Anyone here with 40's or early 50's inline six cars?

 

Yeah, I do. I can remember when they were Flathead engines, not overhead valves. Whats going on?

 

I have a 1940 Chevy and a 1949 Chevy. Both have the 216.5 inline 6.

 

I'm putting the car back on the road after 31 years. Just about there but a strange piece. There is a steel vacuum line screwed into the intake manifold adjacent to the carb. It goes up over the front of the engine following the same path as the steel fuel line down to the mechanical fuel pump, where it is just hanging in space. Can't see any obvious place for it to screw in down there so wondering what it is and if I can just plug for now?

 

The second steel vacuum line on both of mine are for the vacuum advance on the distributor. They do however come from the carburetor not the manifold. Do you have any vacuum line to the distributor? Post a picture of it if you can.

 

Yes, there is a second, smaller, vacuum line off the back of the carb between the throttle body and the valve cover. This line comes off the outside of the manifold just below the spacer and between the carb and the inner fenderwall (not toward the firewall or the radiator) The carb is off right now for a quick refurbish. Putting it back on today and will post pics asap.

 

My father had a 1948 Studebaker with the inline 226 cubic inch six-cylinder flat-head motor. The car was a 3 speed on the column, but had an overdrive gear,
which was facilitated by a pull-push cable with a T-handle, under the dash. Also had a hill-holding clutch too.

No positive crankcase ventilation valve, just a ventilation tube that came out of the block and stopped near the bottom of the engine, to pass all the engine fumes into
Atmo. The car was all metal, including the dashboard, and was built like a tank. No seat belts. no power steering, no power brakes and no air-conditioning either.

 

The Chevrolet was similar to the Studebaker except that it used an overhead valve inline 6. The 216 was a low oil pressure engine and the 235 was a high oil pressure engine.

 

I used to own a 1970 Chevy Nova with the inline, overhead valve 250 Cubic Inch motor. Great car and motor, and would last forever if you took care of them. Built on a ladder frame just like a pickup. Wish I had kept the car now, but oh well, too late. It too was built very solid,like my fathers old Studebaker but did have seat-belts.

If I recall correctly, the 250 CI was an upgrade from the 235 CI motor. A friend of mine burned up the 250 CI motor in his fathers 1967 Chevrolet C-10 pickup (these people never changed the oil/filter, so no surprise) and they put a 235 CI motor in place of the 250. The pickup was way under-powered with the 235 CI motor.

 

I used to have a 1963 ChevyII Nova. It had a 194CI inline 6 and ran great. It was a great little car and was one of the many cars I should have never sold. But you can't keep them all!