It's ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

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FASTBACK340

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.....well, sort of. Aside from an incorrectly adjusted valve and a small oil leak at the back of intake, the sunofabitch runs.

The valvetrain noise and leak require the intake and valve covers have to come off, but hey...what else would I do with my spare time?

Here's a short vid of some noise.... :-D


http://media.putfile.com/CudaRuns
 
Bravo! I know you have spent thousands of hours under that hood. I'm really happy for you! Good work!
 
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the crowd CHEERS!!!!!!!!!! Your smiling face at the end was the best part.

Way to go!!!!
 
Yeah, it runs, but not good.... I shut it down after only about 10 minutes due to the oil leaking on the passenger side header. I didn't want to light it up... And the damn valves are making a hell of a racket on the passenger side too. When we primed it I had great oil pressure while rotating the engine by hand. Once she fired up there are no other issues except for the valvetrain and leak. I'll pull it apart tomorrow night and take a look-see....

Here's a few shots leading up to the big event.
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Here I am installing some beautifully powder coated valve covers (Thanks again Leanna! )

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Here's my Buddy Tom whom spent the entire day helping me out. One of these days he'll get his `68 Dart back together again....

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Throwing on the wires....

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If I must say so myself, it looks pretty good. 8)

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Anticipating the fire-up.

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The first of hopefully MANY gallons of high test that will be converted into smiles-per-gallon.

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Va....VOOOOOM!
 
Here's another video clip where you can hear how bad that valve sounds.

And I double-checked everything thing 3 times.... I hope I don't have a bad lifter. :angry7:

http://media.putfile.com/CudaRuns3

And here's a clip where it started smoking....

http://media.putfile.com/CudaRuns2

A HUGE thank you to my Wife Amy who not only stayed with me the entire day waiting for it to fire-up, but who also took most of the video and all the pictures. She's been incredibly supportive of all my childish hobbies, be it collecting model cars, playing in a band, or building loud, expensive cars.

I think there's a Lobster dinner with her name on it..... =P~
 
FASTBACK340 said:
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If I must say so myself, it looks pretty good. 8)


"Pretty good"?!?!?!? It looks fabulous!!!!!!!!!! :-D I'd love a hard copy of that pic right there for my display case here at the shop.

But just one thing (per the tech guys at MSD): They recommend that the coil be installed straight up and down rather than on its side so it cools properly. Found this out on my old Dodge truck.

You'll get it all fixed up and roadbound in no time John! << Passin a couple pairs of vice grips for steering and my 5-gallon bucket to sit on.
Click to expand...
 
Looks like you had a great day! Congrats on the fire up. Looking foward to more vids as you get her setup and tuned.
 
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW John. Great to see it running.
 
Congratulations John, sorry you`re having minor setbacks, but that`s just par for the course. Are you running solid lifters? Aluminum heads? If you set your valve clearances up to "hot specs", you`ll likely to have to subtract about .003 for setting them while cold and may have to deduct another .002-.003 for aluminum heads. That should quiet them down considerably. Anyway ,time for a celebration!
 
Minor setbacks! It runs.....you can only go forward from here. Your progress is an inspiration for me; someday you'll see a video of The Duke running again!
 
Congrats on the fire-up. I have been contemplating building a break in stand just to fire mine up. I miss that sound.....

What mufflers are you running? They sound VERY NICE from the tail pipes!
 
Thanks everone for the compliments. Although it DOES run, it's not right. I have a hydraulic cam and am hoping it's just a loose adjustment and not a bad lifter or no oil to a lifter. We'll see....

As for the exhaust, it's a crappy muffler-shop hack job with a pair of 2 chamber Flowmaster 40's and Hooker Super Comps. Once I get it broken in and set-up I'll install the TTI X-pipe system with their headers.

But yeah.... it runs! :toothy10:
 
Congratz! Looks really good John. You look like a proud new dad in the video, lol!
 
Good job john!!!!!! Its better to have the valves loose than tight. How many startups go exactly as planned?? None I have heard of. Sounds great though!
 
Yeah, nothing goes smoothly. I had one small leak at the fuel pressure gauge that I fixed immediately. It was tapping from the initial start-up, so I know it's a mechanical issue and not a cam self-destructing.

I'm anxious to see what's up in there....
 
Congrats John:cheers::cheers::cheers: Glad to see its alive.......again:-D I'm sure everything will turn out great, its looking good so far. You might have to bring that thing down to Mopars at the Strip next year, or maybe Spring Fling. I know its a long way, but it sure would be a great time.
 
Initial autopsy results: Incorrect valvetrain geometry. The pushrods are too short causing the lifters not to pump up, along with the fact that the roller rockers are riding towards the outer edge of the valve stem. Looks like I'm shimming the rocker shafts up and buying ANOTHER set of pushrods.... %$#$ !

And as for the oil leak I had a bad tube of RTV that never set up. When we dis-assembled it last night the sealant was STILL gooey.... double $%$# !

Me & Tom had it torn down in less than a 1/2 hour... then we spent the rest of the night digging through his garage looking for shims & pushrods, which naturally ran off into that mysterious black hole that hides in everyone's garage. We never found them. TRIPLE %$#@ !

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The fun never stops....
 
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