10 year Refresh 65 Valiant

[ken5124]

Over the last week or 2 I spent several dozen hours, converting my aluminum intake manifold into something that looks a little better. Lots of grinding with small dremel size sanding rolls and hours of wet sanding, ending with a bunch of hand polishing and a bit of machine polishing..

Should look a lot better under the hood than they way it was and with it's new ALL smooth surface, way easier to clean up.

Not perfectly smooth,looks better in real life than the picture. I think I will do the same treatment to the Aluminum water pump!

 

[Keith Mopar]

Intake looks awesome. I love the 65, reminds me of my 66 /6 car.

Yours is just nicer!

 

[ken5124]

Thanks, Just cannot wait for some warmer weather so I can get on with it!

 

[Otateral]

Cool idea for the reservoirs. That color is just awesome looking. I bet this car is definitely a head turner.

 

[pettybludart]

Some nice work,glad to see you back working on the car.

 

[ken5124]

Weather still at -27 tonight in Sunny "Winterpeg" Supposed to warm up to above zero within the next 2 weeks.. I cannot wait to get back out to the garage WITHOUT a winter jacket and heater.

Next week I will have my valvetrain parts so I will at least have measuring to do. Thank God!

Good some new bore gauges as well, thank you Princess Auto!, and will do the finish work on the head porting ( matching all the cylinders up dimension wise) before they go to the machine shop later this month.

 

[ken5124]

Well the weather has not improved , so I went further with the Intake Polishing.

Also smoothed and polished most of the water pump and the timing cover

 

[ken5124]

All my Valvetrain candy is in , so the heads are off at the machine shop.
Gettings them milled, new bronze guides, machining the guides for the new valve seals, good valve job and back cutting of the valves.
Hope to have them back this week, and they I can mock the valvetrain so get my pushrods ordered.

 

[ken5124]

Weather has finally turned for the better. Did all my mock ups for rocker arm geometry as per Hughes Instructions, and my new pushrods are on the way.

Took today off and base and clear coated the block , oil pan and cylinder heads

I like! Should get the inner fenders block sanded and painted this weekend.

 

[ken5124]

Also removed the oil pump ( found some broken plastic off an old distributor in the pickup)

 

[ken5124]

And removed the rear main. Replacing the seal ( just to be sure)

Looks like the builder used no rtv around the joint or where the main seats on the block . Appears it was leaking , as evidenced by oil on the inner side of the flywheel.

Can you tell was the seal in the right way ??

 

[340sFastback]

I can't tell if its in backwards or not but I do know when they get put in backwards they won't leak at idle of moderate engine speeds but will hemorrhage badly at full throttle under load.

 

[ken5124]

Well to get at the other half of the main seal, I took the crank out. During the process, I found what I think is a problem and am happy I found it.

Rod bearings do not look right. Top halfs all appear fine, as do the crankshaft bearings.

What do you think ?

 

[ken5124]

The motor is down to more than I wanted but no choice at this point

 

[C130 Chief]

Double check your rod bearing clearances. If the engine only has 14,000 km on it something isn't right. Those bearings look more like 140,000 km. Are the shells showing copper from the connecting rod side or cap? If the rod side is down to the copper it could indicate you have been in detonation or "pinging". Maybe this happened when it was running rich? Good thing you took a look at them.

 

[340sFastback]

I would PM user moper or ou812 and get their opinions. I went ahead and bought a dial bore gauge and calipers to measure my bearing clearances and to check for taper and out of round. That is what needs to be done to determine if there is a clearance, taper, or out of round issue.

 

[ken5124]

Been lazy and not uploading pictures and info for a while.

I got new bearings and then ::CRAP

Found out the hard way that my torque wrench was way off, by breaking a rod bolt on reassembly of the rods. and stretching most of the other ones. Torque wrench said 45 , was actually closer to 80 !!

I have now replaced the rod bolts with arp . All that buttoned up and added a timing chain tensioner.

Also degreed the cam to verify with the spec card. It's dead on.

 

[ken5124]

During discussions with my machinist and rethinking my valve springs and seat pressures, decided the beehive 26995 would be too much for my situation.

Have now replaced them with 901-16, the recommended springs for my cam and 744-16 retainers.

I will be doing a bit of clearencing on the hughes rockers.

 

[ken5124]

tonight I installed and torqued the heads on the block.
Also did some test fitting of the right side headers with my 90 degree oil filter adapter for remote oil filter relocation.

I am hoping to eliminate the right angle adapter..

Off to the hydraulic supply store tomorrow to check out fitting options

 

[ken5124]

Battery relocation and wiring is complete. 1 guage wire for positive and negative from the trunk right to the starter, 200 amp circuit beaker on he positive line at the battery. I get the same voltage at the starter as I do at the battery in the trunk.

 

[ken5124]

Engine bay is coming together. Have started to install the extras, like MSD box and some of the associated wiring. Transmission cooler lines were cleaned up with a wire wheel, then clearcoated and installed.

The bulk of the hidden front end wiring will be done after the motor is in and fenders back on.

 

[ken5124]

This weekend, hope to fit the rockers/shafts/ lifters/ pushrods.
Then the timing cover and water pump/ oil pump and pan.

Had to put a bit of the extra stuff on it temporarily to see how it is going to finish

Plan is to install the motor by the end of May !!

 

[PapstXX]

Very nice work bro

 

[ken5124]

The parts pile is getting smaller. Today, I Installed, and set preload on valvetrain, sealed and installed timing cover and water pump, tested and installed oil pump and sealed and installed oil pan gasket and pan.

I like the Hughes roller rockers.. HAd to slightly clearance them to fit my 901-16 springs

I have set the balancer at 14 degrees advanced, so installing distributor with rotor right at the # 1 plug terminal and start up after priming should be relatively painless.


Will grab new valve cover cap screws ( stainless) , clean up and paint my intake manifold bolts and get some Joe Gibbs breakin oil this week.

I am using Black cap screw bolts or bolts on silver or body colour engine parts, and stainless bolts on black surfaces. I like the contrasting colors.

I am very happy with the finish surface and paint on the block.. Got some oil on it during reassembly and it just wiped off easily. Should be easy to keep this cleaner than when it was last installed.

On target for re install in the car this next weekend.

 

[ken5124]

And in preparation for the re install, I used some vinyl I had kicking around, to wrap the refinished header tubes to protect them from getting dinged up during the install of the motor.


Now I am tired , got to get some sleep.