Another Slant back from the dead

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subcom

FABO Gold Member
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It's alive! This is my '65 Valiant 2 door I bought on CL in S. California. 225/904 combo. The engine had been sitting since around 2006. Parked after it "stopped working" according to the previous owner. A complete mystery and a big gamble when I bought it...but I had faith in the little 6 that could.

I followed a lot of advise on this forum and have lots of thanks to go around for all of the valuable posts and past experiences from other posters that helped me resuscitate the slant. Essentially I covered all of the basics; oil change, plugs, checked cap & wires which seemed pretty clean, did a once over on valve lash and eventually ended up changing the timing chain. It didn't seem too sloppy to me but once I had the new chain on there the slant started right up. I made sure I could rotate the engine by hand and then bumped it over a few times at the starter just to ensure it was not frozen before adding fuel and spark.

I've since installed a new gas tank, just finished running all new steel brake lines, dual reservoir master cylinder and have all of the parts to eventually do the Scarebird disk brake conversion on the front.

The engine seemed pretty clean and I'm guessing it has been rebuilt at some point in it's life. Long term plan is to swap in a small block but I must say I've really enjoyed working on the slant and can really appreciate the extra available real estate inside the engine compartment.
 

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Be careful :D These cool buzzing half dozens grow on yea.
I really enjoy my daily driver.
It's a 66 Sedan Valiant with the little 170/6 . Welcome to the club :cheers:
 

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You need to move that factory fuel line away from the exhaust manifold and over the valve cover to eliminate vapor lock ,follow the fuel line from the fuel filter and you will see how that line goes around the front of the motor very close to the exhaust manifold.
That is one sweet /6.Keep it in there,you can hop up that six.
TXDart
 
Be careful :D These cool buzzing half dozens grow on yea.
I really enjoy my daily driver.
It's a 66 Sedan Valiant with the little 170/6 . Welcome to the club :cheers:

I could cook breakfast on that! I would love to have that manual steering setup. One of the items on my shopping/todo list.

Looks great. Congrats.
 
Here is how I did my fuel line about a month ago TXDart. She was struck by lighting... what a mess it made, Our electric co. put the fire out for me
 

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I don't think that is the original engine for that car, if it matters to you ? it looks like the block is from a 66 or later car and I think the -13 is the 13th modification to that block meaning it is even later than 66.

http://www.yearone.com/updatedsinglepages/id_info/mopar/mopar engine ID/engineinfo5.asp
http://www.mymopar.com/enginecastnumb.htm


The valve cover is 1966 or earlier. you can tell by the two stacks instead of one.

Heads look right 62-65
http://www.mymopar.com/headcastnumb.htm

I also think it should be red I believe they didn't paint the slants blue until 1970.


Enjoy your new leaning tower of power :)
 
You need to move that factory fuel line away from the exhaust manifold and over the valve cover to eliminate vapor lock ,follow the fuel line from the fuel filter and you will see how that line goes around the front of the motor very close to the exhaust manifold.
That is one sweet /6.Keep it in there,you can hop up that six.
TXDart

Thanks TXDart. I have read about that issue and plan on doing something similar to memike's fuel line routing. I still haven't taken the car out to really "stretch its legs" but believe me, if there is an issue with vapor lock it will rear its ugly head in this Miami heat.

I have a few other little gremlins to work out and then the slant should run like a clock. I'm a bit ashamed to admit I've owned a couple of these old A's in the past and the first thing we always did with the Slant 6 was to extricate it from the engine compartment and throw it in the corner of the garage to make room for a small block. I definitely have a new appreciation for the /6 now.
 
Here is how I did my fuel line about a month ago TXDart. She was struck by lighting... what a mess it made, Our electric co. put the fire out for me

How do you take the valve cover off with the line run like that ?
 
Here is how I did my fuel line about a month ago TXDart. She was struck by lighting... what a mess it made, Our electric co. put the fire out for me

That is sweeter than how I did mine in my 72 Dart,Well there you gosubcom do it like MeMike.
TXDart
 
I have never modified the fuel line like that and haven't had a problem yet.

I did add a few extra gaskets under the carb to cool it down.
 
My 64 dart's slant 6
 

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Red, blue, yellow, black... they are all pretty much the same motor. 13 does mean the 13th revision of the casting, but it doesnt really correspond to the casting date as it could still be a first year casting, but just the 13th revision/repair of a modular mold. when you got 30 minutes, get yourself a $13 Holley 1920 carb kit from Autozone and do the accelerator pump replacement. when they go out (after sitting for a while is what I understand) they start to squirt gas out of the bowl where it meets the venturi (see that little hole?) onto your hot manifolds, not safe. Seen it and fixed it in 30 minutes. I say keep the slant. They run great and run forever, and are a great motor for the narrow A. V8 swaps are a handful in these chassis, been there, done that too.

DSC00025.JPG
 
How about posting some pictures of the car.
On my 1963 Dart GT,I am leaning towards a turbo.
Plenty of guys here to point you in the right direction for what you want.
My 1974 dart has mild 318 and I have 66 Dart that was getting a 360 but playing with the idea a turbo six for it.Of Course,I live in Texas and this Summer heat has had an effect on me....
Undecided,
TXDart
 
How do you take the valve cover off with the line run like that ?
Just loosen the fuel line at the carb (short rubber line on top) and just move it out of the way remove valve cover and put it back on to set valves :D

I think running it away from the front of the engine is cooler, but I would like to put a heat shield under or around it. :coffee2:
 
I heard a rumor that there was a diesel slant-6, Now that would be interesting in a dart.

:)

There is, 66aCUDA has a generator/welder that is powered by a /6 diesel :glasses7:
 
How about posting some pictures of the car.
On my 1963 Dart GT,I am leaning towards a turbo.
Plenty of guys here to point you in the right direction for what you want.
My 1974 dart has mild 318 and I have 66 Dart that was getting a 360 but playing with the idea a turbo six for it.Of Course,I live in Texas and this Summer heat has had an effect on me....
Undecided,
TXDart

Here she is. Brought the car from the Palm Springs, Ca area. Original black plate car. Mfr in LA and spent it's whole life in S. California. Was dry as a bone when I got it. A little bit of rust in the lower pass side rear quarter. The prototypical rust on all of these old mopars. But everything else is absolutely clean. Could never find anything similar in this part of the country.
 

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VERY NIZE =P~=P~ That is a Signet Coup Hard top :cheers::cheers:
Digging the buckets =P~ congratulations :cheers:

Mine is a 66 Sedan the first and the last of this body style :glasses7:
 

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subcom,

Your last photo, lower left, looks like the later factory electronic ignition box (~1972+?). If the wiring harness isn't hacked, perhaps someone swapped a whole engine and harness from a later car, though difficult to match to the bulkhead connector.
 
subcom,

Your last photo, lower left, looks like the later factory electronic ignition box (~1972+?). If the wiring harness isn't hacked, perhaps someone swapped a whole engine and harness from a later car, though difficult to match to the bulkhead connector.

Good catch Bill!
It does have a later model elec ignition but appears to be spliced into the original harness. Either way, I'm pleased with it. I haven't worked on a points based ignition since I worked on some old Vdubbs years ago.
 
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