Well, there's nothing better than posting pictures, and writing up a story about your beloved M/V, while enjoying some good Kimchi. So here it is. I am presenting my December of 1953, USMC M38A1. I purchased this Jeep from a good friend about 3 years ago, and although it doesn't look much different on the outside from 3 years ago, there has been a lot of work done under the body. I got into this project because my wife wanted a Jeep, and I knew little about them going into this. I soon discovered that my M38A1 had a civilian Jeep engine under the hood. It's equipped different, and looks to have come out of a Willy's Station Wagon or Pickup. The engine was rebuilt, and the way it was set up, it had no breather system. And I think that's why the engine had a rear main seal leak. So, I started looking for the correct valve cover set up for a breather. So, I started looking for the correct valve cover, and found one set up for a breather. So I cleaned it up and installed it and everything seemed to work ok. Then I decided to replace the worn out Carter YH carburetor, with the correct Carter YS950S. I came across a rebuildable YS950S carburetor, and had it rebuilt. Then I found the YS950S carburetor wouldn't fit, the float bowl side kept on hitting the valve cover even with a new spacer. So I hit the SS archives looking for an answer, and I found it. The correct valve cover for the M38A1 has a relief stamped in on the right hand side of the valve cover, to clear the carburetor float bowl. Success, now I was able to install the YS950S carburetor and all the correct vacuum lines, so I thought. It turns out the oil filler tube on the civilian engine didn't have any spigots for the vent line from the valve cover. Then I found out the odd looking piece of pipe with a valve in it was the fording valve, and another vent line goes from the fording valve to the oil filler tube. So I scrounged up a brand new correct oil filler tube & dipstick, now I had the correct set up for my breather to work properly. Of the photos below, I took the top picture today. I drove it around to get all of the ash from the fires off. The next picture is of the Luxury interior Accommodations, the seats front and back have been recovered with canvas, along with a new canvas top. Third picture is my new fording valve data plate, the fording valve handle and cable is in the mail and should arrive Monday the 21st. The 4th and 5th pictures are a before and after the fan shroud replacement, it didn't have one. It should run cooler on the slow moving mountain trails we have out here. The 6th picture is the engine compartment today. I have just about everything where it should be. I also had to replace the cone springs, the rubber and metal washers, that go on the backside of your clutch and brake pedals, to keep the pedals from banging on the body when you let off the clutch and brake. And I added an oil filter canister, filter, and hoses as the engine had no oil filter system when I got it. The 7th picture is my collection of Jeep F-4-134 valve covers. I will post some action photos of this soon to be 67 year old Jeep later in the competition. I apologize for the lack of paragraphs. I'm not that computer savvy.
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