My old 55 pick up which has been in a state of neglect for many years breathed fire today for the first time this century. Original plans were to rebuild the 224 it came with. but finances dictated we take a different route. You know finances and flood waters can do that.
My son wants to drive the old truck so we decided to replace the 224 with a 259 form a 57 Commander that has been taking up space in my shop for longer than I care to remember.
James and I both had the day off today so we set out to button it up enough to see if it would crank. We put in new points, hooked up the I/V bottle of gas, hot-wired it. and spun it over. After a few turns it choughed, spit,popped,and sputtered to life. With only a head pipe hooked to the exaust, it made so much noise and smoke that the bloodhound started howling, the horse started whinnying, the yard dogs came to see what was on fire, and a black snake that had been hiding in the shop decided to head for tall timber.Since it does not yet have a radiator it only ran for alittle while. it seemed to only be running on 6 or 7 cylinders. So we peplaced the plugs,James came out with a set of copper core plug wires. After installing those we thought ample cooling of time had passed so we fired it up again. this time it purred like a kitten. Most of the smoke stopped, and the animals didn't seem to care this time. NT
Neil Thornton
Hazlehurst, GA
'57 Silver Hawk
'56 Sky Hawk
'51 2R16 dump truck
Many others.
My son wants to drive the old truck so we decided to replace the 224 with a 259 form a 57 Commander that has been taking up space in my shop for longer than I care to remember.
James and I both had the day off today so we set out to button it up enough to see if it would crank. We put in new points, hooked up the I/V bottle of gas, hot-wired it. and spun it over. After a few turns it choughed, spit,popped,and sputtered to life. With only a head pipe hooked to the exaust, it made so much noise and smoke that the bloodhound started howling, the horse started whinnying, the yard dogs came to see what was on fire, and a black snake that had been hiding in the shop decided to head for tall timber.Since it does not yet have a radiator it only ran for alittle while. it seemed to only be running on 6 or 7 cylinders. So we peplaced the plugs,James came out with a set of copper core plug wires. After installing those we thought ample cooling of time had passed so we fired it up again. this time it purred like a kitten. Most of the smoke stopped, and the animals didn't seem to care this time. NT
Neil Thornton
Hazlehurst, GA
'57 Silver Hawk
'56 Sky Hawk
'51 2R16 dump truck
Many others.
[/img]
[/img]
)]
Comment