Hi,
my name is Tomasz, I'm from Poland. My 91-year old Grandpa, veteran and fireman, has very old truck and he would like to make it run again - and I want to help him We need to buy some parts, I see I can buy a lot from rockauto, but I'm not sure which version of truck exactly we have. Maybe some of you are able to help?
This is what I have in papers:
1) Model: T 214 (I think its type of engine. Probably truck model is Dodge WC51)
2) Engine number: 0073
3) Chassis number (VIN?): 1704680
4) There is some number: 870066-1 (I don't know for what it stands)

Grandpa says truck was produced probably during WWII. Then it became firemen truck, where my Grandpa was commander for 35 years. At rockauto, if you take for instance 1942 year, you have "Custom, Deluxe, Kingsway, Truck", in Truck you have "3.6; 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.1 L", I'm confused, I would like to buy proper parts. Thank you so much!!!

 

Hi there, and welcome to DF!

It appears your truck is a 1942 Vintage 3/4 ton G-502 Series truck. (WC51, though that designation just identifies what its job was.) It *should* have the 3.8 liter motor. Check out this page for more info, and hopefully links to more helpful sites.

It would be good to see that truck back on the road.

 

www.aaca.org is a great site for the older Mopars

 

Thank you very much for help!

 

First off, all the Mopars of that era are SAE so no metric is used. The flat head 6 you have was used from the 1930's to 1960 in cars and 1968 on larger trucks. I still have all my old interchange books from when I ran a salvage operation so let me know what all you need and i'll see what I can find out.

 

I see an engine stamp on my 1946 WF32 that starts with T118 which indicates it is a 236 ci engine. These were 104 hp engines. However, the tag on the driver's side door shows a rating of 87 hp @ 3200 rpm. Perhaps this indicates that the original engine was replaced with a larger engine. I'm guessing, of course, as I am the new owner of this truck and can't get any history from previous owners. I would appreciate any help you can offer to clear up this information.

 

There were two different measurements for HP.... Gross HP was what the engine produced with nothing else on it, net was HP rating with all accessories and such. So, an "as installed" rating. Don't know if that is actually the case here, given how old that feller is. But, auto manufacturers listed gross hp in the advertising, till the government told 'em they couldn't do that anymore, and had to list it as net hp.

 

Net HP started being used in 1972 or so. That's why there was a big drop in power that year. It didn't really drop until a year later but numbers back then weren't real accurate anyway. The 1964 426 Hemi was rated 426 HP but actual output was closer to 800. They would read the power at a lower engine speed so NASCAR wouldn't factor them out.

The OP's truck probably has a replacement engine. Those old engines were durable, but the gearing was really low. Usually in the 5.88 or lower range. They were meant to go through anything, just not real fast. My B3PW would run all day at 30. It would start to complain at 35 and at 40 mph you were risking engine damage. I'd say the truck got another engine sometime through the years. Unless you're needing mechanical parts inside, I don't think it makes much difference.