Don and Peter's Hot Rod Corner

[mvk]

Glen thanks for the advice I will keep you guys posted but probably wont be for awhile. Ever heard of mystery oil, and old biker told me to squirt some in the cylinders!

PS Glen don't you be takin on that big fat one get a good rip

but this was the little hoe that could.

Dont mean to offend anybody but couldn't resist after I read what I wrote
Mike

[MountainDon]

Marvel Mystery Oil

It's a thin penetrating type oil. Red in color. It's the type of thing I'd use to oil down the cylinders on a gad engine that had not been run for ten years.

But as Glenn pointed out using it in a diesel could be a problem as the cylinder compression on cranking would be high enough to heat the cylinder mix high enough to cause the oil to ignite. The engine could take off and rapidly run up speed until that oil is consumed. Could be a bad deal. Glenn may have some other ideas as to how to crank it around without damaging anything, while getting the oil to circulate. That's all I know.

I had a thought the other day about the battery. Does this unit have a 12 volt system? The only diesel I ever had was 24 volt for the starter and 12 volt for everything else.

[glenn kangiser]

Series parallel setup, eh? Don.  They could be a real pain.

On the tractor, I'm pretty sure the Massey has a manual pull shutoff so if it is pulled out you can crank until engine oil pressure comes up -- or block the air intake, but if cool enough I doubt it will fire without a bit of cranking anyway.  If nothing else crack all the injector lines loose and it won't take off until you tighten a couple at least.  The fuel will lube the cylinders as it is cranked. 

As Don mentioned -- if it has enough compression to fire diesel, it will likely run away uncontrolled on Marvel.

Any kind of oil will cause a runaway.  The injectors meter it to prevent that.  Poured in oil can't be controlled.  Old Detroit diesels were famous for runaways but under the right conditions any could do it.

[MountainDon]

Viktor Schreckengost died recently.  (June 26, 1906 – January 26, 2008) Victor who, you say. Why the inventor of the cab over engine truck of course. 


1934 White cab over engine cab/chassis

He designed the first cab over engine truck for the White Motor Company in the 1930's. It allowed more of the truck length to be used for carrying cargo and is credited with making more money for truckers in during the depression because of this.

He designed bicycles for the Murray Bicycle company and also worked for several dinnerware companies, prosthetics, and industrial products.

[glenn kangiser]

I moved to CA in a White Milk Truck pulling an old Pontiac.

[MountainDon]

What kind of a white truck was pulling that Pontiac?

[glenn kangiser]

It was a White PDQ Step Van - Insulated Fiberglass body - found one reference - no pix saying 1960 to 66 rare.

Ours had a Continental 6 in it I think.

[MountainDon]

Ok it had a continental... like the spare tire on the rear bumper?

But was it a white Ford, or a white Chevy, or ....??

 
who's on first?

Ya' know, Googling white truck doesn't always bring up what you want...

I've always liked this model of White Motor Company truck...

[MountainDon]

...which made me think of the White Buses that were used in Yellowstone and are still used in Glacier National Park today. Today's buses are mere shells of their former selves... late model Ford F450 chassis and V-8's that run either propane or gasoline.

[glenn kangiser]

Yup -
White Motor Company.  PDQ -- pretty damn quick -- had stand up controls or a seat and I operated it standing up when delivering milk for my dad.  I did that off and on for a few years some before I was the driver too -- he had a bread route earlier.  We also had a Divco step van. Looked kinda like this but Turquoise and White. (But not a White.)

[MountainDon]

  sorta like this one...

[glenn kangiser]

Thats a cool one.  The one we had was a little bigger but still had the same general look.

Wonder if that thing will burn out?

[MountainDon]

I don't recall the specifics with certainty, but I think it had a big block Chevy... something like a 502 crate motor. So yeah, I think it would burn out 

... another shorty...



... long wheelbase & chopped...



... another long wheelbase, chopped...



Note the "crank" hole at the bottom of the grill. Have you ever hand cranked a vehicle to get it going? I did once in Europe with an old Bedford van I owned over there.

[MountainDon]

There's a story behind the yellow chop job. The guy had it in his driveway or beside the driveway for years. It was all rusty and derelict looking. Neighbors complained and the city cited him for having a nuisance and declared he had to get rid of it. He had 72 hours to act. He went down to his Ace Hardware (?) and bought a recipro saw. He cut the roof off so he could get the formerly 10 foot tall body inside the garage. hence the chop. 

[MountainDon]

late 50's early 60's British camper van. Bedford Dormobile, much like the one I had for a year.



Sliding doors; you could drive with them open. Nice on a warm sunny day. 

[John_C]

Interesting stuff.  I want one of those milk trucks.  Or the camper van.  pretty much anything actually...

I now have a '95 Saturn SL that needs a new, very short owner.  A tree fell on it last Thursday night and it's kinda squished.  It's hard to look for a car when you live in the woods and are at the mercy of neighbors for a ride to town.

You guys come up with far more interesting vehicles than I find.

[glenn kangiser]

Seems we made the Divco into a camper for awhile, although as I recall, it was the Oregon redneck model

[MountainDon]

Man I got lucky. It took less than 5 minutes to find this transparency in the old slide files.  I'm amazed. Thanks to K for cataloging years ago.

Here's my old Bedford camper.



This is a very frosty north Yugoslavian morning in January '73. It was up in the mountains and so cold it froze our water jugs. Also froze the radiator. Luckily not a hard enough freeze to do damage; just cold enough to keep the coolant from circulating. Cold enough to make the Camping Gaz not want to turn gaseous for the stove. Cold enough to keep the top down and sleep in the less comfortable seats converted to beds.

I had to build a fire and use a couple found cans from a roadside dump to melt snow, heat the water and then use it to pour down over the outside of the radiator to melt a coolant flow path.

Later got a quart of antifreeze to add to the system. I did not know the language at all but found that walking into the first auto parts store and blurting out "anti freeze" worked.

[John_C]

What did the Bedford have for power?  I'm guessing it was smallish by American standards.

[MountainDon]

Power?  It didn't have any power. 

It had a lowly stressed 1500 cc four cylinder engine. Petrol burner. Not sure what the HP was.  At least it had OHV. Single downdraft carb. 3 speed tranny. Steering on the right of course. 15 inch wheels... I remember as I had to buy 2 tires on the continent, one in France, the other in Greece. It was not too big a problem finding the right size.
I don't think it went 55 MPH ever, while I owned it. Usually cruised at 45 max, IIRC. Bought it cheap, drove 15000 miles, sold it cheaper.

It was a good thing we were seldom, if ever, in a hurry. 

[John_C]

Do you remember what kind of fuel mileage it got with that small engine.   

[Redoverfarm]

Hey Don is that the Bedford smoking or is tht the campfire to melt the ice.  Also I hope that is a curtain in the front window and not frost.

[MountainDon]

Now you're really testing my memory, John C!  I'm not that good, so I dug out the trip journal. 

First of all, let me correct the location of that photo. It was southern Yugoslavia, nearing northern Greece, January 14, 1973. [My first recollection on entering Greece was more or less "Crap, the road signs are all Greek to me!" I had a map with English spellings; the signs were in real Greel characters... hard to match the two.)

I owned the Bedford for 15,433 miles. Overall mileage during the ownership was 27.5 MPG. Average cost of gasoline $1.18 per gallon, from a low of 0.65 in Bulgaria to a high of $1.30 in Belgium. Best mileage figure I have noted is 33 MPG in Belgium and The Netherlands (flat, flat, flat). The trip included lots of mountainous terrain including the through the Pyrennes twice and the Alps.

Those figures are for Imperial gallons (UK) which are about 20% larger (140 ounce gallons instead of 128 ounce).

I bought 2 tires ($31 for one, $36 for the second) and misc. parts or repairs for a total of $70.95. (A u-joint replaced for $5, labor included, 0.12 for a light bulb.)

John (redoverfarm). That's exhaust from a cold engine. The fire was off to the left. That thing had a manual choke too. The white across the front is frost on the inside of the windscreen (British term) That's a hole I scraped to see if there was snow outside. I started the engine from under the blankets and watched the temp gauge head for the high end because of the frozen radiator. The curtain is pushed aside and can be discerned through the frost on the left side of the van, right side of the picture. It was very cold, likely the coldest we experienced on that trip.

Further trivial note of interest... The continent drives on the right side of the road like we do, whereas the UK drives on the left side of the road. To save on having to replace the headlights I bought those yellow covers.  They had fluting or prism like ridges on the inside face to bend the light rays to the other side of the road.

[John_C]

Even adjusting for the Imp. gallon that seems like very good mileage.  The US equivalent, a V-8 van based camper wouldn't do as well. 

[MountainDon]

Even adjusting for the Imp. gallon that seems like very good mileage. 

I believe a good portion of that was due to the leisurely low average speed of travel. It wouldn't go all that fast even thrashing it through the gears. So, I took the laid back, low speed approach.

I can't begin to recount how many times here I've started out in the RV with great intentions of traveling at moderate rates of speed. Then I end up nudging the cruise control up a little, then a little more. Soon I'd be going 65 MPH and pushing a whole lot of air with the squared off front. That tendency has a lot to do with the greater distances to be traveled, especially in the southwest US, IMO.