Glamour Shots.. '62 Valiant Wagon

[slant six]

3/4/24:

I got some more things accomplished. Nothing super important, but fiddly stuff that takes time.

I am still waiting on parts to properly set the valve spring pressures on my head before I start to assemble the engine. That is the big hold-up on engine assembly for me right now.

I got the OE 3-speed bell housing all cleaned and ready for reassembly. As bell housings go this one was just as grimy inside as any other one I have ever come across.
Parts look good and I ordered a new clutch fork boot.
It is clean now and I found a damaged threaded hole. so I fixtured the part up on the drill press and set it up for heli-coil surgery.

The surgery went well - no problems.

Shiny:

I also spent a few hours back and forth futzing with the Crank Scraper - they always need to be adjusted to be close and correct without banging into the rotating assembly.

Lastly, I measured the pistons in the holes to begin to calculate the compression ratio.

 

[abdywgn]

the minute details take time but make a difference in the end! Thanks for all the posts!

 

[slant six]

the minute details take time but make a difference in the end! Thanks for all the posts!

Yep no problem.
The fiddly bits do take time, but it's worth it.

 

[slant six]

3/14/24:

I have been getting some small things done - I am still waiting on the proper valve locks to be manufactured and arrive from PAC. I have been trying to set my spring heights and pressures. So far, I cannot get them quite right without trying a few more bits.

I also ordered some parts from Dr. Diff, and am waiting for those to arrive so I can build the 3rd member for the 8 3/4" axle.

I also CC'd A new to me head that has been milled and unknown amount with 11/32" stem Chevy 1.7/1.44 valves, new guides, and the spring seats machined for more cam / valve lift.The head came in at 42.2CC which is good to get this engine in the Mid 9:1 CR range which will be perfect for this combination.

I also found that I have a reputable local chrome shop within walking distance from the shop. There actually used to be 2 chrome shops in town, and about 2 years ago the other shop closed up when the owner passed away. I decided to give Bill a try with some spare Door handles. - They turned out great!

I finished up the front parking lights with new lenses and seals, got them installed and tested.

 

[slant six]

3/19/24:

The parts arrived that were ordered from Dr. Diff. A bunch of stuff needed to make a swap meet "741" carrier and 3.55 gears work well was sourced, including: Dr. Diff Torsen style differential, pinion bearings, races, seal and carrier bearings. The 3rd member was setup and installed.

The 7.25" axle that is being replaced also had a 3.55:1 ratio in it as this was an original factory "stick car"

The axles were installed without much fuss, and I started to assemble the rear brakes when I realized that there were no parking brake levers in the donor rear brake parts that were acquired for this build. A set of rear parking brake levers were ordered from Dante's MoPar parts and they should arrive this week.

The front upper control arms were installed and the ball joint threads on the LH arm were stripped. The ball joint was just swimming around in there having fun, so I broke out the hot glue gun and welded the ball joint to the upper arm. This fix has been used before and should provide satisfactory service for quite a while. If you have been following the epic saga here, you will recall that about a year ago I rebuilt the upper arms with new bushes and upper ball joints as well as a fresh paint job.

Welded:

Not welded = Good Threads

Lifter valley return "stand offs" were installed as per Doc Dutra's recommendations.
The '62 Block has 6 Lifter Gallery return holes; at Ø25/64" each - some of the later blocks have 5 oil drain holes at a larger maybe Ø1/2", leaving out the return hole above the oil pump arm.
A cheap and easy solution for the oil standoffs can be fashioned out of some valve guides wit some drilling and turning as needed - I Found some SBI engine parts powered metal guides that cut and drill very easily.

Lastly, the camshaft went in for some degree work. The head is still incomplete; waiting on some valve locks. My goal is 101° intake lobe ℄ for this build.
I installed the Rollmaster timing set with a small amount of hand sanding and also a bit of anti-seize on the bottom gear and installed it in at "0" on the crank gear. The cam degreed in at 102.5°℄ and my goal is 101°. so I am going to advance the cam 2° and then I should be very close at 100.5°

More updates to come!

 

[slant six]

3/29/24:

I have been getting some things accomplished:

The 10" Rear parking Brake Levers arrived and got installed.

This 3rd member was missing the pinion snubber, I was going through some bins of parts and found 2 of these that I had stashed away when I was a kit and forgot I had them. So i installed that too.

10" skinny rear brakes installed with levers now! The rear is getting buttoned up!

Notice anything about this flywheel?

Okay Slant 6 Trivia masters did you figure it out?
Stock Small center bore flywheel with the 10" / 9" pressure plate pattern on it and the 10" Mazda/Ford pressure plate bolt pattern on it too.
Paul at my local non automotive machine shop does odd jobs for me and the have a "file on me" too. I am not sure if that is good or bad.. but I can now take any stock slant 6 flywheel to them and they can drill it for the Ford/Mazda 10" diaphragm pressure plate.

Next we'll have to see if this whole shebang fits in the 3 speed a903/a745 bell housing. I would guess that it should but we will see!

Got the engine all dressed up. ready to marry up the the bell, transmission and k frame.

This is not the head to be used - jut stuck on as a lifting point, as I sent my head to get the spring pockets cut 0.045", Tired of waiting on PAC for the retainers. to try out.

Ran out of time this winter for the 5 speed conversion, so maybe next fall for that. I just cleaned up the crummy a903 for now.

Doing down, first floor, Slant 6

All bolted in. Ready for some spindles and suspension bits.

Cleaned up the OE booties and replaced them back on the tie rod ends.

It's back down on all fours with edelbrock front shocks, adjustable front strut bars and big ~1.03 Front Torsion bars.

Brake bleeding and head install / exhaust fab to come in the hopefully near future.

 

[Swifster]

All of that work looks great. I can't wait to see the finish project.

 

[slant six]

All of that work looks great. I can't wait to see the finish project.

Thank you, I am glad you appreciate it. I will be happy to tie all of this up hopefully soon. These things never go quick, always taking longer than anticipated or expected. I wanted to slam a T5 Transmission in there as well, but maybe next winter.

 

[slant six]

3/31/24:

I figured out how to fit a 10" Diaphragm Pressure plate into the 3 speed bell. More futzing to shim the fulcrum closer to the plate fingers is needed.

The 10" 1" x 23 Chrysler splined clutch disk is fitted under the pressure plate as well. I have some 1 1/16" x 10 10" Discs ready to go as well for that eventual swap to a T5 transmission in the future.

The brakes are connected and fully bled ( I think), to the best of my ability with one person doing the bleeding.

This looks alot better than the old 9" steam rollers that used to be there before!

 

[slant six]

4/12/24:

Well, I finally moved the car off of the lift. mainly because it has 4 wheels connected to axles and spindles again, and I had broken stuff to fix on my XJ Jeep that the lift made easier work of the job.

I sent the cylinder head to the machine shop 2 weeks ago to get the spring pockets cut down just a little bit, as I was trying to equalize the valve spring pressures for the seat and open. Since this is a second or 3rd hand head it has had work done to it before. I got some Speedway small block Chevy springs, so it needed a spring locator in the spring pocket to keep the springs from flailing around as the springs are quite a bit smaller on the I.D. compared to MoPar Slant 6 / LA valve springs. So that means all different retainers and locks too.

I fussed around off and on for seemingly months to get the correct combination of parts to make these valves, springs, locks, etc work correctly with each other. I also had trouble because my valve spering micrometer was for larger valve spring retainers and it was difficult to get an accurate measurement for the installed heights.

I got a PAC Racing spring height micrometer T-904. It's meant for LS engines but it works with these little SBC retainers too, It's pricey but the height measurements will be "dead nuts on correct".


My "el cheapo micrometer" "fell short" due to the retainer diameter being small.
I made some shims for it but they turned out to be garbage as well.

The PAC Micrometer is tiny but works well for the small OD Retainers.

Phew! Finally! Ready for studs, temp sending unit, paint, and put this head in the car to hang some headers and build the rest of the exhaust!

 

[slant six]

4/15/24:

Happy Tax Day.
Pay the government today!

In Valiant news:

I got the head Painted, 13 new manifold studs installed with sealer, and it is ready to place on the car.
Fun Fact: 2 of the head bolts cannot be removed/ installed on the '60-'62 A bodies with a 225 and the heater box installed!

A new Victor gasket with copper spray goo was placed on the block as well.

I got the cylinder head on, all torqued, lifters installed rocker arm installed, new Smith Brothers push rods in stock length installed, rough cold lash set, filled with water, intake, exhaust, and other side and front of engine accessories installed, etc.

Had to futz around with the starter because it stopped starting somehow. On this setup, the manifolds/header need to be removed to remove the starter, so I got some more practice at removing and installing slant 6 manifolds. After pulling the starter, I took it apart and put it back together and it started starting again, I probably overtightened something on the starter's terminal block allowing an intermittent connection, but I seem to have fixed it after removal and reassembly.

Got it to crank over and prime the oiling system until the Warning light went off. I still need to install an oil pressure gauge before the initial fire. I will probably spin it over a bunch again to get some oil over to the rockers. It is ready to fire once I connect the fuel lines and get the Spark plugs in, but I will wait until I build some exhaust off of the headers to get the exhaust to exit below the car.

 

[slant six]

4/21/24:

I have about 14 hours in the front header pipes / down pipes etc. that connect the headers to the merge collector behind the cross member.
I got both the front and rear header collector pipes down to the suspension level and past the bell housing. The stuff I am making now will be much better than the previous owner's muffler shop garbage with aluminized pipe. poor fitting, leaking boogered MIG welds and clangy pipes that did not allow for a clutch linkage adjustment.

This chassis has to be the most difficult to complete this sort of custom down pipe fabrication on. With the 3 speed column to transmission rods, clutch linkage torque shaft, and giant power steering box, all in close proximity. I did this job on my 64 Dart before. I had slightly more room on that car, and I wanted this iteration to be better, so it is slower going.

I started with some of these:

For the front pipe I left the header collector reducer alone and began burning pipe right onto it.
The front pipe 90°'s down toward the frame rail, then bends again just above the torsion bar.

Here is what that pipe looks like semi completed:

When the gaps are right, the hot glue gun runs like butter:

For the rear pipe that was not possible, no way that long ~5" of stainless reducer would clear what is going on under the car.
So a little slicing and dicing to the stainless works part was needed:
I ended up with about ~ 1" of header reducer. Maybe not Ideal, but required for the packaging of this car - It aint' no E Body or Truck!
]

Little by little..

A lot of work was required to get to this point.
I realized that Here, I needed to order some more 45° Mandel bends to complete the job. So they are ordered.

Just another 2-3 feet to get from that monstrosity of front pipes, pie cuts, and bends to here:

But that will be the easy part (probably)!

These pipes sure look goofy because I have yet to figure out where to cut and at what angle, and if I need some more pie cuts it there too.

See you next time!

 

[Darter6]

Great work !

 

[slant six]

5/2/24:


The exhaust is built and completed. The front downpipes were fitted, fitted, and fitted again before final welding.
With the exhaust complete, I was able to fire the engine for the first time.

It ran and had good oil pressure. There are still small fiddly tasks to complete such as the valves need to be lashed, the timing set, as well as the idle speed, and the idle mixture set.

Some documentation:
The Right Pipe is connected with a 45° bend and a straight section to the merge collector.

The Left Pipe was getting mocked up with mostly the same configuration - a 45° angle, a long section of straight pipe, and also a pie cut to get the angle fitted with mostly no gaps. I also had to slice the long section of pipe with a 3° cut on it to get it merged onto the 45° angle with no gaps. That does not show up in the pictures.

Lots of hacked off bits of stainless left behind.

Fully Welded with tabs on as well.

Someone stopped by after lunch to help and lend a hand. She was helping to install spark plugs among other things.

After fitting the front of the exhaust the tailpipe is all goobered up and will need to be sorted out, and rerouted for actual driving. It's good for now, however.

 

[slant six]

Great work !

Thanks Romeo.

You should make a trip out East and take a ride in it when its all done!

 

[Darter6]

Someday, As fast as time is passing don't know when it will be.
If so I will surely look you up !

 

[slant six]

5/6/24:

Over the weekend I got to doing a bit more work and sorting things on the Valiant wagon.

After running the engine for maybe ~4 minutes I was concerned that I was not seeing oil at the top of the engine...

I feared the worst!
* A mis-installed rearmost cam bearing?
* A head gasket with a missing block-to-head oil transfer passage?
* Something else dumb that I did not catch?

Let's spin the roulette wheel of Slant 6 maladies...

I went to the garage Sunday fully expecting to be pissed off when I found the cause of my dumbassery.
In preparation, I went to the hardware store and bought an 18" long 1/4" drill bit to poke around and clear obstructions etc. in the block to head oil passage. I removed the heater box from the firewall for proper head bolt and valve cover access.

I have learned on a new engine install such as this, to not hook up the heater lines so that when valve cover removal is needed for the break-in and initial lashings that I do not need to drain the core and make a coolant/water mess everywhere.


When I got the heater box off, I started the engine up - There was oil up there at the top, but it was spurting out the rearmost rocker shaft stud.. creating a pretty substantial rocker shaft leak so that the oil could not get to the rocker arms up past cylinder #5.

Pheww! I was relieved. I corrected my dumbassery this time with minimal amounts of depression or self-loathing. A quick tightening up of that rearmost rocker shaft bolt and bam - Oil pressure to all rockers!
I let the engine run and warm up, then set the hot lash.

So Timing, Idle, and Lash are all set. The next tuning task will be to get the O2 gauge on there and start tuning the PV and Jets on the little Holley 4 barrel - Or possibly trade it for an Edelbrock AFB 500.

Once I got the rocker cover screwed back on, then I set up the shop for a rough drivable alignment.
I was able to get -0.75°Camber on the right, which is what I wanted, but I struggled to get any negative Camber on the left side. Maybe -0.125° was all I could get.

Caster was set at +4.5° for both sides.
Toe at -1/16" toe in.

We shall see if the steering wheel is anywhere near straight.

it seems that I will have to install some Moog "Problem Solver" Upper Control Arm Bushings on the left side only. I had to do this same thing on my '69 Dart to get the camber in the negative range where I wanted it with stock-stamped arms and small upper ball joints. The right side seems to fall in place with no offset bushings. I am not sure if that is a coincidence or a trend? I do not have enough A Body data to compare it to as My Road Race '64 Dart has adjustable upper control arms.

Next, fix the rear exhaust, cut and re-angle the end of the tailpipe, and possibly add a rear tailspout.
I have a few more "leakers" on the manifold studs that need to be removed and wrapped excessively with Teflon thread sealer. They might eventually "rust seal themselves together too, but when there is pressure that builds in the cooling system, there are some weepers and leakers that drip onto the block.

 

[slant six]

5/21/24:

Since The last update I have been getting the brakes sorted, I thought I had a bleeding issue, but it turns out when I rebuilt the master cylinder I may have left the residual pressure valves out of the master cylinder ports that connect to the dual hardlines. I could not get a pedal on this thing at all, but I could after a few pumps of the pedal.

After thinking about the problem I bought a 2# and 10# Wilwood Inline RPV. I installed the 10# in the brake line to the rear Axle. Much Better! Now I just need to add the 2# RPV to the front line sometime soon and that should solve my soft pedal issue.

I will now know to replace those little RPV's in the master cylinder if I ever rebuild one completely again!

The front self-alignment feels really good and I have a little off-center in the steering wheel to correct with the tie rod end sleeves, but it's not much. I feel that it is pretty good for a dude with some wrenches, a bubble gauge, and some tape measures.

On the alignment, I was not able to get the proper amount of negative camber on the left side -Originally I was going to pull the upper control arm off and install the offset bushings, but then I hit the easy button and tossed some washers under the lower ball joint mount, and it seems to have worked well.

It was 86° here yesterday and the car does not run hot even sitting still in traffic. I have yet to take it on the highway, ( it used to run hot on the highway before the engine rebuild) I want to get the brakes fully sorted before I do that.
I have yet to fill it with antifreeze, as I have been running water and flushing it out to clean more junk out of the block.

Oil Pressure is good even at hot idle. I need to change the oil soon. It has about half of the 500 break-in miles on it, and I have yet to attempt any acceleration trials - The car has no Tachometer in it and I probably will not install one yet. So car without installing an O2 Sensor the small 4 bbl feels good, but I predict there is a large lean area off idle with light load - Maybe some Power valve or primary jetting futzing to solve that?

Last nite after the 4th grade band rehearsal, I had a helper working with me to install the flat 4 trailer wiring and a Signal Stat Flarestat Model № 127.

The Flarestat unit did not work at first. - The other one of these that I installed on my '64 Dart was fuss-free.. This one needed the switch contacts massaged inside as they did not contact - Easy fix! and easy to service with 2 small flathead screws to remove. At the end of the night, we had working trailer lights and working 4-way flashers. Now just need to reinstall the heater core and box, (maybe check that valve lash again before I do that) and fill it with antifreeze as well as get the front RPV installed and then this car is ready for a road trip!


The Flarestat is installed and working.- YAY! I wish this one had the white lettering on the pullout Globe/Knob, but it works for now!

Helping hands make little work. These little hands are perfect for getting wires run in factory loom holders without removing the rear bumper - My pork chop hands cannot fit in there!

 

[abdywgn]

Thanks for sharing findings on the brakes. I like the helpers work light, use mine more often than not now. Hmm, maybe I could use it to read at night?

 

[slant six]

Thanks for sharing findings on the brakes. I like the helpers work light, use mine more often than not now. Hmm, maybe I could use it to read at night?

For Sure.
That is my old Steamlight Protac HL Headlamp

I upgraded to the Protac 2.0 for the garage, and now I have that one at home.

 

[abdywgn]

mine is the cheap HF with 2 AA's. maybe I'll upgrade once I can get close enough to the lathe to rewire it. Ya know, new project, new tool.

 

[mygasser]

you're not the only one with sausage fingers, lol.
neil.

 

[slant six]

I tested out the trailer bits last nite.


The report came back all good!


I went to pick up a spent slant 6 core engine from a Yale forklift at my neighbor's garage. Lights were good, hitch was solid too!

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[Darter6]

I feel that it is pretty good for a dude with some wrenches, a bubble gauge, and some tape measures.

That's all you need ! It will work perfect.

 

[slant six]

6-26-24:

It has been a bit since I updated.

I have been driving the car and breaking in the rings etc. I have the 500 miles done and I have changed the oil. All looks good.

We went the the bike trail a week ago and We got there, rode bikes a bit, then when we got back to the car it would not start due to a discharged battery.
Luckily we parked in a paved lot and we got the wagon setup for a catch in gear start. Another helpful trail user stopped by to give us some more oomph.

We got the car fired and drove it home. I found that the negative diodes on the alternator that I detailed and rebuilt last winter wiggled loose, so I bought new ones, pressed them in and soldered them. Because I have essentially no current passing through the dashboard ammeter any more, it is difficult to tell when there are charging problems like this compared to a stock Mopar.

Then earlier this week I took the wagon to a local car show / retirement party for a friend at the local Stellantis dealer.
I had a engine clanging noise on the way home. It was the outer ring on the Harmonic balancer coming loose and it moved forward into the fan. fortunately there was no fan or radiator damage as i was only a mile or so form home when the clanging began.

It might not look all that different in these pictures, but the ring moved up about 1/4"!
I tried to press it back by hand a bit to drive it 4 more miles to the shop for replacement.

Next I wanted to experiment / try to solve the highway sustined speed overheating issue.

I had the radiator out already for the dampener replacement, so I put a wire in the bottom hose to try to prevent any possible or perceived lower hose collapsing.

I also fabbed' up a pair of proper front license plate mounting brackets based on the originals from my other '62 "Kansas car"

This (the blue wagon) to the best of my knowledge was sold as a PA car in 1962 so no front plate brackets were present. But there were screw holes.
Maybe the way I had the plate mounted before blocked enough of the bottom of the radiator's airflow at high speeds to cause my problem? We will find out.

Probably Not Ideal for Lower Rad airflow?

Front Plate Brackets Fabbed:

I seem to not have any pictures of the front License plate in it's new lower position, But I will get one soon.


Up next: reverting back to an oe style accelerator pedal and other fiddly bits.