Captainkirk's Duster project

So, now once you've got a bad motor shoehorned into a car, whaddya do with it?
Break it in.
So I did. I hung a set of Turbo Thrush header mufflers on the business ends of the Hedman Hedders and "Hedded" out to put lots of break-in miles on the motor. The body was still pretty rough; blue trunk, primer-gray quarter panel and primer on the fenders where I'd Bondo'd them. I left the hood off initially to show off the motor; it looked pretty good, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the car.......!
I quickly racked up a couple hundred 55mph+ break-in miles, to the point where I felt comfortable rompin' on it a little.
So what do you do with a tight, broken in motor?
Tune it, of course!
Tuning was fun. It was an excuse to tinker and fiddle with minute details such as timing advance or vacuum secondary opening, jetting, etc. and then go romp on it to check my work. I did a lot of tuning. I did a lot of romping on it, too.
disclaimer: All you kids take note. Don't go romp on your car. It's bad. Any cop will tell you so. Just because I did it and got away with is no excuse for you to try it.
I quickly noticed a roughness in third gear when really cranking on it. It was driving me nuts! It would scream through first and second and then start to cut out in third. It didn't appear to be fuel-related. The plugs were coloring nicely and going lighter on the secondary springs didn't help. In desperation I picked up a used Mallory dual point distributor and hung it on there in place of the Chrysler electronic distributor. In hindsight, that was probably not a good move. (Later reasoning would find the Chrysler spark-box probably out-performed the dual point all through the RPM range) It helped some, but not enough. As the summer weather changed to fall, the car became more and more difficult to start in the mornings, and the roughness in third was still evident. I was getting discouraged. Winter was approaching and I needed a car that would start and run. Enter the 318.....
A friend of mine knew a guy that had a fresh 318 for sale. He'd been trying to sell it for quite some time. He also had an A-833 four-speed for sale as well. I paid a little more for the 4-speed than I should have and a LOT less for the engine than it was worth!
So the plan unfolded thusly.....
Out came the 340, back on the stand, for head-scratching purposes.
In went the 318 with a 2-barrel Holley 500 on top.
And yes, I used the same come-along with the 4X4's!
For a "little" 318 2-barrel, the car was mighty respectable! It would light 'em up in first and second and it ran like a house afire. This was an early 318, I'd say maybe a '69? Anyway, it was one strong motor.
It got me through the winter with no problems whatsoever, always started, and never lost a race. :thumblef:
(psssst: I never raced it, but nobody needs to know this...let's keep it between friends)
Well, there was the time I was coming home from work and a guy on a BSA 650 was goosing it at the lights and I gave him a real good look at the little pissed-off tornado in between my taillights, if that counts.....
(To be continued.........)