Yard Sale

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Gearhed73

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Joined
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Location
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This is my crew cab 69 valiant. I had been wanting a budget friendly project for hauling food from the store. At this point I pretty much like it all, just depends on my mood. Ive always been a Mopar guy but have owned hot rods, kustoms some vw's and some chevys /fords. I was open to it all when I found this valiant. It wasnt exactly what I was looking for but checked most of the boxes... it was currently running and driving with current tags. I met with the PO twice before I pulled the trigger. It had some new parts and basic maintenance seemed to be solid. Basic 318/904 with electronic ignition and disc brakes (fresh tranny too) We agreed on $2200 and I drove it home.
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My plan is to keep the appearance as-is and work on the drivetrain. I want to reduce as much weight as I can increase the power and see how we get on. Id like to get it into the 13's on the engine and maybe spray it deeper. But before any of that begins I had to address some issues such as a nasty exhaust leak and some serious pinging under and type of load.
I broke out the timing light too see what our initial was at. What I found was a half of a hose clamp that was being used as a timing pointer, assuming that was TDC I saw 16 degrees..I pulled it back to 5. The pinging was still there but only under a very heavy load, called it good and started looking at the exhaust. I found a totally wasted muffler and a exhaust pipe with plenty of natural weight reduction. I decided to let that ride for now and started looking for some foundation parts . I hooked up with a guy out near Irwindale that had his place stacked to the gills with mopar stuff. I picked up a set of headers an unported 318/360 performer intake and a set of leaf springs from a 340 car. I wasted no time getting into it. The header install went about as good as possible, but I really didnt like how close the power steering box was to the header. So I went ahead and sourced a manual box and a splined u-joint ( it was cheaper that the conversion part). The following weekend i crawled back under and started the swap. While we pulling parts off the AC stuff was removed. We weighed it all, I cant believe how heavy some of these parts are.
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You may be the youngest looking gun here! Have fun with that more-door. Guy in school had a slanty version of that and it was always on the road, never did jack to it.
 
That would be my 12yo... lucky for me that he has a real interest in all things automotive.
 
Cool car! Great that your son is interested in helping out!
 
After the manual box and header install and put a simple 2 1/2 exhaust with a crossover pipe together, I bought the largest magnaflows I could find and slammed it all together. It just dumps in front of the axle. I'll run it out back after the axle swap, I will also be using the next smaller muffler size, the current ones are just too big and dont tuck up far enough.
I scored a set of seemingly fresh 302 heads from a Diplomat at one of my local yards. I started doing research on the required parts. I ordered up an XE262 cam and new chain, along with the thin head gaskets. I cleaned up the ports and bowls of the 302 heads using tips I found this website. I did a compression test and saw low 140's across all 8. I figured this was good enough and planned to swap top ends the following weekend.... I was all motivated and had a clear 2 days I started getting it all opened up. I noticed a very slight ridge on the cylinders when I pulled the pax head. I thought about this for a minute and decided it would be okay for what I was trying to do. That was all fine until I started pulling the cam out, the cam bearings were very bad. I'n sure if Id put an oil pressure gauge on I would have expected this. At this point I wasnt going ant further with the short block in this condition. So I buttoned it all up and pushed it into the street. The search began...
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Love "crew cab".

Gonna use that.
 
There was some time between when I pulled the heads from the junk yard and when I started the swap, otherwise this would have been different. I basically started focusing my craigslist/marketplace searching towards 318/360 parts. Located a couple but were as trashed as mine, ended up down near Carlsbad picking up a .040 318 with serviceable (but very dirty) parts. Spent an afternoon cleaning and inspecting, ran a hone in the cylinders. Everything was passing muster but some rod bearings were MIA, a new set was ordered up along with an oil pump. Assembly was straight forward with no issues.. like it was made to work together.
I was on the fence about installing this engine with the stock converter, I didnt want to be pulling the tranny in 6 months when the new axle goes in. I decided on a budget friendly 11" Boss Hog, I think the advertised stall is 2600-2800... we shall see what it does in this yard sale.
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I wanted to reuse as much as possible to help keep cost in check. I really did not want to run the 3 grove crank pulley, after some inspection I realized I could loose some extra meat from it. I used a large socket as a base to scribe a nice line on the ID of the pulley. I carefully and slowly cut at the mark with a cutoff wheel. Im pleased with how it turned out
I also pulled my distributor apart and installed a timing limiter plate and one spring from an Old Mr Gasket recurve kit (used one factory light spring). Pretty straight forward install and gave me a good chance to inspect the distributor. I dropped it on the 18 degree slot.

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Heres where things get fun. I was getting everything ready for the cam break in, prelubed engine even used zinc additive. Had the carb bowls full of fuel and all the cooling and charging sys tems ready to rock. My shop helper was in charge of the key. Fired on first crank, we were stoked! Then fuel started gushing straight out of the vent tube! Damm it. Ill save the play by play, but basically hit all the likely suspects. Float level adjustment, checked needle and seat for trash, replaced needle and seat.. I was getting very concerned because every time we did a start cycle. I ended up installing a known good edelbrock evs a friend had. Back to it, fired instantly and took it right up and ran it for 20 minutes. Everything seemed good to go. We shut it down and did a nut/bolt check. Afterwards I felt like letting my neighbors hear it again, started to notice a popping in the exhaust at low rpms, I feared the worst. I did my best to stay calm and retrace all my steps, everything seemed good. After a couple of day thinking about it I came home from work and pulled the valve covers and intake. I was expecting some flat lobes or something... was pleased to find all the lobes in good condition, the oil filter was even clean ( cut it open). Felt better about everything but my brain was still going over possible causes. slammed it all together and scored this round as a DRAW.
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While all this fun was happening i was still looking for parts. Ended up with an 8.8 with 3:73 and traction lock from a 4x4 explorer. Also scored a set of new 235/60/15 drag radials... and a set of 15x7 cop wheels from Long Beach. These parts will have to stand by until I get the other issues sorted out.
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Sunday evening update.
I really felt that I'd dodged a bullet with the cam lobes being in great shape. Im sure the zinc additive and stock valvesprings had something to do with it. I thought it would be a good time to check cylinder pressures. I wasnt expecting much... the pistons were .090 in the hole, so even with a .040 overbore/thin head gaskets and a 60cc chamber (I measured it) the compression worked out to something still under 9 ( 8:8ish, i cant remember). With the engine up to temp we pulled all the plugs and got to it. Was half expecting to see a dead or weak cylinder.. ended up reading mid 130's across all 8. I wasnt surprised but just hate seeing numbers that low, guess thats what I get with a bucks down 318. Anyway, as I was feeling good about my plug wires going on so easy because I had loomed them up into pairs. I took a minute to verify each wire was going to the right place. Turns out I had 4 and 6 swapped!!!! My head must have been somewhere else when I did this. Humbled, I corrected it and fired it up. Guess what? No popping or slight shudder, idle vacuum has improved and its running strong! Man, what a bone headed mistake! Ive just been cruising around destroying the rear tire and loving the fact that it looks like a unloved Granny car.
My next move is to get my junkyard 8.8 under the car and get the pinon angle set. I have it narrowed up and the factory perches removed.. just need an open weekend to get it sorted. I'm hoping the 3:73's will really help this car get down the road, especially with the 26" drag radials!
 
Crew cabs are cool man! I think my front fenders came off the car your deck lid was on! lol

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Decided to unfxxck the garage after work today. That turned into "lets start the axle swap". So, after we made some room we did a quick spin around the block and stuffed it into the garage. I made pretty quick work of getting it ready to slide out. In a perfect world I would have the rear end mocked up under the car to finalize mount location and pinion angle this weekend....in a perfect world.
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Very cool car I like it!! Im a sucker for a 4 door! Great thread so far! I'm doing a 8.8 myself!
 
I have mine shortened up and the old perches cut off. I measured everything a couple of times and tacked the perches on. I really want to measure the pinon angle before I weld them in. My plan with the driveshaft is to grab an Explorer shaft and have just use my 904 yoke ( was just going to use conversion u-joint), I'll have a driveshaft shop shorten and balance it out.
 
I wanted to reuse as much as possible to help keep cost in check. I really did not want to run the 3 grove crank pulley, after some inspection I realized I could loose some extra meat from it. I used a large socket as a base to scribe a nice line on the ID of the pulley. I carefully and slowly cut at the mark with a cutoff wheel. Im pleased with how it turned out
I also pulled my distributor apart and installed a timing limiter plate and one spring from an Old Mr Gasket recurve kit (used one factory light spring). Pretty straight forward install and gave me a good chance to inspect the distributor. I dropped it on the 18 degree slot.

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You need to label each photo to show what it represents. The 15.71 is obviously running charging and that is too much You sure the extra ballast is wire correctly?

If you are still running an ammeter, where are the fans pulling their main power?
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I just drill out the spot welds and seperate the pulleys.
 
Long Beach hipo swap score yesterday. Picked up a nos powershot kit for $200. This wont be installed until after the rear axle is complete.
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