Project Track Demon - Eventually

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MrAndrewLitt

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Hey guys. I introduced myself a couple months ago after buying a 1971 Dodge Demon. I decided to start a "build" thread as a way to track my progress and to get some good feedback from the forum members.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=296152

My overall goal is to turn the car into a fun track toy that I can still drive around town on the weekend or on a nice day to work. Also this has to be somewhat of a safety or backup car for my wife and I for a few days if one of our daily drivers goes down for maintenance. My plan is to have two basic setups for the car that can be switched with roughly an hours worth of work before heading to a track day or autocross event. Suspension will stay roughly the same for both setups, but the addition of an aero package and sticky tire and the subtraction of steel bumpers and passenger seats will most likely be the track setup. I have a few details to work out and it will take a few years to actually reach that point, but I have a vision in my head of what I want. I'm going to work on a sketch soon to capture what I'm thinking. I'll upload it in the near future.

For now the goal is to get the car running and driving so I can start to enjoy it. I picked up an early 70's 318 and auto tranny from craiglist for $200. I have a whole pile of stock replacement parts that are going on the car this winter so it can hit the road in the spring.













 
The car is a 4 wheel drum car, but luckily the previous owner had already purchased a 73+ disc brake setup that he planned to put on the car. A factory front disc setup with some good pads should work just fine for what I need now. So I bought that from him, sand blasted the parts and did some painting. Also picked up some V8 biscuit mounts off of eBay and got those painted as well.



I was able to separate the engine and tranny I bought this weekend and got it on the stand. Two cans of degreaser later and I was able to get through the grime and dirt, but she'll need more cleaning. Oh and don't you worry I already picked up the some Chrysler LA blue to repaint the engine the proper color :thumblef:



Finally for today I picked up a nice new tool from Tractor Supply for $669. If you're interested in a welder I've read a lot about these and they are a great buy. TSC has a deal going on these until January 25th. You can go online, buy it and have it shipped to your store. I'm not affiliated with Hobart or TSC in anyway. This little guy should help with all the fab work I have planned in the near and distant future.



Thanks,
Andy,
 
Great looking Demon, I like the looks of the project so far. (and the PIC of your "helper" in the drivers seat from the other thread, mine loves to just sit in the car while I work)

If you haven't already looked there are plenty of threads about makin' a 318 boogie for not much cash. So nice grab on the craigslist engine and trans. Welcome to the madness.

JOE
 
hopefully you have OEM spindles and not a swap kit- Right Stuff Detailing disc swap kits have a open recall on their spindles.. I've been waiting 3 months for replacements and they called last week and said replacements will be shipped within 30 days.. so looks like 4 months til I can put my car back together :(

You car looks great! higher option 6cyl. car not easy to find those!
 
You just have to take a picture of the factory mess up on the passenger front fender!!!

The car is really solid underneath. I think it will be on the road by May no sweat.
 
zac_F71 said:
hopefully you have OEM spindles and not a swap kit- Right Stuff Detailing disc swap kits have a open recall on their spindles.. I've been waiting 3 months for replacements and they called last week and said replacements will be shipped within 30 days.. so looks like 4 months til I can put my car back together :(

You car looks great! higher option 6cyl. car not easy to find those!
Click to expand...

They are factory parts. I torn down the calipers and found that I have one phenolic piston and one steel. I was going to replace the phenolic piston and rebuild both calipers, but the phenolic one is locked up and the steel piston has rust issues. So I will be ordering new bigger diameter 76 and later calipers.

Andy,
 
goldduster318 said:
You just have to take a picture of the factory mess up on the passenger front fender!!!

The car is really solid underneath. I think it will be on the road by May no sweat.
Click to expand...

Driving it by my birthday would be an awesome present! April 17th is the goal!
 
joeboy said:
Great looking Demon, I like the looks of the project so far. (and the PIC of your "helper" in the drivers seat from the other thread, mine loves to just sit in the car while I work)

If you haven't already looked there are plenty of threads about makin' a 318 boogie for not much cash. So nice grab on the craigslist engine and trans. Welcome to the madness.

JOE
Click to expand...

I've looked into building a strong 318. There are a few pages out there devoted to budget 318 builds and getting some impressive results. I know 400hp isn't a stretch at all with a little bit of work. A 360 is tempting however, I feel a little weird going that route because it was never an option in the Demon, however the torque numbers are tempting :twisted:

Right now I'll probably end up with a 4bbl and an edelbrock performer intake, some hedman headers and that's about it now. It only has a 7 1/4 axle in the back and I know those can't take a whole lot of power. I was going to stick with the 2bbl for now, but the monkey motion bs that is the factory kickdown linkage is too much to mess with. I might as well go for a little more power and get the nice Lokar kick down setup.

After I get the car moving I'm going to focus on suspension and brakes.....maybe.
 
I was over at Andrew's house today and we finally did some work on the Demon since it was above freezing outside. Since I was interested, we tried starting the original slant six and succeeded. We did find that the previous owner was right about the rod knock, which is a real shame because it actually ran pretty decent. It started up really easily! After we got 10 seconds of running on starting fluid, we pushed some gas in the carb and it would happily idle on its own of the bowl being full. It didn't even smoke. Here's a video:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpFK5L9_niA&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

Also, we did an autopsy on the 1974 318 he picked up. This was an all original never been torn down unit. I'm not really sure if I feel super confident in it. What we found wasn't all bad, but it wasn't really good either. The first thing we found was this original timing chain. If any of you own an original, never been touched 318, please change the timing chain!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eQbvcFsRr0&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

Otherwise, we found that the engine has some pretty serious ridging in the cylinder and that the exhaust valve guides are bad on #1/#2/#7/#8, and otherwise the heads look fine. There is some strange erosion on two of the cam bearings, and there were no functioning exhaust valve seals. My main level of skepticism is the ridging we found. Crank and rod bearings look good and are original.

In addition, he has the brakes torn off the car and part of the front suspension. Hopefully will be making some more progress soon.
 
Thanks for updating the thread with the videos and some explanation Gold.

Right now I'm facing an interesting decision. I'm thinking about fixing the 4 worn our exhaust valve guides, really cleaning everything and slapping it back together with a gasket kit. This engine only needs to run for a few years reliably without burning a boat load of oil. The rest of the car needs much time and attention as well.
 
Well, so the best decision at this time is to look for a new block. GoldDuster is learning me about magnum engines and how little bore wear those tend to have.

So the search for a 5.2 or 5.9 Magnum has begun. Some of the 318 parts I have will help me keep the mechanical fuel pump setup. I'll be cleaning up the LA heads and probably putting them up for sale.

So in the end I might have a good trans for $100 after I part out the engine.
 
Hey now. Magnum engine=good but you have to buy some parts to get it in there.

I managed to find a nice 1988 TBI 318 engine with low miles so depending on what Andrew decides that might be the way to go, since the 1974 318 has all the conversion parts on it to make it carb and put it in the car.
 
GoldDuster and I keep going back and forth on what path I'm going to take. Constantly running through the pros and cons as we find different ads on Craigslist.

Bonus though...Mazza Autoparts near me will install new bronze sleeves in my heads at $8/each. So I'll be able to fix my existing heads for $32. So for now I'm going to take a gambled and really clean the engine I have, throw a roller chain and gaskets in it and run it. You should have seen the look on my wife's face when I told her I was thinking of buying a different engine :(
 
So we went a picked up a 318 magnum for the car. It had been freshly rebuilt +.030 and never fired. Apparently the guy tried to use a v6 flywheel. Brand new speed pro hypereutectic pistons. It also looks like they decked the block and heads. The pistons look to be at worst 0.020 down the hole. Should be over 9:1. It had some ARP main bolts as well.

What a score for $200.
 
So with some help from Gold and another buddy we ended up pulling the /6, auto trans, and K frame yesterday. Found a little spot of rust on the passenger fender well that I plan on patching soon. Pics will follow later this week.

I also picked up a B-body 8.75 with 3.23 Suregrip on Craigslist for cheap. Everything looks solid and it's the rebuildable clutch type LSD. I need to get the spring pads relocated, but that will be ready for when the 7.25 bites it.

I have a lot of parts that I'll be selling soon. So PM me if you have anything in mind.
Front drum knuckles, upper control arms, a running /6 (knock knock knock), and a few other parts. After my new 318 magnum is wrapped up I'll have a some 318 LA heads and other bits ready to go too.

Thanks,
Andy,
 
"Some" Help might be an understatement lol

Anyway, I'm happy to report we've barely broken anything taking this crusty old girl apart. Well...Andrew broke everything that actually broke. Other than the dirt and grease caked all over this thing, it's in remarkably nice shape. It's tripod-ing on the jackstands too.

The thing that's just amazing is that someone was driving this car with totally destroyed motor mounts (rub mark on k-frame), one bolt holding the trans mount to the trans, leaf spring bushings with holes double the size of normal, blown strut rod bushings, and totally shot pitman arm.
 
goldduster318 said:
"Some" Help might be an understatement lol

Anyway, I'm happy to report we've barely broken anything taking this crusty old girl apart. Well...Andrew broke everything that actually broke. Other than the dirt and grease caked all over this thing, it's in remarkably nice shape. It's tripod-ing on the jackstands too.

The thing that's just amazing is that someone was driving this car with totally destroyed motor mounts (rub mark on k-frame), one bolt holding the trans mount to the trans, leaf spring bushings with holes double the size of normal, blown strut rod bushings, and totally shot pitman arm.
Click to expand...

Gold's right....I received ALOT of help. I provided beer, burgers, and pizza and broke a few things.
 
So I've made a bunch of progress over the last couple months. She's still on jack stands but I'm getting much closer to getting her back on her wheels.

New spring pads are welded on the 8.75 and the test fit looks good. New ESPO springs with fully poly bushings are set to go on the car. Hoping to have the back end buttoned up within the next week or so. Pretty much every aspect of this car will be new or refurbished. It will still look like crap, but man it will have really nice running gear! lol









New cam bearings are in the Magnum 318 and that's close to being wrapped up. Front control arms are reinforced and full poly is going up front with adjustable strut rods.

More pics to follow later.

Thanks,
Andy,
 
Oh I also picked up a wood lathe with a few Harbor Freight coupons and made a shift knob for my DD (Saturn Ion 04). It's a fun new toy that I plan on making a bunch more knobs and projects. Thought you guys might enjoy it.









Just another rabbit hole hobby for me to go down.
 
That does look sweet man. My grandpa does a ton of woodwork and the only tool of his I never used growing up was a lathe, always wanted to give it a whirl, but he refused to dig it out...
 
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