My first muscle car build thread (lots of pics)

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good news everyone! well i made $50 bucks today helping my friend with a small engine repair. Its also going to snow a bunch so hopefully i can make a few bucks on driveways tomorrow! I did some math and it should be about 180-200 bucks for a gasket set, carb rebuild kit, oil, motor mounts and stuff. So so far so good! Im really hoping to have the money soon while i have the time.

What do you think my motor will make?
low miles 77 318 from a van or something
edelbrock ld4b intake manifold.
flowtech headers
340 cam
not sure what carb but probably a 600 cfm, my dads got a ton sitting in the corner im just going to grab the best candidate and do a rebuild.

I was thinking optimistically maybe 270 hp and 320tq at the flywheel.

I think im going to gasket match the intake but im not sure if i should port or not, or what to port.
 
Terminology correction: Wheels are for hot rods. "Rims" are for hoopdies.


SirDan said:
Well now that i dont have school till the 25th i can focus on my car. I got a sweet set of 4 police rims and police caps for Christmas!
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The other two are allready on the back of my car. just need some tires to put the full set on.

Ive also decided to freshen up the 318 in the garage that is low miles and throw my intake and stuff on it. Im not sure if im going to re ring it or just throw my stuff on. Im having a hard time trying to scrape any money together, damn economy! anyway i saw an article on some 318 bolt ons and what they did and i figure ill be close with mine. http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/engine/mopp_0312_318_long_block_bolt_ons/index.html

I allready got a bunch of the engine apart and it looks pretty good. If i cant scrape alot of money together im just going to leave the block as is and throw my cam,intake, headers and maybe a new oil and water pump on. we shall see.

If i can get the engine in and working i can start on the 4 speed swap. Oh and i also forgot to mention i scored a manual steering box off ebay for 40 dollars shipped. So progress is being made!
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i suppose your rite, i always just thought as wheels as a tire+a rim though. but i suppose thats a huge can of worms there.
 
Be glad this aint a Jeep site. They wouldda tore off your arms and legs and left the rest for the coyotes if you had said that on a Jeep forum.
 
In the Jeep world.....ummm.....yeah. LOL
 
I expected to make more money today but by the time i dug out my house and my grandmothers house there was only 1 driveway to do. so I only made 23 dollars.:angry7: but anyway now I have 70 bucks saved up. maybe I can sell some parts and get the remaining funds. Also maybe ill grab some pictures of the low miles engine since, everyone loves pictures.
 
Change of plans, im just going to throw my bolt ons on the stock engine in the car. So i ordered up the gaskets and started yanking crap off today! This motor looks really clean inside, maybe it doesn't have the mileage i thought it had? Anyway my dad was also kind enough to give me a rebuilt 600 cfm carb. Im not doing the headers just yet. maybe next weekend if all goes well with the intake, cam and carb.:thumleft:

Sorry i don't have any pictures but i really find it hard to bring my 500 dollar camera into the garage and cover it in grease.
 
so i bolted in/on my 340 cam ld4b and an edelbrock 600 cfm carb. i took the car out and found a dry spot. slammed it down into first on the column and punched it from a dead stop no power breaking. spun my 275s threw first gear and slightly into second. thats amazing compaired to what it did before. it wouldent even power brake it threw first gear before. cant wait to throw the headers on. heres a pic of the engine, its still a greasy ***** but now its faster. oh the 340 air cleaner is just for intimidation purposes.

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bad news is i started my car up today and the fan was hitting the shroud really badly. turns out the fan is totally screwed up. Looks likes ill need a new one of those. i guess it didn't like my new found power.
 
So ive been stupid busy with school. But i decided to take today off and get the dart roadworthy again. The intake was weeping coolant from the one hose still so i threw more JB weld on it. seems to have worked well.

I looped my heater core lines (temporarily) since my heater core has been steaming the window up really bad. Hopefully ill fix it in the summer some time.

I found a fan in my basement, not entirely sure what its off of, possibly my old slant 6 dart. anyway it fit and works great.

Hooked up my choke (still needs adjusting) and 340 air cleaner flapper door.

I also fixed the transmission kickdown linkage. even 2 threads from the end it did not have enough adjustment and wouldn't shift right. yeah i know i probably hurt it driving like that for 20 minutes, but the manual is coming soon. anyway, this thing is crazy now. Just romp it from a stop without power braking it and it spins the tires like mad. It wouldn't even spin them unless you power braked it before.

The one thing that was a slight annoyance is, my grant tough wheel horn button fell off when i slammed my hood. The button is glued to this other piece that sticks in the metal piece. sorry i cant explain it better. but long story short the glue separated, causing the button to fall off. My dad is a body man so i had him fix it for me. Not sure what adhesive he used though. I think I'm going to email grant, the wheel is less than a year old. I know originals are built better but, im poor, and im not doing a restoration. So the grant seemed like a good choice over an original.
 
SirDan...may I call you Sir?,.....thanks for postin'...I enjoyed your pics and your text!
 
car is coming along great.. I look forward to more updates.. as for your kickdown linkage problem, if its still giving you fits, take it off.. lol.. When I put the 360/727 combo in my Dart (upgrade from the /6 and 904 tranny) I didnt have the proper kickdown linkage.. So.. I left it off, and just manually shifted it.. drove it that way the first season I had the car.. liked it so much, that winter I bought a full manual shift valve body for my 727 from Summit LOL .. Since your eventually gonna go 4-speed anyways, figured it might give you one less thing to have to adjust lol..
 
Adjusting its the easy part, It just wasn't long enough. My dad welded a Long nut to the end of it so it was longer. Shifts great now. Shifting it on the column was fun though.

Hopefully I will be able to work on the car some more but right now school is my priority.
 
SirDan said:
Adjusting its the easy part, It just wasn't long enough. My dad welded a Long nut to the end of it so it was longer. Shifts great now. Shifting it on the column was fun though.

Hopefully I will be able to work on the car some more but right now school is my priority.
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mines on the column as well, and it is fun to shift it there, however I do believe I will eventually move the shifter to the floor one of these years LOL
 
Let me know if you need parts , Portwashington , ny

I bought my pro street dart sport from i guy neal in huntintong by that skishop --- Angelo
 
I took the car out of hibernation the other day, The power steering pressure hose is leaking BAD! It also seems to me like the weights in the mechanical advance might be sticking. I also noticed my strut rod bushings which were fairly new blew out! So i figured SCREW THIS! and dropped 200 bones on some rms adjustable ones that use hiem joints instead of bushings. Hopefully she handles a bit better once i get them. I also invested in them since i don't want to take half the suspension apart to put new ones in!

Today I saw my friend had a nice sized hose clamp laying around, so i grabbed it and used it to mount my tach up. Yes i finaly figured out how to mount it on my auto column shift! I also hooked it up! I did notice one thing, first of all my dash lights stopped working. Second of all i hooked the tach light to a lights on power source and the light doesn't come on. not sure if its related to my dash lights going out?


The bad news is i need to get this thing up and running to be my daily driver. My daily driver car needs pinion bearings bad! and i would like to stop driving it until I can fix it so i don't damage something.

I haven't figured out what to do about the horrible power steering leak. I don't want to drop a any money into it as I have about 95% of the stuff needed to go to manual steering. I do have a 70? baracuda with power steering i could steal the hose from possibly. It just pains me to spend money on something i don't want! maybe i will have to break down and spend it on a hose.

Also one more thing! my dad got me another set of left and right fenders as a graduation present. although graduation is in may. anyway the fenders are nicer than what i have currently.

Hopefully ill grab some pictures tomorrow of the tach and current state of the car.

I also ordered a new heater core! Installing it will probably be a nightmare.


Sorry for such long updates here but senior year in college is more important than the car!
 
You are making good progress.
Actually the heater core is not too hard to change.
 
sireland67 said:
You are making good progress.
Actually the heater core is not too hard to change.
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Thats great to hear!


Another update, i looked the other day and my new PST strut rod bushings were shot to ****. So i decided to go with RMS strut rods. to be honest it was easier to get the old ones out than to get the new ones in!! I got so pissed off trying to get these strut rods in! it was so annoying. I ended up having to take the hiem joints apart to get the lower control arm bolt to thread in. well anyway after 8 hours i got the god damn strut rods installed! They seem to work awesome though but, i only got to take a short drive.

I had a wicked vibration and limped back home. It turns out my water pump bearing was SHOT! It must have wiggled back and forth a half an inch!! it was so bad! so i get a water pump and start the install.

I loosen the alt and it does not move, i put my hand on the alt and lean into it a bit, the alt pops free and slams my middle finger in between the alt and bracket. For the next 4 hours it hurt like you would not believe. at this point in time it is hurting slightly but I have drank probably 10 or 11 beers since the incident. I know its not a good fix but its what i have at my disposal. anyway even in pain i got the old water pump off and got the new one on with 3 bolts holding it. hopefully tomorrow i can finish the job and go for a ride.I apologize for not having pictures but I've been so angry at this care lately it hasn't crossed my mind!
 
Water pump is installed and works like a charm.

Today I replaced the passenger side rubber hose and caliper. I thought perhaps they were the cause of my brake problem. they did not fix anything. So I figured screw it let me measure the master cylinder push rod and try adjusting it. I messed with it a bit, and got the adjustment where I thought it should be. wheels spun as free as they did before adjusting and I had adjusted the rod about 1/4 inch! the brakes are finally decent now!!! Its been at least a year I've been trying to fix them. So thats a huge monkey off my back.

The bad thing is my year old angled oil filter seals are leaking. I am hoping the bolt just needs to be tightened a bit more or something stupid. It started hailing as i was trying to fix it so I gave up for the day.

the good news is i drove the car maybe 100 miles, Its great. There are still a few minor problems here and there but seems
solid.

Also I'm thinking of rattle canning it flat black this weekend so all the body panels are at least he same color. what do you guys think? good idea? I promise I'm going to get some pictures up soon.
 
Great to hear that your making some progress on your car.. I cant wait until the bodywork and paint are done on my car so I can take her out for a spin.. still holding out hope that I will get to drive her this summmer... as for rattle canning the car all one color. I too thought about that several times.. but in the end I stuck with the complete 'work in progress' look for several years.. LOL ....
 

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Well Today I replaced my power steering high pressure hose. The new part fit like ****! I had to rebend it ALOT. Kind of pisses me off for a 40-50 dollar part.

I also flat blacked the car. 5 cans krylon 2 1/4 cans rustoleom. This is a temporary paint job until i can afford the materials for a real one(vitamin C with blacked out hood wing scoops and some custom graphic im still working on). Just having trouble getting the tape off, its just too damned sticky.

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I really like it, I want to put an orange stripe or something on it to match the 4 orange rims. rite now ive got the rally wheels up front because i dont have tires for the other 2 police wheels. I might work on the grill tommorow and put that in. Im looking to paint it like this

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Also the guys up the street were messing with their turd chevy (wouldn't even power brake it). I can't wait to show them what a mopar burnout looks like.
 
looks great Dan! You def have to show up those chebby guys down the street. When will you be starting the 4 speed swap? I know you have quite the collection of parts hopefully when your done with school you will be swapping it out.
 
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