Rebuilt auto engine prices from another time...

[wore out]

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[Steve in VA]

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Love that.

 

[MSD]

Saw a price estimate from JD yesterday for 1 exhaust valve it was $255.

 

[Blackhole49]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles. I cringe when people say they don't build them like they used to. I'm glad they don't. My 49 straight 8 Pontiac is one tired puppy at 62,000. Didn't even come with an oil filter. Still wouldn't get rid of it though.

 

[DoubleO7]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles.

And that was with an oil filter also.

So was it anemic engines in overweight vehicles?

Or was it inferior metals and components?

 

[Jim in LA]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles. I cringe when people say they don't build them like they used to. I'm glad they don't. My 49 straight 8 Pontiac is one tired puppy at 62,000. Didn't even come with an oil filter. Still wouldn't get rid of it though.View attachment 97669

We had a white 1952 2 dr Chieftan with the sun visor. Dad traded it in 1968 to a man for a 1966 Yamaha 50. I still have the bike.

 

[Blackhole49]

And that was with an oil filter also.

So was it anemic engines in overweight vehicles?

Or was it inferior metals and components?

Probably a combination of both along with inferior oil. I will say, though it is only 104hp, they are mighty big horses. This is the only car I've ever driven that you can dump it in 3rd (3 speed) at 10 mph and it will just pull away smooth as can be.

 

[Blackhole49]

We had a white 1952 2 dr Chieftan with the sun visor. Dad traded it in 1968 to a man for a 1966 Yamaha 50. I still have the bike.

Do you wish you still had the car?

 

[Dean]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles. I cringe when people say they don't build them like they used to. I'm glad they don't. My 49 straight 8 Pontiac is one tired puppy at 62,000. Didn't even come with an oil filter. Still wouldn't get rid of it though.View attachment 97669

My Father had 2 1947 Pontiacs. One was a 2 door business sedan with no options. The other a deluxe model 4 door with just about all options. Both were 239 CI flathead 6s with standard transmissions.

He retired the 2 door at 176,000 miles and the 4 door at 134,000 miles. Both still ran and drove well and neither had had any major work. Neither smoked or used much oil.

I adopted the 4 door from behind the barn 12 years of age and taught myself mechanics on it after I outgrew lawn mowers and go karts.

Pontiac used an effective in-the-pan oil cleaner designed for use with non-detergent oil. Moreover, both 6 and 8 cylinder, engines had precision bearings (both main and rod) and full pressure lubrication to all engine bearings in an era when many still used connecting rod dippers and babbitt bearings.

Pontiacs of the era had a well-deserved reputation for both reliability and durability.

 

[Crazy Horse]

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If they transplanted easily, I' get the Mopar flathead put into my '02 Caravan.

 

[Texasmark]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles. I cringe when people say they don't build them like they used to. I'm glad they don't. My 49 straight 8 Pontiac is one tired puppy at 62,000. Didn't even come with an oil filter. Still wouldn't get rid of it though.View attachment 97669

As I posted the other day, recalling Walter Chrysler told I think it was his DeSoto design team that he wanted a 250k mile engine in that car......I remember the spec. just not sure on the car model.

I grew up near the Texas coast in a small surburb. Everything was about 2-3 miles from the house so things usually didn't have time to get warmed up. Valve jobs lasted 45k miles and OHs 100k. Mufflers and tailpipes about 2 years. There was an engine rebuiding company in Houston doing a bumper business....quality work at a reasonable price. This was about the time Texaco came out with their Havoline 10w-30 multiviscosity HD oil....late '50's......there was a Texaco dealer at the end of our street and mom had them take care of her car.

 

[Gambles]

Picked up this can at an old farm auction awhile back. A Monkey Wards rebuilt engine deserves Monkey Wards oil, right?
Speaking of cheap prices, decades ago I helped a buddy overhaul his Pontiac Tempest with a 389. He bought his replacement pistons were from JC Whitney and they included rings for 7 pistons, not 8. The local parts man ordered 1 set of rings, the application was for some Cadillac, IIRC. Looking back, the think the pistons were made by Badger. Cast iron rings, not chrome or moly, but it ran okay and they were fine for a parade queen.

 

[chvet73]

Back when engines were good for 60/70,000 miles. I cringe when people say they don't build them like they used to. I'm glad they don't. My 49 straight 8 Pontiac is one tired puppy at 62,000. Didn't even come with an oil filter. Still wouldn't get rid of it though.View attachment 97669

That car is very cool. i was born in 1950. My first memory of a family car was a 1950 green Pontiac. This looks very similar.

 

[Factotum]

And that was with an oil filter also.

So was it anemic engines in overweight vehicles?

Or was it inferior metals and components?

It was also a matter of gasoline washing the oil off of the cylinder walls when choking on cold startups, the oil then gets into crankcase, diluting the oil making lubrication less effective. Newer fuel injected engines have absolutely amazing fuel control, hence the much longer life, power and mileage. Build materials have a lesser contribution, but overall design and lubricant improvements have helped as well.

 

[Texasmark]

"Amalie Pennslyvania Crude". Better than it has to be.....oil and their slogan for many years. Don't know what happened to them. Seems Penn. pumped a lot of sweet crude back in the day. Don't know how the quality and quantity ranked with Texas crude.

 

[Harold Hubbard]

My father had some 30’s model Ford. He drove it to the dealer, and took it home the same day with a new engine, $100.i don’t know if that was actually new, or rebuilt.

I’m not sure when this was, but pretty sure pre WWII.