67 383 Dart

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fratzog lover said:
They couldn't have reused the old timing chain....could they?
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OK this is getting interesting now, collective efforts of all members getting to the bottom of the problem.

Starting to sound familiar, someone has a car or a part they want to sell you and will tell you anything to get it sold and turn it into money for them. Trust no one until proven trust worthy!

Here is the deal, previous owner had a burnt exhaust valve on his original 67 383 GTS with the 516 heads, so he rounds up a set of reworked 915 open chambered heads and swaps them on to this original engine and that is it. So then he tells the next buyer that he just overhauled the engine and it's been built with a purple cam. Unfortunatly not true, just put on a different set of heads as he did not open up the front of the engine and change the timing chain set and gears and did not change the cam either. The original timing chain and gears totally wore out, 50 years old. Timing chain was probably gone 10,000 miles ago when he swapped to the 915 heads, that's why it never ran right.

There is always a silver lining to every cloud. Hopefully the unique 67 383 Split Grind camshaft is still in there that is designed to work with the original 516 heads small exhaust valves for good performance. Please do not throw that original 67 383 cam away, I for one would like to have it on my Parts shelf.

The old saying goes: This is in my opinion . . I will be the first one to take a shot at this as to what really happened to this engine and why it is not making any power.

Have fun with the diagnostics, we will see what he finds when he opens up the timing cover next.
 
I can feel splinters of nylon as I run my fingers through the sludge in the bottom of the oil pan...of this rebuilt hot daily driver:lol:
 
Don't feel bad, this happens all the time. 50 year old parts and cars, multiple owners, numerous different mechanics, experts, and do-it-yourselfers working on the unit over a long period of time. Life changes for people and they have to get out of their projects and the next guy picks it up and cares for it to the best of his ability.

I have looked at things as you have a complete car to work with that is a true American Classic, and these are the Battle Scars that got it where it is today. Now it is in your hands, and with the help of the members here on FABO you can do the car justice.

Original 67 Dart GTS 383 . . . That's what I call Mopar Envy.

Good luck on your project, sweet car for sure !
 
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brian6pac said:
The more I look at some of the things that are f-ed up it was a econo rebuild, if it got a rebuild at all.
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Absolutely Brian6pac! I think you should just bite the bullet and tear this motor down completely and see exactly what you are working with. Heads, cam, timing chain and distributer are already suspect and these are parts you can see! What condition is the rest likely to be in? Great news though! You have a very rare and desirable car and I think its worth the extra effort!
I wish you all the best with it!!
 
Brian6Pac
You can tell a lot about what is going on inside the engine by dropping the oil out and see what comes out into your drain pan. Also cut that oil filter open and see if there is excessive steel particles in it or fine plastic particles, can take a magnet to the paper filter part of the filter and see what you got.

Considering a person's budget and time frames, if things come up within reason with the oil filter contents. A simple timing chain and new gear set would wake that engine right up, vs complete tear down and overhaul. Up to you where you are going with this project.

Just out of curiosity, you measured your exhaust valve cam lift with your dial indicator that came in around .462" lift at the valve by your measuring methods. I would like to see what the intake valve lift on that same cylinder comes out to be by your measuring method. Thinking that is the Factory Split Grind camshaft in there yet, I would think your numbers on the intake valve lift would be around .390"-.400" Lift at the intake valve.

Everyone has a different way of trying to measure what their cams are, I am more interested in the Split numbers between the exhaust lift and intake lift to help determine that it is in fact the original 67 383 camshaft in there yet.

Will be interested to see what you come up with.

Thanks
 
O.K. finally got the time to dig into the 383, prorac1 ask about the way I was checking the cam and he was right in a way, I found the push rod was hitting the block on #1 exhaust and throwing off my reading. The cam has .321-.322 lift on all the lobes so the cam is a DC 284/484, The timing chain was a link belt not a double roller, and very sloppy. Then the dist bushings were worn out, the oil pump drive bushing was worn out the shaft worn bad, the oil pump was stock and looked like rocks went through it, never seen one so bad. Pulled the pan and some how the bearings looked good. The valve springs were stock single spring no damper and weak, probably floated at 4000 rpm and is why it wouldn't rev. The intake was a Edelbrock dual plane and no gasket other than the valley pan and it was leaking.
The fix, A Howard's double roller chain with 9 positions to adjust, set it up for 4* adv and actually got 3.5*, the cam had a 108 cl and now is set to a 111.5 cl, intake closed at 70* ABDC, now 66.5* ABDC. Comp cams 911-16 valve springs, Melling HV oil pump DC shaft and a NOS dist that I had set timing at 38* total . New intake gaskets and valley pan, I ran real good but had a off idle stumble, the 1412 Edelbrock 800 was to lean, so I put the smallest metering rod in that came in the kit and it was almost perfect, drilled the #35 squirter nozzle to #37 and that fixed it with the pump rod in the closest hole to the pivot. The car will cruise at 1500 RPM in 3rd gear all day long, has a nice rough idle at 900 RPM and will spin the tires 1/2 way through 1st gear sideways in 2nd gear and it pulls like a bear.
 
brian6pac said:
O.K. finally got the time to dig into the 383, prorac1 ask about the way I was checking the cam and he was right in a way, I found the push rod was hitting the block on #1 exhaust and throwing off my reading. The cam has .321-.322 lift on all the lobes so the cam is a DC 284/484, The timing chain was a link belt not a double roller, and very sloppy. Then the dist bushings were worn out, the oil pump drive bushing was worn out the shaft worn bad, the oil pump was stock and looked like rocks went through it, never seen one so bad. Pulled the pan and some how the bearings looked good. The valve springs were stock single spring no damper and weak, probably floated at 4000 rpm and is why it wouldn't rev. The intake was a Edelbrock dual plane and no gasket other than the valley pan and it was leaking.
The fix, A Howard's double roller chain with 9 positions to adjust, set it up for 4* adv and actually got 3.5*, the cam had a 108 cl and now is set to a 111.5 cl, intake closed at 70* ABDC, now 66.5* ABDC. Comp cams 911-16 valve springs, Melling HV oil pump DC shaft and a NOS dist that I had set timing at 38* total . New intake gaskets and valley pan, I ran real good but had a off idle stumble, the 1412 Edelbrock 800 was to lean, so I put the smallest metering rod in that came in the kit and it was almost perfect, drilled the #35 squirter nozzle to #37 and that fixed it with the pump rod in the closest hole to the pivot. The car will cruise at 1500 RPM in 3rd gear all day long, has a nice rough idle at 900 RPM and will spin the tires 1/2 way through 1st gear sideways in 2nd gear and it pulls like a bear.
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Now that's the way a 383 should run in a Dart !!
 
Glad you were able to get to the bottom of it all, get all the incidentals taken care of, give everything the green light. Good to Go.

Sweet Success !
 
Oh yea, the torsion bars are 340 bars .870" 892, 893, so if anyone has a set of .894, .895, bars he is interested. Might be a couple months before he has the cash after this ordeal.
 
The 67 383 bars the same as 68-69 340 bars, they didn't upgrade them until 68...
 
I thought the bars were 894 and 895 for my car. I have a 67 GTS and I’m pretty sure that they were never replaced until I changed them. I though they were different based on the numbers stamped into them. I thought 894 and 895 were .89?
 
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