The engine is now back together as well. I had the heads looked at by a machine shop. The valve seats left a lot to be desired so they ground those and machined the top of the guides for positive valve seals.

I also had them machine the intake face of the heads. The heads have been worked on a couple times and the block has been decked. This added up to having intake fitment problems. Having the heads machined should have let the intake sit down lower on the engine. Previously, the holes in the intake were too high and it was hard getting the bolts started. After having the heads machined, the intake still didn't fit. To make a long story short, I tried two different Edelbrock intakes with the same result.(Air Gap and a Performer) I tried a Weiand X-Celerator and it fit perfectly. I ended up having my Air-Gap machined to fit the engine.

I bought a new set of rocker arms/shafts and reinstalled the cam block-off plate I had made years earlier.




Before I installed the intake, I bought a Pertronix distributor and checked to see how it fit. After reading multiple posts on this site, I made some changes. First of all, there was a lot of up and down movement in the dist shaft. I took the collar off the bottom and added another shim. This took most of the movement out but still left a little bit for thermal expansion.


Next, I looked at how the drive lug fit into the intermediate shaft slot. There was a LOT of slop between the two. I noticed some wear on the edges of the intermediate shaft slot so I bought a new one. The fit was slightly better but there was still way to much slop. With advice from this site, I peened the four corners of the dist drive lug with a punch. This expanded the metal and tightened up the fitment. Lastly, I installed a shaft collar onto the bottom of the dist shaft to keep the gear from "bouncing".


Then, I installed the intake manifold. At this point though, it had gotten cold so I couldn't paint the engine. I test fit my TTI headers and ran into a couple issues. The main issue is that my 360 came from a truck. The truck blocks must have an extra boss on the PS that the car blocks don't have. This extra boss interfered with the center header tubes. Some work with my angle grinder took care of the interference.




On Saturday, it was finally warm enough to paint the engine. On Sunday, I attached the trans and dropped the engine onto the K-member. I'm tired of seeing orange engines.(unless they are in stock restored cars) It's kind of like seeing a small block Chevy in every hot rod. I decided to go with a cast iron looking paint. I'm not 100% sure about it yet but I think it will look good in a blue engine compartment. The natural aluminum valve covers don't look the best IMO. A friend of mine photoshopped them black for me. I think they look a lot better black. I plan on running black accessores as well so it should all tie in together.






The trans cooler lines interfere with my aftermarket shifter bracket and the TTI headers. I think I'll need to make some custom cooler lines out of braided hose. Once I get the radiator fitted, I'll be installing the engine to test fit some things. I think the headers will be too low. If that's the case, TTI makes a shorty header that should give me more clearance.

The radiator arrived today. It's a Champion cc526. A lot of people are using the cc2374 in the A-bodies but I don't like the look of the angled upper tank. The welds look good on this one and there isn't any twisting/warping that I can see. The mounting holes even lined up.

I've been using bulkhead connectors to get thru the radiator support, to the trans cooler on the last 2 builds that I have done. I use hard lines on the engine compartment side, and run them down the drivers side frame rail, behind the steering box. It gets them completely away from the exhaust and linkage. I then use steel braided flex lines to go from the end of the hard lines, over to the fittings on the transmission. They need to flex on that end, so the don't crack. Now I gotta figure out how to make trans cooler lines for the 545RFE going in my 70 Duster! Good luck, and I think your motor looks GREAT. I vote polished valve covers.

That's a good idea about the trans lines. I'll get the engine installed and see what I have to work with.

You should be able to buy 60" and 72" lengths of 5/16 steel line at a parts house, with the ends already flared. You'll have to cut one end off, and install a female fitting on one end. I used the end with the flare left on the bulkhead fittings, and re-flared the other end for whatever fittings I used on the braided flex hose. I used the rubber lined clamps to attach to frame rail. The place here in town that makes hydraulic hoses gave me a handful of fittings for the braided flex hoses, and I went home and decided what I wanted to use for the best fit. I cut the hose to the lengths I needed, and installed the fittings I wanted to use, and then made a mark with a Sharpie at the fitting and hose. Took em back and they crimped the fittings on where I marked them. It worked slicker'n cat poop on linoleum!

Last night I cleaned up an old mini starter from a 92 Dakota. I thought it was going to be a direct fit but it wasn't. I had to grind away a bump on the block as well as take some material off of the starter case. I had a mini starter on this block in the past which makes me wonder if I had it installed correctly the first time.

I started out today by cleaning up the ps box and mocking it up on the K-member. It was very close to hitting the headers but I knew the engine wasn't in the correct location just sitting on the stand. I decided to stay with power steering. I was originally going to install a manual box but decided against it. I'll eventually send the ps box to Firm Feel for a stage 3 rebuild.

I temporarily installed an old fuel pump because I know the alternators get fairly close to them. I'm going to mock up a smaller denso alternator and wanted to make sure everything was going to clear.

Now that those parts were installed, it was time to lift the body over the engine.






I read a post that said the Pertronix distributors don't fit the A-bodies. I was worried so I put the wiper motor in place and checked the clearance. It's very close but it should clear if I use 90 degree plug ends.


After getting the trans mount fastened, I checked the ps box clearance at the header. There is plenty of clearance now.

I've got about 2 3/4" of clearance between the water pump pulley and the radiator core. I was planning on running a Taurus electric fan. I'll have to see if I can find a depth measurement on that fan/shroud combo. Rock Auto shows length and width but not depth. If it's not too deep, it should fit this radiator nicely.

It looks like its been over a year since I posted on this. I got burned out and just needed the car to sit. I took the Challenger out of storage and drove it around a little last year but didn't really do a lot of "car stuff". Lately I've been working on the Dart a little. I've just been doing some small things that don't cost a whole lot.

A couple years ago I bought a cheap $30 aluminum oil vapor separator. It was pretty worthless the way it was since it was just an empty shell. I bought a BT catch can for my Ram and saw how they had theirs designed. I tried to copy that as best I could.


I made a divider plate to separate the inlet and outlet lines. The plate follows the interior contours of the canister. Then I made a base that attaches to the divider so the stainless mesh would stay in place. The placement of the nipples that came on the canister weren't in the best spot. I turned the lid 180 degrees and installed some 90 degree fittings so I could route the lines as cleanly as possible. Instead of using a lot of rubber hose, I took some old 3/8" aluminum fuel tubing and made the PCV line out of that. From the front of the carb it goes straight down, under the air gap intake and angles down the back of the passengers side head. Now I only have to use a couple short pieces of hose to connect the entire system. Finally, I sanded off the obnoxious logos on the canister and sprayed it with a satin Extreme Chassis black.

I went to a salvage yard and found a Ford Taurus electric fan to use for mock-up. One of the ears on the shroud was broken so I got it cheap. When I got it home, I quickly realized that it wasn't going to fit. The fact that I'm using a different radiator then most and that I'm using the newer/longer water pump must be why I have less clearance than other people who have successfully done this mod. Even if I trimmed the back of the shroud so the fan blade was right up against the core, the fan motor would have hit the water pump pulley.





Since that wasn't going to work, I started building a fan shroud for a mechanical fan. I went down the street from where I work and bought a piece of .063 aluminum. My father-in-law had previously given me a sheet metal brake that he had never used. The brake was a little too flimsy to bend .063 aluminum but with some creative thinking, I made it work. I ruined the first attempt but it wasn't my fault. I had been given 6061 aluminum instead of 5052 and the corners cracked when I bent them to 90 degrees. Once I got the correct grade of aluminum, it went much smoother.

Here is the basic box just set in place.


The shroud was hitting the upper and lower rad nipples so I cut a clearance notch for the upper rad hose and moved the shroud up about an inch.




I started measuring to find the center location of the water pump snout but I wasn't confident in my measurements. I ended up making a contraption that mounted to the water pump so I could find the correct spot. After spinning the pump a few times the bolt scored the aluminum so I knew where the center was. Crude but it worked.

The next thing to do was get the corners welded up and a curved gusset welded where I cut the notch for upper hose clearance. Once that was done, I turned my attention to cutting out the large center hole. I found a Youtube video on how to make a circle cutting jig. Here is the video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brq3wtKuv0Q

After making the jig, I attached it to a router and slowly worked my way down until I was completely through. It worked great and the hole is perfectly round. I'm using a 15" fan so I made the hole 16.5" in diameter. That gives me 3/4" clearance for engine movement which is what the fan manufacture recommends.

Here's what the shroud looks like on the radiator. Mounting the shroud is easy. The rad came with rivnuts already installed in the side brackets. Just four holes drilled into the face of the shroud will hold it in place. The only down side is that the rivnuts that came installed are 6mm and not 1/4". I ground those off and will install 1/4" rivnuts in their place. The fasteners I'm going to use are stainless pan head bolts.



Once the shroud was installed, I was able to get the overflow bottle mounted. It will attach directly to the shroud. The bottle is a stainless piece from Summit. It came with two 1/4" tubes sticking out the bottom side. Since the overflow nipple on the rad is a lot larger then 1/4", the bottle needed some modifying. I cut off the center inlet tube and drilled the hole out larger. Then I installed a 6AN fuel cell fitting in its place. This allowed me to bend up some more of that old 3/8" aluminum tubing I had sitting around. I also had the 6AN tube nut/sleeve for attachment left over from another project. The above picture of the shroud also shows the overflow bottle installed.

Since I don't have to worry about powering an electric cooling fan, I can get away with a smaller amperage alternator. I don't want to have any problems with amperage at idle so I went with a Denso alternator. I was able to get my billet brackets to work with the Denso. I just had to machine custom length spacers so the pulleys would line up. I also decided to stick with power steering. That meant buying the corresponding PS brackets and pulleys. Luckily, the company I bought them from was very nice and let me send back the single groove crank pulley since it was unused. The PS reservoir cover looks out of place right now but I see that Summit sells a billet cover for it. That will look much better. I also have to figure out a cover for the alt pulley. It looks really bad right now. I might have to make something myself.


Another project I've been working on is the air cleaner. I wanted something custom that you wouldn't see very often. The first order of business was just finding something that would fit with my limited hood clearance. I bought a $20 generic 14" air cleaner from Summit. It has a 1" drop base and came with a 3" filter. The problem is that the Edelbrock carb I'm using has an electric choke which really limits the amount of drop you can have in your base. The maximum drop that you can fit on an Edelbrock carb is 3/4". Mine was 1". Since I can't weld, I went over to a friends house and he helped me modify the base to fit the carb. We cut open the base, bent it up a little bit and welded it back together. Now it clears the choke cover. The next problem was that with that modification, the air filter didn't sit down flush onto the base. I took care of that by just grinding away some of the rubber on the inside of the filter. With the radiator removed, I could check my hood clearance. That extra 1/4" came in handy since I'm very close to one of the underhood braces. I could have installed a shorter filter but I really like the look of the 3" and wanted to make it work.


After I knew it was going to fit, I set out to make it look better and not so generic. I did a lot of searching online for air cleaner ideas and finally came up with something I liked. First, I bought a piece of .025 aluminum that was 3" tall and 4' long. I played around with the hole layout to see what looked the best. I used a 1 1/4" hole saw to drill 14 holes along the entire length of the aluminum.


I bought a dimple die when I was making my trans cooler mounting bracket so it was just sitting in the tool box. I used that dimple die to dimple all 14 holes.


Then it was just a matter of bending the aluminum around the air cleaner. I didn't know how easily it would bend with all the dimples in it but it ended up bending really easy.


To hold it all together I just cut the aluminum strip to length and riveted the ends together. The aluminum piece fits inside the upper/lower lips of the air cleaner. I like how it looks. Before you question how well it flows, there are 14 holes all the way around it. That should be more area than a factory dual snorkel air cleaner.

Now you are pretty much up to speed. Not much has happened, just working on small projects. It's easier to get all this done before paint. That way, once the car is painted, the assembly should go much faster.

Figuring out spark plug wire routing with some aluminum wire separators.


What engine compartment looks like so far.

Nice - glad you're back at it.

As always, top notch work!

A couple years ago, I gave a C-body 8-3/4 housing to someone to have shortened. I never got it back. They stopped answering emails and phone calls went unanswered. It was a freebie when I bought the Dart so I wasn't out any money, but it was still frustrating. This year at the Nats, I talked to the guy I bought the car from and told him the situation. Since scrap prices have been low for a long time, he still had some wide 8-3/4 housings sitting out back. He said I could stop by grab a new one.

I found someone else local that has the equipment and gave him the housing. He was really busy but worked it in his schedule. I got it back last week. Stock A-body width is 52-5/8". I had the housing cut to 51-1/4". That's the minimum length Dr Diff recommends with his 1/2" spring relocation hangers. Any narrower and the outer U-bolts would hit the housing ends.

Last Sunday I ordered axles, rear disc brakes, E-brake cables and spring hangers from Dr Diff. Everything got here on Thursday. Talk about great service. I got the brakes all mocked up and they fit really nice. It's nice to buy something and have it fit like it should the first time.


I ordered new brake lines from Fine Lines a couple years ago. They cut the axle brake lines short for me since I told them I was going to use rear discs. At the time I was planning on using a Wilwood kit. The Wilwood kit must use shorter brake hoses because the lines are too long right now. I need to find someone that can double flare stainless lines so I can cut these shorter. I'd like to mount the brake hose bracket on the back side of the housing. I think it will look nice and be a cleaner install on the back side rather than on the top. My only concern is the shock clearance. I'm not sure how much clearance there is between the axle tube and the shock body. I don't want the hose/line to get in the way.


The E-brake cables that showed up are really nice looking pieces. I guess I was expecting some generic cut-to-fit type cable but these are super nice. I need to weld a clip to the front of the PS axle tube to hold the cable since this replacement housing didn't have one there. Once the lines are hooked up and the clip gets welded, I can mount the assembly under the car and measure for wheels/tires. Then it will come back out so I can blast, smooth and paint the housing. Now I need to save up for the front brake kit...

It's kind of funny the at 11.7", the rear rotors are larger then my Challenger's stock front rotors. The Dart originally came with 4 wheel drum brakes and no front sway bar. It should stop and handle a lot better once I'm done with it.

I worked on the springs today. The oval track springs use the larger B and E body shackle bushings. In order for them to work on an A-body, you have to get special bushings OR sleeve either the spring or the bushing. I have new A-body bushings here so I decided to sleeve the spring.

I went to the hardware store and bought a couple 1" OD black pipe sections. The OD was a little too big to fit into the rear spring eye, but the inner diameter was perfect for the A-body bushings. I went over to my father-in-law's house and used his lathe to cut down the outside of the pipe so it could be installed into the spring.

I shoved the springs and rear end under the car last night. I wanted to measure the shock clearance so I'll know if I have room to run the brake hoses where I want. I think these springs should work out well for the lowered look I want. The front spring eye is in the lower hole so I can lower the back even more if I need to. Obviously, the car will sag more once it's completely assembled. Right now though, I have 11" from the axle centerline to the wheel well lip.


For those of you who own a 67-69 Dart, take a look at this picture. The arrow shows a ledge inside the outer wheel well. Is this a convertible feature or do all Dart's have this? This is the limiting factor in wheel/tire width. The ledge is pretty much even with the wheel opening lip. I assumed I'd be able to cut/roll the lip if I needed to for clearance. This ledge is going to prevent that.

A little more progress on the Dart but not much. Really don't feel like doing much this time of year when I don't have a heated shop. I ordered front brakes from Dr Diff right before the new year. I had a little bit of a problem getting the calipers on. The rotors are thick and there isn't much of a gap between the pads even with the pistons pushed all the way in. I tried pushing the pistons in a little farther and got them to move just enough to get the calipers over the rotors. Still, the pads are dragging quite a bit.


Looks like I need to get the steering mocked up so I can see how far the spindles will move in the real world. Right now the lower ball joint bolt hits the sway bar tab. I can't turn the bolt around because the head is tapered to fit the Magnumforce drop spindles. At minimum, I'll need to trim some material off of this bolt.


This is how the car is sitting right now. One of the next things to do is measure for wheels/tires. Just some quick measurements look like an 18x8 wheel with 5" backspacing might fit. I've got 5 5/8" from the rotor face to the rubber tie rod boot. Assuming that an 8" wide wheel is actually 9" from outer most lip to inner lip, and that a 225-40-18 tire has a 9.3" section width, that should give me plenty of room at the tie rod. I'd really like to borrow a wheel fitment tool or find a wheel to test fit though. The back should be easier to figure out.


Awhile back I was playing around with the paint program on the computer. I really like the look of the Coddington HR-01 wheels. I found a picture of them online and put one under the Dart. I like it.

It looks like it's been awhile since I posted anything on this car. Not much going on with it lately. I have been struggling to get motivated to work on it actually. A few things have been done since I last posted but nothing major.

Last year I was playing around with the computer and did a quick rendering with the paint program. I found a picture I had taken at Carlisle a few years ago. It was of a 69 but the color was close so I started with that. I got rid of the 69 side markers and pasted on some 68s. I did an online search for cars that had similar wheels to the ones I'm thinking of running. I found a Camaro picture that was framed the same and pasted the wheels onto the Dart picture. Finally, I put some carbon fiber stripes on the back. I think it looks pretty good! This is basically my idea of what I want the car to look like.



I read a post in the race section about proper trans cooler mounting. I realized I had mine mounted incorrectly.


I flipped it around so the fittings were pointing up. This way the cooler stays full of fluid and doesn't develop an air pocket in the upper passages. I had to redo the lines so I ended up running them both to the drivers side. I was going to run into issues trying to get a cooler line past the lower rad hose. With both of them on the drivers side, I have more room.

The air cleaner is going to be really close to the underside of the hood. I don't have room for a standard wing nut, plus I wanted something custom. I came up with this idea and it turned out really nice.

I started with a 1/2" stainless button head bolt. The center was drilled out and tapped 1/4x20. Then the outer threads were machine away. Finally, I ground a flat on the top side and polished it. I had to open up the hole in the air cleaner lid a little but it fits good. The top of the fastener is pretty much flush with the top of the lid.