Red Headed Stepchild-75 Swinger LSX Swap

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You have yourself a VERY NICE DART!! Keep up the Good work. Happy to hear you picked MOPAR when switching over to rear wheel drive American Muscle
 
YoungDart75 said:
I misjudged the height on it the other day thinking I needed to bring up the passenger side. Both sides sit exactly the same height. There was a dip in my driveway where I parked and measured yesterday. Today I measured it in my garage where I know it's flat and it measure exactly the same on both sides, right at 26 3/4" at the middle of the front fender well on both sides. So shes good to go.
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You really should consider loosening the pivot nuts to allow the bushings to equalize, otherwise those LCA bushings are getting twisted more than they should and will eventually split apart. Same goes for upper A arms. If rubber, those bushings are not meant to be twisted at rest.
 
goldduster360 said:
I still think of these cute little cars as "Late Model" vehicles. Guess some stuff doesn't need to change.......
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I don't know if I consider this a compliment or an insult. But either way I enjoy the car and tomorrow is April 1st. Since it is registered under the expanded Antique plates here in Illinois, as long as its sunny and clear skies I will be driving her into work and she will finally make it on the road for 2015.
 
goldduster360 said:
You really should consider loosening the pivot nuts to allow the bushings to equalize, otherwise those LCA bushings are getting twisted more than they should and will eventually split apart. Same goes for upper A arms. If rubber, those bushings are not meant to be twisted at rest.
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Ill look into that as well. However I'm pretty sure they are gone for the most part already seeing as they are the originals. I will be replacing them this year either way.
 
I broke out the Mothers Powerball the other day and some mothers polish and went after the wheels and bumpers. I must say it worked like a charm bringing that shine out.
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So my project for the weekend is to remove the trim around the rear taillights and tape it off and re-spray the sections that are now currently gray. The previous owner seems to have attempted to clean this area up with some kind of gray paint but it looks brushed on and doesn't meet my standards for how clean the rest of the car is. So im going to tape all the chrome off and spray the grey area a clean flat black to match the rest of the car.

Also looking for some advice regarding the tail lights. It seems like they have applied some dull red paint that is slowly driving my ocd crazy. Any ideas to help out with that? or would be finding new taillights be a better option?
 
Well I got them all taped up and re-sprayed today. Much happier with how they look now.
You can see the blotchy grey paintjob the previous owner did in the 3 pictures below.
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Now they area nice solid black in those areas rather than the blotchy grey.
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Well recent updates to the Swinger is that the alternator got replaced as well as the battery. Seems to run a lot smoother now than before. Also I found a few rusty area's underneath that will be getting some love and maybe a little POR after I clean it up, even though POR doesn't require it to be removed. Also ill be picking up a "new" heat mat for under the hood seeing as mine is missing.
 
I've heard of using brake fluid to clean off paint on plastic...just don't leave it on too long.
 
I ordered another coolant overflow from a FABO Part out just in case. But I drained trans yesterday and replaced the filter(also made a huge stain on my garage floor). Gonna be filling it back up today so hopefully the brake fluid trick works. Thanks for the tip.
 
We Ive had an eventful couple of weeks. The dart made it up to the big Aumotion Car show in Wisconsin Dells just fine(3.5 hr drive for me), then it got a little warm sitting in the bumper to bumper driving. Next day she made it all the way back home just fine riding down the road between 70-75 mph which surprised me. She sat for a week while I took the kids to Disney World down in Orlando, and as soon as I got home I figured id fire her up and make sure everything is good to go. Well I pumped the gas two times and she fired up just like normal, but then when I touched the gas during idle she died and hasn't come back to life since. So now the trouble shooting resumes on what's plaguing this old slant 6. Doesn't seem to be an issue with the battery/starter/relays like before because she's spinning free. I pulled all the plugs on it today and gave them a once over, car just spins and spins. So I plan on doing some testing on the coil/spark side soon and then a compression test as well. Fuel filter is full and wont even fire up with a shot of starting fluid so I don't think fuel is an issue either.

But seeing my brother who has a 04 5.7L hemi down in NC I can pickup for cheap has me wondering if I should keep toying with this old slant 6 and keep putting money into it or just go ahead with a newer retrofit. Any opinions? Also here is a couple pictures from the Automotion show to end on a good note.
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Well ill be checking spark today and doing a compression test to see if I can track down the issue. Any easier way for checking for spark other then pulling the wire and plug and turning it over to see? Also here are some pictures from the Automotion Show in the Dells.




 
Well I had her fired back up last night and she idled and ran fine. But this morning she died in the parking lot dropping my kids off at school. So I'm about fed up with taking this single barrel apart and putting it back together to keep this thing running. Pretty sure she's about to get parked in favor of a Modern Hemi Retrofit.
 
yeah that's why I finally dumped my single barrel 1920 and went with a 38/38 weber. But there is no replacement for displacement. I've been tempted more than one to drop a 360 under the hood or at least a 318. I've got the /6 running pretty good now. But if it ever has a major issue...I will replace it with a V8. or a different classic car. :) Anyone want a nice Vert?
 
Well ive rebuilt this carb, she fired right back up afterwards but still seem to be having issues. Ive been running through all the adjustment procedures in the manual. All the ones It says to do after refurb too. Its running better but it randomly cut off in the drive way. I do have a question and I will be posting pictures up tomorrow.

At any point in time is the choke cam just supposed to swing freely? Whenever I first fire it up, It runs fine and the fast idle screw is sitting on the second notch of the choke cam just like the book says. But once it warms up the choke valve in the top of the carb seems to just sit wide open and there is no tension on the choke lever, this just leads to the cam basically spinning around freely and now being in any set position or locked in anywhere. Ill post a short video tomorrow so you can see. But any help is appreciated as this is my first carbureted car.

Also found that when the car warms up, coolant starts leaving past my brand new rad cap and dripping onto the top of the radiator.
 
Well I returned my radiator cap and got a new one so no more coolant leak when she gets warm, so now I'm back to trouble shooting the ignition/electrical system. Checked out all the wires except the ones to the ignition switch and the switch itself. I'm losing 2 volts going through everything and figure out where this is happening.

Also making my lists and costs for either rebuilding the slant and switching over to a 4 barrel carb and intake setup with a cam and some headers, or whether or not I'm gonna dive in hard and just do a bone stock 5.7L hemi swap into it. Any advice or opinions on which 1 to go with?
 
Well the collecting of parts has slowly begun for the darts new 5.7L hemi swap. Picked up a transmission/ecu/harness/converter/driveshaft/fusebox from a 2005 Rumblebee today.
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Now the hunt begins for the right motor for this project. Be on the lookout for some major changes coming down the road.
 
Nice, now the work begins.
Are your plans to run a carb on the 5.7 or are you going fuel injection? Either way the extra power is going to add up to a ton of fun...
 
I don't plan on switching to a carb, I'm going to have to put a lot of time in on this harness to make sure all the fuses and relays are where they need to be in order to run the fuel injected. But the plans are initially are just to put a cam in the motor before it gets dropped into place, then make sure I have all the bugs worked out and she's running good. Then come tax/reenlistment season to get a rebuild on the motor/trans and throw a turbo setup on it. But that's a long way from now.
 
Well after much deliberation, and going back and forth, I've decided to stick with the slant 6 and add a turbo to it, and go with one of the 4bbl tbi/fi setups. Picked up a Offenhauser 4 bbl intake manifold last night and will be starting the project towards the end of September/October timeframe and hopefully get the car up and running on the 4bbl before the snow sets in. Going to be doing quite a bit of work on the brakes/suspension/engine setup this winter. Ill keep everyone posted on the progress as we go.
 
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