My first A-body, need some 383 advise?

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greenhornet

greenhornet

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Hey guys, Just got my first A-body, 1966 Valiant 100, woooooo!!!! Anyways, I need some advise, I'm not finding the info I need on other sites.. First, I'm on a budget, I'm not going to spend 7 or $800.00 on mounts and headers to put a 383 in my valiant, thats more then I gave for the car.. I can fab eveything myself, just need to know "any an all clearance issues", my main question is, transmission tunnel clearance for a 383 727-torqueflite?? Will I need to enlarge the tunnel? I'm cutting out all the bad floor pans now before I get started on anything else.. Thanks for any advise!!
 
Um I havent seen much on putting a BB in an early A. There is lots of info here and on Bigblockdart.com as well. You will need to upgrade brakes, rearend and sub frame connectors and drive shaft for sure. Not sure do they make mounts for early A to BB?
 
Well I have seen an early valiant like yours with a 392 hemi,so the 383 will fit. I think the biggest prob will be headers. I would cut some holes in the inner fenders and run 2 header pipes out that way. Semi fenderwell headers should help clear up some room in there.

Oil pan is the second issue.What works for the second gen A bods like my 70 Dart are the 187 and 699 stamping pans as they have a notch on the pass side for suspension clearance.

Oil pump on the big block A body with shumaker mounts requires some grinding/cutting of the K frame on the driver side for clearance.

Center link may be in the way as well.

Steering box is another issue with interference to headers. Front steer rack and pinion solves it. Or you can just snake the header tubes around it.

Frame connecters are an absolute must. You will twist that little car otherwise.
 
It's going to be a sleeper, 13" white wall tires and dog dish hubcaps, body is in awesome condition, only rust is in the floor pans (thanks to the factory carpet).. I'll probably just use log type exhaust manifolds with 2.5" pipes, I don't think the log manifolds are going to hurt my power to weight ratio power to much.. Firewall clearance really concerns me, the 383 is a heavy engine to be handling by myself in a tight engine bay..
 
Putting a big block over those 13 inch tires may not be the safest route. You might want to upgrade to the bigger 4.5 inch setup with disk breaks and put 14 or 15 inch tire's on it.
 
About all I saw over at bigblockdarts was shumaker-shumaker-shumaker.. It couldn't be rocket science to fab up acouple of 383 engine mounts for the valiant.. Frame connectors is an excellent idea, guess I'll have to fab those, I can't find much of anything for a 66 valiant, looked at floor pans on ebay heres what I found, 63-65 valiant and 67-up, what happened to 66 was it a 1-year floorboard??
 
I had to modify my floor tunnel to fit the 727 in it. Although I have heard of some guys being able to put them in without mods? I have a small block in mine but the 727 is the same basic size.

Chuck
 
While I'm replacing floor pans I'll go ahead and enlarge it while I'm cuttin and welding.. The stock tunnel looks awful small to me.. This is the first mopar I've had in over 22-years.. I always had B-bodys, runners, chargers and gtx's, A-bodys are new for me..
 
greenhornet said:
About all I saw over at bigblockdarts was shumaker-shumaker-shumaker.. It couldn't be rocket science to fab up acouple of 383 engine mounts for the valiant.. ??
Click to expand...

I guess it all depends on how much you estimate that your time is worth...

For me, it was well worth the price to get the Schumacher mounts, Tri-Y headers and torsion bar as a package deal for my 383, as I knew that it was all going to fit well together into my Dart from the get-go...

Once I got the Kit, it took me less than one hour to put all the components on the 383, and then install the engine + Trans into the car, with shims all set up and ready to go..

And this was my very first time doing an engine transplant.

--
 
Good looking dart... Your A-body came with the 383 option, I would have just went with the factory 383 dart hardware for installation... Even if I had the extra cash to burn on the kit, I'd still rather fab it myself, I guess I'm an ole school car crafter.. Since my 66 engine bay is smaller then the 67 up A-bodys, I'll probably just make some engine plates instead of messing with motor mounts, it would be nice to have a plastic 383 and an empty torqueflite for mock up...
 
Mounts are really pretty simple. Install a bare block and trans case (just because everything is lighter). The trans mount is the same no matter what engine/trans combo you are using so get the trans in place. Now, measure the offset of the output shaft of the trans and get the same offset at the front of the crank. The height can be a little tricky to get right, but if you put heads and an intake on the block you can level the carb flange (make sure the car is level, too). Now, make your mounts (modify stock ones is more like it).
 
Oh, and as for using the factory big block stuff on a later build. Not practical. It's a lot more expensive and harder to find than any other mount solution. And, if you think everybody at BBD is pushing Schumacher, then you've missed EVERY post I've ever made on the subject............
 
I was bet $50 back around '91 that I couldnt get a 383 up and running buying nothing. I used a '68 383 2bbl ,non AC. Pulled the 225/6 from the '72 swinger. I used the /6 radiator and fabbed up a u bend from exh tubing to re-route the coolant to the engine. Bolted down the trans in the factory spot, adn hung the motor in place. Teh RH mount is easy, LH maunt I had to play with a little. The RH exh manifold fits fine. LH hits the steering shaft from the column. I haev that LH manifold angle milled and used a die grinder to clearance the steering coupler area. Worked fine. That car was goign to the crusher... Now it's for sale on CL in CT for $16K after getting completely redone a few years ago. It can be done. Take your time. I used a length of angle iron and a chop saw to cut the driveshaft down. It was actually pretty stable to about 80mph because that's how fast I got the speedo it doing the one-legger hole shots.
 
Now you're talking my mind set, my last project I built a complete 63 rat rod chevy pick up with parts I had laying around, had under a grand in it start to finish and It's one of the coolest rat rods around (in my area)... I don't farm out any work on my builds (cant afford to).. This little 66 Valiant has my creative juices flowing, I've not felt this way about a project "ever".. I guess because it's such a cool little virgin "grand-maw" mopar (it still has the factocy window sticker and I.D. card with it).. It's a blank canvas... I first wanted to get crazy with it and throw my A-100 straight axle under it and alter the rear wheel base but after inspecting the car it's to cherry to start cutting it up..
 
Jim lusk>>> I just joined you guys yesterday, have't had time to read all the past posts (i've got this 66 valiant on the brain right now).. You're mostly right about the 383 factory stuff, it just depends on how good of a parts scrounger a guy is... I'm new to all these different K-frames and A-bodys, all my past B-bodys I just dropped in another 383 or 440 and went with it.. I want you guys to educate me about these A-bodys, I'm all ears, fill my head with knowledge!! Has this board got a spell check? I can't remember my own cell number but I can remember a lot of firing orders on different engines...
 
I've been jackin my jaw and got off my main topic here... Will I need to enlarge the trans tunnel for this swap???
 
I, for one, would be very interested in seeing what you can accomplish with this.
Maybe it's due to my age, but I think we all get a little hung up on buying the latest trick parts on line and waiting for UPS to deliver them. A well built early A with a 383 could be a pretty cool ride, especially if you pay homage to the mid-sisties drag racing vibe with period correct modifications and components. Your idea of using a motor plate seems sound. If it were me, I'd go with fender well headers and manual steering and use a narrow front tire. After all, it's not going to a road racer, is it?
 
greenhornet said:
It's going to be a sleeper, 13" white wall tires and dog dish hubcaps, ....
Click to expand...

I don't know how much of a sleeper it will be with 13" tires and 9" drum brakes. It will be like driving on ice; The minute you touch the gas the tires will be spinning and in the mean time the guy next to you in the Civic will just drive away. Then when it comes time to stop you will swear you are on ice with the extra weight and those tiny 9" brakes.

I agree with the other comments about upgrading to 14" or 15" tires and wheels and getting disk brakes on the front of the car too.

I didn't see mention of it, but the 7.25" rear end that is likely in that car will not stand up to the power of a 383 for very long.
 
I figure on a rollin' kick my friend, with acouple hundred pounds in the truck, when I hit second and hit the nitrous that civic will be a toasted rice patty!! just kiddin' about the nitrous (or am I?)... I'm pretty sure the rear won't last long either, I have 5 or 6- 9" ford rear ends layind around, I'll shorten one of those and kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bullet proof rear end and big rear brakes, I'll make a set of super stock leaf springs with a pinion snubber, now we're gettin somewhere!! I have a duel fiero master cylinder with the perportioning valve mounted to it, 13"rear wheels will have to go, I'll go with 14's and make some white wall cheater slicks, gotta keep the hub caps.. I'll get this cream puff built and start posting some pics...
 
Thanks!! I did alittle back alley dealing and the guy delivered it to North Carolina for me, he threw in an extra hood, radiator and driveshaft...
 
I could have probably got the car cheaper, but the guy was straight up with me and was willing to make a 8-hour round trip to deliver it to me, so I made him a fair offer and we wrapped up the deal... I wasn't going to take a chance letting it run until the end of the auction, I was looking at a $350.00 haul bill right off the top..
 
Probably won't, but yet again it might... I have some ole school mopar tricks up my sleve.. When I get the 383 in it's going straight to thrusday night test and tune at shady side, NC (that's my closest drag strip).. Anyone on here wanna roll da dice and bet on ET in the 1/8 mile on this death trap???
 
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