1954 C-1-PW Refresh in MO

[FarmPW54FF]

I am beginning a refresh of this very complete PW that runs decent, but burns some oil, and I was contemplating an engine rebuild. I am planning to wire wheel the chassis and paint with POR15 as best I can without removing the body, pull the radiator to fix a leak, and do an engine rebuild to make sure it is a dependable driver in future since I don't know when or if it has been rebuilt in past. In process I was planning on 12v. conversion. My question is if there is any value in trying to do something to improve performance of the 230 ci engine, or just keep it stock? I don't want to go crazy but was thinking about boring the block (might need to anyway), but was not planning on adding dual carb set up. Will use this truck around the farm, driving in town,, etc but not a mudder or hill climber. Any thoughts on what options are available and if they make any difference?

[John Waak]

From what I hear you saying, I'd recommend fixing what's broke, and enjoying a stock setup. You can spend money hot rodding the engine, but your gearing is still going to slow you down. And if you upgrade one aspect of the engine's performance, you will start a domino effect of other needed upgrades. Your truck was very well built to do what it was intended to do. Again, I recommend keeping it stock and enjoying it for what it is.

[FarmPW54FF]

Thanks John, sounds like good advice. I did switch to the 4.89 gears but just wanted to make sure that if I was going to go thru the motor, that I didn't miss an opportunity to do something within reason to increase power a little bit, since once the gears were changed, I noted a little sluggishness, despite a better top end speed. Hopefully engine and carb rebuild will make a difference.
Jeff

[Cheyenne Dave]

Hi Jeff. Perhaps a good place to start would be a simple dry/wet compression test to gauge the general health of your engine. At least it should narrow down weather the oil consumption is due to pistons and rings or valves.

cd

[FarmPW54FF]

Thanks CD.....I will do that once the weather improves and report back. I would assume anything around 90 would be optimal, but what would you find acceptable?

[PWinKS]

Where in MO are you located? I am near St.Joe.

[FarmPW54FF]

I am in a western suburb of St Louis......sounds like I am across the state from you.

[Cheyenne Dave]

Hi Jeff,

I would concider anything below 100 to be marginal. I just had a '66 Buick Riviera in the shop with less than 20k miles on a rebuilt 425 v-8. I recorded 130-145 dry and 150's on the wet test. One cylinder was wet to start with and it got 150, so it seems we have some head/valve issues. There should be no more than 10% variance between all cylinders.

cd

[FarmPW54FF]

OK, Dave and others......I finally got around to doing a compression check on the 54 Powerwagon with these results listed as dry/wet reading per cylinder. For cylinders 1 and 2, I received inconsistent readings despite repeating the wet readings several times:
1 100/110....then after a retry it measured 60psi several times.....?
2 85/165 ....I measured this several times and still same, seems like it increased more than expected with wet reading
3 100/150
4 100/115
5 100/130
6 95/140
I am not sure what the problems are with cylinders 1 and 2, but I interpreted these results as indication that an engine rebuild would be in order, especially since I don't know much about the history of the motor. So that is my plan.

Another question: Because I have the motor out, I was thinking about adding the aftermarket power steering unit by VPW.....does anyone have any experience with this installation and operation?. Was it difficult to install and was it worth it?
Thanks
JEJ