65 Barracuda daily driver

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It sounds like everything is good with the new pump. There really isn't a good way that I can think of to run a wire or brush up into the oil passage that goes from the pump to the oil galley. To clean the oil galley's that you can get to, you would have to pull the engine, and then, at best you would just be pushing any sludge that you could dislodge around to another place. I don't think it would be worth the trouble, honestly.

Test fit the new pump to the main cap and make sure it is seating properly. Not sure if your motor will have one, but the rear main cap of my 273 had a hollow dowel sticking up maybe an 1/8th of an inch that the pump had slide down on, but it's the only small block that I can ever remember having one of those. Your new oil pump probably came with a gasket for where it bolts to the cap, so be sure and use it. You will probably use the new pickup you have when you put it back together, so check the pan to pickup clearance with some clay. Just tape up the screened opening of the pickup while checking so it doesn't get gobbed up with any clay if it squishes in that direction when you press the pan up tight to check. To make it easier to check while laying on your back, leave the end seals off the pan while checking. Tight against the block with pan rail gasket thickness is what determines the depth anyway.

If you get it back together and it still does it, just drive it and enjoy it while you find another small block (Magnum version would be my choice) to rebuild as you can afford to, and then swap it in when it's done. I've had a few that do the same as your motor does...being a slow poke to turn the oil light off at start up, and they lasted just fine. The oiling system in engines is just a controlled internal leak anyway....lol. You're doing a good job and I admire your tenacity in fixing whatever you have to instead of giving up.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
JDMopar said:
It sounds like everything is good with the new pump. There really isn't a good way that I can think of to run a wire or brush up into the oil passage that goes from the pump to the oil galley. To clean the oil galley's that you can get to, you would have to pull the engine, and then, at best you would just be pushing any sludge that you could dislodge around to another place. I don't think it would be worth the trouble, honestly.

Test fit the new pump to the main cap and make sure it is seating properly. Not sure if your motor will have one, but the rear main cap of my 273 had a hollow dowel sticking up maybe an 1/8th of an inch that the pump had slide down on, but it's the only small block that I can ever remember having one of those. Your new oil pump probably came with a gasket for where it bolts to the cap, so be sure and use it. You will probably use the new pickup you have when you put it back together, so check the pan to pickup clearance with some clay. Just tape up the screened opening of the pickup while checking so it doesn't get gobbed up with any clay if it squishes in that direction when you press the pan up tight to check. To make it easier to check while laying on your back, leave the end seals off the pan while checking. Tight against the block with pan rail gasket thickness is what determines the depth anyway.

If you get it back together and it still does it, just drive it and enjoy it while you find another small block (Magnum version would be my choice) to rebuild as you can afford to, and then swap it in when it's done. I've had a few that do the same as your motor does...being a slow poke to turn the oil light off at start up, and they lasted just fine. The oiling system in engines is just a controlled internal leak anyway....lol. You're doing a good job and I admire your tenacity in fixing whatever you have to instead of giving up.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Thanks, once in a while I keep looking at the title of this thread and this car hasn't been a daily driver in well over a year. I bought another car to get around that also needs some attention here and there. First I was struggling to get the exhaust installed and then the freshly rebuilt transmission was leaking worse than the Exxon Valdez. And now the oil pressure issue. Luckily I'm extremely stubborn and to me it's not an option to give up on this car. I don't want to be one of those people who wish they hadn't sold their beloved ride. I bought "Salma" 14+ years ago and consider her family. The car has been a fairly reliable daily driver for most of that time. Sure, for a daily driver keeping the Slant 6 would have been the better option, it seemed easier to work on, there's more room in the engine bay, and the gas mileage was probably a lot better. But it was originally a V8 car and even though the slant was great, I simply wanted a 60s V8 "muscle" car.

Since I started I would have done a few things differently. A Magnum would have been a great option and the long block 318 was in the end one of the cheaper parts. The TTi dual exhaust was over a thousand bucks, the poorly rebuilt transmission cost me about 800 bucks and then some to fix it. I really wanted to keep the original console shifter, so I was looking for a 1965 A904 for years and eventually found one. I should have just bought the Imperial Services adapter cables that allow you to use any later model A904. I could have gotten a good later A904 for free essentially.

The V8 swap went waaaayyyy over budget and I still don't have a running car. But it's also more than just a car and I like working on it a lot. I'm already looking forward to fixing some dents and the paint. I plan on replacing and painting the hood, both fenders and the trunk lid... And the car was freshly painted 7 1/2 years ago. It never ends hahaha.

We'll see how that oiling issue turns out. You're probably right and the engine might last for a while despite the rough start. I also haven't really driven it much and it might fix itself over time. The engine was overall not that sludgy, but who knows.

One thing I learned over the last few months is that you want to take your time and do things right. When it was my daily driver and only car, I didn't really have another option than rushing it to get it back together. Unfortunately that way you have to do everything 3 times until it's right.
 
With time, you either give up or become an expert. Everyone fails, and often! You seem to be sticking to it. Who knows, maybe someday your locals will be paying you to do for them what you fought your way through for this car?!? I applaud your tenacity for getting it done, regardless of the challenges!
 
65barracudaLA said:
She lives!



I'm gonna have to tweak a few more things, but Salma Barracuda is finally a functioning car again!

I had a few hick-ups. When everything was put together, the car wouldn't start at first. It appears the timing was off and the distributor wasn't bolted down. Then I drove it to a carwash and wouldn't start again for some reason. It eventually did, but back at home it just wouldn't start. I noticed that it would sometimes fire, but once you released the car it died. So I was thinking ballast resistor and I was right. I had an old one in the trunk and it worked! It took a while to get the gears shift cable adjusted so it functioned without sticking.

Dash lights weren't working. Drove to a friend's house on a hill and noticed the park lock wasn't engaging. I was able to turn a tire against a curb and it was fine. The last two days I was chasing the dash light problem. I did a lot of unnecessary things to fix it. It turned out to be the tail light fuse, which is necessary for the dash lights to work. I had checked the fuses, but it was really difficult to see. I noticed when I used a multi-meter to see if the fuses had power going through them. Easy fix after all, but wasted so much time.

The park lock was also somewhat of an easy fix, but again I spent some time finding the problem. I thought the cable needed to be pulled to get the park lock engaged, but looking at the console I noticed that the cable is being pulled when the shifter is being moved out of park. I pushed the cable back in and it worked. I had fixed the cable a couple of months ago and as a result the cable is shorter and pulled the lock off even when in park.

After that was done I went for a longer drive. I adjusted the timing a bit, because there appeared to be a knock when really stepping on it. The knock seems to be gone now.

There is some lifter tick, but it's relatively quiet. Somehow, when the car sat for a bit and is being started, the oil light stays on for longer than normal and the valve train is a bit noisy, but quiets down after a few seconds. I hope that's gonna go away when I drive the car more.

One big thing is that the driver side exhaust is bumping against the floor sometimes, so I'll have to look into that again, but for right now it's not going to stop me from driving the car.

The car is definitely loud and especially boomy. I will look into some sound deadener, because it's too much. I like a good sounding exhaust, but when your ears a ringing it's too much and I want to go back to daily driving the Barracuda. It currently has the Dynomax turbo mufflers that came with the TTI exhaust and I don't really want to replace them. It appears that it's way louder in the car than outside. So sound deadener especially under the back seat and the area behind it hopefully helps.

Overall I'm super happy that at least the transmission leak is gone. Haven't seen a drop of ATF and that's a huge relief. There were some drops of coolant, but the exhaust stud I heli-coiled appears dry, so who knows where that's coming from. There's not a lot and it's not a constant thing.

I even started freshing up the oxidized paint a bit. Hood, fenders and deck lid will be replaced, but I wanted to make a bit nicer already. Photo was taken before I started on that though.

Very excited to drive this car again!

View attachment 1716152652
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That's great! I like how you did the tail pipes. So many guys run them straight out the back past the bumper and it looks like rotten dog ***. That looks nice.
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's great! I like how you did the tail pipes. So many guys run them straight out the back past the bumper and it looks like rotten dog ***. That looks nice.
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Thanks, that's how they came from TTi, though. Eventually I want to cut out the valence and add rectangular tips/ resonators how they were on the Formula S and Commando cars (but on both sides). Currently there are far more critical things to do before I will tackle that, though.
 
Another hiccup... So the Milodon instructions called for 1/4" or 3/16" space under the oil pick-up to the pan. My pan is 7 -1/16" deep and the I measured the old, compressed gasket to be 1/16", so 7-1/8" from the block to the bottom of the pan. So for a 1/4" gap the pick-up needs to be 6-7/8" below the block. At that height it's not parallel to the block, though. That is not going to work. The packaging says 318, but I assume it's the wrong pick-up.

I ordered a stock pick-up now. No idea what the Milodon is for, but it's not this pan.

XJLrS6ZHBMA_lnXHaEbm=w794-h1058-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg


As far as I know the pistons are stock, but does anyone know that part number 292-99?

78JcSX-wKGgJhU1WpQFs=w794-h1058-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg
 
Another thing I noticed:

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Neither the old pump nor the new one had that O-ring that is included in the rebuild kits. After a quick search on FABO I found that it's Fel-Pro 13338 and ordered one. Kind of upsetting that it wasn't included in the new pump.
 
New pick-up arrived today as well as the o-ring. Bullshit ebay seller sent a random o-ring that he put into the wrong Fel-Pro packaging and wrote correct part number on the packaging... Go to hell... Anyways, I read here on FABO that most people don't even use it, so I skipped it and installed the oil pump, pick-up and oil pan. I'm gonna wait 24 hours to let the RTV cure before I fill it with oil, but I also still have to re-attach the center link. And I want to re-seal the oil pressure switch and I even bought the correct socket for it, so I can torque it to 60 in lbs. One thing I learned is: Torque matters!
 
Just filled her up with oil (Rotella 15W-40), primed the pump and started her up! Drove around for about 10 minutes and everything seems fine. The real test will be when I start the car again after it's been sitting for a day - that's when it had low oil pressure on start up.
 
oYZUkGjZ0rYdha0-RN7=w1411-h1058-s-no-gm?authuser=0.jpg


So the low oil pressure at cold start did not improve... Yet...

Since it doesn't seem to hurt anything I'm going to continue driving it. The car has been sitting for most of the last year plus and that can't be good either. Maybe the italian tune-up will do the job... I still haven't driven it more than a hundred miles with the new oil pump. Maybe some highway miles will help.

At some point I will probably pull the intake and replace the lifters. Right now it's just nice to spend more time driving it instead of laying under it.

I also turned the torsion bars up a bit - there's still a rake, which I don't mind, but after adding that V8 weight it was a bit too much.
 
65barracudaLA said:
View attachment 1716166203

So the low oil pressure at cold start did not improve... Yet...

Since it doesn't seem to hurt anything I'm going to continue driving it. The car has been sitting for most of the last year plus and that can't be good either. Maybe the italian tune-up will do the job... I still haven't driven it more than a hundred miles with the new oil pump. Maybe some highway miles will help.

At some point I will probably pull the intake and replace the lifters. Right now it's just nice to spend more time driving it instead of laying under it.

I also turned the torsion bars up a bit - there's still a rake, which I don't mind, but after adding that V8 weight it was a bit too much.
Click to expand...
have you considered the weight of oil that you're running? that may have some effect on the start up. also have you hooked up an aftermarket gauge to confirm pressure?
(i'm sorry if it was already discussed, i must've missed it)

if you've still got the /6 t-bars in there get ya some V8 bars man!

that beast looks awesome! just the right amount of chrome pop on the red.
 
junkyardhero said:
have you considered the weight of oil that you're running? that may have some effect on the start up. also have you hooked up an aftermarket gauge to confirm pressure?
(i'm sorry if it was already discussed, i must've missed it)

if you've still got the /6 t-bars in there get ya some V8 bars man!

that beast looks awesome! just the right amount of chrome pop on the red.
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I was running 10W-30 before and 15W-40 now and there is no change. I should probably check the actual oil pressure at some point... What else could cause low oil pressure though?

I installed 1.03" PST torsion bars years ago long before I swapped the small block in there. The old ones were absolute junk.

And thanks, the car looks a bit better in photos than in reality. I'm planning on doing some body work and pint over the new couple of months.
 
yeah man, i'd for sure be getting a pressure gauge on there. well, since you changed the pump low pressure could be anything from excessive bearing clearance, blocked filter, tired lifters or cruddy internal passages. it's not likely to be anything pump or pump drive related seeing as you just went thru all that.

we all look a little better in photos. heck, you can barely tell that i'm three raccoons in a trench coat with the right lighting!
 
Yeah, I will hook up an oil pressure gauge soon. I'm pretty sure there's an issue with the lifters. The engine is pretty clean inside and the bores still have a nice crosshatch, so I don't think there should be too much crud. Like I said I'll probably put some new lifters in there, but for now I'm just gonna drive it...
 
Just ordered lifters, intake gasket, assembly lube and a MP intermediate shaft from Jegs. Another 200 bucks out of the window...
 
mygasser said:
before even checking the correct pressure? :poke:
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I thought you could loan an oil pressure tester from a parts store, but they don't seem to have them. I don't want to buy one and I know the lifters are noisy, so I wanted to replace them either way. Also I'm stubborn haha.
 
Somebody makes a tool that you can remove lifters without having to remove the intake. I borrowed one from our garage at work and used it once. It's a pain in the *** to use, but it does work. Maybe Google it or look on You Tube. If it costs less than a new intake gasket and your gasket isn't leaking, it might be worth it. I think everyone else is more worried about your oil pressure than you....lol. If you want to use it, I have a manual gauge that I only use when priming an engine that I will loan you if you want. Just ship it back to me when you're done.

:thumbsup:
 
Ok, ok, you've got me convinced, haha. I just ordered an oil pressure gauge. I already tried pulling out the lifters through the heads, but unfortunately they're smog heads and the opening is not big enough. I guess you can also pull them through the distributor hole, but that's making it more complicated than it needs to be. At least I'm not working under the car for a change.
 
66fyssh said:
The Commando air cleaner is my all time favorite air cleaner.
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It sure is pretty! I got it for $120 shipped from a guy in a Barracuda group on Facebook - at first I thought he might be a scammer. I've been looking for one for a while and they are usually around 300 bucks or totally rusted. Chrome is nice on this one, but could use a Commando pie tin (currently it's just a decal with quite a few bubbles). Oh wait, stop spending money!
 
Lol...money goes quick on our ole girls. When I say to my wife, "next I need to buy...." at first she would ask "how much is that?", but now she just says "yeah, I know, $200."

You got a great deal on that for $120 shipped.
 
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