M37 "Brutus"

[RCrombie]

Looks great!
Now, is that a Canadian military 251 or a civilian/ industrial?
I see you have the 4 row pulley on there, are you planning to use the big 100 amp alternator too?
I bet you will find the larger engine with the added power makes the truck more enjoyable to drive, while still being pretty original.

[John Mc]

Looks great!
Now, is that a Canadian military 251 or a civilian/ industrial?
I see you have the 4 row pulley on there, are you planning to use the big 100 amp alternator too?
I bet you will find the larger engine with the added power makes the truck more enjoyable to drive, while still being pretty original.

I'm not sure how you tell a military from a civilian on a 251. If you have an obvious indicator, let me know, and I'll take a look.

I will not be putting on a 100 Amp alternator. We are only using two of the grooves. The 4 row pulleys on the crank and the water pump/fan were on my 230 engine. It used only two belts in a rather odd set up: one belt went around the crank, fan, alternator, and power steering pump, the other belt skipped the PS pump. In the new set up, both belts will be the same (and obviously include the PS pump). The old alternator from my 230 was huge and had an unknown rating. It was large enough that the size limited the placement options.We ended up replacing it with a new alternator (60 amp, if I recall).

[John Mc]

I picked up the radiator today from where it was being repaired/repainted. It gave me a good excuse to swing by Distinctive Restoration and see how Tim was doing. He had the engine all together with accessories mounted. It's looking really good. The power steering set up is much nicer than what was in my truck before (a cobbed together bracket that left the pump pully slightly mis-aligned with the engine). We got the mounting bracket from Greg Coffin. Since this was for mounting on a 251, and his design was for a 230, the bracket came in a couple of pieces, to allow Tim to adjust as necessary to get the alignment. The bracket is much more solid, and alignment is spot on.

Engine L.jpg (239.62 KiB) Viewed 3002 times

Engine F.jpg (239.37 KiB) Viewed 3002 times

Engine R.jpg (231.62 KiB) Viewed 3002 times

I forgot to get pictures, but he also has completed the transmission and PTO rebuild. PTO was temporarily mounted as he was figuring out the gasket set up to set the gear lash. PTO is now ready for its final mount. Once the PTO is mounted, the engine and transmission will be ready to go back in the truck.

Winch is in pieces in his paint room waiting for be painted and reassembled, along with the winch bumpers we had a local fabricator make from my old no-winch bumper.

[John Mc]

Tim just sent me some pics of the transmission mounted up on the engine:

[Cal_Gary]

Wow does that all look NICE!
Well Done!
Gary

[sturmtyger380]

What'ch going to run with the extra grooves in the pulley?

[John Mc]

What'ch going to run with the extra grooves in the pulley?

Nothing.

Those two 4-groove pulleys were on my original 230 engine, even though it did not have the high output generator. We just moved them over when we switched to the 251.

[RCrombie]

Looks great!
Now, is that a Canadian military 251 or a civilian/ industrial?
I see you have the 4 row pulley on there, are you planning to use the big 100 amp alternator too?
I bet you will find the larger engine with the added power makes the truck more enjoyable to drive, while still being pretty original.

I'm not sure how you tell a military from a civilian on a 251. If you have an obvious indicator, let me know, and I'll take a look.

I will not be putting on a 100 Amp alternator. We are only using two of the grooves. The 4 row pulleys on the crank and the water pump/fan were on my 230 engine. It used only two belts in a rather odd set up: one belt went around the crank, fan, alternator, and power steering pump, the other belt skipped the PS pump. In the new set up, both belts will be the same (and obviously include the PS pump). The old alternator from my 230 was huge and had an unknown rating. It was large enough that the size limited the placement options.We ended up replacing it with a new alternator (60 amp, if I recall).

Hi John,
Military 251s are a T249 engine. Apart from that, I don't know what similarities or differences there are. I'm curious to hear what you think when you get around to driving the truck again! Motor sure looks sharp.

[John Mc]

Hi John,
Military 251s are a T249 engine. Apart from that, I don't know what similarities or differences there are. I'm curious to hear what you think when you get around to driving the truck again! Motor sure looks sharp.

Turns out that mine is not a military 251 - the oil filler tube is not bolted down.

[John Mc]

Tim has been hard at work: disassembled, cleaned up, and reassembled the front axles and hubs prior and installed the front disk break conversion kit:

Disk brake conversion sm.jpg (221.4 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

And rebuilding the winch:

Winch rebuilt 2 sm.jpg (242.14 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

Winch rebuilt 1 sm.jpg (232.83 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

[Cal_Gary]

Nice! I hadn't seen Bryan Sage's lockout guards in quite a while-lookin' good!
Gary

[John Mc]

Nice! I hadn't seen Bryan Sage's lockout guards in quite a while-lookin' good!
Gary

They were on it when I bought the truck. A necessary precaution for how I use the truck in the woods. clearance is a little tight to get my fingers in there, but it works. Tim says he's seen folks make some sort of removable adapter handle to make locking and unlocking them easier. I have not found that necessary, but I suppose the day is coming where I might need a little help with that.

[Cal_Gary]

Or you can go with shorter (and more expensive) lock-outs. I run the SuperWinches/AVNs-they stick out farther than Selectros or Warns.
Gary

[John Mc]

I've not updated in a while, but Tim has made a lot of progress on the truck. Brutus is getting close to getting back out on the road.

Here's a video of the first run with the newly rebuilt 251 engine installed.
Video: BRUTUS LIVES!

Really looking forward to driving him again.

[John Mc]

We had a bit of a setback since my last post, so that put Brutus back down for a bit, but Tim got it corrected and thoroughly checked out.

I got to take it for a drive today. First time out after he got an engine swap from the 230 to the freshly rebuilt 251 engine, transmission rebuild, transfer case rebuild, front disk brakes, convert back to a 24 volt system (from the hybrid 12/24V that was in it when I bought it), PTO winch install, replacing the steering column from a Chevy S10 with a real M37 one, and general going over of the front end & steering.

It handles well, has more power, and runs much more smoothly and is a LOT quieter (I don't have to shout to carry on a conversation any time I'm accelerating or going over 35 MPH). Still breaking in the engine, but it runs a lot smoother than my old one and starts easily. A few minor things still to address, but I'm VERY happy with how it has turned out.

Thank you Tim Holloway! You do GREAT work!