Barn find 72 340 duster

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813Demon340 said:
Glad to see you're still plugging away at it. Chasing parts is harder than building the car at times.
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i know right. Now much to post as of late, but still doing thing on the car systems, grille, tail light lenses. If all goes well, will try and get the Engine and trans out this week...
 
thanks guys.. Same process I have been using for years. the 72 light is a time consuming lens because of the length of the lens. over forty years these lights tend to warp and become wavy with heat and age. Painting the black accent line is the killer. It took as long to tape that off as it did the whole light before the silver paint.
 
Made a little progress today. A few pics of how I spent my Saturday....
 

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Looking forward to seeing all the details of the motor. Theres a few good threads on Moparts on detailing 340s but no one seems to have much info on the 72-73 motors or 74 360's

Nice to see these stock resto threads showing up too. Not to many guys putting A bodies back to stock and thats was gets my interest lately.
 
65dartcharger said:
Tim! You are doing a great restoration on your car. I know the feeling about chasing parts. Sometimes it's holds up the whole project. I will subscribe to this one.
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Coming from you Ulf, that is quite the compliment. I only know how to restore a car one way. When it is done I want it to look like the day it showed up at the dealership on the back of the car carrier...
 
Tim! Did you find ay pictures on how they looked ? I will see if I have any old ones fron Hot Rod magazines. I mounted them together and they fit just fine.
 
I still have not discover how they looked. It appears that they may have been two pieces I have not had the time to remove the exhaust manifold. It looks as if the remaining shield on my engine is under the manifold as if what is not rusted out was like a gasket. I am just going to guess at this point that you have the top part of the heat shield and there was a lower part. I will take the manifold out in the next day or two. My duster as rough as it is looks as if nothing more that maintance items were replaced. I think it may have the factory clutch still in it.
 
Adamr I would say that you have solved the riddle. the shield in the picture looks as if it is brand new. Is the thing a repop or just a mint used piece?
 
I think its just a nice used one. Im also willing to bet 318s use the exact same one.
 
AdamR said:
I think its just a nice used one. Im also willing to bet 318s use the exact same one.
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I am sure you are right on that. what pieces that are left on my 72 318 car look just the same. they are as rusted out as the 340 car. Those manifolds must have been early takeoffs that were kept very well. Now that is solved will take a little detective work to figured out how it was finished on the engine. My first guess not taking my engine apart is the engine was assembled and painted blue with the "normal overspray you would see on any engine detailing, manifolds, negative battery cable etc. Heat shield Gloss black and installed after engine paint along with heat stove which was gloss black also. This will only make sense if the shield will fit after the manifold is in place. If not then it had to be install with the manifold and would receive overspray.
 
Hemimark, you didn't happen to run across another set of those molding that you passed on did you?
 
I knew it was but unable to get pictures of the ID pads until I got the exhaust manifold out of the way. piece of cutoff pipe in the way. Matching numbers on the trans and motor.
Kind of a strange VIN number for a sinister Black 340 car... I always use an extra jack stand for security........
 

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Car was built in last part of April, after the service bulletin came out on the change over to the cast crank. It would appear that my car got one of the left over forged crank engines. Crank does not have the cast balancer on it...
 

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Tim, Congrats on finding out it's a forged crank motor! I wonder how much later in the year you could find that.....can't wait to see fresh formal black on those flanks! :toothy7:
 
I am very happy that each thing I remove from the engine you can tell it's never been removed. this will make it sooo much easier to document the factory methods of assembly and finishes. Correct bolts in the correct places.
This type of resto, the engine/trans will always be the last system to to be rebuilt but wanted to remove the exhaust manifold and take a photo of the vin pad. also wanted to see it the engine was a cast crank or forged crank. Dave and I were talking about how close production date was to TSB bulletin about change over to cast and had us both wondering it status..
 
Tim! That is great info. I didn't know that 72 was the year they changed from forged to cast. Lucky for you to have matching numbers engine and tranny. Was the block masked off before they painted the engine? I found out that were the cubic inch and year is stamped in front of the left cylinder head they put a piece of tejp to mask of the paint. Then they just just removed it!

Is the bolt holding the water in the engine block painted or unpainted? I know from talking with Frank Badalson that the early seventies had both versions. He might be interested in that info. He's trying to find the date were they switched in profuction.
 
Awesome ! Im very excited to see this car be restored to this level. I know theres question as to if the battery cable was painted on the motor after 1970. Guys are finding unpainted cables but painted bolts.

Ive had 2, 72-340s with forged cranks. Both were played with though so who knows if they were the original cranks
 
65dartcharger said:
Tim! That is great info. I didn't know that 72 was the year they changed from forged to cast. Lucky for you to have matching numbers engine and tranny. Was the block masked off before they painted the engine? I found out that were the cubic inch and year is stamped in front of the left cylinder head they put a piece of tejp to mask of the paint. Then they just just removed it!

Is the bolt holding the water in the engine block painted or unpainted? I know from talking with Frank Badalson that the early seventies had both versions. He might be interested in that info. He's trying to find the date were they switched in profuction.
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Funny that you should mention Frank. I have know him for over twenty years. He and i used to judge local Mopar car show around this area. Great guy. Saw him in Carlisle this year. The guy i got the car from unfortunately
changed a few things in an effort to get car running to I guess, get more money out of it. water pump, fuel pump was changed. Also the rubber lines from fuel lines to pump were replaced. Too bad he did that. most of the engine is untouched which is great, but a few details will take a little more investigation Which bolt are you referring too? want to make sure we are on the same page.
 
I pulled the driver side exhaust manifold off this afternoon to check and see if the "shield" was in fact a gasket. this I believe answers the questions I had concerning the " correct" gasket for this application. the picture that Ulf (65 Dartcharger) sent me of the shield and heat stove is the top part of a two part gasket/shield that would be correct on this car/engine combo. My 318 parts car shows the same type of setup. In the first two photos you can see that the shield is a gasket on this driver's side manifold. in the last two photo's you can see evidence of paint that was not completely burned off. I would say at this point that the shield was put on before the manifold( Of course!) and would have received much over spray. The other shield was gloss black and along with the gloss black heat stove was place on the motor after paint. the passenger side manifold was also removed and was as Adamr and myself suspected that it was a clean machined surface, no gasket. the reproduction shield is not correct for this application, but i think will work as far as being the bottom shield of this two part system. the top shield will overlap and with the two attachment points (clips) it will held to the heat stove portion of the total system. the third photo down is on the inside of the manifold and in both photos it is hard to tell but is residual paint that in person you can tell it is blue engine paint. the last photo it is a piece of the gasket/shield with blue paint on it..
 

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Tim! The second picture in reply #117 there is a boot/plug. They were used by the assembly line workers to get out all the air of the water channels after the cooling system were filled.

On some engines these plugs were mounted before the engine was painted a.d some engines got unpainted plugs after the procedure was done. I guess they were not mounted in time or that there was a change in production. It was faster to not mount the plug for the guys who took the air out of the engine. Otherwise they had to take away that plug when bleeding the system.

I think you are right re the one piece mounted as gasket. A great source is to check out old magazines with color photos of the engine bay. It's a great resource for information.
 
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