aussie valiant

[roarz]

Following on from my original post in the"welcome wagon" on 8/11/07 i have made some progress on my Valiant.
To recap on my project, it is a 69 VE valiant (similiar to U.S 4 door Dart of the same era). I varied my build from the "norm "in that while I have made no changes to the exterior of the Valiant, its mechanicals are the area which I crossed the line. The engine is a 358 small block chev, gearbox is 2 speed p/glide, 3" tailshaft, narrowed 9'' diff with 4.11 ratio, 16" Ford wheels, 8'' rear, 7'' front, lowered front spindles, Dba front discs. Currently I am making the exhaust fom extractors to mufflers, then reinstall the wiring and hopefully turn the key and everthing will work as it should. The motor has yet to be fired as I have resisted the temptation till I finish everthing properly. All going well ,I will drive it around in its present state for a few weeks then strip and paint the body. This car is going to be my first 2 coloured car, with the roof down to the stainless mould being white (same as engine bay), and below the stainless mould, contrasting HOK blue. Photos to follow

 

[roarz]

I had no luck attaching the photos to this post so I have submitted them in the members gallery section.

 

[roarz]

Worked out that my pop up blocker was on, so here are some photos of the chev in the engine bay, the other photos are at the members gallery.

 

[roarz]

To keep some order in the post, here are some photos prior to fitting the engine.
Pipes were a nightmare to make and also fit, learnt some good lessons in how not to do things. Always fabricate and dummy up with EXACTLY the same parts as you will use in the finished item. I used old cast iron heads, where the finished engine had AFR's. Dimensionally on the exhaust flange side everything is the same as the old cast iron, BUT, around where the valve cover goes, on th exhaust side they have a slight overhang, which I assume is so you can use a variety of valve covers (centre bolt etc). result, pipes that dropped in from the top on the dummy up, required the engine to be pulled out three times before I cracked the code on how to get them in. Yes they are snug, but don't bang on anything. Look at fitted engine, on left side valve cover, had to notch rear of cover to clear pipe, as these covers have no external gasket rail and go straight down to head. I used the old Moroso covers on original dummy up. Live and learn

 

[Dodgenut64]

Looking good