Memory retention:
I am blessed, maybe cursed, with a very vivid memory going clear back to my very early childhood. I once read that "when a man dies, a library burns down".. due to the lost knowledge stored in a persons brain.
I am doing my best to clear some of the old memories out before I die with the hope that the 'fire' will be smaller. Wm.

Quote from: phoward13 on August 26, 2021, 10:31:59 PM
Very interesting responses, thanks!  Reminded me of my Dad's WWII and post WWII stories.  He and his young wife walked everywhere after his discharge in '45 until 1949 when he bought his 41 Plymouth.  The last couple of those years with a baby... in North Dakota... summer and winter...  Those were some days!  We tell that baby, our oldest brother, that those winter walks is why he is shorter than the rest of us.  It froze a couple years of growth out of him! 

I wish I had pried more specific and technical information out of Dad.  He was a Chrysler dealer parts associate for many years and would awe his 6 sons with his knowledge.  In fact he probably ordered the engine that was exchanged into his own car, and I wasn't interested in my younger days as to how the process worked, and many other things I have since wished I had asked him about.

We have an awesome resource here at POC in older fellows with much knowledge, but sadly I see several have passed on with each Bulletin that comes out.  Ask the questions now while you can.  And contribute while you can.

AMEN!
I had limited retention of past conversations as well. Boy, I wish I would have written down a 10th of the information and stories that were told back in the old days! At the time I thought that I had heard the stories SO MANY times, that I would NEVER forget them! Well,,,,I did!

Very interesting responses, thanks!  Reminded me of my Dad's WWII and post WWII stories.  He and his young wife walked everywhere after his discharge in '45 until 1949 when he bought his 41 Plymouth.  The last couple of those years with a baby... in North Dakota... summer and winter...  Those were some days!  We tell that baby, our oldest brother, that those winter walks is why he is shorter than the rest of us.  It froze a couple years of growth out of him! 

I wish I had pried more specific and technical information out of Dad.  He was a Chrysler dealer parts associate for many years and would awe his 6 sons with his knowledge.  In fact he probably ordered the engine that was exchanged into his own car, and I wasn't interested in my younger days as to how the process worked, and many other things I have since wished I had asked him about.

We have an awesome resource here at POC in older fellows with much knowledge, but sadly I see several have passed on with each Bulletin that comes out.  Ask the questions now while you can.  And contribute while you can.

Great stories guys!
Enjoying each one.
Thanks for posting them.

I made an earlier contribution to this topic, where-in I made mention about the common practice of people taking their vehicles out of service during WWII because of a lack of fuel and tires. I can clearly recall many vehicles in my neighbors garages and/or yards with vehicles sitting up on blocks, in many cases the wheels/tires were removed from the vehicles.
In 1949 I had a '41 Chevy DeLuxe 4dr sdn, that was a very nice gun metal gray car. The only problems were the tires, they were absolute junk, kept together with many patches and a lot of luck. I carried patching supplies/ tools and a tire pump in the trunk.
One afternoon when I went to pick up my girl friend to go to a BBQ, my girl friends father made mention about the poor condition of the tires on my car. I told Mr Veran that I was really struggling with money issues because I only had a part time job.
Mr Veran was really concerned about my tires and the fact that his only daughter was riding around in a car with such unsafe tires. Mr Veran had just recently purchased a new '50 Chevy 4dr sdn to replace the '40 Plymouth he had driven since new. Mr Veran had put new tires on the Plymouth just prior to buying the new Chevy. Mr Veran had the new tires removed from the Plymouth before he traded it in.
Following a short conversation about my tire problem Mr Veran instructed me to follow him out to the garage, where he showed me the near new 600 x 16 tires hanging on the wall.
Mr Veran did not want to trade in the Plymouth with near new tires, so he decided to keep them to use on the Chevy, one problem was the Plymouth tires were 16" where-as the Chevy had 15". Mr Veran told me to take the tires down to the local gas station that I worked at part time, and to put them on my Chevy, not coming back to pick up Kathy until I had the tires on my car. I was back to the Veran's house in less than an hour. Wm.
 

I am far from remembering what went on long before I was born. Lol. However I will add some color to the discussion.

Times have changed so much. People rebuilt or replaced engines with reman options all the time, many years ago. Cars were built to be kept for many years by their original owners. I suspect it was a very common thing. I suspect engines probably got an in-frame rebuild at 50,000 miles. Then replaced completely at 100K miles.  These engines needed lots of work compared to today's engines.  There were many maintenance items that are now erased from people's memory.

Valve sets. Skip a few, you'll burn a valve.
Valve grind and lap.  Valve guide wear. Cylinder taper and ring wear. Severe sludge build up from non-detergent oils. Carbon build up. Seals and gaskets leaking. On and on. Let up on regular maintenance, you'll see serious consequences.  None of these issues appear today on cars. Today's cars are built to last 5-7 years. Good enough. That's it. Get consumers  to buy new cars every 5-7 years.  Not the model 50, 60,70,80, years ago.

Think of all the business opportunities to maintain cars. Service stations practically everywhere. More complex work like engine rebuilds led to specialized services and businesses. Dealers or not, reman engines, trannys, rear ends, would have been in high demand.  Everyone got in on the massive market.

Then...Things evolved. Sealed for life steering components. Tighter tolerances for tighter sealed up components. Materials and engineering development. Solid state breaker-less ignition. Fuel injection. Higher combustion temps, higher compression led to cleaner crankcases. On and on.

All the while Mom & Pop service stations closed up. Reman rebuild facilities got smaller. Cars lasted longer. Now there's few left that remember what car owners did in 1945.  Today who rebuilds engines in newer cars? Not many owners. I happens to re rebuilding an engine right now...For my 1938 Plymouth. :P

Another reason there has been fewer responses here: Facebook, instagram and other social media giants have the attention of many. Those mediums are good for some things. Not so good for other things.

Sorry to be a little late in responding to your question about engine exchange/re-powering vehicles in the early post WWII years.
I think that a lack of response from members of the POC is due to advanced age of people from that era and their lack of computer skills..
I can very clearly recall the WWII years, I was riding in my fathers '40 Chevy 2dr sdn returning from a rabbit hunting trip in the Antelope Valley, when the news came over the radio about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Times were very tough during the years leading up to the war, the Great Depression was still a problem, most of the vehicles that people were driving were held together with baling wire and shade tree mechanics make do. repairs.
Do to shortages of fuel, tires, etc., many people parked their cars for the duration. When the war ended in late '45 many people scrambled to get their cars back on the road. Numerous company's sprang up to fill the void for repair parts. Engine, etc., re-builder's became very common, Sears, Montgumery Wards, and others became major players in the rebuilt parts industry.
Not to be left out several of the major auto manufacture company's jumped on the the band wagon, I don't remember Chrysler having any big push to sell new and/or rebuilt parts. I do recall a '38 Chevy that I had in 1949 that had a very bad engine, I bought a rebuilt engine from Montgumery Wards, on their revolving credit program, Wards had the engine installed by the local Dodge Dealer, Ellsworth Brothers in Idaho Falls.
I can clearly recall the rebuilding program that Ford Motor had. Ford ran large ads in the News Papers advertising their new cars, especially the all new '49 Ford.
Ford also ran big ads about the rebuilt engine's, etc., the ad stated that if you could not afford a new Ford, they would re-power your old Ford with a new re-built V8 for $89.00. I knew a lot of people that had Meyers/Welsh Ford rebuilt engines in the their Ford cars and trucks. Wm.

My father bought a 1941 Plymouth 2dr with a new 1949 engine in 1949 that was installed via an "engine exchange program", he said, that was offered by Chrysler.  He bragged about that "new used 41 Plymouth" to his dying day.  Also 2 of my brothers own pre WWII vehicles with 1949 engines reportedly with installations dating back to 1949.  One is another 41 Plymouth and the other is a 1935 International pickup.

I am curious where to find information about these engine exchange programs, which I presume were put in place to help dealers come up with good used cars to sell after WWII.  I am curious as to what all was exchanged and what the parameters for car selection may have been, or if dealers were just offered good prices for engines for that purpose to be used however they chose, how long the program was in place, and if it is known how many engines were sold for this purpose, etc. And if anyone else has one.  Sorry if I missed a discussion link for it somewhere along the line.