I had previously posted a note about rebuilding a 1201 engine. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced competent restoration shops within a day's drive (450 miles) of Colorado Springs. I have found some decent shops but they are a long way off. I have found some closer shops that are exceedingly expensive. I do not have the time or facility to do this on my own. I would like the shop to take the whole car and do a number of repairs or upgrades.These engines take a lot of time so they occupy the shop for quite a while.

I won't be selling it to a hot rodder. I have been beating the bushes, and got engine rebuild quotes as high as $40000, and as low as $20000. But the closest reasonable shop appears to be 800 miles away. If it were close, I would have the car in there now. Locally, I have found a machine shop that can do the 320 (and they did one six months ago) and another older guy who knows how to work on old engines. I'm still looking for someone to take it all apart and pull the engine. I do not have a garage with a lift or high ceiling and I have had enough crawling around at close quarters at my age! I do know that Schumacher makes rod inserts. I think the bottom end may be OK, but the pan has not been taken off for an examination. You have to ready for nasty things to happen, like breaking some of the 40 odd bolts that hold the water jacket on, etc...It is all about time for me, which is why I am looking for a shop and I have a few more leads to chase down. You are right that classic car prices have been dropping, especially for sedans.

I just figured out how much work, time, and money it takes to rebuild a 320 in a 1201 club sedan. Holy cow! Convertibles can justify that, but rebuilding a club sedan is below marginal. I have done engines but not a 1000 pound beast that requires all sorts of special handling gear. It is a two person job anyway with all the intricate things one must do. And the front end really needs to come off the car, too. I can see how these end up being relegated to resto-rods. It is a real challenge with the 320, with babbit, rods not going through the bore, counterweights, etc...HArd to even find people who can work on them around here in Colorado. A lost art of restoration around here. So I am stewing about this a lot. Curious how others see the sedan situation as the market for sedans is not very good.

Based on what has been described it is difficult to understand what the cars behavior is. It sounds like there are multiple issues. One issue appears to be fuel starvation and the other one appears to be intermittent electrical. There are ways to ascertain this, but it has to be done logically and not in a shotgun approach. I think that owning a pre-computer car is an expensive proposition if you are not mechanically inclined, and finding people who can work on these vehicles is getting more difficult all the time. They are simple, as mentioned, but not well understood by many modern mechanics.

Can you rev up the engine when the car is stationary? You only mentioned that it would idle. If it does rev up, is the mechanical advance operational? Check with a timing light. Actually, this problem has to be dealt with systematically, and it is either fuel or spark...easy for me to say but it could be a diabolical issue.

I figure the drain tube has not been working for a real long tome (40-50 years anyway). What year did they discontinue the use of it on the 320 CID engine? Maybe they also figured out how to have less boil out of gasoline at that time too, with a better float valve in the carburetor. I'll check for a vacuum leak.

Thanks for checking that out for me. My tube has the correct bottom piece, but I have not removed the tube yet to see if I am lucky and have the ball up in there covered with solder. Been chasing an engine noise in one of the back cylinders.

Well, I was told by a Packard restoration expert that it is an aluminum ball, so the vacuum can easily lift it. The issue here is that the car is at 7600 feet of altitude, so the manifold vacuum is only about 14 inches, since we lose 1 inch for every 1000 feet of altitude gain. The car came from Georgetown Colorado, which is at an even higher altitude! So maybe that is why it got soldered shut! I may just need to leave it that way, but I will examine the end of the tube this weekend to see what I have there. I can test the thing with my vacuum bleeder pump to see if it will work, if the ball is in there.

I should have explained when I get the gas overflow. It happens with a hot engine on shutoff. Fuel expands and pushes out through the needle valve most likely. The float level is set properly for the fuel pump. So I get a drip on shutoff. I will have to look in the McMaster book. Not sure what size would be correct, but I can measure the tube. Mike D.

The manifold drain tube on my 1935 1201 is soldered shut, so excess fuel comes out the carburetor shaft and dumps on the frame. I understand the tube should have a featherweight aluminum ball with cotter pin in the end. If that is correct, does anyone know the size or where one can get an aluminum ball. Thank you.