The vintage vehicle hobby allows us a golden opportunity to peek under the hood of an old ride and see what makes it tick, so to speak.
Therefore, we want to showcase a few of the things we see in the engine compartment of a retro ride not turned into a resto mod.
Jim Sutherland
MyStarCollectorCar will be the first to admit there are more than five unique blasts from the past under the hood of an old vehicle, but this is a ‘Five for Friday’ article and not a ‘Six for Saturday’ or ‘Ten for Tuesday’ feature, so we kept our list to five for the sake of tradition. Maybe we will do another five under-hood highlights in a future daily article released on another Friday.
The first item hidden under a vintage ride’s stylish old hood is a generator.
They were the precursor to the alternator and lived up to their name because automotive generators created electricity for headlights so you could see at night, sparkplugs to create explosions in the combustion chambers, and horns to pass along your very best to bad drivers. A generator was not as efficient as an alternator and eventually headed in the same general direction as the passenger pigeon and pet rocks.
The second retro item hidden under a hood camouflage is a carburetor. They were mystery items back in the day and only dedicated practitioners of the dark arts of carb tuning could balance the air-fuel mixture, along with juggling the choke setting so it would work properly under both cold and warm start conditions.
Carburetors have largely disappeared from the automotive scene, except for purists in the collector vehicle hobby who choose to replace or simply repair the factory carbs on their retro rides. But they had a long run as a critical “fuel-air-conjoiner” component on domestic vehicles.
The third addition to our list of vintage parts hidden under the hood was positioned in very close proximity to the carburetor, namely the oil bath air cleaner. These babies filtered the air entering the carb by directing it at a container filled with oil on the bottom half of the air cleaner.
The dirty air would submerge its load of contaminates in the oil and travel into the mouth of the carburetor without dirt and dust particles that might clog up the carb’s innards.
The oil bath air cleaners were effective but messy and a potential source for a raging engine fire if they were exposed to a heat source such as a major backfire from a badly adjusted carb, so they fell out of favor when paper air filters provided a cleaner but still flammable alternative.
Our fourth addition to the under-the-hood crowd was not always found under the hood, but eventually most vehicles had them in the engine compartment. The single pot master cylinder was a major factor in a hydraulic brake system because it provided enough pressure to move the brake cylinders in a vintage vehicle and helped slow them down.
The problem with a single pot master cylinder is a number problem because a break in the hydraulic brake system meant a driver instantly became an involuntary stunt driver after his car had no brakes. Lack of brakes became a very dicey driver skill test, and many failed the exam.
The dual-pot master cylinder was a lifesaver for drivers because it still provided rear or front brakes (but not both) after a hydraulic break since the front and rear brake systems ran on two separate reservoirs. The dual master cylinder system has undoubtedly saved lives since its introduction to domestic vehicles many decades ago.
The fifth and final item hidden under a retro vehicle’s hood is the flathead cylinder head perched on top of an engine block in an old ride. Flatties could be found in 4 and 6-cylinder versions, but their most famous configuration is the Ford flattie V-8 that became a mainstay of the hot rod community during their early days.
In fairness, the distinctive sound of a running Ford flathead V-8 meant most car guys did not even have to open the hood to identify the famous engine when it was hidden from view.
Nevertheless, a flattie is a cool final addition to our hidden-under-the-hood list.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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