Hello all again, we just set up an account here but I have been on FBBO for several years in case you missed the welcome wagon post. I'm known as Runner 68 over there.
My 16 year old son who just acquired a 1972 Duster and this will be the build thread. I have been around the B bodies and E bodies for roughly 40 years but am pretty green with the A bodies so we're looking for that great assistance here that I get over on FBBO.
I'm pretty excited to get into this project with him and he is as well. I think it's pretty cool that a guy of his generation has chosen to get into this hobby. He thinks it will be cool to have 2 old Plymouths sitting in the shop. For what it's worth he had an opportunity at a big block Chally but chose the Duster.
So here it is, 1972 Base model, 318 / 3 speed on the floor. ~80K miles. He purchased it from a family member for $1,200. It was put out to pasture in 1993 in dry Colorado but ran fine when it was parked.
We went out two weeks ago and filled it full of PB blaster and Marvel and let it soak for 2 weeks.
We got it home into the shop this weekend and started the clean up. The first order of business was to roll the engine buy hand. We pulled the distributor and tried to prime the oil pump with a drill, got a little pressure but it never made it up to the valve train. Rolled it over a little by hand to get the journals opened up and tried to prime again....nothing to the top.
It rolled over very smooth from the start, nothing stuck at all, which surprised us but good news none the less. I am however curious why I didn't get pressure to the top end.
My thoughts are 1. The Marvel is too thin to pressurize up top. 2. The pickup tube is gunked up and can't pick up.
Next weekend's plan is to drain the Marvel and drop the pan, replace the oil pump, pick up and work from there with real oil
We're taking it one step at a time through all the systems to get it to fire without dumping too many $$ into it. If that fails and we need to build a new engine, so be it.
Thoughts are welcome, pics below.
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