Wanted: 261 Chevrolet engine

[Bob Carriere]

Laying on your back....... under the truck which is slowly dripping from it's innards onto your young face.....having removed the pan and loosened all the main bearing caps of the engine....... using a metal screw into the rope...grunting and pulling..... or using a chinese finger device to pull the new rope seal in place...... and the fear of cutting off the excess seal material too short

You really have two choices....
one.... buy more and thicker viscosity oil... add as required
two... live with the natural Casual Metal Preservation oil spray

and as Rob said....enjoy the Sun set in the Western sky.

[Bob Phillips]

WELL.. I think the poor Chevy is getting a hard knock here..after all I can't think of an English automobile that I ever saw that didn't drip on the driveway!!
My engine overhauler told me that current rope seal is inferior to the old stuff- so someone out there must have NOS rope seals( probably have asbestos in them??) Was also told that on beefy motors some people line bore and cut a spot for a conventional seal in the rear main but the six cylinders are not really heavy in that region.
About water pumps, I stopped to see an amazing collection of restored trucks last weekend and the current project is also a 15cwt with 261. I was assured the standard water pump with a FOUR bladed fan should work fine, but the rad was not yet in so its conjecture at this point. Another option might be an electric fan.
Hope to start assembling my 15cwt in the next few weeks, might be able to drill the front motormounts on the 261 so I can use the existing front mount but in worse case scenerio could fabricate side mounts. By the way this truck had a 455 (454?) Pontiac motor in it when I got it- and had already been modified to heavy duty side mounts. Apparently it could spin its wheels at a fast idle and go nowhere with all that extra power.
BP