Stressful week due to the Dart. Hotchkis goes to fire the motor yesterday and it's misfiring and building pressure in the radiator but is staying cool. Back and forth between Hotchkis and IMM and we can't figure out what's wrong. It's got the symptoms of a blown head gasket but has no signs of oil and coolant mixing in the engine or radiator. I'm having Hotchkis fix 2 minor details and I'll tow the car next week to Superior Engineering in Anaheim to diagnose. 95% chance the Dart will not make it to Fall Fling.

Well, I got a phone call today, "Whenever your ready, feel free to tow the car to the engine shop as the car's ready." My response, "I'll see you in 30 minutes." I took a half day at work and had AAA tow the Dart to the engine shop. I drove it a wopping 10 feet to get it lined up with the trailer. I will definitely be on a learning curve. I'm not used to the clutch or carburetor yet. But the problem with the engine was that the vacuum advance was connected, but the engine doesn't produce enough vacuum to sustain. I dropped the car back off. There are a couple small things that need to be done and it should be ready by Tuesday. However, I may not be able to pick it up till Thursday. Depending on how comfortable I feel driving home on Thursday, I may or may not take it to both days of Fall Fling.

Video of the car running. We were putting it back inside on the lift.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ck86Irhi4

I took a vacation day and went to pick up the car today! Had my friend come by the house pick me up and we cruised our way down to the shop. We get to the shop and there the car is ready to go. The mechanic was installing a new driver's side rear view mirror for the final touch. There are some little other bugs here and there that need to be finished, but the car was very driveable. Well, the mechanic and I get into the car for a quick 15 min test drive (even though the mechanic has been driving it every day this week to fine tune everything). The car roared, cornered flat, and was super stiff. Between the electric fuel pump and the engine, you couldn't even here the turn signals clicking along. I still need to get used to the side door bars as well. It's definitely a lot more race car than I'd like, but it's still an awesome car.

Well, my friend and I get going. We drive two blocks away to the local gas station. My friend is admiring the car from behind. We get to the gas station and my friend comes up to me and says, "Your right tail light was out, but besides that, your car is cornering super flat." So, I call the shop and tell them I'll be back even though the lights were working 2 minutes ago when I was there.

I make a right turn out of the gas station and almost immediately the car shuts off. As I'm coasting I turn the key and the car starts up I [censored] into second, and then again into third and it shuts off again. So, I turn into the closest side street and call the shop. The mechanic comes over and we found out the engine has no fuel pressure. Turn the key and we can here the pump. We unscrew the line leaving the fuel regulator and not much is coming out. So, either my brand new fuel pump crapped out on me, which wouldn't surprise me as the fuel regulator that came with that kit crapped out last week, or the gunk from the fuel tank clogged up the filter (first time the tank has been completely full since the build started 2 years ago). So, we had to flat tow the car back to the shop. Since they're going to have it, I'm going to have them fix even more minor stuff.

Starting the day off, I knew something funny would happened. When my friend asked me if I was excited, I really wasn't. Me and this car have this weird history and connection. Nothing can never be right between us. At the end of the day, while everyone was bummed, all I could do was laugh. It's just another memory in the books. We'll see what happens in the next week or two.

The car turned out great!

Sounds really healthy, great rumble. It will work out for you soon. What are your plans for 2017 with it?

Very healthy and she sounds awesome. Louder than I was expecting, but still great. IMM really did good on that engine.

Plans in the sense of what?

Track events, autocross, etc.

Till the end of the year, I'd like to get the car sorted as best as possible. I may add some hush/dynamat or something to quiet down the interior a little bit.

As far as events for 2017, I'm looking to autocross it locally at the Hotchkis and SCCA Cal Club events. I may take it down to San Diego for their autocross a couple times as they have a larger and more competitive CAM-T class. I'm waiting for the Optima schedule, but I will definitely try to make the Fontana event and possibly the Las Vegas event. Spring Fling track day is a given and hopefully a couple weeks after I'll be able to take it to MATS for their autocross. Of course the Michigan people want me to take the car up there for Woodward, I don't know how I'll be able to do that since I only get about 3 weeks of vacation a year. Of course, I may not be able to do it all.

However, since I just started my Master's this year, I may have to drop out of an event last minute (like what happened this past weekend) due to studying.

So, very little update. I haven't had time to pick up the car as I've been very busy. It doesn't look like I will for another 2 weeks. They've been driving it and working out the bugs. They installed a gauge pack under my dash as the fuel and water temp gauges are intermittent. They also fabricated and installed window crank spacers so now I can roll the rear windows down.

So, as some of you guys may have figured out, I picked up the Dart yesterday. She's awesome, but I'm definitely not done with her. All I can say for now is that she's a Riot!

Here's a Walkaround video of the Dart:

Very cool, congrats! Now we need a burnout video ;-)
Pat

Well, I just talked with my friend and he said he'd trade me some sound deadening for a ride along in my car. Lol.

Cool video. Glad to see you finally got it back!

Thanks. I still have some minor work to do to her this weekend, but I'm definitely going to enjoy her as much as I can right now.

Well, like I said before, today was definitely a learning process. Changed the oil on the Dart and took her out for a ride.

Took the Dart out for a cruise this morning as it was sunny and in the 60's. I'm starting to get a hang of the handling now. Car was running fine and wasn't hiccuping.

Well, I got tired with dealing with the headers hitting the power steering box so I decided to try my hand with the door and trim piece. I followed mopar346's instructions to the T, up until I got to the center clips (as I don't know where to get them). That advice was awesome, easy, and fairly straight forward.

In lieu of the plastic clips usually found on the inside of the door, I decided to stack up layers of double sided tape. I layed a layer of painter's tape across the door and piece of trim and then toward the center of the trim I stacked the double sided tape. That way, when I decided to go to clips, I can just pull the layers of painter's tape and continue drilling holes. But I checked it to make sure and there are so many layers of painter's tape that the trim doesn't rattle as the tape absorbs all the vibration.

I have to say, I am so glad that I got this piece of trim on. Not only do I feel complete that I have all of the trim on the car, but I felt somewhat accomplished when I haven't gotten much done with it.

Enjoy watching your buildup, you have a lot to make your dart a fun, nice looking car while enjoying it. Good work bud!

Well, I took the Dart to it's first autocross event. The course was nothing complex and had a lot of sweeping turns and large straight aways. The average runs were in the low 50 second range. There were good and bads to today.

Good:
-The commute to the autocross event (26 miles) and back was very trouble free. The car loved to cruise at 2000 rpm.
-The car is a blast to drive and there's so much potential in the car (or should I say myself).
-I had fun racing and hanging out with old friends.
-My number for the year is 408.

Bad:
-The exhaust drone is absolutely, stupidly unbearable. The 30 min drive back home was not pleasant what so ever.
-The car is cold-blooded. It never really likes to start going until the water temps are about 150F. If I try driving the car before that, odds are it will probably stall.
-Out of 2 of my 4 runs, the car stalled on the first corner under light throttle causing me to roll off course and DNF. Very weird. It would take quite a bit of cranking to start it up again. I would exit the corner and bam, the car shut off. Water temps was 180F during my runs.
-I got last because the car stalled twice.
-The car got 6.7 mpg after my first fill up. I need to verify my odometer is accurate. Granted that was about 95% street driving.

Overall, I got in last place. My goal for the day was just to get a feel for the car and get a sub-60 second run which I accomplished. I wish the car hadn't stalled on me the other two runs, otherwise I think I could have got it down to 56 seconds with my skillset. It definitely felt like it could take more speeds in the corners; however, since I'm tire and experience limited, I decided not to push it.