My 69 Dart "AKA" The Blue Mutt
made a bit more progress, assembly is a bit systematic for now and slow, some things need completed before installing the next thing - all the front suspension is tight and finished except for greasing, lost a couple of the zirc fittings so once I get those it will be complete except for steering linkage. I got the hood latch and other front pieces back on, mounted the new trans cooler, I installed the headers after taking out the starter and trans lines, so took them out and back in, done with the exception of hooking up the lines to the radiator. Headers were not to bad of an install, of course my level of difficulty was compared to installing long tubes on a 351w in a 66 mustang, car was not designed to have that motor. I got started with the exhaust but came to a stop fairly quick, I had bought a universal X pipe kit some time ago for my Mustang, it just wont work on the dart without some major effort, ordered an H pipe kit to take its place. The car came with a Summit exhaust kit installed but it was sort of sloppy and had some crappy welds, I cut everything back apart and laid it out, from what I can tell it is really not too good of a kit, it would work but it would never really look very good but it is cheap. One thing I found out is that the standard thin biscuit mounts don't seem right for the car, the headers hit the torsion bars and it appears the engine sits a little low, from what I can tell it about an inch too low, I ordered the later mounts that I found mentioned somewhere on here and hope that does it, if not I will have to shim the motor. I check my measurements from what TTi has on their website, my side to side is close but centerline to K member is off. I adjusted my timeline again on when I will be done and giving up on setting another one, guess I will be done when I am done. Now that headers are on I can install the oil filter adapter, fill with oil and prime things, then I can install the intake, distributer, etc and really get going.
made a bit more progress, assembly is a bit systematic for now and slow, some things need completed before installing the next thing - all the front suspension is tight and finished except for greasing, lost a couple of the zirc fittings so once I get those it will be complete except for steering linkage. I got the hood latch and other front pieces back on, mounted the new trans cooler, I installed the headers after taking out the starter and trans lines, so took them out and back in, done with the exception of hooking up the lines to the radiator. Headers were not to bad of an install, of course my level of difficulty was compared to installing long tubes on a 351w in a 66 mustang, car was not designed to have that motor. I got started with the exhaust but came to a stop fairly quick, I had bought a universal X pipe kit some time ago for my Mustang, it just wont work on the dart without some major effort, ordered an H pipe kit to take its place. The car came with a Summit exhaust kit installed but it was sort of sloppy and had some crappy welds, I cut everything back apart and laid it out, from what I can tell it is really not too good of a kit, it would work but it would never really look very good but it is cheap. One thing I found out is that the standard thin biscuit mounts don't seem right for the car, the headers hit the torsion bars and it appears the engine sits a little low, from what I can tell it about an inch too low, I ordered the later mounts that I found mentioned somewhere on here and hope that does it, if not I will have to shim the motor. I check my measurements from what TTi has on their website, my side to side is close but centerline to K member is off. I adjusted my timeline again on when I will be done and giving up on setting another one, guess I will be done when I am done. Now that headers are on I can install the oil filter adapter, fill with oil and prime things, then I can install the intake, distributer, etc and really get going.
