What Are You Doing To/With Your Car Today?

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Today I removed the lightly used Comp 953 springs, retainers and 10 deg locks from the iron heads, and transferred them to the ported Speedmasters after installing new valve stem seals. Then I started setting up the ductile-iron rocker valve train with studs and aluminum hold-downs.... the positions are not even close to the iron heads that had steel hold-downs and bolts.

This is the disadvantage of a single rocker shaft system - all the pieces on (up to) half of the shaft need to come off to change one shim... not to mention those rocker arm separator springs like to fly across the room! :rolleyes: Oh well, unless I change rocker arms, I won't have to do this again.
 
Finished installing a Charger front-end on my old wagon. Couple more things, and it's outta my life.

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Most of my pics are too large. It's lowered 2-3". QA1, Hotchkiss, Bilstein, Borgeson, 4-wheel Wilwoods, 18" wheels.
6.4, 727/Gear Vendor, 3.55 8 3/4. Ceramic coated exhaust.
This is the 4th incarnation of this car. I preferred it, when I owned it.

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A couple pics I took today....
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New aluminum heads are on and torqued, preliminary valve lash adjustment, headers reconnected at both ends. Steering column back in - except the shaft is 1/4" short of full engagement with the splines on the box. Guess when I was pushing/pulling/beating trying to get it loose, the telescoping shaft slid in a little and it does not want to come back out.

Also trial-fit my intake - but even with just the valley pan and no gaskets, the bolts don't quite line up. With the iron heads, the same setup did fit. The heads were milled around .050, and the intake surfaces should have been milled the right amount too. Just to make sure I wasn't looking at it backwards, I tried a gasket on each side and it made the problem worse. Looks like I'll need to enlarge the holes in the intake a bit...
 
I've been trying to finish up the interior in the 65 Barracuda and it is so close, just waiting on rear quarter window felts and a shifter knob to say the interior is complete, well except the dash pad still needs to be installed.

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A week of 20C+ weather and I know the roads haven't been cleaned but she's going out! Gotta love a car that has sat all Winter and starts with 3 cranks and 2 taps of the pedal and then runs absolutely clean. Amazes me every time I start it, considering the engine was rebuilt by Bennett and Hanson in 1978 for about 300 bucks! Wife right into the shop, "should I lock the door and grab my purse"? What's not to love there?! Ready for a cruise tomorrow, we were already too far into the afternoon to go today. Was 28C today, supposed to be hotter tomorrow and then back to snow and below OC next week!


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At least one place in the country is getting early summer weather. We haven’t cracked 20 degrees yet here on the we(s)t coast. Ugh.
 
Keith Mopar said:
I've been trying to finish up the interior in the 65 Barracuda and it is so close, just waiting on rear quarter window felts and a shifter knob to say the interior is complete, well except the dash pad still needs to be installed.

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That's clean! I like the console. Where'd you pick it up, if you don't mind?
 
mopowers said:
Thanks. It looks great. Does it just set there, or did you fasten it somehow? If it sets there, how stable is it?
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It's jammed between the buckets, but also velcroed down to the carpet. Very stable and a really good quality piece. A few people on here have bought from classic consoles or a place called cup holders plus. Both sellers have the same line of consoles.
 
Changed the oil in Vixen to a different grade. Don't like it. Fixin to change it back to 10w30.
 
Installed a refurbished 625 Speed Demon I got last fall. Replaced my 600 Eddy, hoping for better response and maybe mileage. Going on a mild 318 in 65 Dart, I can always put the Eddy back on if I don't like it.

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Got the head swap completed, changed oil, new plugs. Drove it to the first cruise-in of the season at Steak & Shake :)
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Unfortunately I've got significant intake leaks (reused the valley pan, brushed on Permatex #2, and the intake sits just a little high in the V). Lower idle vacuum, leaner idle AFR, and worst of all, a puff of blue smoke out the exhaust when I let off the gas and then step on it again. At least on the big-block it's only 8 bolts and a few other connections...

I almost had a heart attack when I saw this trail of fluid leading up to where I parked, until I realized it went on past and into the drive-thru! :realcrazy:
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Transmission service on my Dart today.
Fluid, filter, and a couple of quick band adjustments. The transmission felt a lot better on the drive home after.

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I found my intake leak... the tips of the manifold were hanging up on the "Chinese wall" aka end rails! With .055" milled off the heads (and the intake surfaces also milled, naturally) whatever clearance might have been there was now interference... I shoulda thought of that. :realcrazy:
A few minutes with a die grinder and it dropped right on. Still running lean and lower vacuum, but at least when warm it will idle without tickling the throttle now!
I'd set the lash cold to .012" so it should be .018" hot, which Schneider Cams said was the new lash for my slightly reground Mini-Express. I now have to measure the actual clearance with the engine hot, on at least one cylinder, to see if the rule-of-thumb (.006" tight cold) is correct for my engine. I used to have 8-9" Hg. and 13.5-14:1 AFR at idle, now it's 6-7" and showing more like 16:1 on the gauge! If the lash turns out to be correct, I think I will loosen them a bit from the specified .018". What's a little sewing-machine noise between hot-rodders :D

Big step at the rail
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The valley pan there looks like it was put in a sheet metal brake :rolleyes:

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But two minutes with a die grinder and it fits properly :thumbsup:
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I mocked up the new master cylinder tonight. The rear brakes will feed through an adjustable proportioning valve directly to the original rear line. The front brakes feed directly to the original distribution block with the inlet from the old single pot master plugged.

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This afternoon I started to recheck my valve clearances. But the universe had other plans...

A couple of days ago, as the engine stopped I heard an interesting metallic "clinking" for a second (sounded like something hitting the valley pan, or possibly the #2 header tube that runs very near the shock tower). It wasn't there at idle (or higher), and I couldn't find anything and it didn't come back. So I drove it to two cruise-ins (about 10 miles each, one-way) on Fri and Sat, no problems or noises, ran it up to 5200 a couple of times.

Today I fired it to warm up for lash setting and cold vs. hot check, and once again at almost-stalling engine rpm the clanking came back, louder than before! So I shut it down and decided to disassemble as necessary until I found it. I clearanced the header tube, and pulled the valve covers. No loose pushrods or broken rocker arms... ok. I started running the valves in firing order from #1, and when I got to #4 I could see that one keeper half on the exhaust valve wasn't properly seated and had popped up a little
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Oh poop (paraphrasing), I said, that clanking may have been the valve meeting the piston
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A close look at the rest of the valvetrain showed the same problem on #5 intake. Naturally, one on each head, so if those valves are bent, both heads have to come off - in other words, the entire head R&R has to be done over again.
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Before you ask, yes, I did check piston-to-valve clearance and the intake measured .114" and exhaust much larger. So I'm somewhat at a loss as to why these keepers came loose - I was careful to check all 16 when assembling the seals and springs on the bench, to make sure they were seated.
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I guess it's time to order another set of 10 degree locks at a minimum. Maybe I'll get lucky and those two valves and guides will be intact and I won't have to pull the heads for repair, but I'm not holding my breath. Right now I am walking away for the night and taking a few deep breaths.
 
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