10 year Refresh 65 Valiant

[ken5124]

Not really a restoration thread, but after 10 years of working on this car, with the last 7 on the road, I decided it is time for a winter project.
The car was running very good this summer, the msd 6Al and wide band tuning
had it humming along just right.
But on a road trip to a car show this summer, I noticed some oil escaping from the front intake manifold area. Oil pan gasket is also seeping a bit, Transmission gasket seeps and an overcharged battery a few years ago chewed up the paint real bad on the inner fender. Over the years |I have changed so many things, I have a bit of a rat's nest of wiring and way too many holes in the engine compartment sheetmetal.
So it's time to freshen it up !!
Here is how it looked a week ago .

 

[ken5124]

Thanks to Bill - AKA MOPARLVR, i borrowed a cherry picker and engine stand and have pulled the motor.
The plan is to hide virtually all the wiring, relocate the battery to the trunk, weld up all the holes I have made and repaint the area.

 

[53ryder]

Looking forward to more progress pictures!

Glenn

 

[ken5124]

Took a couple of nights, but the motor is out. I left the headers in place, along with the transmission. Want to make sure I can re install with those crazy 4 piece hooker supercomps in place so I don't chew them up after I refinish them "for the third time".

Gonna try the new eastwood thermal pipe spray for inside the pipes, and change the header colour to silver.

Motor is going to be painted Body colour, after I clean up the mess it is in.

 

[sr71mopar]

Nice 65.

 

[ken5124]

Another part of the project will be to take a stab on some home cylinder head porting.. There seems to be a lot of crud in the intake side of my heads.. The car was running rich for a couple of years. Might try to spring for some hughes roller rockers, but I am on a tight budget for this job. At any rate the heads are off the motor, I will take them apart over the winter and clean them up.

Valves seemed to float about 5200 rpm, so I will check the valve springs out to see if they need to be upgraded.

 

[ken5124]

Started labelling all the front end wires - I have a Ron Francis wiring setup so it's not too hard.

Geez I wish I would have done it a bit slower back then.

Wait till I get to the real rat's nest behind the dash.. Alarm system, keyless start, stereo, diy four way flashers all electric guages etc.

I am going to pull almost all these wires back thru the firewall, and run the lines inside heater hose up inside the fenders .

 

[ken5124]

I am planning to hide the radiator overflow bottle and the windshield washer reservoir under the fender, with just the filler caps poking out thru these existing large holes where the wires and a plastic grommet used to reside.

 

[HotLines]

Your car is Beautiful, even the engine cave and its conglomerate array of wires, tubes and electronics, the beauty still shines through

After five engines and an array similar to yours, I finally did away with most of what's found in engine caves

 

[pettybludart]

Good luck with the clean up.I have the Ron Francis wiring harness in my 66 Dart also.Winter is coming soon,let the winter projects begin.LOL

 

[ken5124]

Sure wish I had a heated a garage for later this year LOL Lucked into a heated garage for some of the painting of parts at least..

 

[ken5124]

Got a lot more done this afternoon.. Bumper, front valance and fenders all off and tucked away in the attic for now. Nuts and bolts all bagged and tagged and ready for whenever this gets done.

 

[ken5124]

And pulled the valves from 1 cylinder to look them and the ports over.

Questions for you experienced guys..

On The exhaust valve, the seal had ridden up inside the valve spring.. not on tight on the base as the intake size was.. Is that wrong?

2nd question I had to use a center punch to push the exhaust valve out of the head, really had to use a lot of force to remove it.
Is that normal.. Intake valve popped out no problem.??

3rd and final for today What do you all think caused the build up on this intake valve.. This motor has 14 thousand KM's on it.

 

[ken5124]

Been busy working and not doing a lot of posting.
After more than 70 hours in the garage evenings and nights, the wiring project, at least to the firewall is done.. Dash is back in and I have run all the required wires out the sides of the body, just in front of the doors.

I ground the headers down with a flap wheel, and have recoated them with Eastwood thermal paint, inside and out, and more coats of silver header paint on top.
They will hang in the basement until the spring. They are looking good again.

 

[ken5124]

I have also been slowly getting to the porting job.. My heads are the small port 318 646 castings and the intake port size gasket matching rough cuts are done.

 

[ken5124]

Sorry for the picture quality.

I also did some preliminary work on one of the intake ports, working the bowl.

I am waiting for David Vizard's book on porting heads before I alter the "Pushrod pinch".

 

[ken5124]

I made up some brackets to go either side of the Radiator to mount my headlight and 4 way flasher relays on. Wires run up and into the steel channel and out to the fenders.

 

[ken5124]

My radiator overflow bottle mounting is figured out as well as my windshield washer reservoir. They are both mounted below the fender and You will only see the fill caps when the fenders are back on. Overflow is from a 2000's caravan . The base isn't shown but it sits at an angle like the bottle and cradles it.
and The washer reservoir is off of a mazda pickup.. I just cut off the second half of it.. It comes with a built in pump as well. I used the base from my original battery hold down to set it in.

 

[ken5124]

Back to porting for a bit.. I had seen online the Hegleson E tool for measuring pushrod pinch but didn't want to spend 55 on it.

I used parts off my dial guage magnetic base and a cut up grill from the wife's kitchen stuff and made my own version.. No charge cuz I had the stuff and seems to work fine..

Seems to measure the pushrod pinch fine and It comes up with .288 for the ones I checked.

Better than guessing , I guess.

 

[ken5124]

I have also relocated the battery to the trunk and run 1 guage ground and positive to the motor cavity for now. Will get pictures of that in daylight tomorrow.

 

[ken5124]

Just to show the change in the wiring coming out of the firewall area

From a Multitude of wires


To what is here now.

And Hopefully welding up all the old screw holes this week.

 

[ken5124]

Been working on the valiant on and off throughout the winter, as the temperature allowed.

51 holes on the inner fenders and radiator core support were welded up, grinded down and prepped for primer, then primed.

Still have to block sand with a guide coat, and of course spray it the same color as the rest of the car.

 

[ken5124]

heads are pretty well done from my end.. I used a floating pressure drop air flow system, as per David Vizard's book and I think I have improved the flow by

6% at .300 lift
19% at .400
15.5% at .500
13.3 % at .550

Sorry no cfm flow numbers.. I think it should run okay.


heads are going in for new bronze guides, a proper valve job, and back cutting of the valves. Also milling the heads, just a bit.

The outsides of the heads are smoothed with a die grinder, then primed with high heat ceramic header primer.
I still have to do the final work in the heads with the sanding rolls.

 

[ken5124]

I am going with Comp cams beehive springs, 10 degree retainers and locks. I got a new set of intake valves, and am reusing the exhaust valves.

I got the Hughes 1.6 roller rockers, stud kit, and will order a custom set of pushrods. My cam is not too aggressive and the extra ratio rockers will help a bit.

The motor has been cleaned up as well.. I am not doing anything with the bottom end, cam was and still is good and the motor only has 14 thousand KM of "gentle miles" on it..LOL

I ordered a new oil pan and timing cover, which will get the same primer treatment prior to body color paint.

 

[66340SEDAN]

Very nice :cheers: