Them ol Chevy 6 bangers were a good Motor

[GOPAPA]

June 21 1955. Sam Gray, David Rutford and Fred Hallberg begin their cruise down the Mississippi river from Saint Paul Minnesota on a homemade raft. The raft was built of barrels and planks. Power for the propeller was provided by a 1939 Chevrolet they had paid $ 15 for. the car had 172,000 miles on it. The rear wheels of the car ran against another set of wheels which turned the propeller. The car's steering wheel turned the raft's rudder.
In Saint Louis Missouri the men had a delay as the Chevy's valves needed to be ground. Outside of Memphis Tennessee a bearing on the propeller shaft burned out but the men were able to repair it with tools borrowed from a barge crew. The men ran low on food as they discovered a stowaway was eating their food. The stowaway was a rat. The men tried fishing for food but caught nothing the entire trip.
Other problems encountered included mosquitoes, driftwood in the river and backwash from passing barges. On July 25 1955 the trio reached New Orleans. They planned to drive the Chevrolet back to Minnesota.
Epilogue. The three men made it back to Saint Paul driving the Chevrolet in 49 hours. The car used five gallons of oil for the return drive.

[yuccales]

"The men tried fishing for food but caught nothing the entire trip."
Been there, done that!

[Boog]

What an adventure!
5 gallons of oil? She was pretty much used up.

[Ol Blue K20]

Very creative, I was expecting it to sink. Cool story.

[Boog]

Your classic Huckelberry.

[dmjlambert]

Fantastic. I want to build a pontoon structure to put my 1969 Chevy onto, and drive around on the lakes and rivers.

[RustyPile]

Originally Posted by dmjlambert

Fantastic. I want to build a pontoon structure to put my 1969 Chevy onto, and drive around on the lakes and rivers.

Load up some boards and barrels on your '69 and come to my house.. We'll whip up a barge while you'll learn to weld.. Together, we'll ply the Neches River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico..

[68Gold/white]

I think I can hear Patsy Cline singing "Crazy" in the background..........

[dmjlambert]

It's CCR singing Proud Mary keep on burnin', Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river!

[Steeveedee]

When I was really young (in the '50s) I remember that my dad drove a '51 or so Chevy. We were as poor as you can believe. I remember seeing Speedol brand non-detergent oil in a 2 gallon can in the trunk of his car, because it burned so much oil that he had to add it to the engine before he left for work, and before he left for home...18 miles each way. That thing smoked like a locomotive.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

When I was really young (in the '50s) I remember that my dad drove a '51 or so Chevy. We were as poor as you can believe. I remember seeing Speedol brand non-detergent oil in a 2 gallon can in the trunk of his car, because it burned so much oil that he had to add it to the engine before he left for work, and before he left for home...18 miles each way. That thing smoked like a locomotive.

I can relate to this also .. my dad was a small time logger and his work rig was a 49 Desoto ,, in it he had a couple two gallon cans of oil for his chain saw ,,, I have a few old keep sakes from his logging days and always thought if I see one of those old 2 gallon cans I would buy it ,, sit it on the shelf just to see and remind me of the days I would get off the high school bus on a old country road some ways from our home and help him horse log pulp wood out of the woods and onto the roll a way .

[Boog]

Those old 6's were stout. I believe GM put that same engine in everything from passenger cars to pickups to school busses and dump trucks. The heavier the load, the more gear they put into it. Maybe it was too good?

[RustyPile]

The first car I can remember my dad having was a '36 Chevy Coupe. At 4 years old, I remember seeing that car as far back as 1947 when we lived in Slocum, TX... In the summer of 1949, my dad loaded up that '36 with everything we owned, Him, my mother and I headed to Beaumont, Tx about 150 miles away.. We stopped for gas somewhere along the way, and I remember my dad telling my mom, Honey, that old rod is knocking again." Even though, at the time, I was only 6 years old, I still have vivid memories of the following. He borrowed a jack from the station owner, jacked up that old car and pulled the pan.. He crawled out from under that car with a rod cap in his hand.. He cut the tongue from one of our shoes and wrapped the piece around the crankshaft. He put everything back together and drove that old Chevy the rest of the way to Beaumont, probably about 100 miles.

The GM I6s of that era had pressurized oil to the main bearings but the rod bearings were oiled by splashing oil on them from a dipper attached to the rod cap.. The engine's didn't even have an oil filter. Very primitive by today's standard, but very effective...

[Boog]

Substituting shoe leather for rod bearings sounds crazy but it was commonly done back in the day. Remnants of the depression days.
My dad bought a '36 Ford that didn't run. Owner told him it was freshly overhauled but they couldn't get it to run. Dad got it to run alright but uncle rodney was there and it smoked to high heaven too. And it had shoe leather on several rods.
"necessity is the mother of invention"

[GOPAPA]

My dad told me that he used Bacon Rinds for crankshalft bearings

[Tom]

Some coast guard or sheriff boat would come shut that down real quick these days.