Nothing Special Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 .... In this case, I learned that a truck simply needs to have a french name to become a French Truck. Okay... .... Gary is the first person I've heard call a Chevrolet a French truck. I always took that as a good-natured jab at the "other" brand on a Ford bulletin board. Much like how on a Bronco bulletin board "Jeep" is spelled "J**p" as if it was a swear word that was being bleeped out. Plus Chevy has always promoted itself as the iconic American brand. Do you remember its "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet" ad campaign from a few decades back? So calling Chevy a "French truck" is sort of the ultimate slam. But again, good natured I believe, especially coming from Gary, and especially when he's talking about his own truck. For what it's worth, back when I was restoring my 1929 Ford Model A I ended up in a guy's barn looking for wheels. He had probably dozens of old Fords, mostly Model A's, all in whatever shape he had found them in. And among all the Fords he had one old Chevy. He told me "Chevies are like belly-buttons. Everyone has to have one, but they're really not good for anything." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 He told me "Chevies are like belly-buttons. Everyone has to have one, but they're really not good for anything." I like that! Oddly enough, I grew up on Chevies. My first car was a 1958 Belair and the next was a 58 Impala. For his to-work cars Dad had a 34 Ford, an earlier Olds, a Willys, a 54 Plymouth, a Kelvinator (Nash), and a 55 Chevy pickup that was HOT. But the family had a mix of Buicks and Chevies. So I learned to work on all of them. When I got into Bullnose trucks I was appalled by the fact that you can't swap transmissions willy-nilly between engines. In the Chevies I was around you would swap transmissions any which way. So that was a bit of a bummer. But now that I've found this horrible design with bolts inside the bell housing I'll take a Ford any day. As for the next step, Monday I'm going to put the engine down on the floor on its side. That will let me put more force on the pry bar than with it hanging by chains on the shop crane. Maybe it'll come loose. If not I'll pull the pan and pull the rod caps to see if I can get the crank to turn. Worst case I'll use the sawzall on the crank at the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 He told me "Chevies are like belly-buttons. Everyone has to have one, but they're really not good for anything." I like that! Oddly enough, I grew up on Chevies. My first car was a 1958 Belair and the next was a 58 Impala. For his to-work cars Dad had a 34 Ford, an earlier Olds, a Willys, a 54 Plymouth, a Kelvinator (Nash), and a 55 Chevy pickup that was HOT. But the family had a mix of Buicks and Chevies. So I learned to work on all of them. When I got into Bullnose trucks I was appalled by the fact that you can't swap transmissions willy-nilly between engines. In the Chevies I was around you would swap transmissions any which way. So that was a bit of a bummer. But now that I've found this horrible design with bolts inside the bell housing I'll take a Ford any day. As for the next step, Monday I'm going to put the engine down on the floor on its side. That will let me put more force on the pry bar than with it hanging by chains on the shop crane. Maybe it'll come loose. If not I'll pull the pan and pull the rod caps to see if I can get the crank to turn. Worst case I'll use the sawzall on the crank at the back. Probably the most locked up 'intact' one I've seen. I can see the difficulty in even accessing all the rod cap bolts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 He told me "Chevies are like belly-buttons. Everyone has to have one, but they're really not good for anything." I like that! Oddly enough, I grew up on Chevies. My first car was a 1958 Belair and the next was a 58 Impala. For his to-work cars Dad had a 34 Ford, an earlier Olds, a Willys, a 54 Plymouth, a Kelvinator (Nash), and a 55 Chevy pickup that was HOT. But the family had a mix of Buicks and Chevies. So I learned to work on all of them. When I got into Bullnose trucks I was appalled by the fact that you can't swap transmissions willy-nilly between engines. In the Chevies I was around you would swap transmissions any which way. So that was a bit of a bummer. But now that I've found this horrible design with bolts inside the bell housing I'll take a Ford any day. As for the next step, Monday I'm going to put the engine down on the floor on its side. That will let me put more force on the pry bar than with it hanging by chains on the shop crane. Maybe it'll come loose. If not I'll pull the pan and pull the rod caps to see if I can get the crank to turn. Worst case I'll use the sawzall on the crank at the back. I actually have owned two Chevies, both air cooled, a 1964 Monza and a 1965 Corsa. I have owned at least one of every GM line except GMC and Cadillac. Fomoco, I've owned Ford, Lincoln and Mercury, and both cars and trucks in the Ford line. Chrysler, owned Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth, and drove a Desoto to college. No AMCs, but did own a Packard. Imports, Jaguar, Mercedes, Subaru. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBrother-84 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Oddly enough, I grew up on Chevies. I like jokes about Chevy but guess what, I drive GM brands since 30 years. Simply because my good friend is the local dealership, and I am faithful to my friends. And when he had to demolish his old garage to rebuild it accordingly to modern GM standards, I did the plans. That's the way friendship goes in small towns. So I drove Safari, couple of Pontiac Montana (Chevy Uplander), couple of GMC Terrain (Equinox), plus my Volt. I'm not allergic to Chevies, and I like to see members teasing each other with humor. In fact, my single and only Ford is Big Brother, and I love this ol' truck! I suppose Chevies are more like pimples in my case, and Big Bro is my bellybutton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 Probably the most locked up 'intact' one I've seen. I can see the difficulty in even accessing all the rod cap bolts Vivek - That's pretty much what I expect to find when I get into this engine. But I'm not going to be as gentle as he was as I don't care to salvage anything but the bell housing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Probably the most locked up 'intact' one I've seen. I can see the difficulty in even accessing all the rod cap bolts I enjoy his teardown videos. The one he had been trying to get forever was a Ford 300 six as they like the Chrysler slant sixes are almost indestructible in stock form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Vivek - That's pretty much what I expect to find when I get into this engine. But I'm not going to be as gentle as he was as I don't care to salvage anything but the bell housing. If you pull the rod caps and loosen the main caps you may be able to turn the crank. Try some Kroil or similar in the plug holes before you lay it on it's side. One thing I do remember about old Stovebolt sixes, the balancer is a press fit and I do not remember what we used to remove them. I do remember what I made for doing the T-bird Y-block balancers and probably still have it somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 If you pull the rod caps and loosen the main caps you may be able to turn the crank. Try some Kroil or similar in the plug holes before you lay it on it's side. One thing I do remember about old Stovebolt sixes, the balancer is a press fit and I do not remember what we used to remove them. I do remember what I made for doing the T-bird Y-block balancers and probably still have it somewhere. We squirted PB Blaster in the cylinders last Spring. May do it again before I lay it down - probably tomorrow. Hoping I don't have to remove the balancer as it has the "ears" which the hand crank fits in. I use that and the pry bar on the flywheel for encouragement to turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 We squirted PB Blaster in the cylinders last Spring. May do it again before I lay it down - probably tomorrow. Hoping I don't have to remove the balancer as it has the "ears" which the hand crank fits in. I use that and the pry bar on the flywheel for encouragement to turn. If you have to change the timing cover it needs to come off. Description I found is use the two holes for a puller. I don't know on the 235s, but our 216 had a phenolic cam gear which it ate on dad coming around Norfolk and Portsmouth on Military Highway. He was able to coast into a gas station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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