66 Valiant Signet sees the light of day

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I again want to thank everyone for their kind words for my brother. I will miss him a great deal, not the least for his knowledge of Mopar and especially his Valiant. I always thought we had plenty of time to get back to restoring it together. I very much appreciate the help that the FABO community can provide. Since I will have technical questions regarding the Valiant I will move on to start new threads regarding those specific questions. I am determined to drive the Valiant to the Spring Fling in April 2020 and also to a cruise-in at J&M Speedcenter, Riverside, CA, to which my brother was associated in one form or another for well over 50 years. I hope to meet some of you along the way!

Thanks - Jim
 
Super Sleeper said:
I again want to thank everyone for their kind words for my brother. I will miss him a great deal, not the least for his knowledge of Mopar and especially his Valiant. I always thought we had plenty of time to get back to restoring it together. I very much appreciate the help that the FABO community can provide. Since I will have technical questions regarding the Valiant I will move on to start new threads regarding those specific questions. I am determined to drive the Valiant to the Spring Fling in April 2020 and also to a cruise-in at J&M Speedcenter, Riverside, CA, to which my brother was associated in one form or another for well over 50 years. I hope to meet some of you along the way!

Thanks - Jim
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Your a guy and a car I’d be honored to meet.
 
I missed till now.

I’m sorry to hear of the loss of your brother, my deepest condolences.

Great car & story.
 
Thanks for the well wishes. I have been busy with the Valiant. After pulling the engine I replaced the ring gear on the steel flywheel, replaced all the brake hydraulics, and cleaned up the underside as much as I could. I primed the engine with new oil and put it and the transmission back in yesterday. I have still to clean out the gas tank and may have to replace it. Unfortunately, I have a trip to Seattle next week so I may not be able to drive it until after I get back.
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20200109_153204 by Jim Harris, on Flickr
 
Progress report
The gas tank had been drained and so it was relatively clean but a little gas was left in the pickup and the lines and that was rotten and clogging the system. I pulled the fuel tank to flush it and replace the pickup and filler seal, which was also pretty badly rotted. Getting the filler seal from DMT but it won't be here till next week. So I rigged up a fuel can and gave it a whirl. After a little sputtering (the carb has no choke) I got it running and the lifter clatter soon went away. It settled down to a nice idle with about 6 deg BTDC. I really have no idea where to run the advance since it's a later 360LA roller engine. Maybe you all would have some suggestions.

Anyway, here's a video of it's first warm-up.


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Super Sleeper said:
It settled down to a nice idle with about 6 deg BTDC. I really have no idea where to run the advance since it's a later 360LA roller engine.
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It's going to depend on what's in the engine of course.
Assume its something close to factory, and the distributor is something like a Mopar Performance with vacuum advance or factory distributor, that's probably a good starting point.
After driving it that way for a while, if there is no pinging, you can try advancing it 2* and see how that goes.
Put a tach on it when setting timing. I'm assuming here idle 550-650 rpm. if its 6* BTDC at 850 - 950 rpm, then I think its a little low.
I'm also assuming its a magnetic pickup distributor.
If your brother installed a non-C.A.P. factory points distributor, then 10 to 12* around 600 rpm will prob put the curve in the right spot.
 
Good thoughts, Mattax, thanks. The distributor is Chrysler factory with mech and vac advance. It has a factory style magnetic pickup and spark box mounted on the cabin passenger side of the firewall. Made to look old-school I guess, that's my brother. Most of my effort has been to settle the idle to below where the ported vacuum on the Holley comes in but in any case I plug the vacuum line when I read the timing. I double checked the TDC groove on the damper ring using a piston stop so that I know that the timing marks are accurate. I don't have a tach on it yet.
I won't be able to drive it till I get the fuel tank back in. Then I will go with your suggestion and feed it more advance in 2 deg increments after I get some miles on it.
Thanks again - Jim
 
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