I used the lapping paste to clean up the seats. They came out excellent! Notice the fine workmanship on the valve seats. I will probably sand blast the heads and repaint later. Then I sanded the surfaces, sprayed with oil and set aside. Like my flags? | |
The rocker shafts are cleaned up next. Amazing what varsol and a pipecleaner can do (in general). | |
Took the empty heads and power washed them with varsol to get all the crap out. | |
Assembled the intake and heads and plugged up all the holes, and sandblasted them - again. | |
Sprayed some VHT-gloss yellow over the fellas - again. | |
While I had them out, I blasted and painted the headers. I think this is the 3rd time, but this time I stuck to the VHT header paint (cast iron grey). | |
Now that the heads are cleaned, blasted and painted. I did some fine tuning on the surfaces with fine sandpaper, and cleaned out all the passageways, and all the overspray. | |
Then I installed the valves with the new Sealed-Power springs, new Mopar Performance rubber seals, and polished the valve stems with 600-grit paper. I installed the old locks and keepers. | |
I had decided to go with CAMS machine shop for all the work. Cecil from CAMS, discovered that a couple of the pistons were damaged and had to be tossed. Also, a couple rods were killed, and the crank was beyond repair. So, after much thought, I decided that I can still proceed with the plan as long as I could find either a couple used ones, or a complete set. I actually found a complete set from a '69 motor from "Bob the Charger Guy", out in Peterborough. But since Im going with a new set, I need to do a complete balance, and hone the block. So off goes the block, new rods, pistons to Cecil. Here is Denis posing next to Mom's overloaded Toyota RAV4 which transported the beast. |
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While waiting for all the bits and pieces to come back, I started accumulating parts. Ill do a complete list of all the new stuff at the end of the show. | |
I finally baught some new speakers. The old ones were total crap and generated more fuzz than music, so I splurged and got some nice new ones. Here is a set of 4x10 Kenwood KFC-415C (only need 1 for the front), and 5x7 Clarion SRC5724 for the rear. So the Sony will be driving something decent for the first time. Anyhow, dropped them in and they sound great. | |
I finally got a chance to debug the electrical problem Ive had. The problem is a measured 45mV drain on the battery when parked. I contacted Viper and asked techie if this is correct. He said that a 8-10mV drop is whats expected and so i have done something wrong. Since I never really tested the alarm, I thought I would give it a shot. Anyhow, the alarm works perfectly, it detects which zone triggered the alarm and lets you know via LED flashes. Also, most importantly, if the battery gets disconnected, EEPROMs will hold the state, and remember when power is reconnected. Even the starter kill works correctly, so the alarm is not the problem. The picture shows a 8mV drop, and Ill tell you how I found the problem next... |
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It turns out that the problem was the alternator wiring. I incorrectly hooked up the field line directly to the power line (thanks to advice from the electrical rebuild shop). The field line tells the alt what the reference voltage is, and since its the same, it will always try to charge to maximum voltage. This is fine if the car is running, but if the car is off, the field circuitry still wants the alt. to charge, which causes a constant drain. So the correct solution is to tie the field line to the run circuit on the ignition, which after some researching, is how all cars do it. So I made a little metal tree which I tied to the ballast resistor. When the motor is in, I will complete the connection. There is also an extra spot for an electric choke line for my new Edelbrock carb. Oh baby, cant wait! I also cleaned up the electrical tape job I did last time, it looked kinda tacky. |
This is the current wiring I've got now. The V++ is the raw voltage from the battery. Either the run or start wires from the ignition will drive this voltage, but not at the same time. This gives the coil a little extra boost during starting, and when you switch back to run, the coil gets whatever comes out of the ballast resisitor (V--).
Also, while in the start mode, the "b" pin on the ballast will also get juice back accross the ballast from "a". This will be V--, because the run wiring from the ignition is not being driven. Now, Im guessing this will be OK for the alternator, because its not charging during startup, but the choke may complain. I dont know if it needs V++, or if V-- is enough. Its kinda important, because the choke is crucial during startup. Anyhow, I guess we'll see. If it doesnt work, I can try swapping the choke line
to "a", and if that doesnt work, Ill need a f!@#$n relay.
Wow, so much extra time. I Fiiiinaly fixed the windshield leaking problem by sealing along the outside inner seal. I sealed the inside, but never the outside and was always getting some leakage. So I did it right this time (hopefully). I also put the trim on. I was worried it woudlnt fit, but the bitch fits nice and tight. | |
So the block, crank and pistons are ready from Cecil, and I picked them up. This is a shot of the block after the acid bath. | |
This is Cecil putting the rings on the finished and balanced pistons. The crank is in the backround, it is a re-ground used piece. | |
The fellas are all numbered nicely for easy installation. I broke out the instruments and re-measured everything. All is within spec. The crank mains and journals are ground 20 over, so the bearings are 0.020 oversized. | |
With the calculations giving the green light, I first began by stripping the old paint with a wire brush, and then cleaning with varsol. | |
Shooting the block with a fresh coat of VHT - again. | |
Re-scrapped all the gasket surfaces, cleaned out all the passageways and lifter bores, and light sanded all rust spots on the cylinder walls. Then power-washed the whole thing with WD-40 and let dry... | |
Installed the new Mopar Performance purple cam. | |
Installed the new/reground crank. Denis is lightly tapping down the main caps before torqueing to spec. | |
Aligned the rings and installed pistons after drenching in oil. | |
Here is Malcolm test fitting the new distributer drive with teh new bushing and cam. | |
Oiled everything and installed the lifters (pre filled) and pushrods. | |
Installed the old valve-train and torqued down to spec. | |
Here is the beast ready to go. | |
Installed the motor in the bay and fired her up. It works! Check out the video we took in the Videos section. Notice I didnt hook up the rad or the alternator. | |
Everything is installed including the rad and alt. Here I am breaking it in by running it for 30 minutes at 2000 rpm. During this perious all the rattles and squeeks quieted down and she was purring like a kitten afterwards. | |
I dont remember the exhaust ever being this clean! | |
Showing off the new Charger floor mats. | |
Installed a new Accel hi-perf coil, new ballast, and new carb and put a 100 Kms on her. After that I removed the valve covers, and headers and re-torqued the heads. What a pain. | |
After a quick tune-up. | |
Aftter discovering that the friken carb vacuum was hooked up wrong all these years I finally figured out how to et the timing. Here is me with a vacuum guage checking out the vacuum at various speeds. Im gonna have more on this later... |
BEFORE | AFTER | |
PI | 3.142 | 3.142 |
DECK | 10.725 | 10.725 |
STROKE | 3.750 | 3.750 |
BORE | 4.320 | 4.322 * |
GASKET | 0.018 | 0.040 ** |
ROD | 6.768 | 6.768 |
PISTON | 2.030 | 2.030 |
HEAD | 85.000 | 85.000 |
DOME | 0.000 | 0.000 |
PIS_WID_TOP | 4.295 | 4.295 |
RINGLAND | 0.391 | 0.391 |
Dome vol (in inches) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Head vol (in inches) | 5.187 | 5.187 |
Ring vol (calculated) | 0.265 | 0.265 |
Swept vol | 54.972 | 54.972 |
Displacement | 439.779 | 439.779 |
Deck Clearance | 0.052 | 0.052 |
Compression | 9.486 | 9.065 |
* This is an approximation of the wear. To do it correct, I should take the measurement under the skirt, and the bottom, use the swept height and the cone volume equation, find the total volume, then find the diameter of the equivilant cylinder.... Or I could just guess. :) |
** This is the height of the uncompressed gasket. After you torque it down it will be slightly smaller. I dunno, I guess I could use a gapper and find out that way. Anways this is close. |
Parts | Cost | Total |
Used Crank Box of used pistons and rods from Bob Main Bearings (0.20) Rod Bearings (0.20) Rings 8140-Accel Hi Perf. Coil Fuel Filter 2 Ballast Resistors New Throttle Cable Valve Seals MP Purple Cam P4452783 Sealed Power Valve Springs few more Mini Fuses Distributer drive gear Engine tear down gasket kit Valve Seals Oil pump Oil Priming Shaft Engine Plug Hardware Kit Misc Frost plugs from various stores... Loctite and other greases and lubes Engine & Header Paint Bosch Alternator Edelbrock Carb Exhaust Gaskets Misc hoses, clamps, solvents, brushes, etc.. Sandblasting sand |
425.00 150.00 138.85 118.69 88.66 34.95 9.99 21.60 65.25 17.10 211.00 85.44 28.50 80.90 70.10 17.10 80.90 9.55 44.60 10.00 20.00 59.96 99.76 429.99 7.29 51.39 30.00 |
2406.57 |
Machining | ||
Check Block for size, degrease + deglaze, check cam bearings + frost plug. Re+Re Pistons & Rods, check all pistons & rods for size to fit block, number each piston, rods, assemble pistons to rods, install rings. Balance rotating assembly. |
180.00 340.00 375.00 |
895.00 |
Not Totally Necessary Parts | ||
Speakers "Charger" car mats |
250.00 150.00 |
400.00 |
Total | 3701.57 |
Some of the stuff above I did not pay tax for, so all the numbers are sans tax. Also, the prices above are heavily discounted, due to my years of loyalty to the dealership, and also on hunting around for the best prices. So total I paid is a little more than above.
1. Vacuum
The whole idea behind an engine tuning up is to make sure the spark is good, everybody gets one, and is where its supposed to be at various times.
The first step is to figure out the low speed advance. The engine needs advance so the spark goes off sooner and sooner the higher RPM. Unfortunately if you got points, you're doing things the old school way. So there is a vacuum advance system which is for low RPM < 2500. And a centrifugal advance which kicks in at high speeds.
So to set the vacuum advance, you have to find the vacuums from the carb. This should be set already in most cases, but in my case it was set wrong from the beginning and I never noticed. In fact the dealer had the car and THEY never noticed either. I guess the term "expert" is subjective, anyhow, this is how to check it yourself. The following picture shows the essentials for my Edelbrock :
If you run the engine and check with your finger the vacuums at the timed and full ports, you'll notice different vacuums at different speeds. Full vacuum means you get essentially full vacuum all the time. Timed vacuum means depending on what your speed is, you'll get different advance. I baught a vacuum guage and measured the vacuum at these ports at various speeds. Here is my findings :
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