Slim's 73 440 Duster
When I took the car to the track for the first time the car launched really hard but stumbled badly after shifting into second gear. We messed with timing and jetting and could not get it to run. After two days of messing with it at track, I had a buddy tell me to take the gasket off of the gas cap and run it. He actually told me that the day before, but in the midst of other people suggesting things I didn't do it the first time. So I finally took out the gasket and ran it. It made a full pass without stumbling at all. It ended up being that someone along the line had plugged the fuel tank vent line, and the carb was starving for fuel. After that the car was running mid to high 13's in the 1/4 mile. Next time at the track, with a bit more tuning we got the car to run 13.4 @ 99 mph. I felt that was pretty good for a low compression motor that I knew nothing about. The one issue the car was still having was it was stumbling and not making power over 4700 rpm or so, I was pretty sure that the valves were floating.
This past fall I pulled the motor out of the car to do some work on it.
Right now I am in the middle of doing some work to the engine, and getting rid of the terrible Ferd/Chebby black paint in the engine compartment.
The car came with a set of 915 heads on it. Being naive like I am, I figured that just because they were suppose to be decent iron heads that I wouldn't have to do anything to them. Boy was I wrong. The valve springs were really weak, I could push them down using two thumbs. I took them to "A Guy" that's great with mopars to have new springs put in them and shimmed, only to find out that the springs that were in it were wrong, the exhaust seats were put in wrong, the valves were put in used, and never cut, and the guides were shot! :( So now I'm having them rebuilt, but also getting larger exhaust valves put in it.
I had no idea what cam it had in it, it didn't sound like a whole lot though so I'm putting a new cam in it. The engine has been rebuilt before, it has a set of .030 pistons in it, but they are a ways down in the hole. With the measurements and calculators I've found, I'm guessing with the closed chamber heads I'm in the neighborhood of 8.2/1 compression.
While I'm waiting for the heads to get back I painted my engine compartment. The black is gone, and it is now body color. This might be the mod that has excited me the most so far.
This is a buddy of mine that is doing the paint for me.
I also just converted it from power steering to manual. I also put the correct column in it.
Things are going along pretty nicely now. It sat most of the winter without me doing much to it but hopefully I'll have it wrapped up in a couple of weeks.
When I took the car to the track for the first time the car launched really hard but stumbled badly after shifting into second gear. We messed with timing and jetting and could not get it to run. After two days of messing with it at track, I had a buddy tell me to take the gasket off of the gas cap and run it. He actually told me that the day before, but in the midst of other people suggesting things I didn't do it the first time. So I finally took out the gasket and ran it. It made a full pass without stumbling at all. It ended up being that someone along the line had plugged the fuel tank vent line, and the carb was starving for fuel. After that the car was running mid to high 13's in the 1/4 mile. Next time at the track, with a bit more tuning we got the car to run 13.4 @ 99 mph. I felt that was pretty good for a low compression motor that I knew nothing about. The one issue the car was still having was it was stumbling and not making power over 4700 rpm or so, I was pretty sure that the valves were floating.
This past fall I pulled the motor out of the car to do some work on it.
Right now I am in the middle of doing some work to the engine, and getting rid of the terrible Ferd/Chebby black paint in the engine compartment.
The car came with a set of 915 heads on it. Being naive like I am, I figured that just because they were suppose to be decent iron heads that I wouldn't have to do anything to them. Boy was I wrong. The valve springs were really weak, I could push them down using two thumbs. I took them to "A Guy" that's great with mopars to have new springs put in them and shimmed, only to find out that the springs that were in it were wrong, the exhaust seats were put in wrong, the valves were put in used, and never cut, and the guides were shot! :( So now I'm having them rebuilt, but also getting larger exhaust valves put in it.
I had no idea what cam it had in it, it didn't sound like a whole lot though so I'm putting a new cam in it. The engine has been rebuilt before, it has a set of .030 pistons in it, but they are a ways down in the hole. With the measurements and calculators I've found, I'm guessing with the closed chamber heads I'm in the neighborhood of 8.2/1 compression.
While I'm waiting for the heads to get back I painted my engine compartment. The black is gone, and it is now body color. This might be the mod that has excited me the most so far.
This is a buddy of mine that is doing the paint for me.
I also just converted it from power steering to manual. I also put the correct column in it.
Things are going along pretty nicely now. It sat most of the winter without me doing much to it but hopefully I'll have it wrapped up in a couple of weeks.