VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 1948 Engine Rebuild

Hello Mike: We tried a second distributor with the same results. We took a third distributor apart. The cast housing fits fine with no interference in the block. The 1/2 diameter distributor shaft fits fine in the oil pump when the distributor driven gear is removed from the shaft. It's time to remove the NORS camshaft and inspect the camshaft driven gear diameter, pitch thread, thread depth, etc.

dtm

So it's going to be the cam that's the problem.

You can still make it for the 6 Cyl Tour, you have 10 days!

Great photo series.

We thought about pulling the camshaft in the car, but upon further reflection (!) decided it's almost as easy to just pull the engine & tranny again. It looks like the grille would definitely have to be removed and the cam and harmonic balancer are below the level of the front splash apron so you'd probably have to at least lift the engine up for clearance. Might as well pull it and leave the grille intact. You've got to disassemble just about everything anyway to get the camshaft out. Such is life!!

Gene - just not going to happen. :-) Besides, Dave leaves on Friday next week. We only have 7 days...

Dale/Dave

Never heard of such a thing. Foreign or US made cam? Yep, you'll have to pull the grill. Pull the engine if you can. Unless you've modified the timing gear cover you're going to have to pull the pan too. You'll be up and down so many times your quads will hurt for a month.

I hate it that Murphy is still alive and well. And, he always strikes when you are in a hurry. Let us know what you find when you get the cam out.

Mike - will do! It's an American made cam by Engine Pro.

ChevGuru - sorry I didn't read that post carefully enough! I should have known that given our past performance Gene would never think we could do this again in 10 days. :-)

and...7 nights. Think positive! I know you two will do it and have time for a few break-end runs. Good luck.

Dale/Dave

Ruscar is right. You've got plenty of time. I changed a timing gear on my '40 in a rest stop just west of Yuma in one night and morning. 'course I had port call in San Diego the following day. Can't miss ship's movement, you know.

Fired it up after getting it back together, leak checked it, rough set the rocker arms (did't have a feeler gauge) and didn't shut it down until I was shipside in San Diego.

It was a good experience. Had the highway patrol and truck drivers running parts for me.

I was also only 28 years old. Makes a big difference.

Engine Pro, huh? And American-made, too! Wow, that really spooks my confidence, since I'm the midst of trying to locate decent quality parts to rebuild a '54 235. At this point, it's getting hard to know who you can trust anymore when sourcing parts for anything older than a 350 SBC! I hope you have better luck in obtaining another cam.

Best wishes to you,

Dale,

So very sorry to hear of your problem. Am positive that with your attitude, you will no doubt persevere. Best to you.

Jim.

Dale,

Shucks! I'm sorry you're having difficulty with the distributor. I hope you get it sorted out soon.

I don't know about the debris in the engine but I hate to see you have to take it out to sort all that out. I know you said that you would work on it in the car but that is a mess to do.

I would suggest you review the procedure for installing the distributor on more time. You may just be missing an important step.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Charlie

BTW: The engine is protected by a screen. So don't worry about the debris. It'll just sit in the bottom of the crank case and do nothing. As they move around from time to time they will keep the bottom of the pan clean. Will too!

We came to our senses and decided to just pull the engine. Taking a break while the kids/grandkids are visiting for the holiday. Will pick this back up after the Six Cylinder Tour and figure out what's going on!

Dale with all the positive encouragement, we know you'll get her done

Do 216 and 235 distributors interchange in a 1948 engine? If so, what is the difference? Could the camshaft be a 235 cam instead of the 216 it is suppossed to have?

dtm

Dave

I ran my '40 216 distributor in a '54 235 for about 4 months while I was rebuilding my 216 and did not have any problems. Found out later (from this forum) that there are differences in the advances. Had to time by ear since I was also running the 216 flywheel on the 235.

If there are any differeces in the cam gears I couldn't tell it.

The 1937-1962 distributor gears are all the same EXCEPT in 1954 the material was changed. The pre 1954 engines had a cast alloy iron camshaft and the dist. gear is of the same material. The earlier engines had a forged steel camshaft and a steel gear. The exception is the change was not made in the solid lifter engines until mid-1954. The cast alloy iron cams can be identified by the extra wide gear teeth on the cam.

At one time Chevrolet sold the two different gears for replacement and new distributors were sold accordingly. Then they discontinued the early gears and sold the alloy gear for all applications and eleminated many of the distributors selling the later style for all applications.

I have never heard of a iron gear eating a steel or vice versa.

In general 216 engines have much more centrifical advance at high RPM's than a 235.

Well, then that settles it. It is time to remove the NORS camshaft from the block and measure the camshaft gear. It's time to see why the camshaft will not accept the 1948 216 distributor that we have used for the past 6,000 miles.

dtm

I do not know if there are cam bearings in a '48 block or not. If there is this might be the problem. Did you put new cam bearings in the block and have them line bored? If so is is possible they mooved the cam just enough to be giving you the problem?

Just a thought.

New camshaft bearings were installed by the local machine shop. This machine shop is talented in balancing crankshafts, line boring the main bearings, etc.

dtm

Dale; Where do we stand on your motor project??

Dick

Dale: What did you find out about the cam gear? I'm curious to know what the problem was.

Dale, or anyone else who has painted their engine with the dark gray FS paint, did you use hardener in the paint??

Thanks in advance,
Alan

I'll jump in. I think that I used a flatener(?) a long time ago (thinking that it would FLOW better/smoother). But then I discovered that it doesn't need it.

And spraying it on sheet metal works great... but on cast iron, you can EASILY get by with just brushing it on. It really does FLOW nicely as it dries.

And-- I never thought that it needed a hardener either. But if anyone else has, please let us know your experience.

No, I did not use a hardener. As Bill just mentioned, it does flow out beautifully on the block & head using a brush. I also bought the spray cans for the sheet metal parts. Just note there is not much paint in the spray cans - about half of what is usually in a spray can that size so they go quickly. I did not try to brush on sheet metal.

Thanks for the replies. I purchased the quart can (actually came in two pints) and of course plan to spray the sheet metal and may also spray the block if I can get my spray gun in the correct positions. I'm painting it with the engine in the car. So I have a lot of prep work to do; removing parts, cleaning, masking and etc.

Alan

So --- Cousin Dave and I finally got back together to sort out this engine rebuild. As you may recall, the distributor wouldn't fit! Strange, I know, but it just wouldn't go in. So, we pulled the engine, figured it was a bad/wrong replacement camshaft, but after disassembling the engine and checking the camshaft we discovered it wasn't the problem. Seems that perhaps we installed the oil pump too deeply and missed the alignment indent where it is anchored. Distributor slipped in just like it's supposed to. Having found the "solution", we proceeded to put the engine back together - you know, timing cover stuck back on, oil pan, head, lifters, push rods, rocker arms, distributor....oh wait, the distributor won't go in.

How is that possible!!?? So --- we disassemble the engine again (!!!!) and think again about what would keep the distributor from sliding in. Turns out - and we really, really think this is it - that the oil pipes that attach to the oil pump was pulling the oil pump enough to one side that the alignment was off enough to prevent the distributor from engaging. With some adjustment to the line fittings, everything seems to be fitting properly and the engine is mostly back together - again. We'll attack it some other day and get it in the car! Whew!!!