The WC53 Carryall thread .

[Bruce in BC]

My Cummins is having a hissy fit.

Not sure what the issue is. I notice the sound had changed - almost like a sticky valve or tappet slap and along with that the power dropped off. At idle the engine vibrates way more and the ticking noise is easy enough to hear over the regular noises the engine would make. I have never pulled diesel injectors and would not know a stuck injector from a working one. About all I have done so far is climb under the truck and tighten a supply line that may have been leaking. if it is not raining tomorrow I will trace out the rest of the line and tighten every fitting and look for leaks. I now see the advantage of having a clear line before the lift pump.
You get to see if there is air in the supply line.
I guess my next step is to check the valve lash and then pull the injectors. It would be nice to have some spare injectors and drop them in. I am glad this did not happen on a road trip. No white smoke but I think there is more smoke when I have it under load.

This is so fun. And here I was planning a trip across the boarder with a bit of tuning before hand. Not going to happen for awhile now.
I doubt it is a blown head gasket - that would not explain the ticking noise.

[Alxj64]

Detroit maybe?

Correct.
Its a 4-53T Detroit, but the turbo is missing from this one. Factory tune is 170 hp / 420 lb-ft at 2500 RPM. Its also known as a "Screaming Jimmy" because of the 2 stroke nature. The engine has a large displacement turbo that feeds to a supercharger mounted to the side of the engine block; so yea a turbo feeding a supercharger in a 2 stroke is an interesting sounding machine, especially with 4 exhaust valves per cylinder, and zero intake valves. I messed with it some and it had 3 stuck injectors from sitting. I freed up 2 of them but the last one won't budge. I put the valve cover back on it and it will go in storage until I can mess with the other one.

[The Other Ross]

Detroit maybe?

[Bruce in BC]

Great photos Alex

I did multiple searches on several platforms and was unable to come up with a photo or reference to the door art. Considering the location you are 99.99999999 % dead on thinking that this "art" was military in origin.

What motor is that? It is not a Cummins and I do not think it started life in a john deer tractor or a Bedford.


Way cool addition, well... until the next one comes along.

Bruce

[jim lee]

Starting projects is exiting, heady, a little scary but full of promise. Starting projects is easy! Finishing projects is TOUGH. The magic has been turned into machinery, there's $hit scattered everywhere, it turned out to be WAY harder than you ever expected and more expensive. And really, where exactly is the finish point anyway?

Beware!

Jim Lee's law of projects : No project can be more than 1/2 complete, until its finished.

-jim lee

[Alxj64]

I "think" I may have already found out some history on this old truck.

The guy I bought it from originally dug this thing out of an abandoned property in North Carolina, outside of Charlotte. Well, I found some faded insignia showing through the paint on the truck that looks like a stencil of a bomb with the number 13 in it. The stencil is on the passenger's door and just behind the driver's door (which makes sense because of the location of the original spare tire). So, some digging has led me to find that the 13th Airborne Division was located at Fort Bragg in North Carolina during WWII. It was the training center for the Army's "Airborne Special Operations" actually.... So this was probably some sort of Crew car there at Fort Bragg during and following WWII. Pretty cool stuff!

Also, I have to share this funny picture that literally describes my life right now regarding these old trucks that I have floating around. I also have an M37 that is sitting neglected; has been for like 15 years now.

[Alxj64]

Ajax, I'm jealous about your B17 ride. I sometimes wonder if I'd have the courage to ride in one of those old things. All I would be thinking about would be metal fatigue.

Julie showed me your latest instagram. Did you pick up yet another WC53? Where are you finding these things? Whats the plan with this one?

-jim lee

Jim,
Its actually quite amazing how some of these trucks deteriorated so badly over the years vs some, like yours, have survived and remained so solid overall. I've already named this truck "Humpty"... all of the pieces of an original truck are there (save for gauges, engine, trans, and T-case) and someone already started on a restoration of it as the frame has been blasted and painted already as well, and the axles under it are clean as a whistle but need seals and such. The body mounts and cab corners are rotted badly down low but the upper half of the truck is in overall great shape. The firewall and wiper cowl has been drilled out already but it came with the truck so not a big worry. Has a windshield frame, fenders, etc.

I picked up a "not stock" engine for the machine also. Engine turns over but I have no idea if it will run, it is also missing the Turbo. It is not what I thought I was buying as it was listed as not being a turbo engine, however upon inspection after arriving home, I discovered it is in fact a factory Turbo engine, just the turbo is missing. Good deal because the HP rating is much higher that way.

This one will sit aside while I finish up the current one, and then its going to get the attention as well. I couldn't pass up the deal on it, and the adventure as well. Was a few states away and about 20 hours total drive time round trip to get it.

[jim lee]

Ajax, I'm jealous about your B17 ride. I sometimes wonder if I'd have the courage to ride in one of those old things. All I would be thinking about would be metal fatigue.

Julie showed me your latest instagram. Did you pick up yet another WC53? Where are you finding these things? Whats the plan with this one?

-jim lee

[Alxj64]

I took a day off from working on my Carryall to go for a ride in this amazing piece of hardware. Let me tell you about some of the ideas I have now for finalizing the details in my truck and also some plans for what I am doing to the next one! Nothing like jumping into a B17 bomber and soaring up the James River on a beautiful day!

However Sunday, I realized that standing on my head under my dash is not conducive to my damaged nervous system elements... so I took a bunch of dimensions and made a mockup of the dash so I can make a nice clean bundle of wires and then just plug it all in under the dash at once. Less likely to overlook something or make a poor connection.

[Bruce in BC]

Dragging my butt - not doing much - and I should be.

K&N filters - several years ago I was in a shop that does a fair amount of diesel work, one of the mechanics was saying that they had seen more wear on trucks with a K&N than any other filter - Not sure if it is true or not - also i have some lab reports that checked the major filters in use today - K&N was midpoint, Donaldson and one other where up at front. I can not find the reports, they may be in my shop or are long gone, I do recall the readings improved if you new the proper way to keep them loaded with oil.

NP205 - yep that did work well, should be a stock part, looks that way.

Twin Turbos - man am I tempted. Not going to happen any time soon, it would be nice to get an actual report from someone with economy and boost numbers.

Got part of an old Dodge dash in the rust tank - at some point it will become a panel for air and fuel pressure guages. I am going to wrap the exhaust again - I took the wrap off when I cut and welded the old pipe - The pipe under the wrap was in better condition than the exposed pipe - this is counter to what I have seen regarding wrapped headers but I am not going to complain. The pipe does get hot enough to change the colour. Where the welds were ground down, the pipe is now a blue to purple colour.

Fan controller - not sure the brand but I thought it was about 190 on and 180 off. Nothing fancy just the simple on off style I like to use. It did work - just not at present. I do have an adjustable one sitting on the shelf with a dial and what not, been sitting there for 25 years, perhaps it is time to hook it up? or not.

Grounds - I think I got carried away - interesting that some have turned green in the short time I have been driving the truck. Good to know that you are playing with the wiring, that is a job that takes patience.

Todays progress - I got around to mounting the fire extinguisher to the floor, I will miss the sound of it banging on the door or bouncing against the seat frame.

take care out there
Bruce

[jim lee]

Whoa, thanks!

Unexpected, glad you liked it.

-jim lee

[Alxj64]

Hey guys.

I setup a blog for my WC53.

So, if you get bored, it may be something to look at.

https://www.eskimo.com/~jimlee

-jim lee

I just read the whole thing! Thanks for sharing! Your truck in its mostly original condition is really a thing of beauty!

Matt, this could be some good stuff to snag for the PWA Print Magazine! It is well written with a great tone of voice and sense of light humor.

[jim lee]

Hey guys.

I setup a blog for my WC53.

So, if you get bored, it may be something to look at.

https://www.eskimo.com/~jimlee

-jim lee

[Desoto61]

I've been looking at my air filter setup too, I built a heat shield but the where it sits still has it pulling air from a hot engine compartment. Thinking I can get it up and rotate it 90 degrees to sit parallel with the hood and build a new shroud to pull better through the hood louvers.

I've heard a lot of back and forth on the K&Ns. We don't have the oil issues that most gas engines do. They do have foam pre-filters for some of them too. I will say that letting them get dirty actually improves their filtration, so cleaning them (unless really dirty) might actually be a bad thing.

Where are your fans triggered from? My gauge feeds from a sensor by the thermostat, but my engine fans use a sensor I threaded into the radiator return port on the engine. I used an infrared thermometer to tweak the fan set-point to be around 180 based on the outlet temps of the radiator. That does however mean my fans don't kick on based on the gauge temp but based on how well the rad is cooling.

With the right potentiometer setup you should be able to test the operation of the gauge/controller setup, you'd have to know the resistance range for the sensor though. Not sure if it's worth the trouble or not.

[Alxj64]

No leaks under the truck - doubt that will last long but I have put about 200 miles on it without any sign that there is any thing escaping from the case.
Thinking about how to go about getting cooler air into the truck and a better air filter, got a K&N in it at present but am not all that excited about how well it filters air.
Most immediate concern is to deal with the fan shroud and trace the wiring and sensor - the fan turns on manually but not on its own. unless my gauge is off?

take care out there

Bruce

Good deal on the leak stop. What do you mean not pleased with how the K&N filters air? Granted you do drive in the dirt and dust a good bit. My daily driven Cummins has had a K&N on it for 170k miles now and the intake is fine.

What kinda of fan controller are you using? And gauge? Does the gauge have a calibration point or is there a kink in your sender wire messing up the resistance?

I've been doing nothing but running wires in mine. Every connection is either a sealed pin connector or a soldered joint with the glue filled heat shrink tubing; I'm not taking any chances on this thing giving me problems due to a corroded or poorly terminated connection. I am running multiple grounds throughout as well and not really relying on chassis grounding but rather to my grounding termination points with redundancy.