel pump and vacuum advance minus the breather pipe.
But you can see where the side engine mounts would be.

Thanks For the info.

jorb

Greg H

I believe it is a 1954 frame the engine is a F54M but it is frozen.

About the Hydra-Matic dip stick fill tube, I had the same question
because it was the 2nd truck I had seen with this type of dip stick.
I called Gene at Restorationhydramatics.com and he said
Cadillac was the only Hydra-Matics that where pan filled (no smoke stack on case)
Here is a picture of the tag on the side of the case. C-54 3807? Maybe C stands for Cadillac. Black tag,not orange.

Gene said he uses gun powder in the cylinders to free up a frozen engine (hopefully the tranny is in neutral)
You can not separate the tranny from the engine unless you can rotate the engine to unbolt the torus cover from the flywheel.
Someone said they use Coca-Cola to free up the pistons.

Thank

jorb

I just don't understand that dipstick tube on the transmission for a 54 Chevy truck. I have seen it done before but I thought it was from an add on trans pan from a Pontiac or a Cadillac or something like that. Any details you can give? Does it still have the original short dipstick in the top of the trans also?

Gunpowder? what a concept. A 235 CID pipe bomb!

I think I would pull the head and let it soak with a penetrating oil for awhile. A friend freed up a seriously locked 440 years ago. Broke probably half of the pistons but it finally freed up tp the point that you could turn the crank over.

Gene said the Hydra-Matic center cases are all the same. The front and tail housings are what is different, depending on what engine
and drive shaft your using, determines what kind of front and tail housings the auto manufacture would use. Someone just used a Cadillac center case when the old one went belly-up. There is no short dip stick on a Cadillac Hydra-Matic case. Check out pic A earlier in this thread.

Thanks

jorb

Somewhere, I have a 54 GMC trans manual that shows the different colored tags denoting the different tramsmission models. I will look for it.

Look at this manual courtesy of Jerry. Maint manual
It shows the black tags as 210 models from 150 series trucks which I believe is the 3/4 ton trucks?

150 is 3/4 ton and 250 is 1 ton.
It looks like black was used for 3/4 and 1 ton.

Thanks for that link, Greg.
Thanks for scanning that manual, Jerry.

Tim,

This maybe of some interest, Hydra-Matic Transmission Model Identification Guide
pdf pages 12 & 13 link

Thanks

jorb

jorb,

That is very interesting, especially since it shows all the makes that used a Hydra-Matic (Rolls Royce - Bentley, for example).

May I post this on my website (if you send me your full name in a PM, I'll reference it as being from you)?

Thanks,
Tim

Back to the original question, are you talking about the draft tube that sticks out the side of the block by the distributor?

If so, I have at least a half dozen different types on the shelf out of a myriad of years of 216/235 engines, so there were quite a few...

Jeff

YES thats the tube.

I was interested in 1947 thru 1955 1st series crank case vent tubes.
But if have a shelf full of different types takes some pictures and post them just to see what GM made.
Because once there gone there gone for good. Historically Speaking of course.

I'm kind of partial to the S shaped curvy type.

Thanks

jorb

JORB- Just off the topic a little bit, is the engine in photo B equipped with a PCV? It almost looks like there is a slit behind the oil fill cap. Engines with the slit behind the oil fill, typically were PCV equipped. The picture is a little hazy, so I can't really tell. Anyway, if the engine is PCV equipped, there may be no need for a draft tube.

As bowtietim observed above, the second picture in the first post has a 54/55 standard valve cover. These had 4 slits in the valve cover and had no need for a vented oil filler cap.

A PCV system needs to be sealed, so in 54/55 a non-slits valve cover was used with the PCV system. There was a hole on the carburetor side of the valve cover for one of PCV hoses.

From 1955-2nd onwards the standard valve cover had no slits (and the oil filler cap was vented).

Whitedog
No, the engine is not PCV equipped. But there is 4 slits on the top of the valve cover.
Below is a picture of a PCV equipped engine.


Tim,
Just to show an example:
Here is a picture of a PCV equipped engine.
NO slit valve cover. Engine is in 54 Chev panel 1 ton.
I never notice the PCV equipment in the picture before, certainly not the non-slit valve cover. Good Call !!

Thanks

jorb

I've actually seen a few 235's with a pcv setup. There's actually a few different variations. It seems as though GM along with others had kits for it. In the last couple years Vintage Truck magazine has done a couple articles about it too.

A closed valve cover is a necessity for a PCV system (no slits and a non-vented filler cap are requirements).

The first standard-equipment Chevrolet truck PCV system was on the 1948 3742 Forward Control Delivery Chassis model. Later, the PCV system was either an option or standard equipment on larger trucks ( depending on the truck, the engine, and the year).

I was told that on a PCV system adapted to a ..54 truck that there had to be some type of air flow thru the engine. Because of the vacuum that is generated from the carb. i.e., from the carb, to a PCV on the oil cap and breather tube open. Or carb to PCV on breather tube and vented oil cap.

Or have I been misled.

An "adapted" (non GM ?) PCV system might have a variety of "plumbing" designs.

At the bottom of this page is a GM PCV system used in 1954 .

Don't think anyone has posted this diagram from "1954 Chevrolet Truck Engineering Features." It shows a straight Road Draft Tube on the '54 engine with single front motor mount. A similar tube is shown in Sect 6, Sheet 1.00 in the "1947-1954 Truck Factory Assembly Manual." Both diagrams show the correct fuel pump with in/out ports angled 20-deg to the block.
< CLICK > Engineering Features

My '54 has a bent road draft tube. Not original to the truck - I bought it a few years ago. Not sure what it came off of. The hole in the block for the tube was plugged with a freeze plug and cobbled up California emissions hoses were on the engine. My bent RDT attaches to the correct point on my '54 235 truck block and clears the fuel line from the tank to the pump.
< CLICK > My "bent" RDT