Hello! I’m back in the club! Been following this forum on and off. I originally had a 1946 CJ2A which I pulled out of the woods. I unfortunately had to give up due to life. Anyways, I have always had the bug to get another. So here I am with a Jeep I have the space and time (hahahaha) to work on. I picked it up in an auction, sight unseen, 7 hours away, in Canada. (How I convinced to my wife this was a good idea.. I’ll never know.) The auction house had pictures and videos of it running. It looked good. So I bought it, picked it up, got it through customs. All of which is a long story for anyone who is interested in purchasing from
Canada. I have since made multiple trips to Canada to buy 1970 CT70’s but I digress.
While picking up the jeep from the PO I learned more about this “1952 CJ3A”. It’s a sad story but the short of it is the family was selling everything on the farm after the father passed away and moving on. The father spent years working on the Jeep and had big plans. He found it on the neighbors property as a lawn ornament and brought it back to life. As his health declined, the project was rushed to a finish so he could take his only ride around the farm in it. He bought all correct lights, seats, tires, data plates for the dash with “CDN”, some minor brake work, converted the 24v to 12v, all new (but rough) wiring. I’ve seen a lot of primer red colored panels throughout that have a heavy rushed coat of olive drab. It is full of tack/bubble gum welds and a handful of self tappers. At first I was a little disappointed with my purchase. But it is 72 years old and I’m sure the military wasn’t kind to it to begin with. Its weathered. When I picked the jeep up the son told me it had some carb issues at higher speeds. I thought that was a strange statement because wouldn’t that just be high RPM’s? Anyways, I had bought the Jeep already and I wasn’t in any spot to negotiate. It was coming home with me carb issues or not. I transported the jeep home 7 hours in the pouring rain all the way to later find out the air filter to carb hose was not attached properly. No milkyness to the oil bath but later would come back to this thought. I took it on its first ride 5 minutes down the road (50mph road) and the thing would death wobble at 25, and if you could get it to 30-35 you would hear all sorts of studdering, loss of power. This concerned me bad. It ran rough at higher speeds. But chugging along at 5-10mph it was awesome. So over the next weeks I replaced all the steering joints, spark plugs and took it for another ride. It had removed all the death wobble. I even hit 45mph which is when the engine really lost power. I limped it all the way home where it finally died and wouldn’t start back up. I had it turn over and stutter but wouldn’t stay running. I checked the oil (which I had never changed but it looked good previously) and it was milky… I had left the jeep outside in the rain one day and that hood funneled water right on top of the engine. So that mixed with the day I transported it I figured was the milkyness. Let me also clarify, it is not chunky milky, just a slight slight color. I thought the nonstarting was gas related so I cleaned the fuel pump, replaced the filter. I thought the powerloss was maybe the coil wasn’t working properly when warmed up so I replaced that too. I replaced the thermostat just because. Now to today. Still not running. I can’t get any gas into the fuel pump. I changed the oil and it is more milky now than before. More concerning. I just picked up a compression tester and I have 114/120/0/110 psi respectively. My next move is head gasket.
Side notes to the work I did. When replacing thermostat, water was very rusty. Thermostat housing on the female end has a bowl shape inside the head where they screw into. Well I can feel that at some point a too long of a bolt was used and it has broken off the bowl inside of the head. Just an observation, not something I did and it may have always been there. That same day I did the thermostat. I unbolted the housing which got water everywhere. I underestimated how much water was left in the low radiator. Water covered the head and spark plugs with water. I didn’t totally remove all the water while I was turning it over and could see bubbles in cylinder 1 coming from under the plug. There is a crack in the exhaust manifold. And everything leaks except the gas tank.
I am all ears. Especially if you live in northern Vermont. I have attempted to upload pictures. Most of which are from before I picked it up.
Glad your back in the "game" RTW! That Jeep is in great shape. It looks ready to roll.
The motor sounds hurt, no question. 0 psi is not good. Usually with a blown head gasket there is something. Typically you lose the gasket between cylinders, consequently loosing compression in adjoining cylinders. You have good numbers all around that bad cylinder. 0 psi has me thinking a valve has a big chunk gone or you lost a piston/rings assembly. It could be a large crack but with 0 psi I don't think so. If it ran way lean under load it could have done some some damage. It is possible that it is the head gasket though it would be bad from the cylinder to the water jacket. If that is the case, when its running with the cap off the radiator, when the thermostat opens and water starts to flow there should be significant air bubbling at the radiator cap opening.
Take some pictures of anything you think looks wrong. The cracked manifold is not unusual. Was it attached with bolts or studs? If it was bolts that is one way they get cracked. There is a stud/washer assembly used there, that is seldom replaced with the correct fasteners and special tapered washers. You can still find the manifolds around. I had to get one for mine.
That’s what I was afraid of. I was hoping I would have 2 low cylinders or a reading on every cylinder. The 0psi is concerning. I haven’t torn into it yet. I want to at least order a new head gasket before I expose it. I’m guessing the engine has always had something funny going on and then I just finished it off. Or at least I’m going to tell myself that to make me feel better. I have attached some pictures I found interesting. The jeep was advertised as a CJ3A. I found it to be an M38. Under more review it appeared to be a CDN version. I know the discrepancies are minor especially if you can’t verify any numbers on the Jeep. But there is a light mount in the rear of the Jeeps undercarriage that points at the rear differential. From my understanding that is a Canadian specific add on.
Glad to have you back into a Willys. You are correct in your assumption on the Canadian Military Windsor Ford factory produced Jeep, (under license). The light is a red light that points toward the rear end assembly as a "Convoy" light. The first link sheds more light on the subject, no pun intended. The other links are some more information and other builds that may interest you.
Welcome, even with some engine issues it looks like you got a great start at a willys project. Changing those steering components will really affect driving as you know now. I am in full agreement with Bmorgil about compression. A blown head gasket that causes low comp should also be low in the adjoining cylinder. Meaning you probably have valve or ring issues. According to ww2 army training films if you put a little motor oil in the cylinder and then do your compression test. If it's a ring failure the oil should temporarily seal it causing a rise in comp. A valve or gasket issue the oil will not affect it.
If it had carb issues it could have run lean at high speed hurting a valve. Maybe pull the sparkplug and post some pictures of them. That might help diagnose some issues.
That's some cool info about the light, 1950s underglow. I think you'll have a great time building this jeep, being back in the willys world. The good news is that little flathead is so simple it shouldn't take you much to get it going. My sister had a new Jeep compass, that literally required more work/removing of bolts to change the battery then a willys requires to pull the head!
The convoy light is unique to Canadian vehicles. The light was directed at the rear end center section, and the center was painted with white paint so the light would reflect off of the cover. From the air, you could not see the light, but you could play follow the leader on the ground.
Gmwillys, thanks for the links! I’ll have to post more pictures but another “Canada” item I found (which may have just been a purchase) is that all the rims are stamped with “Canada”. Not sure if they’re original but I thought it was cool. I really wish I could get it all back to stock, convoy light and all. But there are many other areas that need attention before I start getting to crazy.
56willys, I’ll have to try the oil idea. I feel like I’m at a stand still until I have the time to really dig into the motor. Which I’m happy it’s a flat head and “should be easy” but I’ve always tried to avoid this kind of work and stuck to more of “anything but motor work” kind of purchases. A friend of mine told to have the head checked out at a machine shop for flatness if I’m taking it apart anyways.
If the wheels are marked Kelsey Canada and does not have the 5/16" hole between the lug bolt pattern, then they are the correct wheels that came on the M38;
Rims are original. PO put military tires on as well. Picture of a spark plug, they all look about the same. I put some marvel in the cylinders and tested the compression on the bad one. Still at 0psi. I’m hoping the marvel will at least stop rust forming till I have time to remove the head. I’ll be making an order this week for some gaskets, and contacting a local machine shop to see if they’re available. I’m loosing faith on it just being a bad gasket.
1952 M38-CDN in VT
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