64 Dart 5.7 hemi update thread.
Heres the tight spots. In the first pic youll see the hump with the blackish spot on it...well that "spot" was supposed to be a nice drawn square, but the marker ran out like water. Anyway that spot is were the upper control arms cam bolts go. Cool thing is i only have to trim it up abit, so it wont effect the travel of the suspension. Im just gonna cut it, then weld a piece of metal back over the hole. Without doing this, i dont see how i can get the exhaust manifold on without making sure its on when the engine goes in, but i would like to be able to take the head off without having to lift the engine out. My luck, if i didnt do this id get a valvecover leak or head gasket leak and have to pull the engine anyway.
The other tight spot is three valve cover bolts. Ive been told you can get the engine in ok, but to get a valve cover off without lifting the engine is impossible (in Early A's anyway, should have more room in later models). You can kinda see in the pics were i need to mod this area. Ill need to cut for the center one, but for the other two i might be able to slightly beat a dent in so the bolts fit in.
The last two pics show just how wide the hemi is. The mods i gotta do to get this engine to fit arent nearly as bad as it could have been. So i can honestly say im very pleased. Im lucky this engine even fit in this early A body. Hope you guys enjoyed the updates. I gotta get back to working on my basement, so i wont be able to work on my car for awhile. But i will post new stuff when i can. I hope this thread is helpful to anyone wanting to put a new hemi in an early A body or even a later A. I got a long way to go before i get to drive my car, but im having fun working on it.
Heres the tight spots. In the first pic youll see the hump with the blackish spot on it...well that "spot" was supposed to be a nice drawn square, but the marker ran out like water. Anyway that spot is were the upper control arms cam bolts go. Cool thing is i only have to trim it up abit, so it wont effect the travel of the suspension. Im just gonna cut it, then weld a piece of metal back over the hole. Without doing this, i dont see how i can get the exhaust manifold on without making sure its on when the engine goes in, but i would like to be able to take the head off without having to lift the engine out. My luck, if i didnt do this id get a valvecover leak or head gasket leak and have to pull the engine anyway.
The other tight spot is three valve cover bolts. Ive been told you can get the engine in ok, but to get a valve cover off without lifting the engine is impossible (in Early A's anyway, should have more room in later models). You can kinda see in the pics were i need to mod this area. Ill need to cut for the center one, but for the other two i might be able to slightly beat a dent in so the bolts fit in.
The last two pics show just how wide the hemi is. The mods i gotta do to get this engine to fit arent nearly as bad as it could have been. So i can honestly say im very pleased. Im lucky this engine even fit in this early A body. Hope you guys enjoyed the updates. I gotta get back to working on my basement, so i wont be able to work on my car for awhile. But i will post new stuff when i can. I hope this thread is helpful to anyone wanting to put a new hemi in an early A body or even a later A. I got a long way to go before i get to drive my car, but im having fun working on it.
