Posted by Dave jensen on Tuesday, March 11, 2003 at 3:39AM :
In Reply to: PW Drivetrain Capacity posted by freematt on Monday, March 10, 2003 at 2:30PM :
I'm sure this subject has been well-covered and archived? I know there are a lot of people who have done much better jobs than I did on my M-37. Since the drive-train is pretty similar to PW, here's my experience fwiw: Used a completely rebuilt, bored .20 over, stock cam, '68 steel crank LA 318 (2barrel carb) w/NP435. Truck had several prev. engines, so doghouse and mounts were hacked at already and body is fairly decent. (had a M-151 4cyl and trans when I got it). I have driven this truck with stock gearing and wheels for around 6 or 7 years with zero breakage. It is still slow, I don't ever drive it on the freeway. It gets up to 48 mph very quickly. It is the truck I use when I have to deal with deep snow or heavy loads off-road. I frequently load the poor thing up with rock hand-loaded from a quarry, and I always take it slow and careful. I have helped fix broken axles in PWs and WCs so I know they can break. My impression is the drive train holds up similarly to pre-dsl era 1-tons. I sometimes wish I had located stock parts and kept the truck original. I would never take a complete "good" PW and put a v-8 in it personally. There are plenty of junkers for that, that's just my opinion. Stock is more valuable if the rig is straight and that seems to go for most old iron, including IHC, Jeeps, and Toyotas. But I have to admit I love that confident momentum in third-low when I'm faced with a long steep hillside covered with ice and snow (unfortunately not much of that this year in WA).
Follow Ups: