Super Six install on 1974 Dart
Got a lot done yesterday- removed the one barrel carb and manifolds, mounted the 2-barrel intake on the original exhaust, and reinstalled. I also swapped in the 2-barrel kickdown linkage.
I did a little unintentional welding of my wrench on the starter terminal. Stupidly, I decided I didn't need to disconnect the negative battery terminal before removing the manifolds. Fortunately I wasn't hurt, just scared.
The solution:
Here's the combination of extensions that works well to get the lower center manifold nuts off (or on). The short extension just before the socket is the perfect length so that by rotating the extension you can get it to meet the nut. For installing the nuts, I followed Doug Dutra's suggestion to use a spare nut inside the socket so that the nut you're installing is positioned at the end of the socket rather than down inside.
When I had my engine rebuilt, the machinist told me the center stud was a bolt from the factory. He may be right about some years, but I know for certain that mine had a stud originally. Anyway, he lost one of the studs, so I used a bolt instead. When I went to remove it, coolant started leaking out into the channel in the top center of the intake manifold. So I put the bolt back in while I went looking for a stud.
I had some studs from the donor manifolds, but they had nuts frozen onto them. Unfortunately I couldn't get them off with soaking in PB and double-nutting on the other end. The doubled nuts just stripped off, even when I used Grade 5 nuts. Grade 8 nuts might have worked, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor in this case. Fortunately my True Value hardware store had replacement automotive studs the right size for just a couple bucks. A spray paint lid did make a pretty good soaking tub for small parts, but in the end this stud is trash.
Got a lot done yesterday- removed the one barrel carb and manifolds, mounted the 2-barrel intake on the original exhaust, and reinstalled. I also swapped in the 2-barrel kickdown linkage.
I did a little unintentional welding of my wrench on the starter terminal. Stupidly, I decided I didn't need to disconnect the negative battery terminal before removing the manifolds. Fortunately I wasn't hurt, just scared.
The solution:
Here's the combination of extensions that works well to get the lower center manifold nuts off (or on). The short extension just before the socket is the perfect length so that by rotating the extension you can get it to meet the nut. For installing the nuts, I followed Doug Dutra's suggestion to use a spare nut inside the socket so that the nut you're installing is positioned at the end of the socket rather than down inside.
When I had my engine rebuilt, the machinist told me the center stud was a bolt from the factory. He may be right about some years, but I know for certain that mine had a stud originally. Anyway, he lost one of the studs, so I used a bolt instead. When I went to remove it, coolant started leaking out into the channel in the top center of the intake manifold. So I put the bolt back in while I went looking for a stud.
I had some studs from the donor manifolds, but they had nuts frozen onto them. Unfortunately I couldn't get them off with soaking in PB and double-nutting on the other end. The doubled nuts just stripped off, even when I used Grade 5 nuts. Grade 8 nuts might have worked, but I decided discretion was the better part of valor in this case. Fortunately my True Value hardware store had replacement automotive studs the right size for just a couple bucks. A spray paint lid did make a pretty good soaking tub for small parts, but in the end this stud is trash.
