12/10/21- A friend challenged me to do this mopar project, so here goes. I picked up a '69 Mopar 383 HP core and rebuilt it the way it should be, as close to oem as possible throughout, at least for the run test. More on that engine build later as it will go up for sale.
I acquired an old skool engine stand from another project that is more suited for my cherry picker than any others we have owned over almost 50 yrs. It's an oldie. The 383 mounts perfectly, but I had to cut 1/4" off of the 4 legs mounting bolts, 3/4-16. They then attach to bell housing mtg. holes with 3/8" bolts. The reason was to increase clearance between the newly installed flywheel as these 4 bolts had passed through the engine stand mounting dog legs 1/4" too far. My dial calipers are my favorite tool ever, hardly ever use a tape measure. Once mounted we pursued the starter/flywheel challenge. 10 tooth mini starter and a 130 tooth flywheel for a 10 1/2" clutch like factory, which was made for a '69 383 HP Engine, and many others. I think 440's were all 11", make sure you buy the right one, I purchased both through E-bay for a fair price and they work fine. Today we added some 440 motor home headers I got for free on CL. Painted them with high heat black.
Next we installed the new distributor/spark plugs/wires/coil and mtg. brkt. We also cut out some 10 gauge sheet metal I had laying around for a control panel. Our plan is to use a 54 Ford truck aftermarket instrument cluster I had and install new RPM, Water Temp, Oil pressure, Vacuum, and Volt gauges. I found an old Ignition switch too, which will also be mounted in the panel. Today, 12/12/21 Sunday we cut out the sheet metal with my new jigsaw for the 'Instrument Cluster' gauge panel, installed, showing progress in one of the pics. 12/22/21- We finished the control panel today and mounted it as seen here in pics. Also did a little welding with removable 3/4 npt pipe/fitting for easy assembly or take apart of the control panel. After xmas, I will start to wire/plumb it all together. 1/16/22- A quick update, we fabricated 2 front motor mount supports with some angle iron brackets and 2 pieces of 1/4"x 1" bar stock, greatly reducing the load on the stand at the rear. I got all the wiring done for the lighting of the gauges, and also the battery/start up/run wires. The brand new Mopar licensed electronic ignition kit was installed and wired up. We cranked over the engine from control panel, and now have spark. Getting closer to fire up.
Today, 1 17 22, we fired it up using the battery/carburetor from my 340 Duster. It started right up and ran great after 4 months of engine rebuilding and test stand construction. I need to get a few of the other gauges working besides oil pressure which reads 65 psi at start up. A good day. 1 18 2022- Ran the new engine a little bit again today and made a quick video. I have a few more wiring mods to make and then publish this article. 1 23 22-Sunday- today I fired up the 383 for a few minutes, vitals are perfect.. Ready to post this article, almost. Took pictures of just a few of the tools used in this project. BTW- Video of 383 Magnum running will be posted to you tube soon, then the link will be attached here. Here is the video, better ones are in the making. Extra $$ goes to car stuff....right? Here are the links to videos and the Mopar starter mounting plates without a bell housing from seller rumz1 on ebay.
Items for sale by rumz1 | eBay
'69 383 Magnum Test Run 1 24 22 - YouTube
