Help understanding the engine bay

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Ben A...

Ben A...

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Hey,

So I picked up my first classic -- 73 Duster with 360. It's pretty rough and I am trying to figure out the pieces strewn about the engine bay. Any help appreciated...
Also, I know this is super basic stuff but I don't know anyone to ask.

Each question has a photo associated with it (except for engine bay wide shot)

What's going on with blocked caps on my intake?
Where should I mount the coil?
And what's this on my radiator?
These plates on the passenger side firewall with the tube mounts, what are they?
What is this thing I'm holding with the orange tube and the wire on top?
Where do I find/mount the tubes that run to my heater core?

Thank you for any help!
Ben
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son, you got some cleaning to do

lets see, pic 1 seems to be a wierd vacuum tree
id pop it off and cap it off
mount the coil where ever it looks nice, but im not sure if that one needs to be mounted a certain way (vertical, or horizontal)

radiator thing, not a clue

pic 5 seems to be an oil pressure/temp reading site someone decided to move it way the heck out to get a oil temp sensor on there, and then didnt hook it up

remove the entire thing, take the large sensor (the one on the bottom of the T) and put that in the whole where the copper tube is installed

finally, your heater core is bypassed
(look at this big ole hose, going from the waterpump to the manifold)

there should be two of them, one going into the heater, and the other returning back into the motor
before you touch those, ask yourself, were they lazy when they did it like this...or did they bypass my heater core because it is leaking?

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Too funny.

O p what I see is a vacuum tree they can simply just be removed and a pipe plug put in. I guess they didn't have one so they thought rubber caps would suffice. I also see an oil sender it should be going to the back of the block but that they have some kind of crazy line going to instead and some pipe bullshit , so you'll want to unscrew that and put it back where it belongs. Now it seems this thing had a carb kit on it to which was like a early clean air device ran by vacuum you can take all those off or leave them unplugged because I doubt any of that stuff still works and you don't need it in the first place. On the radiator that's a thermostatically controlled vacuum switch for more of that carb kit early smog type crap that's not hooked up and just bolted to the wall...it would have gone to the air cleaner , probably opening the air horn duct to fresh air instead of off the exhaust manifold heat hose. Its possible that with that vacuum tree removed... there's enough room to mount your coil like it's supposed to be.. off the back of the intake and sideways.
Youre missing trim/plates for the fan motor and heater hose inlet/outlet.
 
Last edited:
diymirage said:
son, you got some cleaning to do

lets see, pic 1 seems to be a wierd vacuum tree
id pop it off and cap it off
mount the coil where ever it looks nice, but im not sure if that one needs to be mounted a certain way (vertical, or horizontal)

radiator thing, not a clue

pic 5 seems to be an oil pressure/temp reading site someone decided to move it way the heck out to get a oil temp sensor on there, and then didnt hook it up

remove the entire thing, take the large sensor (the one on the bottom of the T) and put that in the whole where the copper tube is installed

finally, your heater core is bypassed
(look at this big ole hose, going from the waterpump to the manifold)

there should be two of them, one going into the heater, and the other returning back into the motor
before you touch those, ask yourself, were they lazy when they did it like this...or did they bypass my heater core because it is leaking?

View attachment 1715464533
Click to expand...

Thank you sir! Very much appreciate the help.
Much work to do.

The heater box wasn't even in the car when I got it, so I have a new one now that I know works. Just gotta relink it.
 
MOPAROFFICIAL said:
Too funny.

O p what I see is a vacuum free they can simply just be removed and a pipe plug put in I guess they didn't have one so they thought rubber caps would suffice. I also see an oil sender it should be going to the back of the block but that they have some kind of crazy line going to instead and some pipe bullshit , so you'll want to unscrew that and put it back where it belongs. Now it seems this thing had a carb kit on it to which was like a early clean air device ran by vacuum you can take all those off or leave them unplugged because I doubt any of that stuff still works and you don't need it in the first place. On the radiator that's a thermostatically controlled vacuum switch for more of that carb kit early smog type crap that's not hooked up and just bolted to the wall...it would have gone to the air cleaner, probably opening the air horn to fresh air instead of off the wxhaust manifold hose...Its possible that with that vacuum tree removed... there's enough room to mount your coil like it's supposed to be.. off the back of the intake and sideways.
Click to expand...

It is funny eh, kinda a **** show.
I tried searching this stuff individually but I didn't even know what to type.

I'll get to work!
Thank you for the help
 
I'll start- your heater. You will see that you have a smaller black hose (about 5/8" ID) running from the water pump to the intake manifold. There should be two hoses. One hose should run from the water pump to the larger outlet on the firewall and the other hose should run from the intake manifold to the smaller outlet in firewall. This will circulate hot water through your heater core so that it will work. WARNING! This heater "bypass" was done previously because the heater core is leaking and they didn't want to repair it! Do not reroute these hoses until you are ready to do all the repairs that are needed! Your engine bay is full bad modifications so proceed cautiously.
 
Murray said:
I'll start- your heater. You will see that you have a smaller black hose (about 5/8" ID) running from the water pump to the intake manifold. There should be two hoses. One hose should run from the water pump to the larger outlet on the firewall and the other hose should run from the intake manifold to the smaller outlet in firewall. This will circulate hot water through your heater core so that it will work. WARNING! This heater "bypass" was done previously because the heater core is leaking and they didn't want to repair it! Do not reroute these hoses until you are ready to do all the repairs that are needed! Your engine bay is full bad modifications so proceed cautiously.
Click to expand...

Thank you Murray! I got a new heater box that I just installed so I should be fine.
This engine bay is quite a disaster but the motor runs well.

When I get this cleaned up I'll post a photo :)
 
Coil- should be mounted on the intake manifold very close by. It probably isn't because it won't fit under that air cleaner.
 
I suspect this was once a parts car that was roughly revived.
It was missing wiper linkage, radio, heater box and all sorts of stuff from the engine bay...
 
This is funny because we have all been here at some time. No disrespect intended. Orange tube w/wire- is oil pressure senders originating from the back of the block, under the distributor. Originally there would be one sender screwed into the block at this location. Yours has been modified to accept three different senders. #1- a mechanical gauge (the orange tube), #2- an original gauge (the large can w/wire), #3- an original idiot light (the small black unconnected one). You only need one which will be determined by which gauge you will use.
 
Ha, that ain't so bad man. Mine was a total heap of poop when I bought it. Coil was just laying on top of the motor, no wiper motor, linkage or pivots, leaking from everywhere, rusted everything... But it did have them yellow plug wires and Mopar Performance air cleaner. So I had that going for me! LOL

Look forward to seeing how your build progresses.

Be well,
Pat



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Vacuum sensors on the radiator and two plates on the firewall- I believe all these had to do with smog stuff which you may not need.
 
The block on the fire wall is orifice controlled spark advance, the round one is vacuum solenoid valve, radiator vacuum valve is thermostatic vacuum valve for EGR control. The Holley Street Dominator is a good find, they make pretty decent power as is and are even better when port matched. Lets see the rest of the car!
 
Divenut said:
Ha, that ain't so bad man. Mine was a total heap of poop when I bought it. Coil was just laying on top of the motor, no wiper motor, linkage or pivots, leaking from everywhere, rusted everything... But it did have them yellow plug wires and Mopar Performance air cleaner. So I had that going for me! LOL

Look forward to seeing how your build progresses.

Be well,
Pat



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You think that's bad, you should have seen mine when I first got it
It didnt even have a real engine in it, just an anemic slant six

:poke:
 
Welcome! Yea, not so bad. Others have hit where the stuff goes. More before and after to keep you motivated. And I'm still not done!
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Also, if you drive it before plumbing the heater core up, you'll need to plug the heater lines instead of having them loop. Or you can plug the thermostat bypass temporarily and let the loop on the heater hose act as the bypass. What amounts to two thermostat bypasses letting hot water recirculate usually leads to overheating.
 
Murray said:
This is funny because we have all been here at some time. No disrespect intended. Orange tube w/wire- is oil pressure senders originating from the back of the block, under the distributor. Originally there would be one sender screwed into the block at this location. Yours has been modified to accept three different senders. #1- a mechanical gauge (the orange tube), #2- an original gauge (the large can w/wire), #3- an original idiot light (the small black unconnected one). You only need one which will be determined by which gauge you will use.
Click to expand...

Fantastic explanation! Thank you. Really happy I posted about this as I've been confused for quite a while.
 
Divenut said:
Ha, that ain't so bad man. Mine was a total heap of poop when I bought it. Coil was just laying on top of the motor, no wiper motor, linkage or pivots, leaking from everywhere, rusted everything... But it did have them yellow plug wires and Mopar Performance air cleaner. So I had that going for me! LOL

Look forward to seeing how your build progresses.

Be well,
Pat
View attachment 1715464546
Click to expand...

That's especially hilarious to me because the first thing I started looking for was yellow plug wires... before dealing with the rest :)
 
Garrett Ellison said:
The block on the fire wall is orifice controlled spark advance, the round one is vacuum solenoid valve, radiator vacuum valve is thermostatic vacuum valve for EGR control. The Holley Street Dominator is a good find, they make pretty decent power as is and are even better when port matched. Lets see the rest of the car!
Click to expand...
Thank you -You have a very sharp eye spotting that old intake! I'll get some more photos up tomorrow. Freezing outside :)
 
The only thing I have to add here is to suggest to get rid of that thin air cleaner, they absolutely kill power. A taller filter element will do fine if you have a long enough stud in the carburetor!
 
Garrett Ellison said:
Also, if you drive it before plumbing the heater core up, you'll need to plug the heater lines instead of having them loop. Or you can plug the thermostat bypass temporarily and let the loop on the heater hose act as the bypass. What amounts to two thermostat bypasses letting hot water recirculate usually leads to overheating.
Click to expand...

Interesting... I imagine this was driven with looped heater lines for a while before I got it :/ The engine runs well now though. Tomorrow morning I'm installing the heater lines and filling it up to test it out. I should probably read some instructions, but I'm assuming its just topping off the coolant...
 
Chained_360 said:
The only thing I have to add here is to suggest to get rid of that thin air cleaner, they absolutely kill power. A taller filter element will do fine if you have a long enough stud in the carburetor!
Click to expand...
Thank you! Good to know. I didn't do any research and I'm responsible for that thing air cleaner. The carb looks pretty nasty right now so I'll give that a clean and get a proper filter.
 
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