Nothing important happening to the Plymouth, and husbandly duties will now take priority. My wife underwent major surgery Monday and will be in the hospital for several more days, so dealing with that has limited my automotive play time. She's on the mend, but will need my assistance for at least a month when she gets home. Old age is hell until you consider the alternative.
In the meantime, I’m trying to decide what type of air cleaner I should use with the Edelbrock 4-bbl carb. I’d like to have one that looks at least somewhat stock, but the height of the intake means that the hood clearance is not generous, so and the tall ’55-’56 cleaners won’t work. I suppose I could do it the easy way and get a cheap aftermarket chrome version with a low-rise filter element, but I think I’d rather have something a little less flashy.
A related question is crankcase venting with the cast aluminum Chrysler Power valve covers. Over the years, I’ve had engines with a single downdraft tube, or a PCV valve on one bank only, or with a PCV on one side and an oil-fill cap vented to the air cleaner on the opposite cover. All of them worked fine as far as I could tell, and as long as the engine was healthy, there were no sludge issues.
I never had a state inspection failure since they were all pre-sniffer era. This time I will essentially be creating a new car that will have to be inspected for roadworthiness by a DMV inspector before it can be licensed. It came without a title from a state where it was apparently last licensed in the early seventies. I was informed that Texas does a visual inspection only on ’73 and newer cars, so the ’66 Drivetrain in the ’56 body should fall into that class.
After reading dozens of posts on other sites, there doesn’t seem to be consensus on a functionally “best” venting system, and since I’ve never given it much serious thought before, I’m interested in personal opinions as well as links to legitimatel technical information.
Re PCV, what worked in '66 works for me. Re licensing, the more information you give the bureaucrats the harder things get, its a '56, that's it, end of story. Did the parts car have a valid registration, or purchase a title, reduce stress, start getting the licensing details and the process in progress now, not when you are ready to drive. My provincial DMV under pressure implemented a pre-registration program subject to a future inspection.
ReplyDeleteI have a bill of sale, but no registration info.
ReplyDeleteI called the Texas DMV when I got the car and was told to just bring the bill of sale and apply for a new title when I was ready to have it inspected. Of course, that was years ago, so I think I had better contact them again. Two years ago, they made massive changes in the vehicle registration and annual inspection rules, so the first inspection rules might have changed too.
You are probably right to just offer it to them as a '56 and not volunteer anything. There are so many modified old cars on the road that they are most likely just looking for obvious safety issues. They do drive the car during the inspection to check brakes and handling, at least they did the two vehicles I brought from Washington state when I moved here. One I still have and they have not driven it since.