My 1974 Plymouth Duster 360
Tuesday morning was my 32nd birthday. I got up, made coffee, got the kids ready for school. Dropped them off, and went to the shop.
Welded up my mocked up 2.5" Manifold Head Pipes.
Grabbed a New collector gasket at Advanced Auto Parts on the way home.
I installed the passenger side first cause I knew it was a no brainer and the easiest of the two. It lined up perfectly and fit down and around the oil filter and down through the torsion bar no sweat.
Damn, I am good.
I slipped under the driver side, put the flange up to the manifold and couldnt get the bolts in.....I had missed the angle by .18"...or 1/8 of an inch....my head pipe was up against the torsion bar and I needed .5 to .75" of clearance.
I hunted around for a BFH and all I could come up with was a claw hammer.
After a couple of retarded plinks on the mandrel pipe....I was loaded up and haulin *** to the shop to use the torch. I heated up the contacted area and found a piece of 1.5" pipe and a 8 lb sledge hammer and made the pipe conform to my desires....after a quick quenching I was headed back to the garage.
With the clearance dimple :-D in the pipe, I installed it, the bolts dropped right in I installed the new gasket and I tightened up the bolts.
After that I moved onto the next thing on the list.
Set the engine on #1 TDC.
I filled the engine with 4 qts of Castrol GTX 10w-30 and 1qt of Lucas Oil Stabilizer. I filled the champion radiator and block with 4 gallons of PEAK all season coolant. I tested the Ignition Start circuit and the solenoid was getting a signal from the key.
All Systems go.
Grabbed the gas can and headed off to the Chevron for 5 gal. of 90.
Poured in the 5 gal. into the brand new tank, with new sending unit....new filler neck grommet.
Filled a 20oz. root beer bottle with a modified cap with a hose barb and hose for carb priming, half full. Popped the feedline off the carb and filled the float bowl on my FREE (ok....$13.99 accelerator pump) edlebrock 600.
Sprinkled a dabble over the venturi's for the homies.
Hooked up the battery and starter solenoid wire.
Turned the key:-D.....nothing.
huh?
slipped under the car and pulled on the shifter lever on the trans...Damn it....REVERSE.
Hit the key, and V-VVROOOOOOM.....:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:cheers::cheers:
Happy Birthday Me!!!!
I let it run about 1 minute the first crank.
Shut it off and just looked it over. No smoke, no leaks. :toothy10:
Yay!
Cranked it up again. The lifters quieted down.
Set the ignition timing at 10* ATDC and locked down the distributor.
Noticed the oil pressure light would just come on intermittently so I shut it down once I noticed it on steady.
That worried me. Stupid Oil light.
So I went to the junkyard Wed., found a crappy gauge set in a ford pickup.
Stopped by Advanced Auto Parts and got a copper oil line install kit.
I hooked up the gauge, cranked the car and it shot up to 65 psi. :cheers:
I let it warm up this time, the (instrument cluster that I rebuilt) temp gauge works. I let it get up to 180* and let the thermostat open....no leaks. No Oil on the ground, no coolant either. :-D
Manifolds started smoking a little as the gaskets burned in.
Shut it off and put a box fan in front of it to let it cool down.
Tuesday morning was my 32nd birthday. I got up, made coffee, got the kids ready for school. Dropped them off, and went to the shop.
Welded up my mocked up 2.5" Manifold Head Pipes.
Grabbed a New collector gasket at Advanced Auto Parts on the way home.
I installed the passenger side first cause I knew it was a no brainer and the easiest of the two. It lined up perfectly and fit down and around the oil filter and down through the torsion bar no sweat.
Damn, I am good.
I slipped under the driver side, put the flange up to the manifold and couldnt get the bolts in.....I had missed the angle by .18"...or 1/8 of an inch....my head pipe was up against the torsion bar and I needed .5 to .75" of clearance.
I hunted around for a BFH and all I could come up with was a claw hammer.
After a couple of retarded plinks on the mandrel pipe....I was loaded up and haulin *** to the shop to use the torch. I heated up the contacted area and found a piece of 1.5" pipe and a 8 lb sledge hammer and made the pipe conform to my desires....after a quick quenching I was headed back to the garage.
With the clearance dimple :-D in the pipe, I installed it, the bolts dropped right in I installed the new gasket and I tightened up the bolts.
After that I moved onto the next thing on the list.
Set the engine on #1 TDC.
I filled the engine with 4 qts of Castrol GTX 10w-30 and 1qt of Lucas Oil Stabilizer. I filled the champion radiator and block with 4 gallons of PEAK all season coolant. I tested the Ignition Start circuit and the solenoid was getting a signal from the key.
All Systems go.
Grabbed the gas can and headed off to the Chevron for 5 gal. of 90.
Poured in the 5 gal. into the brand new tank, with new sending unit....new filler neck grommet.
Filled a 20oz. root beer bottle with a modified cap with a hose barb and hose for carb priming, half full. Popped the feedline off the carb and filled the float bowl on my FREE (ok....$13.99 accelerator pump) edlebrock 600.
Sprinkled a dabble over the venturi's for the homies.
Hooked up the battery and starter solenoid wire.
Turned the key:-D.....nothing.
huh?
slipped under the car and pulled on the shifter lever on the trans...Damn it....REVERSE.
Hit the key, and V-VVROOOOOOM.....:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:-D:cheers::cheers:
Happy Birthday Me!!!!
I let it run about 1 minute the first crank.
Shut it off and just looked it over. No smoke, no leaks. :toothy10:
Yay!
Cranked it up again. The lifters quieted down.
Set the ignition timing at 10* ATDC and locked down the distributor.
Noticed the oil pressure light would just come on intermittently so I shut it down once I noticed it on steady.
That worried me. Stupid Oil light.
So I went to the junkyard Wed., found a crappy gauge set in a ford pickup.
Stopped by Advanced Auto Parts and got a copper oil line install kit.
I hooked up the gauge, cranked the car and it shot up to 65 psi. :cheers:
I let it warm up this time, the (instrument cluster that I rebuilt) temp gauge works. I let it get up to 180* and let the thermostat open....no leaks. No Oil on the ground, no coolant either. :-D
Manifolds started smoking a little as the gaskets burned in.
Shut it off and put a box fan in front of it to let it cool down.
