cruiser
Well-Known Member
Good evening, Mopar brothers and sisters. What's that? Having trouble falling asleep again? Not to worry. Tonight we present our latest bedtime story guaranteed to help you sleep like a baby. Part 14 is a bit different as it highlights a number of underhood components instead of covering a single part. It seems like A body guys/gals are about evenly split on how they want their motor compartments to look. About half go for the factory stock look, whereas the other half customize their engine bays to their liking. I go for the stock look, and so tonight's installation covers my efforts to return my engine compartment to factory original. Why? Because I just like it that way. I know that if its stock, everything in my factory shop manual will be correct and applicable to my car. But that's just me. So where do we start? When I bought my very stock and original Gold Duster in the spring of 2019, the engine bay reflected 46 years of modifications away from original. The numbers matching engine was removed in 1988 and replaced with a parts store short block from a 1974 A body, but it had a 1976 "peanut" cylinder head on it. So the engine block, although not numbers matching, was correct but the cylinder head was wrong. Additionally, many of the underhood parts had been replaced over the years with the wrong stuff. So bringing it back to the way it was built became my goal. I started by replacing the cylinder head with a correct casting number 1974 dated head. The head went to the machine shop for some valve work, and I replaced the incorrect 5/8" heater inlet hose fitting in the head with a correct 1/2" fitting. On went the new head, and the carb was next. Off came the awful parts store replacement carb, and on went a rebuilt correct 1974 dated coded Holley 1945 one barrel unit. With the carb correctly adjusted for idle mixture and idle speed, I turned to the carb's choke pulloff. The electric heat control module that assists the choke heater was gone, and one of the prior owners had installed an ignition ballast resistor in its place. WTF? In any case, the ballast resistor went into the trash and was replaced by a correct electric choke heater module. I then replaced the rusty choke heater with an NOS Holley choke heater/pulloff. I also replaced the inoperative air cleaner temperature sensor inside the air cleaner at the same time. The one that came with the car had been installed backwards. Next, I replaced the worn out water pump with a new one, painted in the correct corporate blue engine paint (see photos). I then replaced the following components with correct replacement units: The coolant temperature sensor, the seat belt interlock relay (NOS), the ignition coil and spark plug wires, the voltage regulator (NOS), the battery and both positive and negative battery cables (after bead blasting and repainting the original battery tray), the two piece fuel pump to carb line and the date coded fuel filter, the ignition ballast resistor, the ECU module (NOS), the oil breather in the valve cover, the (correct part number and rebuilt) radiator and it's (NOS) cap, the 195 degree thermostat, the correctly date coded and rebuilt 34 amp alternator and starter, and finally every rubber hose and belt under the hood including the pressure and return hoses for the power steering pump. Next, I replaced all of the underhood decals with correct repro ones. The final photo is of the finished engine compartment, which still needs a lot of work to look its best. Next year, I'll pull and paint the engine and paint and detail the engine compartment for that factory fresh look. The final photo is of how the engine bay looks today. Note the addition of the cruise control servo, which was the topic of an earlier episode. So now that I've gotten rid of all the underhood junk, my car feels as if it has been returned to the way it ought to be. I can sleep at night now, knowing that if anything goes wrong I can refer to my factory shop manual to correct it. And oh yeah, the engine starts on the first flick of the key, goes to its nice high idle, kicks down to a curb idle with a lovely purr, and runs like a top. So very satisfying after all the barked knuckles and months of dirty grease embedded under my fingernails! That's it for tonight's chapter. Perhaps this will inspire you to rebuild and detail your own engine bay some day. Night night!
Last edited:
