Posted by Paul on July 19, 1999 at 18:39:21:
In Reply to: WDX Fires up posted by David on July 19, 1999 at 14:34:37:
You lucky little....er...you fine young man. I envy you. (Drool, drool, slobber, slobber) The radiator in your power wagon was the same from the 1946 model until the '60 model. The 251 engine had a different radiator. I would take it to a good radiator shop and have it recored. They can usually fix cracks in the neck but the cores can fail all at once. One concern I have is the cracks in the necks may have friends in the engine block from lack of anti-freeze in it during the winter. Even so, the 230 flat head is fairly easy to come by. You may even find someplace like Jasper engines that has rebuilts in stock.
Once you get that taken care of, check all the rubber on the brake system. It's about time for the flex hoses to fail if they didn't already if you pumped the brakes up. Also, check all the wheel cylinders as they also will dryrot and possibly freeze up. They may have a stepped bore though so if the book shows two sizes of expansion cups, say 1 1/2 and 1 3/8, you have one of each in the cylinder.