Dear Sirs ,
Thank you for your kind comments , I regret I have not been able to compile the thread as per the actual time line - this due to the large number of photoraphs I have for this restoration.
The interesting part of this restoration was the engine restoration , for which I have prepared a note :
The 1934 Plymouth PE should have been a straight forward restoration project, which could have been easily handled by my team at home, but loosing the crank shaft and connecting rods was a major setback, because PE engines/spares are not available, although P series engines [post 1942] are common and are easily available in India. Chrysler Corporation set great store by their flathead 6 engine which continued in service from 1930 to late 60’s in automobiles and till early 70’s for other applications. The main problem in substituting the bigger P series engine block in the PE restoration was that from 1933 to 1935 the engine block did not have full length water jacket , the original starter motor and other peripherals could not be fitted with the full length water jacket. The bigger engine would have also involved changing the engine & gear box mounting. Further, in 1942 the cylinder bore for Plymouth engines was changed from 3 1/8 in to 3 ¼ in, most of the spare Plymouth engines available in India have a bore of 3 ¼ in or the later 3.40 in.
I could have carried back the spare parts for the PE engine from the USA, but, my friend Akhilesh Agarwal & I decided to work on the PE engine using the crank shaft and connecting rods taken from a 1947 P-15 engine which I had
Though the cylinder bores are different, all the Plymouth engines of this era have a common stroke of 4 3/8 in , thus the P15 connecting rods could be utilized in the PE . The most delicate part of the engine building process was line boring the smaller PE block to accept the heavier/bigger P15 crankshaft, having bigger main journal bearing diameters and bearing caps. The line boring was accomplished at my friend Pervez Kherawala’s engineering & lathe works- his Austin 6 appears in the
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ys-cars-3.html ( posted by his distant cousin Karl).
After the crank shaft replacement , the P15 main bearing could be used for the PE engine, and, as the stroke of the engine had not changed I could use the P15 connecting rods and big end bearings in the PE block.
The next issue was the cylinder diameter , non availability of rings and pistons for the PE engine. The initial bore for the cylinders was 3 1/8 inch ie 79.375 mm, in the case of the block for my car this had degenerated to variable bores in each cylinder , I had rings to fit pistons of 80.2 mm the cylinders were machined to receive pistons 80.2mm in diameter.
The piston blanks were cast at Lucknow , subsequently there was an inordinate long delay in machining the pistons, as, no lathe operator found the cash incentive attractive enough to spend the time required for machining the pistons , finally, when we machined the pistons the operator made the mistake of machining the piston by holding the piston in the lathe chuck from both sides - this resulted in the pistons having a miniscule taper at both ends & it was back to the drawing boards . We re-bored the cylinders to 82 mm and introduced a liner and rebored/ polished the cylinders to receive the 79.80 mm pistons, the rings were finished to suit the minor discrepancy from the original size. The piston was machined such that the P-15 small end & gudgeon pins could be utilised.
Before assembly the oil pump was overhauled and tested , the engine clearances were kept as close to original as possible .
When the time for starting arrived it was noted we had introduced the P-15 flywheel which was balanced for the present crankshaft and because of the centre distances the self starter motor would not engage correctly. We started the car by pushing and the engine ran wonderfully well during the running in – subsequently road trials have been conducted – so far so good
My friend Noor s/o Dilawar sahib at Dilawar Engg Works is working on the new starter motor pinion - we have used his CNC wire cut machine to make the gears for the biggest clock in India
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...rent-kind.html.
The best part of the engine restoration was the input and help I received from friends , acquaintances and work shop persons in my city – I think this was possible only in Lucknow – people helping in this interesting but thankless task for no monetary benefit
Regards
Chauhan