65 Dart Revisited II
Members. Today, I installed the engine in my 65 Dart Charger Clone. You might recall that this engine was a stock 273 2bbl; however, we bored it at 0.030 over, reworked the heads with stiffer springs, valve rework, HiPo pistons, and a stiffer than HiPo stock cam from Jim at Racer Brown. Should not be long until this outlaw enjoys the road. I used an engine dolly where I rolled the engine under the front end. I found this much easier as I had installed Mopar engines before, and the top bell housing bolts can be very difficult to install where the transmission is installed after the engine is installed. Using a dolly where one installs the engine from the bottom, and, then, lowering the car from the top over the engine works well having adequate room for the complete engine. There is a few inches to spare on either side allowing room to have the steering gear and the exhaust manifolds installed on the engine; however, there is no room to allow for the alternator to be installed on the engine....this should be installed later as I had my alternator installed, but I need to take it off as there was not room between the frame rails to allow the needed clearance. My dolly was approximately five inches in height, and it took thirty four inches in space from the floor to the bottom of the radiator bottom mount rail to clear....this is with the RV2 compressor installed. I did discover that the transmission cross-member is different between a V8 and a /6 engine. I used a /6 cross-member which has one bolt, and the 273 uses two mounting bolts. Correct me if I am wrong on this....was this a standard. As well the double bolt rear transmission mount is a bit wider than the /6 cross-member space. Learn something new each day on this build. Enclosed are some pics for those who are following my build. Looks like the middle to the end of July at this point to be on the road. I will post an additional set of pictures for this work of installing the engine from underneath. Thanks for following. sgrip65
Members. Today, I installed the engine in my 65 Dart Charger Clone. You might recall that this engine was a stock 273 2bbl; however, we bored it at 0.030 over, reworked the heads with stiffer springs, valve rework, HiPo pistons, and a stiffer than HiPo stock cam from Jim at Racer Brown. Should not be long until this outlaw enjoys the road. I used an engine dolly where I rolled the engine under the front end. I found this much easier as I had installed Mopar engines before, and the top bell housing bolts can be very difficult to install where the transmission is installed after the engine is installed. Using a dolly where one installs the engine from the bottom, and, then, lowering the car from the top over the engine works well having adequate room for the complete engine. There is a few inches to spare on either side allowing room to have the steering gear and the exhaust manifolds installed on the engine; however, there is no room to allow for the alternator to be installed on the engine....this should be installed later as I had my alternator installed, but I need to take it off as there was not room between the frame rails to allow the needed clearance. My dolly was approximately five inches in height, and it took thirty four inches in space from the floor to the bottom of the radiator bottom mount rail to clear....this is with the RV2 compressor installed. I did discover that the transmission cross-member is different between a V8 and a /6 engine. I used a /6 cross-member which has one bolt, and the 273 uses two mounting bolts. Correct me if I am wrong on this....was this a standard. As well the double bolt rear transmission mount is a bit wider than the /6 cross-member space. Learn something new each day on this build. Enclosed are some pics for those who are following my build. Looks like the middle to the end of July at this point to be on the road. I will post an additional set of pictures for this work of installing the engine from underneath. Thanks for following. sgrip65
