[Levitheman]

Hi all,
This is a thread where I'm going to document my adventure with my very first mopar. I'll do my best to log everything I discover, sources for parts, issues, solutions, etc. I welcome any advice, thoughts, recommendations & comments in general. Thanks in advance for any education you can give me!
I'll start it off with the bringing-it-home story:

When my buddy and I arrived to look at it for the first time, we fell in love. The car looked even better than the pictures online.
We walked about and checked for any rust and couldn't find any.
It started up no problem, and idled decently. It had a bit of a burble to it, but the previous owner said he didn't really know how to get the carb dialed in. The exhaust smelled a bit like fuel so we figured it was running rich.

The car did stumble and stall out when pulling it forward to the trailer initially, but it seemed to do alright with slow & smooth throttle.

After getting the car home, we reset the carb to a typical baseline setting. I drove it around the block just to see how it did; it was an absolute joy and despite not having a ton of power the 270ci sounds great and the 2 speed powerflite shifts smoothly. It didn't stumble much at all. The brakes are a bit spongy and do pulse a bit.

That's all for now, I'll leave you all with a few pics my buddy snapped right after coming home. Coming up shortly is a post about the results of my first going-to-town drive.

Cheers!

 

[Levitheman]

Update 1: Going to Town
​

A pleasantly cool afternoon spurred my decision to take the Plymouth out a few miles to the store to grab a few things with the wife.
The first thing I noticed was I received no response when turning the key to ignition, after jostling it for a moment the car turned over and grumbled to life without further hesitation.
After warming it up for a couple minutes, we cruised over to the store without any significant events.

Starting up the car again on the way back was fine, but the car sputtered and stalled out after pulling forward a couple of feet.
After starting it again and using low gear to get rolling, the car pretty harshly stuttered for a few moments before smoothing out.
About halfway back to the house, pulling out from a stop the car hesitated and stalled again. Taking off again, and with the car jerking again a bit, I was greeted with something I hadn't yet seen the car do; a flickering oil light, with a bit of smoke along with it.

Trying not to panic, I pulled onto a quiet side road to investigate. The dipstick read a sufficient running level of oil, and no major source of smoke was visible, so I quickly shot the rest of the way home. I had better luck starting the car in low gear from a stop, and slowly rolling onto the throttle, before popping it into drive and letting it shift into second gear.

After arriving home, I climbed under the hood again to investigate. I re-checked the oil, which did read at the full level. The car was not noticeably hot, the radiator hoses were all hot to the touch, indicative of proper coolant flow. (Unfortunately, the temp gauge currently does not function.) I'm wondering if the oil light is the result of an electrical gremlin, or if I really did develop an oil pressure problem.

On the subject of oil, the valve cover gaskets appear to be leaky, which as it seeps onto the exhaust manifolds I assume to be the cause of the smoke I saw.

It does continue to not idle perfectly smoothly, I'm going to check the plugs to see if it's missing on a cylinder or two.

I will be checking all the spark plugs and inspecting the wires this week to check for fouling & wear.

TD;DR this is the current to-do list for this week & coming weekend:

1. Inspect spark plugs for fouling
2. Inspect spark plug wires
3. Check condition of oil
4. Check coolant levels
5. Find a place to get new valve cover gaskets
6. Buy a shop manual for the car

That's all for now, I'll update again once I have some results from my investigating
Cheers!



Pictured below: The rather dirty engine bay

 

[ImperialCrown]

1955 to 1958 Mopar Parts Book

1955 & 1956 Plymouth Service Manual

 

[Levitheman]

1955 to 1958 Mopar Parts Book

1955 & 1956 Plymouth Service Manual

Phenomenal, thank you so much!!

 

[71Charger_fan]

I changed fuel filters on a frequent basis after I put my '55 on the road. Eventually all the crud worked its way through the lines and the stalling went away.

 

[Levitheman]

Update 2: Spark Plug Inspection​

It was wonderfully cool out, a major relief from the hot day, so I decided to take a look at all the spark plugs.
Here are the results:

I noted in the service manual, on page 122:

So I'm thinking these may be okay?

Let me know your thoughts!

Cheers!

 

[ImperialCrown]

Are they the Champion Copper Plus RJ18YC?
Maybe 'pinch' the plug wire terminals slightly so that it 'clicks' & holds onto the plug end?

 

[Levitheman]

Are they the Champion Copper Plus RJ18YC?
Maybe 'pinch' the plug wire terminals slightly so that it 'clicks' & holds onto the plug end?
View attachment 89415

The plugs are AC Delco, I forgot to write down any numbers on them

 

[ImperialCrown]

The catalog lists AR80 which is an Autolite/Motorcraft. It crosses to a Champion J-11Y. I trust the updated Champion listing more.
Back then, you could pick between a large selection of hot or cold plugs. Probably because of wider fuel quality differences and/or fouling issues.

 

[Levitheman]

The catalog lists AR80 which is an Autolite/Motorcraft. It crosses to a Champion J-11Y. I trust the updated Champion listing more.
Back then, you could pick between a large selection of hot or cold plugs. Probably because of wider fuel quality differences and/or fouling issues.
View attachment 89422

View attachment 89420

Looking through what's available on Rock Auto, they do carry the Champion RJ18YC plugs, along with a few other options.
What do you think would be best?

 

[ImperialCrown]

That is a very good question!
I would lean toward the Champion shown in post #7.

 

[Levitheman]

That is a very good question!
I would lean toward the Champion shown in post #7.

Thank you very much! I'm going to pick some up along with some new wires just for the sake of being thorough.
I appreciate your help!!

 

[valiant67]

If you're doing plugs and wires, also take a good look at the distributor cap, rotor, and points.

 

[Levitheman]

If you're doing plugs and wires, also take a good look at the distributor cap, rotor, and points.

That's next, I started with plugs and wires as I'm most familiar with them. This evening I need to educate myself on the cap, rotor & points so I know what I'm looking for

 

[Los_Control]

Things to remember when looking at points .... Here is a photo of typical points for a 318, not yours but similar.
You can see the white plastic arm .... is called the "rub block"

You can see the white plastic arm that rides on the distributor shaft with a cam on the top. .... This is a late 50's Mopar dual point distributor, I doubt you have the same but is possible.
So when the high point of the cam comes around, the rub block is on the highest point, that is the point gap & where you set the points.

A point I'm trying to make is the quality of new products available. The cam needs a light coating of some white grease. A new set of points will come with a small supply of it.
The rub block with no grease can fail in as little as 3k miles. The smaller it gets the less the points open .... You need 17gap & as the plastic wears you have less & less of a gap.
Soon they will not work at all with the modern cheap plastic worn away ..... The grease on that cam is very important.

We all know to file the surface of the points flat and clean them .... not going to cover that. ...... Just pointing out the NEED to grease that cam on a regular basis.

The next pointer is the distributor shaft. It is riding on bushings in the body of the distributor. There will be up & down play in that shaft, If you have any side to side play your bushings are worn out. ..... Any side to side movement will change the point gap, thus changing the dwell, thus changing the timing. If you can grab the shaft & get any movement side to side ... you need to pull the distributor & rebuild it. Not a big deal & possibly can do it in your home garage.

The other issue is the quality of condensers available. If your current condenser is working fine .... replace it & treat the old one like gold, in a package in your glove box if you need it in the future.
It is nice to have known working parts with you as you move around.

Point systems are not difficult to deal with, Just helps to know what you are looking at & where to look. ..... Do not forget the wiring inside the distributor

 

[ImperialCrown]

That felt in the top of the shaft also get a couple of drops of clean oil. You may have oil cups on the distributor body and front/rear generator bearings.
You may also have a grease fitting on the water pump.

When looking for a cap & rotor, the ones with brass terminals oxidize much less than the ones with aluminum terminals.

 

[Los_Control]

You may have oil cups on the distributor body and front/rear generator bearings.

You are 100% correct ..... My post I just want to pay attention to some things others forget.
I know up to 1952 they use the exact same oil cups on the back of the speedometer.
I do not want to scare the lad off thinking it is more maintenance involved when it is pretty simple.

Back in the days when we had steam engines running the rail road or saw mills. We had oilers. ..... The man would walk around and add oil to the glass oil canisters as the engine ran.

I think some engines had as many as 15 or 20 oilers on them, the man kept the engine greased & oiled as it ran.

We are talking way back to the 1920's that they still used steam engines with oilers.

I'm only suggesting that @ImperialCrown is correct on those oil cups. The felt actually collects oil & releases it as needed. .... These modern cups are all over the car .... Just not a big deal.

 

[Levitheman]

Thank you both for all of the info, as intimidating as it may be to my young brain I'm quite eager to learn it all - I want to take care of this car and run it properly for a very long time.

 

[Levitheman]

A short update today, I removed the valve covers to clean up the rtv sealant the previous owner used and to put in some new fel-pro gaskets
Whoever applied the sealant previously went way overboard, even some of the valvetrain had sealant stuck to it.
That's cleaned up now, and proper gaskets are installed.

 

[Levitheman]

Weekend update! This one is a two parter.
Saturday a good friend of mine brought his '68 Valiant over and we spent the afternoon tinkering.
On my Savoy, we adjusted the linkages on the carb and brought my idle speed up a bit as it was struggling to start and was idling very slowly. It seems to not be having any issues stalling now. We also installed a new transparent fuel filter so I can monitor the line for debris. The old fuel filter spilled a bunch of black specks out of it.

The downside is: When we took off for a quick test drive around the neighborhood, as soon as we started rolling the Savoy began backfiring like a firecracker, and continued to do so with any real application of throttle. It stayed tame as long as I kept the revs low and the car under 20mph.
Anyone have any idea what's going on? Could it be running rich?


And not to leave the '68 Valiant out, we replaced a burned out blinker and are making plans to replace a neutral safety switch in the transmission so he can start the car without having to drop it from park into neutral.

Tinkering is going to slow down as I'm moving next weekend and I need to get a spot at the new house arranged for me to work on the car.

And then, Sunday! I ventured back to Vermont (The state where I found my Savoy) and brought home a trailer load of fun things.

A mid 70s 440 block out of an RV, complete with heads, valvetrain, carb, aircleaner, a couple starters, a couple alternators, a pair of 727 transmissions and all the nuts & bolts to put it back together.

The 440 block is in decent shape, it's a bit dirty with minor pitting but the bore is standard, so I'll be planning on getting it done up nice at a machine shop. The 727s were included with the cost of the motor but my intention is to find a manual transmission to pair with this. The gentleman I bought the motor from has a heavy duty A833 he's storing, and said I could have it for a couple hundred bucks... So I might be going back there to get it soon.