VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 235 engine

The 216 engine and the early Power Glide engines had about equal durability.
They both did best with highway driving, regular oil changes and engine speeds of under 3000 RPM.
In my part of the country they could use an overhaul by 50,000 miles due to oil consumption which was caused by the oil ring and oil return holes in the piston plugging up with carbon. A highway driver could get double the mileage. The babbited rods would not be a weak point if oil was changed and , especially on the before 1948 models, rods adjusted it beginning to make noise.
I drove those engine hard and fast and never has any rod bearing problems.
Getting 80,000 miles on a mail route engine sounds about correct (with oils back then).......as the stop and go driving is hard on both the brakes and egine.
The 1953 Power Glide and all 1954 engines had full pressure oiling and alumimum pistons many lacked the low oil consumption that a cast iron 216 or 235 could provide.

Note that the 1948 and later dipper 216 and 235 engines had the thin babbitt bearings and with proper oil changing could go 100,000 with out a rod adjustement.

Wnen I first started at the dealership in 1950 we were overhualing 1947 engines with 35,000 miles. They were using oil, due to carboned up rings needed a valve job. wrist pins clucking at idle speeds, etc. After that low mileage and only three years the engine was fillled with sludge and the oil pump screen was beginning to plug-up.
On a lot of other makes tthe engine would be worn out by 50,000 miles and would require a rebore job, etc. to cure problems. A chevrolet engine could be overhauled once or twice in 100,000 miles and still no major cylinder wall wear.

My present 1950 Power Glide car has 56,000 miles on it, most with good modern oils, head has never been off, oil consuption at high speeds less than 1000 miles to a quart and runs as quiet as they did when new. 65 MPH is my usual highway speed with the 3.55 rear end and engine speed about 2800 RPM.

Gene,
Thank you for your thorough response. I see now where the reputation came from for these engines requiring major maintenance at 50K miles.
When you say engine rebuild when you were working at a dealership, do you mean just replacing all engine bearings and a valve job? I assume they didn't need to be bored out, because that wasn't the issue? Your estimate of 2800 RPM at 65 MPH is a good one on your 1950 Powerglide equipped car, assuming you have 6.70 by 15" tires on it, with an approximate diameter of 28.4". That puts your engine RPM at approximately 77% of peak horsepower RPM of 3600. The 216 stick shift with the 4.11 rear axle ratio has to be going slightly over 57 MPH to match that RPM.

This all started with my curiosity into Pontiacs of this same period, with shell type insert bearings and full pressure oiling. This was the case on both the sixes and the eights. Apparently they would go for 100K miles without any major engine work.
Thx again for your thorough response.
Jim

When we overhauled an engine it included replacing rings, fitting new wrist pins,adjusting main and rod bearings, grinding valves, cleaning carbon and sludge and a tune-up.
A good mechanic would do it in an 8 hour day and in the early 1950's the price was $77.00 plus any valves or connecting rods, etc.
If the engine was a virgin and has say 50,000 miles it would be better than new if every thing was properly fitted. The babbitt material was nice and compressed and a better piston ring was used.

The Ponntiac was a good tough engine as long as it wasn't driven too fast as the standard trans. cars were geared kind of low.


when my 1939 Chev. had the 4.22 rear end I did drive it at 60 to 65 MPH for long trops with no problems.

Gene,
So you would put on new piston rings, but not hone out the cylinders, or install new pistons? How long did that last, and did they consume more oil? All this for $77 plus parts? That is cheap, particularly considering $80 in 1950 is about $850 today. Couldn't get that done today!
Thx for the information
Jim

They cut the ridge and honed the cylinder walls. We used the replacement rings that Chevrolet sold through parts. The rings had expanders and the oil ring was of the four piece design so less apt to plug up with carbon. Chevrolet replacement rings were made by Muskeogen Piston Ring Co. After chrome faced oil rings were introduced we use them.
The cast iron pistons wore like iron and never needed replacing unlless one broke for some reason. Always fitted new wrist pins as the oiling to the pins was not that great esspeciallly if the engines saw a lot of ideling. That was $77 with the usual parts like rings, pins and gaskets. Always replaced the oil pump screen and connecting rod pal nuts.
I was in parts at that time and could pull the stuff in two minutes once the size of the wrist pins was determined, depended on if the engine was overhauled before. With todays better oils etc. I am sure the life would have been longer. Also winter caused problems and many cars never saw much highway driving. The highway cars engines lasted twice as long as the city cars. They usually just required a valve job by 50,000 miles. Chevrolet used cheap valves until about 1954.

The above pertains to 216 engines and early 235 engines. When the change was made to full pressure oiling and aluminum pistons (1953 Power Glide-all 1954) They seemed to last longer. .....but that engines often tended to use more oil from new compared to the early design.

Gene,
Thank you for all of the information. I hope you are writing all of this down, because you have all kinds of information on Chevys in your head.
Thx
Jim

Okay. Interesting sugject. Lets see if I've got it straight.

a. Prior to 1953 235s with babbit were available for heavier trucks than a 1/2 ron pickup.

b. All 235s had babbit rods until 1954,

c. No car prior to 1950 had a 235,

d, All 235s for cars had babbit engines and 30 lb gages,

e. All 235 with the oit distribution cover on the driver's (left) side of the engine had babbit rods.

f. The first 235 with inserts, full pressure and 60 lb gages came out in 1954.

I gathered this by reading all the posts above. I may have got something wrong but that is the reason for this post. Please correct the above by item letter.

Thanks,

Charlie

BTW: It was good to hear from MrMack. In his last post here he said he was confused (on the instant question, of course.) Well, so am I.

53 with power guide had full pressure, and 60 psi gauge

All Chevrolet engines had splash thtough 1952.
All 1953 engines had splash EXCEPT POWER GLIDE ENGINES AND CANADIAN CARS -WHICH HAD FULL PRESSURE'
All 1954 had pressure.

1953 was the only goffy half/half year.

The full presssure engines had rod inserts and aluminum pistons.

OK, so the connecting rod bearings were insert in the 1953 Power-Glide engine, and all sixes beginning in 1954. I have a book that states in 1948 precision interchangeable main engine bearings were adopted in Chevrolets. Is this another way of saying the mains (4) were a shell type insert bearing beginning in 1948? What were they before that--was the bearing surface poured into the block, and also into some kind of a main bearing cap?
Thank you for answering all of these questions Gene.
Jim

What book are you quoting? There are a large number of books that have been published that contain incorrect information. A best practice is to verify any "fact" in three or more non GM references. Best to verify in two GM references if there is any question.

All 6 cylinder Chevrolet engines from 1929 and up had main bearing inserts.
From 1929-1947 the inserts were"in the rough" and had to be line bored. The 1948 and up had the precision inserts and did not require line boring. Also just one insert could be replaced if necrssary.
At that point Chevrolet sold precision inserts for the previous years but all the inserts had to be replaced as a set.

In 1948 Chevrolet also went to thinner babbit or both the rod and main bearings This meant the bearings did not require adjusting as often. Many went 100,000 without adjustment
In 1942 Pontiac went to the thinner babbitt for rod and main bearings.,,,,see 1942 Pontiac Shop Manual.

Prior to 1937 Ford V-8 used babbitt poured directly into the block and then line bored..

Actually many of the earliest Chevrolet engines had babbitt bearings on replaceable shells. I am not aware of any Chevrolet engine that did NOT have insert main bearings.Ford and others poured main bearings directly into the block. Chevrolet did not.

"Precision interchangeable main engine bearings" is from Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975. It is under the Historical footnotes for 1948 Chevrolet.
Jim

I suspected that or the one for trucks as they both are full of errors. I even wrote a part of the Standard Catalog of Trucks and changes were made that were not correct.