Inliners International Forums General Discussion Truck Talk Keroppi, my 1946 Chevy 3100

Yes, and Jim has written a number of tech articles that are on his site...he's just a good guy to me, he sent me one of those Huck springs recently for no charge also...

Actually he's helped me in narrowing down what I actually have.

This is a response from him.

------------------ reply from Jim Carter ---------------
Alan, Engine block#3835911 is on a Pickup from 1954-55 and began in 1953 in the Corvette and passenger car with a Power Glide transmission. (This has modern insert bearing rods as do engines in vehicles today.) The head is from 1955-62. ALL you are using is from a 235 engine, not a 216. These very early 235's used a 6 volt system. Thus, the flywheel has the number of teeth used in a 6 volt. I can only assume the 3836848 head gives the extra compression to make it more difficult for a 6 volt battery and starter. Jim C
------------------ reply from Jim Carter ---------------

BOTP,

So the interesting thing is that Jim filled in the blanks about my block and head (if he is correct), and it makes sense in order to get the old flywheel by using an early 235 which had them. This is the best explanation I've heard from anyone.

When I was doing some research previously I kept running across information that cross referenced with the Corvette engine, and while I suspected it is not related to it, the castings are but are from different engines so the previous owner who swapped this 235 in knew what he was doing. The seller I bought it from bought it from him. The seller I bought it from raved about how much the guy that swapped the engine knew about these engines. That all makes sense now. He was already in his 80s when he sold it to the guy I bought it from, and was getting to the point he didn't want to be working on old trucks anymore.

And lastly, while it seems odd for Chevy to have put this incompatibility into the 6v vs. 12v flywheel, as Jim Carter points out, it ensured Chevy that the 2 systems could never be interchanged which would be a real problem in a car/truck.