65 Barracuda daily driver

[65barracudaLA]

Honestly, I've never had to check lifters. I've just replaced them when I pulled a motor apart and rebuilt it with a new cam/lifter set. You could check the tension of the internal spring if you had a piece of round rod you could round the end on and stick it down thru each pushrod hole and see if any feel weaker than others. If you're not having any trouble getting them out with that magnet, pull them out one at a time and check em on the bench. You might even be able to disassemble them and clean them internally and then relube them and put them back together and re-install them one at a time so you don't mix them up in their respective bores. It's a pain trying to see how to get them lined up on the magnet to pull them out, but it's do-able. I replaced a cam that way once upon a time, without pulling the intake. Somebody told me I couldn't do it.....lol.

I'll check for that. I read somewhere here that someone took out the lifters through the distributor hole. On these (smog?) heads the openings next to the the push rod holes are too small. I looked at my 273 heads and those openings appear to be larger.

I realized pulling the intake involves a lot more than just replacing the gaskets, I'd have to drain the coolant and a lot more. Anyways, I had heard the engine run before I bought it and assumed the internals were in decent shape. I had pulled the intake because there was RTV squeezing out everywhere and I wanted to clean it up and paint it. Should have replaced the lifters then. Good idea for the next engine haha.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Ticking as the engine is reved higher, or put under load, sounds like an exhaust leak not a lifter.

I will double check that too. Might need more grinding so the manifold can fit. I also have that heli-coiled exhaust stud and probably could tighten that nut a bit more. The noise doesn't sound like that to me, but what do I know haha. Wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong about something haha.

 

[mygasser]

i always put a light smear of silicone on exhaust gaskets (both sides), especially with headers. not had any ticky leaks at all. plus where it squeezes onto the threads it seems to stop them backing out which they seem to on headers for sure if not so much on manifolds.
neil.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I tightened the exhaust manifold to I believe 15 ft lbs per manual, some were kinda loose. It seems to have helped a bit with that ticking sound, but it's still there. As long as it's not getting worse, I will ignore it for now. I still have the '67 273 closed chamber heads and I'm thinking about swapping them onto the engine. If I do that, I will replace all the lifters.

I had made sort of a transmission diaper to catch the fluid and it kinda works, but I realized that the transmission needs to come out. I will probably take it to a shop to fix the leak, because I don't want to deal with it anymore. I was trying to avoid that, because it took so long to get the exhaust in place and I didn't want to have to remove it again, but I will just mark the points where it goes together.

This Sunday it will be a year since we took the slant out and put the small block in. It's time to make this a daily driver again...

 

[MonkeyMadness]

Wow it really is looking nice

 

[66fyssh]

She does look good!!

Dang, a year already...time Flys when you're having fun!!

 

[65barracudaLA]

Thanks! I think these cars look great with a bit of a rake, but with the added weight of the small block it's too much. I had to adjust the ride height on one side, because the weight distribution of the leaning tower of power was different, but now I still need to bring the ride height up a bit on both sides.

 

[65barracudaLA]

 

[65barracudaLA]

 

[65barracudaLA]

Hurricane Hilary sounded much worse than it currently is, but I felt better with the car in the garage. It's actually the first time it's in the garage since the V8 swap because there was just too much stuff in there. I took apart the engine stand to store it. I took the boom off the hoist and now it takes up a lot less space. The fenders that are supposed to replace the ones on the car are being stored in the car etc. I'll have to take a bunch of the parts to the Mopar Fall Fling swap to make some more room.

Another benefit of having the car in the garage is that I plan on finally fixing the massive transmission fluid leak soon and I feel like it's going to be easier in the garage - especially if I hit a snag. I should have all the parts I need. I'm planning on leaving the transmission in the car and just remove the extension housing. So I'll have to loosen the motor mounts, take the distributor or at least the cap off, drain coolant and transmission fluid, disconnect coolant lines and radiator hoses etc. I'm cleaning the extension housing off the slant 6 transmission in case it was a crack in the housing that caused the leak.

The bummer is that I will have to take off the exhaust to get to the transmission. It took forever to get it in a place where it didn't rub anywhere. I'll just have to carefully mark the position of each tube.

Well, let's let this storm pass first...

 

[65barracudaLA]

So I've started tearing the car apart to finally address the transmission horrible leak. The pan wasn't leaking, but I still decided to take it off to take a look. As you can see in the photo below there are little specks of metal in the filter. I've only driven the car about 100 miles since the V8 swap and the transmission was rebuilt. I definitely regret having gotten the transmission rebuilt by this guy. It might have even been better to not rebuild it at all and just use it as is, but I knew nothing about it and neither did the guy I bought it from.

Oh well, the slant 6 transmission lasted 13 years and was probably in worse shape. Anyways, everything is ready to tilt the transmission down and hopefully I can get the extension housing off without having to take out the entire transmission. I'm taking my time with this, because I want to do it right. Working in this tiny garage is not easy, but at least I can leave the car disassembled and don't have to worry about it.

 

[junkyardhero]

i wouldn't be overly concerned about some flints and glints in the filter unless the pan was full of swarf, debris and mechanic's glitter.

i'd say carry on with the operation. slow and steady. at least the weather cooled off for the week!

 

[65barracudaLA]

i wouldn't be overly concerned about some flints and glints in the filter unless the pan was full of swarf, debris and mechanic's glitter.

i'd say carry on with the operation. slow and steady. at least the weather cooled off for the week!

There was a bit of sludge on the bottom of the pan and some glitter, but I'd say that the guy just didn't clean the pan before reassembly or dust got onto some of the parts. I'm sure with some fresh fluid and a new filter it'll be better. Tomorrow I'm gonna take off the extension housing and take a look at the gasket and where/ why it's leaking so bad.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Well, this could explain the leak... Wrong gasket and some household silicone? WTF!!!

 

[mygasser]

Well, this could explain the leak... Wrong gasket and some household silicone? WTF!!!

View attachment 1716139532

doh!

 

[65barracudaLA]

This explains why the fluid was just gushing out of there. Absolutely nothing was stopping it from coming out of that hole and and another (offset) hole on the other side.

For the new gasket I used this Loctite hi-tack gasket dressing stick - that purple stuff you see there. Certainly better than smearing RTV or a hi-tack spray that sprays everywhere. Let's see how it performs, but I like the glue stick like application. The extension housing is back on the transmission and the nuts are torqued to spec (24 ft lbs). Now the output flange needs to be torqued to 175 ft lbs. The manual is recommending a special tool that holds the flange in place while you torque, but I will try if a big screwdriver wedge between two of the studs will work too. At least that's how I got it off. I ground the welds of the modified transmission crossmember down a bit more for some more exhaust clearance on the passenger side - it was very tight and even that 1/8" will help. I'm also replacing the transmission mount. I had replaced it when I swapped engine and transmission, but when I was tightening the nut the stud broke off. I thought I had used a coarse thread nut on a fine thread stud, but it appears that the stud on the new mount is metric. Makes no sense, but I'm about to go to a hardware store and get a M8 nut and see if that will work.

While I'm at it and everything is apart I will fix two other issues. The first one is the exhaust stud on the #7 cylinder that is leaking coolant. It was heli-coiled when I bought the engine. The coil came out when I was tightening the exhaust manifold the first time. A few more attempts to replace and seal it failed. So now I ordered some E-Z Lok threaded inserts.

E-Z Lok

Supposedly the adhesive on them seals against liquids so no extra sealant should be necessary (obviously it's needed on the stud that is going in there). I'll have to drill out the hole to 27/64" and then use a 1/2-13 tap. I even ordered their installation tool even though you could technically use a screwdriver.

Another reason I'm worried is that the coolant might leak out of the exhaust stud and find its way into the cylinder and eventually into the oil. Anyone ever had that happen?

Anyways, the other issue was what I thought was a lifter tick. Quite a few people here mentioned that since it only happens under load that it's probably an exhaust leak. As you can see on the old gasket that I just took off, the gasket is severely damaged where the coolant leak happened. I will try to make sure the coolant leak is fixed before putting the manifold back on. Maybe I can refill the radiator with coolant and apply some air pressure at the overflow hose?!

I got some Remflex gaskets that will hopefully do the trick. I had broken off the outer exhaust stud on the slant 6 and never got it out, but with the Remflex gasket there was no exhaust leak.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Sometimes you think you have a plan and then you realize it's not gonna work after all haha. I couldn't get a drill in there without pulling the engine or the head. Also drilling drilling perpendicular to the surface would have been a challenge. So I decided to give the old heli coil another shot. This time I bought the tool, luckily it was on sale for 10 bucks at Autozone - usually they are around $30. This time I wanted to give it the best chance possible. So I cleaned the hole out with a round wire brush, cleaned it with brake clean, then used the tap that comes with the kit and cleaned everything again. As you can see in the photo below the threads are still not perfect, but there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

Since you have to break off that little tab at the end of the heli coil after installation, I tied some sewing thread to it, because I didn't want it to end up in the cooling system. Last time I didn't recover it and I don't think it's the end of the world, but better safe than sorry and so on... Anyways, I got some of that Permatex High Temp Thread sealant and applied it to the heli coil.

It actually worked and was able to pull the tab out after installation.

I let the sealant cure (not sure if that was the best choice?!) and then I filled the radiator with coolant again. I wanted to see how the stud was doing under pressure so I hooked up a little tire inflator to the overflow hose and put my palm over the filler neck. I'm sure it's nowhere near as much pressure as you get when the engine is hot and the thermostat is open, but it was the best I could do.

No leak was visible, so I installed the Remflex gasket and was able to torque all bolts and studs to 20 ft lbs. So the heli coil worked, but who knows if it still seals under pressure. Someone suggested Alumaseal Stop Leak powder and I will add that as an extra insurance.

Now I still need to torque the output flange to 180 ft lbs. The force itself will be an issue, but also holding the flange. The manual says to use tool C-3281, but that's not something you can just pick up at a parts store, so I will probably take some steel flat bar and drill 2 holes into it.

Getting closer...

 

[junkyardhero]

great job pivoting and making it happen!

i'm a little unclear, did you use sealant on the stud as well as the helicoil? because it should be on both.

i would advise against putting alumaseal in the system, especially if you don't need it. all that stuff does is gum up the works. i would try everything on the face of the planet before that, including pulling the head and enacting a professional repair.

if you MUST use a sealer of that type, i'd suggest K-seal.

 

[65barracudaLA]

great job pivoting and making it happen!

i'm a little unclear, did you use sealant on the stud as well as the helicoil? because it should be on both.

i would advise against putting alumaseal in the system, especially if you don't need it. all that stuff does is gum up the works. i would try everything on the face of the planet before that, including pulling the head and enacting a professional repair.

if you MUST use a sealer of that type, i'd suggest K-seal.

Yup, I put the sealant on both the heli coil and the stud.

If I were to pull the head I would replace it with the '67 closed chamber 273 heads I have laying around, but I really just want to get the car running again as quickly as possible.

Someone here had recommended Alumaseal, but maybe I'll skip that then. How is K-seal different/ better?

 

[junkyardhero]

sounds like you should be solid then!

i *know* K-seal works, i've personally used it with no ill effects. i've tried alumaseal and it was dogshit each time, and on teardown inspections, post mortal, it was all just gunked up in the radiator and i wound up having to cover that expense as well.

either way, if you don't need it, don't use it. and if you do need it, think twice about using it!

 

[65barracudaLA]

It seems any kind of leak fix whether it's oil, coolant or transmission fluid will cause some issues because it doesn't just get to work where you need it to. It's always so tempting though.

So here's my homemade tool. Two 3/8" holes in a 3/16 steel flat bar 1-7/8" apart. Or so... Damn, this steel doesn't like getting drilled haha. Used a cobalt drill and some oil, but it took forever. I'm sure a drill press would have made this a bit easier. Luckily I had an extra flange from the slant 6 transmission for test fitting and didn't have to figure that out under the car. It's about two feet long, so my plan is to bolt it to the flange and set the other end on the garage floor. Then I can hopefully get enough force on the torque wrench to get to 175 ft lbs with the help of a pipe to get more leverage. I'm a bit worried that it might make the car fall of the jack stands, which would be fatal, so I might put the front on ramps. Which are unfortunately in the back of the garage and kinda hard to get to...

Anyways, I'll have to get the car back together within the next 3 weeks because I got a swap space at the Chrysler Performance West Fall Fling and really want to get rid of the tons of parts that I collected over the years. Many of which I bought by mistake or simply never should have bought. Of course they are in the back of the garage. This is just a fraction of those parts:

Luckily it looks like I'm pretty close. I will have to get the output flange torqued, double check the pinion flange on the rear end which has come loose a couple of times before. That one needs 180 ft lbs and I might have to make a tool to hold it in place as well. Then I need reconnect the park lock & cable gear shift cable, put the transmission filter and pan back, put the driveshaft back and bolt the exhaust on again. Soon.

 

[junkyardhero]

play it safe and put it on ramps, can't drive the car after if you're half squished.

see ya at the fling. if you price that stuff right you'll sell ALL of it. except the hubcaps. nobody buys hubcaps unless they're cheap as chips.

 

[JDMopar]

Good progress, sounds like. Surely you aren't gonna sell the early A drivers side V8 manifold?!?! If your luck is like mine.....i'd sell it and next week mine would crack.

 

[65barracudaLA]

play it safe and put it on ramps, can't drive the car after if you're half squished.

see ya at the fling. if you price that stuff right you'll sell ALL of it. except the hubcaps. nobody buys hubcaps unless they're cheap as chips.

Yeah, not gonna risk it.

Most of the stuff will be cheap. It's less about making money and more about making room in my tiny garage. See you there - I won't be there with the Barracuda, but with my Grand Cherokee that will hopefully fit all that stuff.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Good progress, sounds like. Surely you aren't gonna sell the early A drivers side V8 manifold?!?! If your luck is like mine.....i'd sell it and next week mine would crack.

Yeah, finally some progress and the end is almost in sight!

And yes, I will sell that manifold... I painted and installed it and THEN I realized that it was already cracked and poorly repaired. Luckily I found another one soon after.

I don't know how many times I had to mess with that manifold and its studs and gaskets...