Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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Way back when I chose a tach to use I wasn't too concerned about functionality. I had an automatic and I figured I'd be using it for tuning reference more than shift points. I bought a small one that I mounted on top of the dash pad because I figured it wouldn't interfere with road visibility. But now that I've got that full manual valve body I realized it's going to be difficult to read. So I bought an adjustable shift light now that I can run with the old tach.

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One other thing I ordered was a set of insulated remote wiring posts so that I can clean up some of that wiring around my battery. I have a ton of wiring running to the battery terminals. Hopefully I can reduce the number of wires connecting directly to the battery to just a few. I'd like to make a covering of some sorts for the rest of the wires too.

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I think I'm turning into a constant complainer. This winter it was to cold to get anything done. Then it was too rainy for me to work in my driveway. Then the damn junebugs and mosquitoes kept chasing me back in the house. Now (even though the thermometer shows mid-eighties), It's too hot. The humidity is killer today. I think I sweated off 5 pounds just poking my head outside.

So, why poke my head outside?

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It's here!

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OK. I was naive enough to think I'd have the engine in today, but that's not going to happen. Everything uncrated fine. I moved the motor in front of the Barracuda where I figured I'd transfer all of the small parts from the 318. Next I picked up the torqueflite with the cherry picker and brought it behind the engine. That's when I realized that Mike had forgotten to send the new flex plate. I tried calling him right away but he must be busy in the machine shop.

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Next I grabbed my kick-down linkage to put it in place. Aargh! It doesn't fit. I'll have to either find a bracket that will work or modify this old one.

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Well, I guess I'll turn my attention to the motor mounts. I should have cleaned them up before but I forgot.

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I had to make myself a pointer for the 318 that was in the car before. It was running a newer front cover with the old style water pump and the lower radiator hose hides the timing mark. The 408 is set up the same way so I'll have to transfer my pointer. I forgot to order new timing tape. Doh!

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My cars are year round daily drivers so I'll need to transfer my fittings for the heater hoses to the new motor.

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I might as well transfer the pulleys now too.

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The new carb is from Quick Fuel. I think all of my linkage from the old Holley will work.

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After talking with Mike I realized that there was a communication mix-up regarding the flex plate. I should have read through his parts list. He feels confident that my stock flex plate will be OK as long as I don't add a transmission brake or 4000+ stall converter.

I still need to modify the intake in order to mount my kick down linkage and auger out one hole on my crank pulley. I may have to re-school myself on the motor mounts. I see that the mounts do not align the same on this 360 block.
 
Its best to use four bolts/nuts to bolt your motor mount to your engine, not two like you show in your picture.
 
Yup 4-3 separate bolts with nuts on the mounts. Thru bolts will snap off those motor mount ears, then your screwed. 318 and 340-360 have slightly different motor mount ears, no big deal.
 
340sFastback said:
Its best to use four bolts/nuts to bolt your motor mount to your engine, not two like you show in your picture.
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MRL Performance said:
Yup 4-3 separate bolts with nuts on the mounts. Thru bolts will snap off those motor mount ears, then your screwed. 318 and 340-360 have slightly different motor mount ears, no big deal.
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Thanks guys, I ran to the parts store this morning and bought different bolts.
 
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Sometimes it's the little stuff that gives you the biggest headaches. I've still been fighting with the throttle and kick down linkage. The throttle arm on the new carb is a half inch closer to the carb body than my old carburetor. It may not sound like much of a difference but it's enough to cause my cable, springs, and kick down lever to bind against my throttle bracket. I've spent the last few hours tweaking everything to make it work.

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All ready to go in. I decided not to use the carb lift plate to pick up the engine/transmission. The leveler didn't work as well with it.

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I tried to pre-position the new headers before dropping the motor in.

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Well, at least it's back in the engine bay now.

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NICE! Did the Hurst Pro -Matic shifter,Turbo Action reverse manual v/b, time will tell.... The cool part: it's in. The PITA part: small parts & details...
 
Abodybomber said:
NICE! Did the Hurst Pro -Matic shifter,Turbo Action reverse manual v/b, time will tell.... The cool part: it's in. The PITA part: small parts & details...
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Thanks Abodybomber. I think the new shifter will be here Monday. I guess my biggest delay may end up being the new driveshaft. I'm considering changing the exhaust to a simple pair of header mufflers and dumps. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so I don't know if I'll get much done. I had to stop for tonight because of all the mosquitoes.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Thanks Abodybomber. I think the new shifter will be here Monday. I guess my biggest delay may end up being the new driveshaft. I'm considering changing the exhaust to a simple pair of header mufflers and dumps. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so I don't know if I'll get much done. I had to stop for tonight because of all the mosquitoes.
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Good luck.Other than one person,everyone has a personal agenda,or something to gain. Why I went here to converse. Common sense....
 
1967 'cuda said:
Sometimes it's the little stuff that gives you the biggest headaches. I've still been fighting with the throttle and kick down linkage. The throttle arm on the new carb is a half inch closer to the carb body than my old carburetor. It may not sound like much of a difference but it's enough to cause my cable, springs, and kick down lever to bind against my throttle bracket. I've spent the last few hours tweaking everything to make it work.

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Why not use the 1481 adapter.

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I don't know for sure if it will bolt on the carb, but might be worth looking into.
 
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maybe I missed the post, but what converter are you going with(stall)?
 
FredS said:
maybe I missed the post, but what converter are you going with(stall)?
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For now I'm going to use the converter that I got with the transmission when I bought it. It's a Mopar Performance converter that they rate at 2400. Mike seems to think that it will flash higher with this motor.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
For now I'm going to use the converter that I got with the transmission when I bought it. It's a Mopar Performance converter that they rate at 2400. Mike seems to think that it will flash higher with this motor.
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Try it. It might flare up,when you wack the hell of the nasty....
 
Abodybomber said:
Try it. It might flare up,when you wack the hell of the nasty....
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This build has been slowly evolving farther towards the strip side of being a street/strip vehicle. I figure that the fiberglass fenders, hood, front valance and header panel knocked a lot of weight off the car. Those Rodlites are really light too. And, then there's the aluminum radiator and the swap from power to manual steering and the disc brake swap should have saved more weight again. This coupled with the 4.10 ratio and the increased power... Well, I'm hoping on seeing a little daylight under those front wheels.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
This build has been slowly evolving farther towards the strip side of being a street/strip vehicle. I figure that the fiberglass fenders, hood, front valance and header panel knocked a lot of weight off the car. Those Rodlites are really light too. And, then there's the aluminum radiator and the swap from power to manual steering and the disc brake swap should have saved more weight again. This coupled with the 4.10 ratio and the increased power... Well, I'm hoping on seeing a little daylight under those front wheels.
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a little daylight is good. the hemi used to carry them about 8-10" till the second gear shift, (when it was hooked up.which wasn`t often back in the day!) like your cuda!!
finally got done reworking the f.i. wireing harness on mine-I`m slow!-------bob
 
famous bob said:
a little daylight is good. the hemi used to carry them about 8-10" till the second gear shift, (when it was hooked up.which wasn`t often back in the day!) like your cuda!!
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famous bob said:
finally got done reworking the f.i. wireing harness on mine-I`m slow!-------bob
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When they said you had to be picky about the wiring on that efi wiring, they weren't kidding.We hadn't soldered every connection when we first put ours together but afterwards we found that we had to go back through it and re-do some of our connection points. I really thought we had every crimp on connector installed as well as they could have been too. On the original install I didn't want to solder everything in case we needed to switch back from the efi. My son's been driving his Roadrunner for several months now. He's had it act up a few times, but whenever we traced down the cause it came back down to our wiring.
 
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Well. the weather forecast was correct. Too much rain to get anything done in the driveway today.

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A friend of mine stopped over with a pair of 8&3/4 axles. He needed to have the stud holes drilled out before we could press in new wheel studs. They were Yukon axles and he couldn't find 3" studs that fit. We ended up using a 43/64 bit. While we were at it, we pressed new bearings on the axles too.

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My son had suggested that we use Evans waterless coolant in his Charger build. After researching it, I haven't found any negatives associated with it. - Looking through some of the old threads on FABO I saw that slantsixdan was a big proponent. If you haven't seen this video from Jay Leno about it yet, -give it a view. It may make you a believer. I plan on picking some up this week.

 
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Even though I had a complete exhaust system on the car already, it didn't have any extra room around the rear axle. The difference in axle diameter between the 7&1/4 and the Dana made things even tighter. I decided to simplify things for now. I ordered a pair of Purple Hornies from JEGS.

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