Thought I’d report some good news today. Ends up being scary. I backed it out in a rush to meet the shop owner a couple miles down the road from me. He was leaving and I had a ride back, so I hurried out the door.

The TQ agreed to fire right up and after only seconds of warm up, it also agreed to idle back down the driveway, even letting me jack it back and forth out of the tight turn. Then it ran well other than one small stumble. I worry now I messed up with the stabil additive as I read their faqs last night and they say to run a cleaner first as it will dislodge stuff in the system. Not sure that would do any good first as it in theory all goes into the filter or carb one no matter what you run.

The 727 felt like the pump was strong and found all the gears crisply. Starting to think the 440 is good and just has leaks.

I’ve been pretty busy and only popped the hood the once since it got here. Figured on fluid changes at this shop anyway, at least once the old guy agreed to work on it. He was convinced it was going to rain parts off his lift due to rust. Ends up he said it was a solid old truck.

Then we popped the hood as we discussed plans. Bad news I fixated on was him saying it looked underneath like both valve covers and rear main are pouring. Sweet. Then we pulled the radiator cap. Bone dry.

I saw antifreeze residue so hopefully it’s just a leak somewhere and not a crack. Crossed my mind that 41 year old steel shims could’ve rusted, though I’ve not encountered that before.

These guys use 80s dodge shop and tow trucks. There’s about a 75 dart one of them has. Really don’t know how hardcore they are, but think it bodes well for their helping out. I know an older gentleman that seemed to run the place passed last year, hopefully he wasn’t the only true mopar guy. They did find a seized ball joint three shops missed on a car for us, and they do take on older vehicles regularly, so fingers crossed.