Engine Serial Number.

[D.R.H.]

I am pooped out boys. I pulled the stuck engine out of my M-29C yesterday and boy, WHAT A TASK. I found the serial number on the boss just behind the water pump adapter. It is T24 8619. What can the engine guru's tell me about this. Thanks. Dave.

Also, it was rebuilt in Norway in 1962 with the cylinders being .040" over stock bore. Is it possible to clean up the cylinder to .050" with out running into overheating problems?

Edited June 9 by D.R.H.
Found what I was looking for.

[OZM29C]

3 hours ago, D.R.H. said:

I am pooped out boys. I pulled the stuck engine out of my M-29C yesterday and boy, WHAT A TASK. I found the serial number on the boss just behind the water pump adapter. It is T24 8619. What can the engine guru's tell me about this. Thanks. Dave.

Also, it was rebuilt in Norway in 1962 with the cylinders being .040" over stock bore. Is it possible to clean up the cylinder to .050" with out running into overheating problems?

@D.R.H.Just did a random search of Studebaker parts vendors and it appears that 0.060" OS pistons are available, however can I suggest that you should seek advice from a reputable Engine reconditioning shop on what is the best option for your motor. In my case, the engine had sleeves fitted that returned the motor back to a standard bore. One small tip I got from my engine rebuilder was to let them assemble the motor. That way they can ensure that all fits, tolerances and clearances are correct. I understand that others do prefer to do their own assembly work but in the overall scheme of things, the assembly cost is only a fraction of the total engine reconditioning cost. In my case I chose to have the engine assembled in the shop. I received a turn key engine from them with a Workmanship Warranty. Piece of mind when I had spent over $5000 in total on the engine.

[D.R.H.]

Right You are Oz. I remember seeing these two photos a little while back. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do right now, I do have a good take out engine that still makes on average 100 lbs. p.s.i. compression across all 6 cyls. It needs to be cleaned and painted though. What color is that that You used on Your engine? 

[Patrick Tipton]

Pulling a Weasel engine is loads of fun!  All Weasel engines should have the T24xxx numbers and they were sequential, although we don't see a lot of "matching" numbers.  That should be a late '44/early '45 M29C engine.  There are casting codes on the block too....we can dial in the casting date if you will grab a picture.

Most of the late rebuild engines didn't see that much use.....depending on your budget and your desires, you might get a little lucky.

Cheers!

[OZM29C]

21 minutes ago, D.R.H. said:

Right You are Oz. I remember seeing these two photos a little while back. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do right now, I do have a good take out engine that still makes on average 100 lbs. p.s.i. compression across all 6 cyls. It needs to be cleaned and painted though. What color is that that You used on Your engine? 

@D.R.H.The colour is 'Pewter'. It is a commercially available industrial paint here in Oz. The engine rebuilder paints all of his reconditioned GPW engines in that same colour. I have installed the engine as is. As you know there is not much to be see of the engine when its tucked away down in the lower hull.

[OZM29C]

3 minutes ago, Patrick Tipton said:

Most of the late rebuild engines didn't see that much use.....depending on your budget and your desires, you might get a little lucky.

Cheers!

@Patrick TiptonSo true Patrick. My engine was badly corroded in way of the cylinders and valves that necessitated a good deal of metal surgery.

[Patrick Tipton]

6 minutes ago, OZM29C said:

As you know there is not much to be see of the engine when its tucked away down in the lower hull.

Don't you hate that🤣  All of that money and beautiful work and no one else gets to enjoy it!

[OZM29C]

2 hours ago, Patrick Tipton said:

Don't you hate that🤣  All of that money and beautiful work and no one else gets to enjoy it!

@Patrick TiptonEspecially when I have driven a grand total of 28miles in the last year. Take a lot of convincing that I got value for money by spending over $5 grand having the motor rebuilt. 🤑🤑🤑

[Patrick Tipton]

@OZM29CIndeed but....given the fun of working on a Weasel motor inside of the Weasel and the general frustration of engine troubles....I think it was worth it.

[D.R.H.]

Thanks for chiming in guys. Pewter is the color then Oz, thanks. Unfortunately Patrick, my Weasel had hundreds of 1/8" dia. by 12" long pieces of wire strewn about in the passenger area and down in the bilge. I suspect it was used by some outfit or ranch near Fresno Ca. for maintaining a fence or maybe even power line maint. crew. I did find out from an engine machinist yesterday that .060" oversize pistons are the last size before having to sleeve the cylinders. I found .040" and .060" on line, but no .050". 

The engine will be put on the back burner to simmer, and I need to get the starboard side track off so I can begin gutting the cancerous metal out and patching in new. I have a hat channel kit from Rob W. that will be used. Stand fast men, more to come.

[Patrick Tipton]

36 minutes ago, D.R.H. said:

Stand fast men, more to come.

Stock up on shielding gas. Onward!

[D.R.H.]

On 6/8/2022 at 6:22 PM, Patrick Tipton said:

Pulling a Weasel engine is loads of fun!  All Weasel engines should have the T24xxx numbers and they were sequential, although we don't see a lot of "matching" numbers.  That should be a late '44/early '45 M29C engine.  There are casting codes on the block too....we can dial in the casting date if you will grab a picture.

Most of the late rebuild engines didn't see that much use.....depending on your budget and your desires, you might get a little lucky.

Cheers!

Patrick. I didn't snap a photo of the port side of the engine, but here are all of the numbers I found. 94322 3 A near the front of the engine. And X 4 17 toward the rear.

[Patrick Tipton]

All we need - X is 1944, 4/17 - so April 17, 1944 is when that block was cast. 

Cheers!

[D.R.H.]

Thank You Patrick. However I have some bad news. The engine inhaled something metallic scarring the heck out of the top of #5 piston. The plug was left out and some rodent made a nest right on top of #5. Even though there was an Arctic Cab, the cylinder still suffered and the piston rusted in place. I managed to get the engine free two days ago, but it binds up pretty badly every 180 degrees, The deck of the block between the intake/exhaust valves and the cylinder is badly pitted which means the deck will have to be fly-cut about .004" to .008". With the pistons coming up to be level with the deck means after fly-cutting, the tops of the pistons will have to turned down the same distance. Then the block will have to be line-bored, new bearings and all.

After it was rebuilt in 1962, no one really did it any favors. So, the engine will be put away and used for spare parts I guess. We'll see. At the very least I now know how to read the date code.

Edited June 15 by D.R.H.

[M29C3284]

@D.R.H.You may also want to look for the assembly date. It is stamped next to cylinder no. 1 exhaust port.

This is of my block which was cast 6 Nov. 1944.

Edited June 15 by M29C3284

[D.R.H.]

Roger that 3284. Wilco.

[OZM29C]

@D.R.H.Whatever you do DRH, don't discard or sell the Crankshaft. My engine rebuilder rejected 5 donor crankshafts for my engine rebuild before I managed to get a NOS Crankshaft from Norway. All of the rejected crankshafts had hairline cracks in them. I would recommend to any weasel owner out there who for whatever reason has their Crankshaft out, to go to the added expense of having their Crankshafts thoroughly crack tested.

[D.R.H.]

Hi Oz, Thanks for Your sound advice. I don't have any plans on discarding the engine at all, nor will I be leaving it out in the weather to deteriorate any further. I have a good friend in California a few hours away from where I used to live who saved a hoard of Weasels and parts about 35 years ago. All are gone but He still has 2 good take out engines that are missing some external components. They engines are in a Con-Ex box at his brothers house and haven't seen the light of day since the big save. They should be in my possession by the of August this year.

Also, after doing a bit research, the civvy 170 engine isn't much different than the war dept. 170. I have a good take out that I bought a 2 Octobers ago. Take a look at this video;