Help ID old engine

[Flipperfla]

While hiking in the Smoky Mountain NP we came across the ruins of a old homestead. The remains of the vehicle was also there you could only make out the running board type fenders and what looks like parts of the hood and engine, 6 cylinder, champion plugs. Any mechanics who can’t give me a date and Mfg.?

 

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[DCMatt]

It appears to be a Mopar flathead 6. I can't read the numbers. My guess is late 30's to early 50's.

They make good door stops.

 

[DCMatt]

I just saw the hood(s). Possibly a late 30's Dodge or Plymouth truck.



This is a '38.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I'm going with a 1953 Dodge pickup Flat Head.

View attachment 1875352

 

[desertexplorer]

1933/34 Plymouth engine

 

[Flipperfla]

1933/34 Plymouth engineView attachment 1875357View attachment 1875358

Looks like a winner! The era would be correct. Especially with the fender that didn’t show up in the pix very well. Thanks

 

[DCMatt]

1933/34 Plymouth engine

Good ID. It looks like the hood parts are consistent with the '33 - '34 Plymouth PE.

Are there more parts?

My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.

 

[Tony in SC]

The bottom pic on the right(the head) Part of the casting date can be seen. Looks like 7-14-?? get the third No. and you'll know the exact year.

 

[desertexplorer]

Just noticed the casting number on the head as 899008. Called a friend who is more of a car buff then I am. He looked up the number and the date of the head is 1933... narrows the date down a little more.

 

[desertexplorer]

The engine may be worth retrieving. A straight 6 1933 Plymouth engine is a hard engine to find especially if you needed one. A bare block will cost around $500 or $600 alone. Refurbished complete engine is on ebay for 5k.

 

[DCMatt]

The engine may be worth retrieving. A straight 6 1933 Plymouth engine is a hard engine to find especially if you needed one. A bare block will cost around $500 or $600 alone. Refurbished complete engine is on ebay for 5k.

And they make great boat anchors...

I agree it may be a hard engine to find. The only thing harder to find is the guy that needs one.

I learned this lesson years ago when I had a 1952 Chevrolet station wagon (only @ 8,000 produced) which I was going to restore to original. I searched far and wide to find those wagon specific bits and parts. Circumstances precluded the restoration and I sold the wagon a guy who built a street rod out of it. So, if anybody out there needs parts for a 1949 - 52 Chevy, Pontiac, or Oldsmobile wagon, PM me.

 

[desertexplorer]

And they make great boat anchors...
I agree it may be a hard engine to find. The only thing harder to find is the guy that needs one.

Very true! Sometimes rare can be too rare and nobody needs it. I remember someone telling about a friend of theirs restoring a large rare tractor. They were missing the four cylinder jugs. They found four that someone had but he wanted way too much money for them knowing how rare they were. So because it was cheaper to have them cast they just had 4 of them made and they didn’t buy them. So now this guy is sitting on four boat anchors because there is no other tractor out there that needs them.

 

[Flipperfla]

Especially with moss growing out of the rust holes in the oil pan. I was planning this trip for months with hours and hours of research. Found about a dozen homestead ruins, cemeteries, massive kiln. 101 miles of boating, hiking and bushwacking into the heart of the SMNP, Fontana lake to Hazel and Eagle Creek. Some really great and exciting finds. One huge find was getting a hold of a hand drawn map, which they let me make a copy,of one of the valleys we explored with all the homesteads marked but what was really special it listed the names of all the residents! In the corner of the map there was also a mark for Indian Glyphs of trail markers. I couldn’t understand the markings on the map until I found the glyphs then they made sense. They would normally been 20’ underwater but in the fall they drop the water level.