1969 Dart Street/Strip (Re)Build
And now I have an engine again. I was unsure that the color combinations I chose were going to look as good as they did in my head but after seeing it all together, I'm extremely happy with it. The builder fixed many issues that the motor had. Mixed head studs with head bolts, worn cam plate, clearanced for pushrods which were rubbing the head before, the center mains on the block were undersized (.0008" on the original bearing clearance!), he opened oil passages where needed and restricted passaged where needed as well so all the righ oiling mods were done, had to heli coil one of the bell housing mounting holes in the block because it was completely stripped out when I took it apart, lots of things like that. We had custom fabricated intake valves made by REV since the low margin shoulders on the valves that were in it were hurting the CFM flow by about 5 CFM across the board, custom made pushrods, custom aluminum alternator bracket, powdercoated intake and timing cover, Cloyes billet timing chain (old one was worn), oil pump shaft was worn badly so a new one with new pump was installed, etc, etc. For a "fresh" motor when I bought it, it sure had some really worn parts which tells me that it really wasn't fresh or he re-used a lot of parts. I'm betting on the re-use of parts is what the guy did but doesn't matter any more. There was lots of things like that that was found but all is corrected and now I feel like I really have a solid motor.
The custom fabricated alternator bracket that my builder made was above and beyond anything I thought it would be. My hat's off to him for that.
Powdercoating turned out pretty nice
Hard to get to bolt
Installing the Flaming River 16:1 quick ratio manual steering box
Up up and away we go
Here's where I got LUCKY! While trying to move the engine/trans to the car, the motor and trans all of a sudden dropped and I heard cracking and breaking wood. I knew the dolly had collapsed on us. Got to looking and fortunately what had happed was that we had pushed the motor/trans off the dolly. What caught the motor was the one stray 2X4 toward the back of the dolly that was just laying there. It caught about 1/4" of the rear of the oil pan. That pan must be tough because it didn't buckle. Headers were hitting the other 2X4's but no damage that was visible. I just hope that we didn't hurt the gasket or anything to keep the headers from leaking. So I jacked up the back of the trans and since the hoist was already in use, my buddy and I lifted the front of the motor while my wife slid the dolly back in place. All was well again and we were pushing by the dolly now.
And finally success! That was a monumental hurdle and a great feeling to get it back in without damaging anything.
And now I have an engine again. I was unsure that the color combinations I chose were going to look as good as they did in my head but after seeing it all together, I'm extremely happy with it. The builder fixed many issues that the motor had. Mixed head studs with head bolts, worn cam plate, clearanced for pushrods which were rubbing the head before, the center mains on the block were undersized (.0008" on the original bearing clearance!), he opened oil passages where needed and restricted passaged where needed as well so all the righ oiling mods were done, had to heli coil one of the bell housing mounting holes in the block because it was completely stripped out when I took it apart, lots of things like that. We had custom fabricated intake valves made by REV since the low margin shoulders on the valves that were in it were hurting the CFM flow by about 5 CFM across the board, custom made pushrods, custom aluminum alternator bracket, powdercoated intake and timing cover, Cloyes billet timing chain (old one was worn), oil pump shaft was worn badly so a new one with new pump was installed, etc, etc. For a "fresh" motor when I bought it, it sure had some really worn parts which tells me that it really wasn't fresh or he re-used a lot of parts. I'm betting on the re-use of parts is what the guy did but doesn't matter any more. There was lots of things like that that was found but all is corrected and now I feel like I really have a solid motor.
The custom fabricated alternator bracket that my builder made was above and beyond anything I thought it would be. My hat's off to him for that.
Powdercoating turned out pretty nice
Hard to get to bolt
Installing the Flaming River 16:1 quick ratio manual steering box
Up up and away we go
Here's where I got LUCKY! While trying to move the engine/trans to the car, the motor and trans all of a sudden dropped and I heard cracking and breaking wood. I knew the dolly had collapsed on us. Got to looking and fortunately what had happed was that we had pushed the motor/trans off the dolly. What caught the motor was the one stray 2X4 toward the back of the dolly that was just laying there. It caught about 1/4" of the rear of the oil pan. That pan must be tough because it didn't buckle. Headers were hitting the other 2X4's but no damage that was visible. I just hope that we didn't hurt the gasket or anything to keep the headers from leaking. So I jacked up the back of the trans and since the hoist was already in use, my buddy and I lifted the front of the motor while my wife slid the dolly back in place. All was well again and we were pushing by the dolly now.
And finally success! That was a monumental hurdle and a great feeling to get it back in without damaging anything.
