Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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Well in an attempt to stay busy, I've re-assembled the truck box. There was heavy pitting behind the wood. I'm hoping some POR-15 will prevent it from coming back.

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I know that this is supposed to be my Barracuda build thread but I've sidetracked over to the truck while I'm waiting for the drive shaft. It's been apart for so long that it's taking me awhile to remember how everything goes back together. I put together the stack brackets and hung the stacks. Tomorrow I'll have to get some new stainless bolts for the shields.

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Spider finished the new drive shaft today! I ran to Duncan, Nebraska to pick it up asap.

Well, it fit like a glove. I had it in in no time after getting home.

Eager to take the car out for it's new maiden voyage, I fired it up and let it idle for a few minutes while I topped off the transmission fluid. Before I had a chance to leave the driveway I noticed a puddle forming beneath the car. The transmission AN fittings were leaking near the radiator. I shut it off and crawled under the Barracuda to see what the problem was. It turned out that I hadn't gotten them tight enough. A few minutes of wrenching and I was ready again.

As I backed up I could hear nasty u-joint noise. I pulled back forward and shut the car off again. I was pretty sure that I knew what the problem was. After jacking it up in the air I confirmed my suspicions. The front u-joint was rubbing on the drive shaft loop. I added a shim and was ready to try it again.

It's taking me a while to get used to the new shifter. You have to pull the handle up to get it into reverse and then pull it up again to go into neutral. After that you can ratchet it through the gears, but to start out in low I have to ratchet it back 3 times before starting out. It works well but it takes a little getting used to running this full manual valve body.

I'm still surprised at how loud this exhaust is. I hadn't tried the radio because I wanted to stay focused on how the engine sounded. But I know I'm going to have to quiet it down some if I'm ever going to be listening to some tunes. Maybe some screen stuffed inside the Hornies will provide a temporary solution.

I wasn't sure how much gas I had or how accurate my fuel gauge was. I pulled away from the driveway and headed for the nearest gas station. It's about 11 blocks away from my house. I didn't want to run it dry on the test drive and have to walk back to town. $15 worth of gas later and I was ready to take it to the highway.

The manual steering box feels good but I still need to re-adjust the steering wheel again because I don't have it centered quite right. - Maybe tomorrow. Although the sound of the exhaust is loud I can still hear the leak coming from the hole next to the steering gear. - Another 'to do' on my list of things to fix. I don't think the leak is audible from outside the car. The brakes work good but I think there's a little more pedal travel than I would like. I haven't adjusted the proportioning valve since switching the rears to disc from drum so I might need to.

There is a somewhat less traveled highway spur a half mile outside of town. I normally take our cars out on it to test things out. Although I didn't flog the 408, I did run it through the gears a few times. I didn't baby it either. It's a definite step up from the 318 with 2.90 gears, but it didn't seem to have as much power as I'd expected. The 4.10s that I switched to should have given me a noticeable performance increase by themselves. I only put about 8 miles on the car before returning home. I didn't want to push it too hard on the first time out.

When I pulled back into the driveway I could see the temp gauge inside the car was showing hot. I shut her down and popped the hood. The gauge on my radiator cap confirmed that I was running over 200'. I figure that I will re-check the timing with a different light to make sure I've got it right.

As I walked away from the car I could see another fluid stream coming from the transmission. This time it was coming from the dip stick filler tube. One more thing to put on my list.

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully I'll get some more bugs de-bugged.:burnout:
 
I started today by tackling the transmission leak.The transmission bolt that holds the dipstick in place was obviously positioned there by a GM engineer working undercover at Chrysler corp. Either that or by the guy that would eventually go on to create the Yugo. After an hour of struggling I had the bolt out. It wasn't so bad. - Nothing that a skin graft can't take care of. I didn't realize you could dislocate your wrist though.

I'm regretting the fact I hadn't cleaned out the garage yet. As enjoyable as it may be working in the driveway with the neighbors as spectators, I had the added benefit of the rain saving me time by letting me shower as I worked. I keep telling myself that things could be worse. - I could be working on a Ford.

The leak was caused by an unseated seal on the dipstick tube. Nothing too dramatic but enough to make me want to slap myself (if I could just get my wrist to snap back into place).

I know that many of you are naturalists. You probably look forward to spending time in the great outdoors enjoying mother nature and all she has to offer. I particularly enjoyed the swarms of mosquitoes.

As I'm typing this from the comfort of my garage, I'm looking out at the truck box that's still sitting on the trailer. It's nice to know that all of that time I spent sanding off that surface rust wasn't a waste of time. It was a good warm up practice for all of the new sanding that needs to be done.


 
With all of this rain I'm beginning to think that instead of working on the Barracuda I should have been working on an ark.
 
Would you quit dilly dallying(sp?) by posting all the time and get to work! Lol. Like your posts and writing style, always amazed what you get accomplished in a day. Do you actually sleep?
 
Cuda68Scott said:
Would you quit dilly dallying(sp?) by posting all the time and get to work! Lol. Like your posts and writing style, always amazed what you get accomplished in a day. Do you actually sleep?
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How can I sleep with all of these problems?

I'm beginning to think that God hates me. - Probably has something to do with sleeping in the pews when I was younger. Maybe it's His way of reminding me what an idiot I was when I sold that Hemi Superbird...

After fixing the transmission leak I took the car out again. I figured I'd best make sure it really was fixed before taking on the next issue. My shift light still isn't working (no surprise), and the temp gauge inside the car is still showing hot. When I got back home I opened the hood and checked the radiator cap temp gauge. This time it was showing around 180'. So I'll have to see if I've got a problem with the sending unit to the cab.

Looking beneath the car I was pleased to see that the transmission fluid was no longer leaking. But then I noticed that I had a drip coming from one of the AN fuel lines. I'm hoping that a little tightening will solve it.

Each (of the 2) time I've taken the car out of town I've met members of the local constabulary on my way back. It's nice to know that they haven't forgotten me. I think maybe it's time I find a new stretch of highway to test the car on. I have some left over screen from the shield I made for the carburetor. I think I may try shoving some of it in the exhaust.
 
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Well I finished re-sanding the truck box and delivered it to the body shop. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain again. I need to try to get the rest of the truck in the garage. As much as I'd like to concentrate all of my time on the Barracuda I still have to get the truck ready for paint.

I have a new temperature sending unit that I can try on the 'Cuda tomorrow and I scheduled some time on a friend's lift Monday. So I should be able to fix that hole in the exhaust and finish welding the subframe connectors then. Right now it's looking like I'll be able to make the Good Guys show in Des Moines next weekend.

I have toyed around with the idea of having the 'Lil Red painted a candy red instead of the factory color. I still plan on using it as a daily driver/tow vehicle though. A long time ago I purchased a 1/64 scale Johnny Lightning 'Lil Red Express diecast that was painted a candy-ish red. I thought it looked really good with the gold decals. Mine is almost 100% original still and I'm hesitant to make modifications.
 
Today was pretty uneventful. I spent most of my time cleaning the garage. It's amazing to see how little a person can accomplish even when he sets his mind to it.

Somebody should have let me know that the show HOARDERS was not meant to be an instructional video on housekeeping. I now know that I will never ever have a need for any of these old parts that are sitting around (until the day after I throw them away). Perhaps I need to change strategies. Maybe I should purchade a new set of spark plugs for a 426 and then throw them in the garbage. I'd love to find a Hemi in my driveway tomorrow.

The 'Lil Red is now parked in front of the garage. I left the windows open to air it out. 2 years ago I was almost done restoring the interior. Today the inside smells like a public rodent urinal. I should have put moth balls in it.

Teresa keeps popping into the garage to see what progress I'm making. I think that look on her face means she's unimpressed or she has really bad gas. She had that same look when I decided to use the Christmas tree as yard art. WOMEN! You can't live with 'em and you tend to run out of clean dishes without 'em.

 
You may be able yto have your muffler shop add some flowmasters onto those collector headers you already have and go into dumps. That would be kinda close to my setup except I have an X pipe before the charry bombs themn the flows.

I am surprised that with 4.10s and the new stroker you are not amazed at how much lighter the car feels. The difference between my wore out 340 and the 416 were night and day, like 200 more HP different.

You should try to seal the arewa between the upper part of the radiator and the bottom of the hood across the front as best as you can to prevent recirculation of air back to the front of the car. Maybe use some body tape to seal off the scoop and see if it isn't hurting you, that is IF the scoop isn't completely tied to the carb.

You'll get there. When I was talking about traction you have to understand that my car doesn't get into ANY water except in the box. Wet road traction means nothing to me except that I will be limping home at near idle.
 
It's day 2 of garage cleaning. I discovered concrete beneath the oil dry.

I checked the website for the Good Guys show coming up next weekend in Des Moines. It says they're expecting over 4000 pre-72 cars to be there. I should have gone to their site earlier. Apparently you have be a member of Good Guys to enter a vehicle. - That's a minimum of $20. It's another $55 to enter your car for 3 days. I don't know if that includes entry for the owner. In order to get a discount with pre-registration you had to sign up by June 20th. I'm still not sure the car will be ready in time.

I took the car over to the lift to finish the welding on it. On the way back I could still hear a ticking exhaust leak. I had yet to re-tighten the header bolts since the motor was fired so I'm guessing it's time to do that. I had purchased aluminum gaskets that should seal well and not blow out.
 
airwoofer said:
You may be able yto have your muffler shop add some flowmasters onto those collector headers you already have and go into dumps. That would be kinda close to my setup except I have an X pipe before the charry bombs themn the flows.
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airwoofer said:

I am surprised that with 4.10s and the new stroker you are not amazed at how much lighter the car feels. The difference between my wore out 340 and the 416 were night and day, like 200 more HP different.

You should try to seal the arewa between the upper part of the radiator and the bottom of the hood across the front as best as you can to prevent recirculation of air back to the front of the car. Maybe use some body tape to seal off the scoop and see if it isn't hurting you, that is IF the scoop isn't completely tied to the carb.

You'll get there. When I was talking about traction you have to understand that my car doesn't get into ANY water except in the box. Wet road traction means nothing to me except that I will be limping home at near idle.
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I'm not sure whether or not the Duster has spoiled me. That 440 with the 4.56s and the 3800 stall seems so much more powerful. - Even though the dyno results are pretty close to the same.

I did make a filler piece out of aluminum that does seal the radiator off from the header panel to the radiator support. I'm considering making a modification to the hood similar to the way Abodybomber did his. That way I should be able to force a bit more air down the carb and prevent that scoop from pulling in so much air that it could interfere with the air being pulled through the radiator.

Traction doesn't seem to be a big concern yet. The M/Ts seem to be able to hook up fairly well on the street so I expect they'll work even better on the strip. My frontrunners are wearing very unevenly so the alignment that I paid for needs to be re-done. I'll take it to a different shop this next time.

I may have a problem with the rear seal. When I had the car up on the hoist I saw more than a trace of oil coming from the rear of the engine. I did check the oil pressure sending unit to make sure it wasn't coming from there.
 
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I may have been too hard on the ET streets after trying to get 315 MT drag radials to work. The 275s I had on the fish worked on the street and strip with 500 HP.

Get the car aligned with you or your weight in the car. It makes a big difference on an A body IMO.
 
airwoofer said:
I may have been too hard on the ET streets after trying to get 315 MT drag radials to work. The 275s I had on the fish worked on the street and strip with 500 HP.
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airwoofer said:

Get the car aligned with you or your weight in the car. It makes a big difference on an A body IMO.
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I still need to recheck everything on this engine. For all I know, it's possible I'm not getting the full HP out of it. Or maybe I am and something else in the driveline is dragging me down. On the way back from having the car on the lift I noticed some brake related noise coming from the rear. I'll pull the wheels off and inspect everything back there again.

Right now I get a slight bit of tire spin (on the street) before it hooks up. If this is as much power as the car will produce the M/Ts should do OK at the track. I changed so much all at the same time. - The engine, transmission, torque converter,rear end, gear ratio, brakes, etc... that it's difficult to judge the amount of power difference between the 318 and the 408.

I have no doubt that the car is quicker now, but I thought the increase would have been much more dramatic. It's too bad I hadn't gotten a 1/4 time with the 318. Speed can be deceptive. I know my son's 6.1 Challenger is quick but it runs so quiet that you don't realize how fast you're going.
 
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When you are in 1st on the street at a stop and gas on it, how many RPM does the 'vert flash to? Which "vert did you get? I used to have a stock unit that would go up to 2800 behind the 416. It has an 11" off the shelf PTC which I have not had a chance to try yet.

I have a hard time believing that the diff between the teen and the stroker isn't that much more dramatic. A 340 felt very weak compared and the engine was the only thing changed, besides the headers.

Take it to the track and get us some numbers.
 
airwoofer said:
When you are in 1st on the street at a stop and gas on it, how many RPM does the 'vert flash to? Which "vert did you get? I used to have a stock unit that would go up to 2800 behind the 416. It has an 11" off the shelf PTC which I have not had a chance to try yet.
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airwoofer said:

I have a hard time believing that the diff between the teen and the stroker isn't that much more dramatic. A 340 felt very weak compared and the engine was the only thing changed, besides the headers.

Take it to the track and get us some numbers.
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I'm not sure on the RPM. The cars only been out a few times and I was concentrating on listening to any strange noises, my non-working shift light, the temperature &oil pressure gauges, etc...

I installed the MP 2400 that came with the transmission. Mike was fairly confident that it would flash closer to 3000.

The 318 that I replaced wasn't stock. (headers, 670 Holley, Edelbrock Performer intake, - not sure on the cam profile, MSD distributor & control box) It ran pretty strong. I would have liked to have seen it perform with the 4.10s behind it.

The setup in the car now is definitely quicker but I'd hoped on needing an underwear change after the first test run. It's so hard to quantify speed or power without hard numbers to look at. If my timing light isn't giving me an accurate reading or anything else is off I might not be matching the power that the dyno read. - I still suspect that 'something' isn't quite dialed in yet.

Track time is definitely part of the plan, but that will probably take a back seat to keeping up with the other projects.
 
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I swapped out the temperature sending unit with the new one that was meant for the Charger. Upon startup the gauge shows cold. But within a few minutes it maxes out. I'm glad I have that Mr. Gasket radiator cap with the built in thermometer. I've been checking it and the temperature shown is usually around 180'. I also have used an infrared thermometer to read the temperature of the block, heads, intake, exhaust, etc... It tends to agree with the radiator cap. It's really unnerving to see that gauge maxing out. I don't want to get in the habit of ignoring it so I will check out the pins on the backside to make sure they're all kosher. Somewhere there's a wiring flaw.

With the car in the air on creeper jacks I put the car in gear and let the rear wheels spin. Everything is quiet when running this way. But I swear I'm hearing noise from the rear when I'm going down the street. The discs felt pretty warm after a 1 mile drive and I was not riding the brake. I inspected for signs of clearance problems and haven't found any yet. I really had hoped I'd be able to hear noise when it was running up in the air. The next time I take it out for a spin I'll take that infrared thermometer with me and see if I can find any hot spots.
 
My fish at 3050 with me in it went 7.18 at 98+ foot braking with a worn out 3rd in the tranny and a street 'vert. You should be 7.50 at 95 with the full interior weight I guess if things are working right.
 
airwoofer said:
My fish at 3050 with me in it went 7.18 at 98+ foot braking with a worn out 3rd in the tranny and a street 'vert. You should be 7.50 at 95 with the full interior weight I guess if things are working right.
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Based on the way the car feels, I'm guessing I'll be close to your estimate airwwoofer. I don't think it'll be quite that quick though. I'm thinking it's more like a low 12 sec 1/4 mile car. - Should still be a sub 8 - 1/8 mile.

I ordered a pair of Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R radials for the front of the car. They should be here on Wednesday. I realize that I'll be mixing radials with the cheater slicks for a while but I felt that my Frontrunners didn't have much reliable life left in them. I didn't want to risk being put in the position of not having a spare. - Plus I wanted to get the front re-aligned.

I currently have 24.0 X 5.0 X 15s on the front. I ordered 26 X 15s. They'll be 2" taller and 1" wider but I think they should still work out. I've decided to order Mickey Thompson S/R radials (28 X 10s) for the rear. Unless the car handles really squirrely with mixed tires, I'll wait to order them until the cheater slicks are used up.

I was surprised to see how much weight difference there is between my current tires and these radials. The front tires are each 9 pounds heavier and the rear are 5 pounds heavier a piece. That seems like a lot of difference to me.

FedEx is supposed to be dropping off the new front fender for the truck later today.
 
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Well the fender showed up. The box looked like 2 gorillas had been fighting over it. When I opened it up it didn't look too bad but there was a ding in the top of the fender.

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I'm still trying to get things ready to go to the car show in Des Moines. I decided it was time to work on my zombie driver for the display. I need to design a better stand so that he doesn't want to fall over so easy. I've been told by (former) friends that it's a good likeness of me.

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If I'm going to make it to the show I'll have to start prepping the Ford for the trip. It may not have a lot of power but it's been a relatively reliable tow vehicle so far. With those 4.10s I don't want to drive the Barracuda that far.


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My plan to quiet down the car with screen pushed inside the exhaust didn't work so well. It tends to blow the screen out when I start the car.

The rear end noise is pissing me off. I can't seem to find what's causing it. I pulled the tires and wheels again. I cannot see any signs that anything is rubbing. I put some axle grease on the caliper slides thinking that I might have been getting a bind there and that the brakes weren't fully releasing. After test driving it again I've noticed that the noise goes away when the brakes are partially applied. I don't know what is going on.

I had a slight bit of gear oil seepage from the cover so I drained it and used some Form-A-Gasket aviation sealant on it. The fill plug never seated tightly in it's hole so I wrapped it with a bunch of thread sealant to prevent it from leaking.
 
I cleaned out the truck and started making my list of things to load up. It was supposed to be a nice day today but it's been chilly, windy, and looks like it may rain.

I'm intimidated by the prospect of there being over 4000 cars there. I don't know how things will be organized. Originally I had planned on hauling the Barracuda to my son's apartment and unloading it there. But I had thought about taking the christmas tree (with generator for power) to display next to the car. I don't know if that's feasible.

Because it's a 3 day event I'm wondering if everybody leaves their cars parked in the same spot for all 3 days. It's hard to imagine the time it would take to get over 4000 situated each day. I had planned on staying across town with my sons. Maybe I'll need the truck close by to use as transportation?

This is by far the largest show I'll ever have seen. Normally I like to photograph every car at the shows I go to. But I figured it would have to average me around 30 seconds to get a shot of each one (by the time you walk from car to car and wait for people to move out of the way). That would add up to 33&1/3 hours of time just taking pictures. So I'll try to take pics of quite a few but there's no way I'm shooting them all.

FedEx just dropped off my new front tires. I'm not sure if I'll get them mounted or just take them with me as is.
 

My son videoed the first time we tried to fire the 408.

 
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