Need help perfecting the budget build hemi swap

-
So this is my second year in this garage-less house. Last year I wasn't prepared to do any type of mechanical work. All my stuff was in my in-laws garage, so I just didn't have the tools. So I thought what can I tinker with, that won't take up a lot of space ? The answer was,,, I always wanted a guitar, but a good guitar is about two grand. So I searched ebay for broken instruments. After four, I had to quit. most of them needed the electronics rewired. Since I suck at that, I thought it might be a way to learn something about doing clean soldering, and stuff.
Well than the issue became, I don't know how to play the damn thing. a friend of mine came to visit from N.J., and he has a metal-core band. So he's explaining how he's been to the west coast, Asia, and Europe. So than be breaks out a few of his CD's, and when I heard them I though, " Wow if this music sucks this bad, and people pay money to hear it, well I'm not to afraid to try, and do something.
So I entered a contest. The rules were, " Whomever was the most impressive newby, wins a new Gibson Les Paul elite ." My thoughts were," if you're really, really bad, and people laugh, it'll level the playing field, and I could win this elite over priced guitar. " Than I wanted to auction it off to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research, because my wife has it bad, and I didn't need another guitar I couldn't play. So this post is entitled, " WHAT TO DO WITH ONE'S SELF, WHEN IT'S TOO COLD TO WORK ON THE CAR." ( All video effects, music, and bullshit by me..)
]

[ame]http://youtu.be/3ouJplDQNW0[/ame]

[ame]http://youtu.be/KA455NWpQDU[/ame]
 
garyfish340 said:
I'll be willing to bet if you call TTI and ask about the bolts, they'll just throw some in the mail for nothing, usually first class too. Those guys are good.
Click to expand...

I'll have to check into that. For the time being I think I just got some at the local hardware store. Partially my fault as I didn't double check them after a few heat cycles, but it's all good, the headers are still attached, lol. Definitely need the small headed bolts in a few spots though, it gets tight in there.
 
The confusion about early A bodies is officially put to rest. I do think they are cool. Saw this on the Mecum Auto Auction TV show. Very cool car. Sweet.
 

Attachments

  • 1965-Plymouth-Valiant.jpg
    97.4 KB · Views: 659
  • KC1213-169455_6.jpg
    75.2 KB · Views: 651
Wrong again.
I replace both sides blocks, and adjusters for the T bars. The bolts looked okay, but inside the blocks the threads seemed a bit flat. The passenger side bar needed reclocking. The QA1 style K frame just isn't aligned exactly spot on, so the drivers side T bar retainer snapped right in, because the T bar sits a bit deeper in the crossmember socket. When it came to the passenger side, I couldn't even get it deep enough to snap it in. I had to loosen the four bolts, hook a strap to the k member, and pull it with a truck just ever so carefully. I snapped the retainer in but, one side is still a hair deeper than the other. I don't like that. The k member is supposed to be torqued to 200 ft lbs., My torque wrench goes to 120 lbs., and even if I had a correct wrench, the rear bolts sit in such a position, that I need a socket extension to tighten them. The heads on the bolts are so shallow that the extension allows the socket to get a little side motion, so it keeps popping off. So I'm going to have to find a better way in there.
That aside, I know the k frame needs alignment, that's a given,and I've come up with a few ideas on how to do just that.
The street Lynx is the next issue. Bill Reilly says, Whether the car leans, or not ( due to the T bar clocking issue. ) The lower control arms on the four link shouldn't change position from center. When my car was leaning really bad on the passenger front, the drivers rear control arm would rub the tire. After reclocking everything, and leveling the front out a bit, it stopped doing that. I know I was told to, just to snug things up, so the alignment guy wouldn't have to loosen everything again. But something must be plain loose.
So I blew through installing a suspension, engine , trans, and other stuff, and I was thrilled with the time I was making, Especially being alone, doing most everything, but now I'm working backward. that's my fault.
 
Item #1 is some type of ignition spark timing. Can the wires from this item be traced back to there source and eliminated ?

Item #2 looks like a voltage regulator, but only if it's related to me, because wouldn't that just create a confused alternator ?

Item #3 is a vacuum reservoir, is this important to the ventilation box under the dash board ? Doesn't the big door behind it open by vacuum ?

Item #4 is a vacuum operated heater control valve of some type, the vacuum line is headed into the firewall, so I have the same question I had with item#3 ?

Item #5 must have something to do with the /6 ignition system, can that be traced to it's source, and dead headed there ?

Than there's the Voltage regulator hiding behind the windshield wash reservoir.

I've had a 71 440 six pack Cuda, a 1973 Challenger with a stroker, a 1972 Cuda, a 1973 Rally Charger, and a 1969 Barracuda. Everything in this 1975, is much more elaborate than I've seen. It's all foreign.
 

Attachments

  • Id chart.jpg
    98.8 KB · Views: 640
  • volt reg2.jpg
    105.5 KB · Views: 623
Jeez, 1, 2, and 5 all look like voltage regulators to me, though without looking them over in person it's hard to say. I'm sure you know what you're doing tracing wires though. Either way, you probably should keep one regulator at least. The stock 5.7 alternator isn't internally regulated to my knowledge. I'm using my old regulator hooked up to the field for voltage regulation.

3 is probably up to you. The idea might be that having a resovoir will allow the doors to actuate after the engine is shut off (or just to help build vacuum if you have a weak signal from a large cam or something similar). My 71 Vette is supposed to have the same thing since the headlights and wiper cowl cover are vacuum powered, but mine leaks so the engine has to be running for the headlights to go up or down. Another guy in the local Vette club could move his with the engine off because of his resovoir.

4 is most likely a hot water control valve. The idea being that if you don't have the heater on, you don't want hot coolant in the heater core because it can radiate heat into the passenger compartment, even with the fan off. My old Vette has the same thing. When you turn the heater on, the vacuum signal opens the valve and allows coolant into the heater core. Strictly speaking, you really don't need one. It's more of a comfort issue. When they go out it can suck though because it can fail closed (what happened with my Vette), so I had no heater and couldn't figure out why until I found that valve.
 
My 71 Cuda had a valve in the #4 position that was cable operated. But, I thought it had a cross over also. So the water reached that valve, and if it was activated it turned the water back toward the engine at the valve. This 75 duster doesn't crossover. It seems to have sort of a diaphragm that expands, and contracts with heat ( I think ) and a vacuum hose from the valve to the firewall.
In your last PM, You were telling me about vacuum operated flip up head lamps. My friend Artie has a 58 VW bug, and ( I could be wrong ) I think the window wash is hook the the valve on the spare tire, under that front thing that VW's have that isn't a hood, because there's no engine in there.
 
Haha, I suppose that's one possible way to do it, so long as you keep the tire topped off. And I've seen the cable operated setup as well. I think some cars try to modulate the temperature with the valve as opposed to air doors and flow over the heater core. Haevn't seen a bypass one style personally, but it makes sense. I've been running my 67 without any valve that I know of since I got the car with no issues (both before and after engine swap). There's some variety of control mechanism driven by the temperature cable, but it's directly mounted to the heater box, so I'm guessing it's more of an air door than a coolant valve. My floorboards never feel that hot, then again my engine doesn't get very hot either, one of the few lucky things I've had with the car so far, lol.
 
Well I have so many thing to fix, that I screwed up, during the rush to beat the snow. The next week will be a matter of tunneling through the white hell to try to make up that lost time. The forecast calls for pain - Mon
Ice Pellets
41°27°
Tue
Snow
30°10°
Wed
Partly Cloudy
30°10°
Thu
Clear
25°7°
Fri
Mostly Cloudy
28°18°
Sat
Chance of Snow
36°28°
Sun
Mostly Cloudy
34°14°
Mon
Partly Cloudy
28°19°

So in the meantime I guess I'll alienate some good people by stating that I'm not a Mopar, or no car guy. More of a 60's-70's car guy.


I was dared to build this.
View attachment 1.jpg

And I did, but that's when you could get Cudas, and Challengers on the cheap.So you did.
View attachment 2.jpg
I like the 69 428 Cobra Jet.
View attachment collage4.jpg
Gm 78 amp alternator, and HEI, when people wouldn't do things like that
View attachment e.jpg
Big block shaker 73 challenger ???

And a Trans Am, 4100 lbs of Disco powered muscle, better known as the Slows Am, they ride like a Caddy though. Especially when they sag because the subframe bushing are rotted out.
 

Attachments

  • DSCF0455.jpg
    88.1 KB · Views: 612
  • lh1.jpg
    105 KB · Views: 579
Man am I screwing **** up, sort of. I posted a photo on the electrical forum, asking if anybody could ID the things I circled in the photo. I have the same picture in the Heating, and Cooling forum, asking them if they would ID the heating, and cooling stuff. So people are giving me these great answers, and I'm copying, and pasting them into a text for later reference, so I can cut wires, or know what can be saved. I'm building this great custom encyclopedia, I get it all into a text, and go to change it into an office format with pictures, and everything , and a power transformer blows out, with this giant explosion, and powder blue light, and everything goes black. Windows asks, " Would you like to restart in safe mode." Time to copy and paste everything again. Snow storms suck.
 
garyfish340 said:
and a power transformer blows out, with this giant explosion, and powder blue light, and everything goes black. Windows asks, " Would you like to restart in safe mode." Time to copy and paste everything again. Snow storms suck.
Click to expand...

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) will solve the blue flash problem!! I use an APC UPS.It has saved me many times.
 
Did you ever just set something up, in the rough, because you just moved into a new place ?, and than before you know it, it's to years later.
RealWing said:
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) will solve the blue flash problem!! I use an APC UPS.It has saved me many times.
Click to expand...
 
garyfish340 said:
Did you ever just set something up, in the rough, because you just moved into a new place ?, and than before you know it, it's to years later.
Click to expand...

I think I've done that with car pieces unfortunately... I'll just twist these two wires together and put some tape and zip ties on it to see if it works. Swap something out years later and "who did this crap?" Oh yeah... me.
 
It is currently 28 degrees, and I'm going to freeze my *** off. The OCD has kicked in, sitting here knowing the washer on the eccentric bolt is backward in driving me nuts. If I make it through that without crying like a little girl, I have a few experiments to try, based on FABO suggestions.
 
Sometimes people crack me up. I posted this in a discussion about the QA1 k member.

" As I said, it's a waste of time trying to post photos of what I'm talking about. Nor do I want to fight with anybody. All I know is once again the T bar retainer popped out. I already know that somebody is bound to say, " You should have measured." and they would be correct. Than again, you can measure all you like, and it would be a MOOT POINT. One you measure where you want it to be. What than ? build a jig to hold it, while you twist the exceedingly tight machine thread bolts in ? That'll move it a bit. Measure from where ? The trans cross member, provided nobody in the history of the car ever put a jack under the cross member, or put heat into it by welding in frame connectors, the measurement should work. ( I'm exaggerating here, it's not that bad)
I've already tried to lock the tires down, and push the frame back. Thought it work, it didn't. So now I have to support the car, unbolt the transmission, loosen the K member, and try to leverage it into place carefully with the tail shaft,( or engine crane, and push the car back.) That's with the engine in the car. Or I can pull the engine, and start over. I also noticed that the stock piece in a 1969 Barracuda is further back. With a gen III hemi, I had to drill two holes in the fire wall to bolt up the 2 top transmission bolts. The Qa1, with the same engine in a 75 duster, is just a matter of reaching down, and bolting them in, my hands fit. If all A body frame, and firewalls, are the same. ( I don't know) The one further back has more potential in the street handling department.
It's an okay design that needs a little more thought.
Now granted I messed this up all on my own, but it's too easy to mess up with the QA1 design. I'll use the cruddy photos to make my point. "


The reply was : "You are already in it deep. I would sand down that torsion bar, get the clip in and be done with it!" :wack:

My reply : Maybe another idea would be to perfect the piece. Take the time to get things sorted, and hopefully make them better. I've had a tendency to screw **** up lately. Rush things. I'm going to take that as a sign of being humbled. Why would I want to consciously mess **** up worse ? It's freaking cold as hell outside. That alone dictates, it's going to be a sluggish pace. I can take my time, and sort this out. Old man winter whooped my *** already, when the snow flakes fell, and the suspension was still in shambles. I guarantee I'll learn not to be hasty again, when I'm looking back on the time I had to readjust everything because I rushed. It's not like I have other things to do, like fishing. I'm not to interested in volunteering to sit over a hole, in a hut on the ice.
 

Attachments

  • lock1.jpg
    34.6 KB · Views: 572
  • lock2.jpg
    42.8 KB · Views: 574
  • lock3.jpg
    50.4 KB · Views: 563
My thoughts on F.A.B.O. today ( not everyday, just today.)
This was me.
[ame]http://youtu.be/SE0fhflzoHM[/ame]

Since the day I was born I have never been able to see the world in the simple terms that everybody else seems to see things. Which makes simple things, extremely complicated.

A typical conversation might go like this.

I'll ask : " How do you make a red object blue ?"

Somebody will volunteer an answer : " Paint over the top of the red, with blue. "

I'll say : " But color doesn't exist, it is a simple perception of light waves reflected off the given texture of an object." "Depending upon the rods, and cone, in the eye structure of any given animal, colors may include ultra violet, or infra red, or simply be black, and white."

To which I'll sometimes get a reply something like this : " Look I told you paint over it, if you're not going to take my advice, you're an idiot."

Sometimes the reply includes a threat of physical harm also.

All I'm looking for is an answer. I'm not asking for the keys to the kingdom. People seem to like to step up, and give an answer to questions that were never asked. They do this because they want to give the appearance that they are brighter to other people around them. but when they can't admit they don't have the answer. They insult you, throw in a bit of posturing, and get steamed. In the end I feel humiliated, threatened, sorry I was curious, and just like them, I also, still don't have the answer to, how to make something red, turn blue ?
Well, it's time to leave the confines of my nice toasty house, with my tasty brew of hot coffee, to go outside in the arctic frost. Bet I can make my fingers, and toes turn blue.
 
The module behind the washer tank looks like the ignition module to me, if it has a four or five wire connector in the shape of a pentastar then that is the ignition. It is kind of hard to tell, but I think number 5 is the voltage regulator, they should have a triangle shaped connector. Number 1 I think is something like an egr delay module or something like that. Number 2 I am not sure of, unless it is the voltage regulator and number 5 is the unknown. Hope that helps!
 
I'm not certain how this works yet. If it's a live feed that goes to the amp-meter, feeds the fuse box, and than feeds the components. I'd like to go back as far as the fuse box, and remove stuff like that EGR, spark timing job, or anything not needed. I'm not sure if electrical dead ends lead to future issues. I seem to keep car for a long time. Dispite the fact that I usually tens of thousands of miles on them. I'm glad I asked the question, I got good info from everybody.
ralphie361 said:
The module behind the washer tank looks like the ignition module to me, if it has a four or five wire connector in the shape of a pentastar then that is the ignition. It is kind of hard to tell, but I think number 5 is the voltage regulator, they should have a triangle shaped connector. Number 1 I think is something like an egr delay module or something like that. Number 2 I am not sure of, unless it is the voltage regulator and number 5 is the unknown. Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
 
You shouldn't have problems if you take things out like that, but you may want to look at a wiring diagram before you unhook them at the fuse block. They may be on a shared power feed, and you might unhook something you still need. My mymopar.com has factory diagrams under the reference section, I use them all of the time!
 
Will do. I want to print out something so I don't have to be tracing a wire, than flipping a page, and finding that wire again. Two things on one circuit, good advice, it's actually quite a small fuse box isn't it.
ralphie361 said:
You shouldn't have problems if you take things out like that, but you may want to look at a wiring diagram before you unhook them at the fuse block. They may be on a shared power feed, and you might unhook something you still need. My mymopar.com has factory diagrams under the reference section, I use them all of the time!
Click to expand...
 
17 Degree temps aren't the worst thing in the world. It's the snow, everyday there's 3 - 4" of new powder. Go for skiing, bad for messing with cars. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is supposed to be in the 40's, Hopefully I will adjust the right strut rod, and be more in depth in the un-wiring. Else it's on to 11.79 brake rotors, and 11" drums. That's stuff that I don't need bare fingers for too much, and can be done in the cold.
 
So it was 50 degrees today, which allowed me to get down in the wet rocks, and center that rear axle. Just wanted to say thanks to all of you for teaching me to get that right. Next, since I have so much to do before this project can actually run, I decided to mess with the front suspension. After installing all the new parts, it was totally out of wack. So actually, why should it matter if I move the eccentric bolts around, play with the length on the strut rods, or let everything out, and reclock the torsion bars to there lowest possible point. After messing with things, I sort of understand how each adjustment effects the suspension, and how an adjustment in one place effects another. So as I just get it straight enough to move around the yard, or put it up on the trailer, I'm also learning to understand what ever the alignment guy might say. Ride height is an issue though. As this suspension can be dropped super low front, and rear. I would imagine if you lower the rear, caster goes more +, if you lower the front it would go - , and camber would too. Effecting all the front end geometry, causing more readjusting, but it can also be lowered too far, where a jack can't be place under the front end. So I'll mention that when the alignment shop gets it. Best I'm not the one to play with that.
 
Mustang Mach 1 17 x 8 wheels, with 5.72 B.S. Nitto NT450 225/50 17 front, Nitto NT 450 275/50 17 rear.

So I'm one of those people who thinks, even though it's a driver, and not a show car, it should still look like some effort is put into making it run, and look the best I can make it. I have the wheels/tires done, and the rear brakes ( except the parking brake ) and the front brakes, and rotors are in the process. The next thing will be a hood that'll fit my intake under it, and hoping the body guy can match the paint well.
 

Attachments

  • Dec30-1.jpg
    66.6 KB · Views: 447
  • Dec30-2.jpg
    66.7 KB · Views: 462
  • Dec30-3.jpg
    91.2 KB · Views: 435
  • Dec30-4.jpg
    100.5 KB · Views: 458
  • Dec30-5.jpg
    77.8 KB · Views: 456
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top