1970 Dart Swinger FINALLY UNDERWAY

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Very nice build you have going, looks like your doing things right and not short cutting. keep up the good work.
 
Nice build. I love how it's coming. Can't wait to get both of my cars done. I plan on using Johns LCA's on both cars.
 
Thanks, it's coming along slowly but surely. Definitely interested in those J heads, I think those were open chamber as well I'll have to take a look at them some time.
 
Some more parts in and an update

The beast's heart is back from the machine shop! Tanked, bead blasted, punched and honed .30 over, new freeze plugs and cam bearings. Shop went ahead and deburred/honed the lifter bores, made sure the deck was flat, and installed a new bearing for the oil pump drive shaft. Very pleased with the work.

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Picked an EZ wiring kit from a member here, this means my old harness' will be going up for sale.

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Radiator from champion cooling also came in, had read some posts about people who weren't pleased with these but I'm very happy with mine. Good welds, has the correct draincock, nothing bent, dented or otherwise damaged. A great price too! I went for the 26" 3 row core.

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Looks like you are set for a few weeks worth of work. I like that picture that goes straight up your camhole, too.
 
Who did you get the harness from? Does he have more/is a dealer or was it a one time thing?
 
Looks like you are set for a few weeks worth of work. I like that picture that goes straight up your camhole, too.

Look out Eric! Somebody's peaking up your cam hole!!!

That block looks awesome. I should really send my 340 out to be cleaned, check, honed, and get new cam bearing and plugs in it...

So do you think you're going to be ready for Worcester this year?
 
Plan on deburring and painting the inside of the block,at the least. Deburring will help with oil return and help get rid if stress riser's. If ya got the $$ and time,I'd do the outside of the block as well,if only for show and getting rid of the stress risers'

As an added bonus that heavy block will shed a bit of weight!
 
Got the kit from waggin, don't know if he's got any more.

Don't know if I'll make it to worcester, time will tell and whether or not I can get my suspension put together in time. "I like that picture that goes straight up your camhole" sounds wrong in many many ways. Maybe it's just me haha.

For now I'm sitting and not going to move ahead with the 360 until I see if a deal I'm looking into pans out. There's a local member selling a complete 383 that's already been bored, punched, had all the same work and is essentially ready to assemble and run. Key point to this is it's a 383 with an all forged rotating assembly whereas the stroker kit from SCAT is cast and actually costs more JUST for the rotating assembly than what I would pay for the 383. Basically I could get a running big block into my car for a third what I estimate it would cost to finish the 408 and have a lot more boost/compression potential without worrying so much about my crank shearing in half at 6500. This also means I would have roughly 2k of spare cash to go nuts on the 383 with.

Maybe I could get some opinions on this.
 
Not much weight difference from a B to an La,maybe 60 lb's more for the B ?
 
I believe it's most likely an RB 383, it's a 1970 block from what I understand the 383s were on the RB block at that point. Should I got for it? Going to go take a look at the engine tomorrow, it would save me a lot of money since it already has all the machine work done, is complete intake to oil pan with gasket matched heads and I just have to put it together.
 
Did you include the belhousing and engine mount difference?I'm not a big block guy so I don't know what it will take to swap them out.Dont forget about the hassle of running big block headers in the A-bodies.Either way good job staying on top of that build.
 
Never heard of a 383 RB block. Thats news to me.And what hassle about headers? Theres cheap ones,expensive ones and they all fit crappy,lol...
 
Well I'm going off what I read on allpar, I'm not much on big blocks myself. Not worried about headers, I'd need to buy them anyway and clearance is so much of an issue since I'm already running manual steering anyway. I would need to a different bellhousing and motor mounts but the /6 to B/RB mounts are actually cheaper than the 340/360 mounts anyway. Bellhousing is really the only thing I'd be spending money on and it would still cost me significantly less.
 
Picked up the 383 today from a local member! Christ $1250 for what I got I would have been stupid to pass it up. I'll have pics up as soon as I can find the cord for my camera but for now here's a list/description of some of the stuff. Not sure if I'll get every little part, he pretty much threw everything that was somewhat related to this engine at me. It IS a B block.

I got,
A 1970 code 383 block, hot tanked, new freeze plugs, new cam bearings, align honed, honed out lifter bores, decked and bored .030
383 forged crank, 6 bolt, magnafluxed and cut .010-.010
383 steel rods,magnafluxed, resized, shot peened with polished beams and new SPS rod bolts installed.
Speedpro-TRW .030 over forged flat tops and rings, already assembled with the rods
Melling high volume oil pump
Double roller timing chain 3 bolt
Engle racing hydraulic flat tappet cam .515 lift with engle lifters and matching valve springs
Crane cams pushrods for adj rockers
A boatload of Accel ignition stuff, dual point racing distributer, a couple caps, rotors, condensers.
Full Fel-Pro gasket set
Extra set of copper head gaskets (will probably use the fel pro ones anyway)
Clevite 77 bearings, mains and rods
Milodon 7qt pan with external pickup
Two sets of ductile iron adjustable rockers
Edelbrock streetmaster aluminum intake
Old school direct connection timing cover
906 heads that have been ported out a bit, need to be finished and have valves installed.

He even went so far as to take the valve covers off a 400 he had sitting in the garage to give to me, great guy to deal with.

So yeah basically I have a complete engine, just need a water pump/housing and valves and that's really about it. Whole thing probably has just as much in machine work into it than I paid, thats not counting all the new parts. Saying I'm excited is the understatement of the century.:burnout:
 
And here we go again, another shot right up your cam hole lol

Awesome deal man, I'm glad it worked out for you. I anxious to hear that thing fire up!
 
Well, looks like I wont be working on the car for a while. Had an accident in the shop last night that resulted in me almost losing a finger. I picking up some parts from the floor near next to where I had the 8.8 on jackstands, i must have accidentally jarred it because thing i knew my hand was between a falling axle and the concrete. It was numb so i wasnt sure what had happened until i pulled my glove off an part of my ring finger went with it. :mumum: Spent 8 hours in the state hospital with a doctor and hand surgeon trying to figure out how to put the puzzle back together, it looked like a meat grinder got a hold of it. They tell me I was really lucky that the mashed finger still had one or two capillaries supplying it with blood so theres a 75% chance it can be saved. Moral of this story have a friend in the garage with you.

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Thanks, I'll know in a week when i go for a follow up if it starts to take and heal. For now I have two bottles of painkillers to keep me out of it haha

was just getting ready to put the 383 together too!
 
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