408 Build Thread
I spent a few hours working on the Dart with my 17 year old daughter this weekend and we got a quite a bit done. Friday night we removed the crappy non working aftermarket gauges that have been in the car since I got it and replaced it with these from Auto Gage. They are cheap mechanical gauges but they work and have nice big faces that my old eyes can read with a quick glance.
We also cleaned up the front the engine as promised by throwing all of those hardware store nuts and spacers away, and we replaced them with the correct brackets. New alternator, belt, and pulleys. These parts are just being mocked up on the 340 and will all be swapped over to the 408 when the time comes.
We drove it around yesterday to make sure everything was alright and on a 80 degree day, the temperature never climbed above 175?!? The thermostat is new, but I wonder if it's stuck open. I'm not complaining but it's something that's got me wondering. The previous owner stuck a big radiator in there when he was running a big block and over heating has never been an issue. The fan clutch is so close to the radiator that I was barely able to force the belt between the two.
I spent a few hours working on the Dart with my 17 year old daughter this weekend and we got a quite a bit done. Friday night we removed the crappy non working aftermarket gauges that have been in the car since I got it and replaced it with these from Auto Gage. They are cheap mechanical gauges but they work and have nice big faces that my old eyes can read with a quick glance.
We also cleaned up the front the engine as promised by throwing all of those hardware store nuts and spacers away, and we replaced them with the correct brackets. New alternator, belt, and pulleys. These parts are just being mocked up on the 340 and will all be swapped over to the 408 when the time comes.
We drove it around yesterday to make sure everything was alright and on a 80 degree day, the temperature never climbed above 175?!? The thermostat is new, but I wonder if it's stuck open. I'm not complaining but it's something that's got me wondering. The previous owner stuck a big radiator in there when he was running a big block and over heating has never been an issue. The fan clutch is so close to the radiator that I was barely able to force the belt between the two.