I hope it is not a train! I finally got the 67 GTX clone painted a month or so ago. Now this coming weekend, I finally get to put the 440in. This has been 4 years coming, and I doubt it will be on the road this weekend, but at least installed and test fired. After 4 long years of time, money, disappointments, more money and more disappointments, this project will be on the road this Spring. I'll be taking some pics of the process. I am sure this would be old news to many of you, but some of the new people might enjoy it. Wish me luck!

 

Bring it on bro! That motor looks sweeeet!

 

That is great to hear! I love those valve covers!

 

Sweet motor - gonna look great in the Plum Crazy bay. Conrats!

 

looks great and the best of luck be with you and your project

 

i like what you did with the valve covers
they look cool

 

those are some awesome looking valve covers. Good luck with the rest of the project, keep us updated!

 

Very cool great look BIG BLOCK. I also love the primitive engine stand you got there

 

Thanks Guys! I am very excited to finally be at this stage. I am looking forward to posting pics on the rides section when I am completely done. Yeah, those valve covers really do add something, especially with the Hemi orange paint job on the motor. As for the cinder block engine stand, well, you use what is handy somtimes. I just want you all to know that my buddy that is helping me (actually I am helping him, he is the mechanic) is a diehard Corvette guy. Even though, he really likes this car and offered to make his shop, tools and self available, so not all Chevy guys are bad. I think I mentioned before that I was also a Corvette guy and this is my first Mopar. I have always liked Mopars, but this is the first one I have owned. All the Corvettes are gone now.

 

Ok, the 440 and A833 are in the car, but I forgot my frickin camera. I got a few other things done such as battery box, shocks all around, some detailing of the steering box and linkage, and cleaning and painting the power steering pump. I also made a few runs to different part houses for a battery, exhaust manifold studs, break in oil with lots of zinc, coolant, exhaust gaskets, powersteering fluid, etc. Then my buddy got sick, so Sunday was a bit of a bust with him in bed with a cold. I was really hoping we could get it running.....I can't wait to hear run!!! Oh well, it looks like it will have to wait for another weekend, but getting closer each time.

 

post a video when you get it running

 

I will do that if I can figure out how. My buddy that is working with me on this has to work Saturday and has been sick, so Sunday may be out. It will get done. I am very interested to see if the exhaust from the 383 will bolt up.....I hope so, but probably not knowing my luck. One good thing though....I got the car out of my wifes name and back in mine today. I went by the DMV today and transferred the title and got it registered. $77 for the title transfer (worth every penny) and $54 to register it until 2011. I am so ready to get behind the wheel and frickin drive the car! A few plans I have for the future are disc brakes, a 3:55 posi in a 742 case, and as soon as I have a spare $500, I want to send in my headlight bezels and have them restored. Anyway....getting there.....slowly.

 

Still not running yet, but closer. The Z bar is installed and connected to the clutch and it seems to be working properly. Driveline is in. Carb is on and partially connected. All drums were pulled and painted, wheels and tires on an torqued down, hub caps on....I think they look good.

 

BEAUTIFUL car man very sexy. are you going to get that back end raised up so you can see all of your tire? my darts rear wheels tuck under the rear quarters about 4 inchs I cant wait to put on my air shocks and get that back end up

 

I don't think I will raise te rear for a couple of reasons. I kind of like the look with the tire partially up in the wheel well. Second, when you raise the rear, you take weight off the back tires and put it on the front tires. I would rather have the weight on the rear tires for better traction and keep the weight off of the front tires for better handling and less wear on the front suspention. When I was younger, I really liked the jacked up look, but as age has mellowed me some, I am happy with the current look. Thanks for the nice words on the car!!!

 

is that how high the front end is going to be?

 

I just put new shocks on all the way around and the car has not moved other than back and forth in and out of the shop. I am sure the front will drop some once the car is driven and the shocks get a chance to settle.

 

did you put the suspension back to original specs?

 

No, the suspention is not stock, at least the front isn't. This is what the guy I bought the car from said in an email.

"It has new super stock springs and front hangers. The front end has been totally redone with all new bushings and ball joints."

It looks good from under the car, so I am going to leave it as it is for now.

 

Still not running but closer. It just takes a lot longer to put something together that you did not take apart. Filled the trans with 90w, the sucker took a gallon! Got the exhaust manifolds on, it looks like my 383 exhaust pipes are going to bolt up to the 440 exhaust manifolds (yay). I got all the pulleys/accessiories hung, but just finger tight for the moment. Got the engine bay harness basically in place. Got the 440 emblem mounted on the hood. The distributor is in, and that is about it for now. I ran in to a couple of issues, so I'm off to post a new thread for help.

 

just looked at the last pics and was wondering if you were going with headers of manifolds if you do headers later on your project you will have to pull motor set headers in position than put motor back into place building them is the best part of hot rodding great job keep up the good work

 

what problems did you run into?

 

One thing for sure, I will know every nut and bolt in this car by the time I am done. Thanks for the encouragement 62....I am so close, I can taste it, but with limited time it is taking painfully long to get to the driving part of the whole thing.

67 GTX,theanks for the help on the other thread I started for the coil and alt questions.

 

Keep it up 67 all this hard work pays off, we all are going to have to put on a car show smack dab in the middle of the states for all us MF members, that way its fair.... I bet you cant wait to be cruizin in that purple people eater, my moms calling me the green hornet now cuz of my sublime dart... thought we all needed some nick names. Keep it up and maby our cars will meet each other one day at a car show

 

no problem at all

 

Ok, another weekend has gone by and the 67 GTX clone still has not come to life yet. We ran in to some wiring issues, so I have a couple of questions about that later. I got the water pump pulley, spacer and fan on and the radiator in (including hoses), but the fan shroud I have has no way to attach it. Any of you guys go without a shroud? We got the exhaust manifolds on and the exhaust from the 383 bolted up, but we did have to perform a little pry bar action to get the pipes off the frame, I have about a 1/4 " clearance now. That was a big worry, but it looks like it will work. I got the chrome bezels mounted on the Dart scoops I have on the hood.

We started working on the ignition and as soon as we hooked up the battery, we got smoke under the dash. It appears it was an ammeter issue, we have disconnected and tied that off for now. The ignition kit I got had a chrome box, a 1 ohm ballast resistor with 2 prongs, the distributor, and an Accel coil for the pointless ingition. What was on there before was an orange box with a 4 prong ballast resistor. According to the website of the company I got the electrinic ignition from the chrome box should use a 1/4 ohn 2 prong resistor. The 1 ohm resistor is for the orange box. Yeah, I know, this is confusing. Anyway, we went with the orange box and the 4 prong ballas resistor because the wiring was set up for 4 prongs, I have no idea what the ohm reading is for the 4 prong. Anyway, we now have electricity to the coil at all times when the battery is hooked up. The power should die when we turn the key off and give power when we turn the key on. If anyone has any idea about this, I am very open to your thoughts. In addition, I can get the headlights to work only on high beam, on low beam, nothing, but the tail lights work. Any suggestions on this would also be welcome. It is late and I am tired, so that is it for now. Thanks in advance for the help. I believe next week, it will run.

 

GREAT BEASTIE THAAT ONE IS

 

The 440 in the clone has come to life!!! It started after just a few cranks and sounds awesome. We did the 20 minute break in and all was going well......until I noticed smoke coming from the back seat. While the care was running, we pulled the bottom of the back seat out which was VERY hot. The smoke was coming from the carpet. We peeled it forward and felt the floor which felt like the top of a stove. This is the area just above the mufflers. Anyone else ever had this happen? Do you think it could just be excess heat from a tight new engine? I am going online to check in to heat shield for under the carpet. Is there anything that can be done between the mufflers and floor? Also, I am getting no power to the dash, none of the dash guages work. Anyone had experience with this? I am planning on pulling the dash cluster to have it tested. Should any auto electric shop be able to do this, or is there some place special that works on Mopar specific items? Any help would be appreciated.

 

how close is the muffler to the body of the car?

 

The car is in another town still, so I can't go measure it. I will measure it next weekend and report back. It did not seem to be an issue when the 383 was in the car. I am guessing that it has to do with the new engine being tight and running in a garage with no air flowing under the car. I am going to follow up and install some heat shield product under the carpet so I can get the car on the road!