New Guy, 72 Plymouth Duster, where to start looking?

[spadeturbo]

Hi all, New member in rural Oregon. My father had a 1972 Plymouth Duster he has owned since the late 80's I think. Has the original 318 in it. I recently bought it from him to make sure it stays in the family and I'm wanting to get it back to a daily driver. Not looking to make it a hotrod necessarily mostly I just want it to reliable and safe. For the most part it's pretty original other than a few minor things that my dad has done. Has just under 70k on it now. It starts up and drives just fine. My dad hadn't done anything with the car for a while so when I first go it we changed the fluids, new gas, and battery. It started right up and drove. After an hour or so the temp gauge never went up and the motor seemed to be warmer than I would have thought when I opened the hood. Also the Oil light started coming on but it wasn't consistent. The oil level was full though. No leaks or anything either.
I went ahead and just replaced the thermostat and the temp sending unit, then drove it for about 30 min. The temp gauge did go up but never got over around 150-160 I'm guessing. Also twice it made a very awful sound very briefly. I'd describe it as sounds like metal scraping on the road, coming from the front part of the car. I first looked under the car to see if something was indeed dragging and it wasn't that. Also the oil light was blinking a bit but never staying on consistently.
I'm very new to this but I have a few questions I was hoping get help with.
1) Does the oil light indicate low oil pressure or low oil level?
2) Can the oil pump being going bad? Or are they something that either works fine or fails completely? Could it be going bad and not creating enough oil pressure? Could it also be responsible for the noise I heard?
3) How long should it take to heat up if it's just idling and what temp would be normal?

 

[missing linc]

from

Nice to keep your dad's car in the family but it sounds like you are going to have to do some work to make it a daily driver.
Get a mechanical oil pressure gauge and see what the actual oil pressure is. Very possibly the sending unit is bad, same with the temperature, you can use a basic oven thermometer to get a reading from the coolant with the cap off, just don't try to remove when the engine is hot as you may get scalded with hot coolant.
There are various forums for different subject here, and lots of extremely knowledgeable people who are always willing to help you. Provide as much information as you can about the car, engine, and specific issues or problems with each question so that you can get the best answers. Good luck!

 

[Car Nut]

 

[Wvbuzzmaster]

First thing I would do is a full brake job as that could reveal a scraping noise such as thrown pad lining, broken spring flopping around in the drum, or even the hubs actual cap having fallen off the hub and rattling around in the wheel hubcap.

Second, check suspension bushings and ball joints etc for slop and replace as necessary. Even in same family it’s a 50 year old car that has been sitting and rubber bushings hate that.

As for oil and temp, do yourself a favor and for now, bypass factory gauges and add in mechanical gauges til you get a feel for the actual conditions. In my 1972 Duster I run a mechanical oil pressure gauge, actual voltage gauge and bypassed the ammeter and oil light since sending unit was gone. On my Duster it is a 340 and can take what seems like forever to get up to temperature. I have a 180 thermostat in in and the first line of the normal range is where my needle is when the thermostat opens, and it only goes up when heat soaking when turning off engine. Something to look at is grounds, a lot can be screwy on the gauges if there is not a proper ground path.

It sounds like you are off to a good start at least. Welcome to FABO.

 

[Wvbuzzmaster]

Oh, one thing to add is my oil pressure on a fairly freshly rebuilt 340 engine is 50-60 psi parked running and then 40 psi running down the road most times and if engine is pulled down by transmission when on the brakes after warmed up on a hot day and running 3800 rpm on the highway, 20 psi briefly. In that instance I shift to neutral and get back my 40 psi.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I would inspect the front brakes from your description. Welcome aboard.

 

[sireland67]

What weight oil did you put in the car when you changed it?

 

[69conv]

I had a problem like what you are describing many years ago. The hold down springs on my drum brake pads ahd weakened and allowed the pads to jam up. Replacing the springs solved the problem. Good luck and WELCOME!