Vintage Dodge Project

this isn't a land rover, but I thought this might be of interest to some people.

The aim of the project is to build a vintage car for hillclimbing/racing and eventually make it the fastest in its class. the car will date back to the early 1900s so all parts and components with the exception of nuts, bolts, and consumable parts will be nearly 100 years old. Today I dragged the engine out of the mud where its been sat for at least five years, and by the looks of it has previously been stored in similar conditions for most of its life before it was left here.

this is the block






head removed


pistons seized solid and bores full of rust and leaves and nearly a decades worth of crap




camshaft


head cleaned up doesn't look too bad


first job is to clean up the block, and get it rebored for high compression pistons, which will be the first and only modification until the cars built, but there are plenty of ideas and parts ready to make it lighter and faster once its all ready

this is as far as I got today, I'll update teh thread as it happens.
JKx

Thats one poor engine

its 90 odd years old! if my 200tdi looks that good in 90 years after being removed and sat outside unprotected for forever, I'd be chuffed

most of the big end nuts and those holding the crankshaft undid with relative ease. nothing broke yet.

It WILL live again. watch this space

If there's hope for that engine, makes you wonder why we dont bother to mend the more modern engines when they go wrong. Its amazing the number of very good engines that get chucked into the scrap heap. Will be keeping a keen eye on your rebuild. Best of luck

Wow nice side valve.

I have seen some stationary engines that were seized as bad as that free'd up and got going. Diesel in the bores works to loosen stuff a bit then the piston can be tapped out!

This should be a cool thread to follow!

Any pics of the bodywork or is that undecided/missing or what?

Ed

Looks fascinating. Is it easy to get spares for these?
I suppose on the plus side it is built with sufficient tolerances to allow you to do things like rebore, regrind crank and cam, skim head and so on. Not like on my TD5 where Land Rover says you're not allowed to.

looking forward to seeing how this goes.
some of my vmc mates are running tuned side valve engines.

spares are out there, but not nessecarily easy to come by

there is no body work yet, that hasn't been decided, though for those of you who don't know what a vintage Dodge Four looks like, it would have originally resembled this:

found the chassis! it was left there about 5 or 6 years ago and completely forgotten where it was put!

buried in the weeds. haven't dragged it out yet, but it still seems fairly sound



started removing the valves in the motor and its all coming to pieces surprisingly easily atm.

Jay reKx said:

its 90 odd years old! if my 200tdi looks that good in 90 years after being removed and sat outside unprotected for forever, I'd be chuffed

most of the big end nuts and those holding the crankshaft undid with relative ease. nothing broke yet.

It WILL live again. watch this space

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Please oh please oh please make a wager with dr evil

I'm gonna look in a few bushes and see if i can't find a landy

chunkymunky said:

Please oh please oh please make a wager with dr evil

Click to expand...

HAHAHAHA might just have to :hysterically_laughi

cracked on a bit more. its going slowly as it gets done in between other projects, and theres a fair few of them on the go atm.
three of the four pistons were unsurprisingly seized solid, but with a little persuasion they eventually came out



and the bores dont look too bad, but its going to get sent off to be re-bored for high compression pistons anyway



the cam shaft also was unsurprisingly seized solid.



I wrestled out the valves, which were also pretty determined to never move again, and then with plenty of wd40 and dermination freed the camshaft and now it spins on its bearings like it was put in yesterday





sorry its not very exciting yet, but I'll post it as it happens.

JKx

I would'nt have belived that engine was any good let alone strip

Is it a specalist enginering firm you are sending it to

A bloody interesting thread this! Thanks for sharing. My automotive preferences are muscle cars, Lamborghinis (not the tractors...but still... ), Disco 2's . However, anything built from almost the dawn of motoring up to the 50's gets a thumbs up and a cheery wave from me if I see them being driven on the road; it can be bad enough sourcing parts for more modern vehicles let alon a 100 year old car.

Diff.

Jay reKx said:

cracked on a bit more. its going slowly as it gets done in between other projects, and theres a fair few of them on the go atm.
three of the four pistons were unsurprisingly seized solid, but with a little persuasion they eventually came out

and the bores dont look too bad, but its going to get sent off to be re-bored for high compression pistons anyway

the cam shaft also was unsurprisingly seized solid.

I wrestled out the valves, which were also pretty determined to never move again, and then with plenty of wd40 and dermination freed the camshaft and now it spins on its bearings like it was put in yesterday

sorry its not very exciting yet, but I'll post it as it happens.

JKx

Click to expand...

far from it , its a very interesting thread

Worth looking for a dry ice blaster locally. Will remove all the corrosion from the outside without damaging it.

jamesmartin said:

far from it , its a very interesting thread

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+1.keep posting as and when please.

What a fascinating thread! Fair play to that man.

Wow much respect for getting those bits moving and getting it stripped down! Keep the pics coming!