70 Dart Triple Treat Build

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I'm starting to find the small "issues" as to why my car was given up on by the previous owner(s). Still waiting on my buddy to weld the relocation brackets for the rear axle so I decided to throw fuses in and test all electrical circuits...well my AFR gauge sparked and popped the fuse for gauge power, that was cool. On to testing the lights and turn signals... headlamps work and floor switch actually works! Turn signals, flashers and brake lights all work too, then comes the running lights and gauge illumination: no running lights at all and no illumination, but when you have the turn signals on, the gauge lights flash. Upon further inspection, I found the headlamp switch shorted out at some point and melted the connector. Good thing I have a parts car in the backyard that's willing to donate. She's given alot and will continue to provide until there's nothing left but rust and bondo
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Rear perches welded, shocks mounted and brakes bled... these damn calipers were awful to bleed. Hopefully will be taking the car for a test drive tonight.
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Car is finally on all 4s for the first time in a while. Trans goes into all gears but the brakes need to be bleed again, theres a lack of pressure on the first pump then builds pressure after. I didnt realize until now how low the car sits, deffinatly need to set the preload on the coilovers. Also, the rear suspension is really stiff with the energy bushings and kyb shocks. Car should handle really well with how its setup. My roadkill show n shine pass also came in the mail today!
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The Dart is finally home! She ran good enough that i decided to make the 40min trip from my buddies house where i built the car, threw the hills back to my house. Ran a bit rich the whole way home at 11.8 to 12-1 AFR BUT that was good enough. Now to fine tune the carb, align it and throw the rest of the interior in. Almost put it in the ditch leaving my friends house sideways, car is a blast to drive around corners with the coil overs, front sway bar and poly bushings in the leaf springs.
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Interior is all set minus the driver door panel which was falling apart and moldy. Scored a freshly rebuild 8 3/4 case with 2.76 gears for the drive to Detroit. Should be around 2800 rpm at 75mph with the 26s.
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Train wreck in-sued the day before Roadkill Nights...went to fix oil leak at the front of the intake manifold, tore the gaskets. Put new metal gaskets on, water leak at the right corner of the manifold. Fixed it, vacuum leak at each intake runner. Apparently the metal gaskets aren't thick enough for an aftermarket intake. At that point it was game over and left in a different car. Came home after stopping at Summit Racing to pick up new gaskets to address that and found a push rod laying sideways, out of the lifter and not bent in its bore. Pulled the valve cover to find it just laying there. The studs for the rocker shaft were all a quarter to half turn loose with the furthest back stud 2 turns loose. Threw it all back together, wont start. Verified firing order, no start, checked the plugs and they were fouled. New plugs, no start. Checked to see if i was 180* out but that was fine too. Turn the distributor until it would fire up and run. Verified timing and now the distributor is point in a completely new position at 32* total timing, about 2" counterclockwise past the original position. Im at a loss at this point on how this happened.
 
70Lawn_Dart said:
Train wreck in-sued the day before Roadkill Nights...went to fix oil leak at the front of the intake manifold, tore the gaskets. Put new metal gaskets on, water leak at the right corner of the manifold. Fixed it, vacuum leak at each intake runner. Apparently the metal gaskets aren't thick enough for an aftermarket intake. At that point it was game over and left in a different car. Came home after stopping at Summit Racing to pick up new gaskets to address that and found a push rod laying sideways, out of the lifter and not bent in its bore. Pulled the valve cover to find it just laying there. The studs for the rocker shaft were all a quarter to half turn loose with the furthest back stud 2 turns loose. Threw it all back together, wont start. Verified firing order, no start, checked the plugs and they were fouled. New plugs, no start. Checked to see if i was 180* out but that was fine too. Turn the distributor until it would fire up and run. Verified timing and now the distributor is point in a completely new position at 32* total timing, about 2" counterclockwise past the original position. Im at a loss at this point on how this happened.
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Quick update:
Bought a new Romus SFi balancer and "found" the flexplate that was used when the rotating assembly was balanced. Trans has been pulled, the correct flexplate installed and the trans reinstalled. Verified TDC at cylinder 1, balancer matched and oddly enough the distributor points at cylinder 1 which doesn't answer the question as to why the damn thing didn't fire up when the balancer was off. I pulled the dizzy apart to make sure nothing was broken, which nothing was, so in theory it should fire up later today when I throw the rest of it together. I next step if it doesn't fire is pull the valve cover and see if every valve is opening and closing properly.
 
Just more crap happens every time I work on the Dart so let's take a moment for a "happy" post: when the car's running right, it's a blast to drive. The road up to my house is very windy with tight turns, slight straights, and one off-camber left-hander. I gotta say the coil-over setup is phenomenal with the QA1 adjustable shocks and the v8 leaf springs with poly bushings and KYB shocks handle way better than I anticipated to the point where I'm not considering a coil-over conversion for the rear in the near future. The trans goes through gears firmly and the manual steering is tolerable. Other than lacking a posi, the dart is set up perfect. For my first bumper to bumper project, I'm not sure I'd change anything.
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The LawnDart threw the alternator belt the other day, got to 220, found out the top bolt fell out and the alternator dropped down. I made a support bracket that goes from a water pump bolt that supports the front of the alternator. Got it all back together and was going to adjust the shifter cable but beer happened.
 
Off with the old and on with the new: stock fuel pump couldn't keep up with the 360 past 4500RPM so on goes a Quick Fuel fuel pump rated at 130GPM instead of the stock 25GPM. Also, I have been having electrical issues according to the voltmeter which was bouncing between 12.5 and 13v when running and dropped below 12v when the RPMs went up. Well, I installed the new alternator (old one was 3yrs old and on a truck I mudded with) and had the same issue. Checked with a voltmeter at the battery, read 14.5v but the gauge was bouncing around between 12v and 14v. I found the power stud on the aftermarket fuse panel was extremely loose. That steadied out the volt gauge alot but still doesn't consistently read the correct voltage. More troubleshooting later today...
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New alternator didn't fix the charging issue, ended up being 2 more loose connections. Back to trying to tune this carb...AFR gauge locked up and stayed in preheat for the o2 sensor and fried that. Fixed that by recalibrating 4 times. Then rejetted the carb 1 more step up and turned the mixture screws in to level out the idle AFR while richening up the 25-75% acceleration AFR. Finally got the car running the way I'd like so I decided to go for a rip up the road an back. I was told by my engine builder that the cam and valvetrain we're running would be good up to 7000RPM...well floated the valves at 6500. Didn't have any ill effects so I kept up the "spirited driving" down a bit lower at 6k which is the top of the working range of the cam. Pulled into the driveway and the car was idling really rough and smoking out the passenger side exhaust (true duels). Pulled the valve covers to find a push rod out of place (again) so I went to put it back in but it wouldn't stay in place and kept dropping down. Pulled the intake and found a lifter blew apart. Luckily all the pieces were laying in the oil gallery and didn't rattle around the engine. Pulled the lifter and the roller was still there so the cam wasn't damaged. Bought new lifters, all but 1 fit...looks like one wasn't machined properly. I double-checked by trying it in different bores and tried others in the same bore, all of which fit. So sending back the bad lifter for a new one tomorrow...
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New lifters in, started the pig up, push rod did its thing and popped out. Replaced and ran it without the valve covers to mabe see if we can spot why the intake pushrods on the intake valves of #5 and 6 keep popping out but didn't want to do it. Threw the valve covers back on and went for a rip down the road. I think in going to put the headache away for the season next week.
 
70Lawn_Dart said:
New lifters in, started the pig up, push rod did its thing and popped out. Replaced and ran it without the valve covers to mabe see if we can spot why the intake pushrods on the intake valves of #5 and 6 keep popping out but didn't want to do it. Threw the valve covers back on and went for a rip down the road. I think in going to put the headache away for the season next week.
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Dang. Do you have adjustable rockers or stamped steel?
 
plumkrazee70 said:
Gotcha. first thing I thought of was preload was wrong. But maybe the pushrods aren't the correct length?
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I've been going through the same thought process. This isn't the first time it has happened. The first time, mounting studs were loose. The second time, lifter guts blew apart and now this. When I did the lifters, I compared all the pushrods and they're all the same length. I find it really odd it happens only on those 2 cylinders. I'm wondering if those 2 rocker arms aren't shimmed correctly and have the pushrod at a slight angle which lets the pushrod walk off the lifter.
 
70Lawn_Dart said:
I've been going through the same thought process. This isn't the first time it has happened. The first time, mounting studs were loose. The second time, lifter guts blew apart and now this. When I did the lifters, I compared all the pushrods and they're all the same length. I find it really odd it happens only on those 2 cylinders. I'm wondering if those 2 rocker arms aren't shimmed correctly and have the pushrod at a slight angle which lets the pushrod walk off the lifter.
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I'm no engine builder but do the rockers need shimmed? Also how does the cam look? Is it a flat tappet? I had a lobe fail years ago and it bent a pushord.
 
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