It’s happening... First haul!

Great Job Ron !!
My only concern would be a too lean condition at driving speeds.
Your RV cam and aftermarket intake will flow al lot more air than OEM parts, so a plug check after 100 miles or so at highway speeds will give you peace of mind.
You may have to go up a couple of jet sizes in the Thermoquad if the plugs are too white colored ( Hot).
Cast pistons, especially, don't like lean high cylinder temps.
These things you already know but other readers may not know.
Way to Go !!!!
Steve..

yep....cam is the difference . The highly modified 360 I ran in my 73 took a lot of timing compared to stock. It also ran a Holley 780 double pumper!

Ya got me looking at Dodge trucks Ron, about your vintage. Saw one this morning on my way to Romney WV - rural roads, no traffic. Spotted one with acceptable rust sitting in a driveway. Truck country here too, lot's of GMC's, Chevys, and F-150's sitting in fields unloved and rusting away.

Uh oh, Sorry Bob.

Yeah my favorite years for Dodge are 1966/67 I like the big headlight grille on them. 1970’s are cool too, just a little more modern looking, which was the point back then.

Here is a 1966:



You see lots of Ford and Chevy products on the road, I like to take the road less travelled.

Ron, my first vehicle was a 1964 F-100. From the side, the Dodge you pictured shares a lot of similarities. I was never a fan of the Dodge pie pan headlights. But, the sweeping curved lines of the Dodge you show sells me automatically. That's one thing I strongly disliked of my Ford.  The Ford had a duck rear end rooftop.

I went Dodge truck ebay shopping this morning.  Three caught my eye.

1962 - Love the funky headlight arrangement.




1968 - Farm fresh project and well used.  Cheap money and one I would probably be inclined to take on.  Trouble is, it's in California.



1925 - And the one that threw me for a loop.  Cost is an arm but not a leg @ $16+K but it too is in California.  I would love to own it.  Roadster converted into a PU.

All nice Bob, if you don’t have a truck, then you need one! What better than an old Dodge?

Ken, I do like the late 60’s Ford pickups, the early 60’s ones have nice styling too, but yeah that ducktail is not appealing.

Ron

First haul. A nice comfortable 14 mile drive to pick up wood and odds and ends at the Hardware. Everything good so far, I do have a slight tick developing which I am hoping is an exhaust leak and not a lifter.

It runs nice and cool and smooth. As an added bonus I woke up to a nice surprise in the Turkey coop!

Thats Awesome,, Nice little Bonus Too !

getback wrote:Wow little turks LOL Cool you got the job done and made it home without a hitch as in tow  Probably an exht. leak does it have those doughnut gaskets in it ?

The exhaust pipe to manifold connection is a flared coupler so it’s quite possible it needs retightening.

Looks good, Ron, and body is in extremely good shape considering its age. Being a step side, seems these days those are considered more desirable than the fleet side. Plus, because of its vintage, is a whole lot easier to maintain.

Even our 2013 Dodge Journey is a pain to work on. Had an electrical problem with the idiot light coming on. They put a fancy messaging system that tells me when to change the oil. But, it can't post a simple message of an electrical problem. I plugged in the OBD2 scanner, found that the battery was going south with a cryptic voltage system problem message. Battery of all places is underneath in the fender well. After putting on short ramps lifting the front, opened left plastic fender well splash cover after rotating steering wheel all the way to clear tire for working room. Pulled off a dozen plastic rivets, replaced with new battery and closed it up, problem solved.

Engine accessories layout under hood is chaotic. I had Forrest Tire replace the window washer motor bottle assembly that went south, because there is just too many things to unbolt to get access. OTOH, it only took me 10 minutes to replace the washer motor pump on my 1999 Chevrolet S10 pickup.

48 years old, still going strong and given a new lease of life. It would be almost impossible to run one of these in the UK.

I am envious, there is no way I could do this sort of work on the last three of my cars - especially the current one.I wouldn't know where to start!



I am not afraid of servicing a modern motorbike though.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bSHfsxPVUMsVKmFS7

Marvellous work Ron.

New cars are crap! The idiots that design them should be required to do maintainence on them before their great new design is released to the public! Maybe they'd changr thier minds .If it all fits on a computer program it's good to go...with no regards to accessing components after its all assembled. Same problem with new bikes!

I've been saying for years that engine designers should have to work a month in the service shop before releasing any new designs!

But this is nothing new.

I had to remove the heads from my 1965 Dodge Coronet 273ci V-8, to replace the freeze plugs! I blew a radiator hose earlier that year on the way to Denver from Holloman AFB NM. We limped into a small town (with big prices for travelers) to get the hose replaced. After paying a small ransom for a substitute hose, I declined to buy their pricy antifreeze and used tap water instead.

Anyone living in the Tularosa basin would know that the tap water is highly alkaline and eats most soft metals for lunch. Later that summer the leaks started to appear and required pulling the heads and even the bell housing to get the last plug replaced! Though antifreeze is good year round I had elected to run with tap water all that summer. Big mistake!

Freeze plugs are not normal maintainance and rarely needed replacement on newer cars but the tap water at Holloman AFB was so bad that we drank bottled water for the entire 13 years we were there!

Bill

Speaking of difficulties, 5 years ago I removed the dashboard of my 1999 Chevrolet S10 pickup so I could replace the interior heater core that was leaking coolant.

Not so fast, steering wheel is in the way:


With steering wheel off, now I can wrestle the dashboard off:


Now, I can work on the heater core:


I am fortunate to have the 4 cylinder model. V6 model requires removing bumper, grill, hood and right fender to gain access to one bolt to remove heater core. Also, one has to be careful working around the airbag system. Even with electrical battery power disconnected, some have capacitors that retain enough charge to still set off the unit if battery is dead or electrical power is severed during an accident.

I think I'd have been tempted to bypass the heater core and use it as a summer car only!....
Or get rid of it alltogether!

Cribbs74 wrote:I had a real bear with getting the pulleys to line up. My friend told me I would, but I blew him off, sure enough nothing lined up. Went and bought new bolts and spacers and modified them to make the alternator line up, but when I put on the power steering pump it too lined up to the wrong spot.  The engine was in a 1977 Cordoba at one time and I used those pulleys because I was sure I couldn’t use mine. I thought the crank pulley mounted differently and were not interchangeable. In a desperate attempt to make it work I decided to pull off the crank pulley on the 318. After I removed the inch of grease out of the hole I noticed it was a bolt on unit just like the Cordoba. So after that waste of time and money it now works as it should.

I hadn't read all the posts in this thread.. and while back-peddling, "this one" struck a nerve on more than one count. Firstly; your issues with pulley alignment, and then.. your reference to the donor-engine being from a 77 Chrysler Cordoba . I knew a girl who had a Cordoba. I'm not sure of it's year.. but it had a "Lean-Burn" ignition/fuel system that as I remember; was problematic. Her car had the 400CID V8.

My only experience owning Mopars is with two Dodge B-300 (1-ton) vans; one being a 1975 cargo style.. and the other; a 1974 camper-conversion. Both had 318CID V8's/automatic-transmissions. The camper-conversion had a turtle-top.. to permit standing/head-room.. but it was the same shell as the 75. Both had dual hinged-doors with windows; side and rear. The camper had air-conditioning via an engine-mounted system.. which I'm guessing was Mopar equipment. The A/C vents were in a console mounted between the lower-dash and the engine-cover. I like having "gages" as opposed to idiot-lights. Mopar usually gave you gages.

Oh.. and concerning the pulley alignment issues.. I know all about how frustrating they can be...



My 1975 Chevy "Monza" 2 + 2. GM's 1st year H-Body. There was also a Buick variant in the "Skyhawk".. an Oldsmobile "Starfire" and Pontiac's Astre/Sunbird. Most were available with the "iron Duke" 4-cylinder or the 3.8L (Buick division) V6 gasoline engines. The Chevy was available in 75 with a 4.6L small-block V8. The later Chevy Monza "Mirage" had a 5.0L (305) V8. In between 1976 and 77.. you could find the V8 cars with 5sp. manual gearboxes.

Being in the sub-compact class; the GM H-Body cars were relatively heavy (2800 lb. curb-weight) for their size.

I bought my 75 with no powertrain.. and later sourced a 5.0L (305) auto-trans. from a full-size Chevy station wagon. Engine/trans. was a bolt-in.. (once I'd sourced the V8 mount-plates..) Then the fun started with sourcing all of the other V8/H-body specific power-train items.

The engine-accessory brackets/pulleys. GM's early system is known as the "short" (water-pump housing governed..) type, up-through the mid-late 60's; at which point; GM started switching-over to what's known as the "long" type of accessory/pulley drive. It's like "black and white".. relatively easy to source brackets.. etc..

The V8 option uses the later (long) water-pump with a red-headed step-child pulley offset.. requiring V8/H-body specific brackets for the alternator and power steering pump.

One more thing Ron.. Somewhere here; you mentioned wanting to replace the wood in the bed. I think it was "Doug" (Crankbndr) posted recently on how pressure-treated lumber ruined his flat-bed trailer by corroding the steel with whatever the wood is treated with. See if you can find some old barn-board reclaimed-stock; preferably oak. Sure it's heavy.. but it wears like iron. You can use some added functional (chassis) weight in that bed.. now that you have a nice fresh engine. I'll bet if you put a pair of Mickey Thompson's on the rear.. you could lift the front wheels when launching.

Re. Roddie's comments about the bedding wood.
A while back I had to do a safety inspection on a 50s Ford F-1 pick-up, side-valve V8. The customer had just picked it up from an importer.
Direct from the States it had an old political campaign sticker on the rear window, and to our surprise, when we lifted it up on the hoist to inspect underneath, the bed was a single piece of plywood which was actually an old political campaign sign.
"Vote 1 ......."  (Don't know who, what era or which state, and I wouldn't want to get into a political debate over it. )
An unusual piece of history to have on your Aussie wheels.

roddie wrote:

Cribbs74 wrote:I had a real bear with getting the pulleys to line up. My friend told me I would, but I blew him off, sure enough nothing lined up. Went and bought new bolts and spacers and modified them to make the alternator line up, but when I put on the power steering pump it too lined up to the wrong spot.  The engine was in a 1977 Cordoba at one time and I used those pulleys because I was sure I couldn’t use mine. I thought the crank pulley mounted differently and were not interchangeable. In a desperate attempt to make it work I decided to pull off the crank pulley on the 318. After I removed the inch of grease out of the hole I noticed it was a bolt on unit just like the Cordoba. So after that waste of time and money it now works as it should.

I hadn't read all the posts in this thread.. and while back-peddling, "this one" struck a nerve on more than one count. Firstly; your issues with pulley alignment, and then.. your reference to the donor-engine being from a 77 Chrysler Cordoba . I knew a girl who had a Cordoba. I'm not sure of it's year.. but it had a "Lean-Burn" ignition/fuel system that as I remember; was problematic. Her car had the 400CID V8.

My only experience owning Mopars is with two Dodge B-300 (1-ton) vans; one being a 1975 cargo style.. and the other; a 1974 camper-conversion. Both had 318CID V8's/automatic-transmissions. The camper-conversion had a turtle-top.. to permit standing/head-room.. but it was the same shell as the 75. Both had dual hinged-doors with windows; side and rear. The camper had air-conditioning via an engine-mounted system.. which I'm guessing was Mopar equipment. The A/C vents were in a console  mounted between the lower-dash and the engine-cover. I like having "gages" as opposed to idiot-lights. Mopar usually gave you gages.

Oh.. and concerning the pulley alignment issues..    I know all about how frustrating they can be...



My 1975 Chevy "Monza" 2 + 2. GM's 1st year H-Body. There was also a Buick variant in the "Skyhawk".. an Oldsmobile "Starfire" and Pontiac's Astre/Sunbird. Most were available with the "iron Duke" 4-cylinder or the 3.8L (Buick division) V6 gasoline engines. The Chevy was available in 75 with a 4.6L small-block V8. The later Chevy Monza "Mirage" had a 5.0L (305) V8. In between 1976 and 77.. you could find the V8 cars with 5sp. manual gearboxes.

Being in the sub-compact class; the GM H-Body cars were relatively heavy (2800 lb. curb-weight) for their size.

I bought my 75 with no powertrain.. and later sourced a 5.0L (305) auto-trans. from a full-size Chevy station wagon. Engine/trans. was a bolt-in.. (once I'd sourced the V8 mount-plates..) Then the fun started with sourcing all of the other V8/H-body specific power-train items.

The engine-accessory brackets/pulleys. GM's early system is known as the "short" (water-pump housing governed..) type, up-through the mid-late 60's; at which point; GM started switching-over to what's known as the "long" type of accessory/pulley drive. It's like "black and white".. relatively easy to source brackets.. etc..  

The V8 option uses the later (long) water-pump with a red-headed step-child pulley offset.. requiring V8/H-body specific brackets for the alternator and power steering pump.  

One more thing Ron.. Somewhere here; you mentioned wanting to replace the wood in the bed. I think it was "Doug" (Crankbndr) posted recently on how pressure-treated lumber ruined his flat-bed trailer by corroding the steel with whatever the wood is treated with. See if you can find some old barn-board reclaimed-stock; preferably oak. Sure it's heavy.. but it wears like iron. You can use some added functional (chassis) weight in that bed.. now that you have a nice fresh engine. I'll bet if you put a pair of Mickey Thompson's on the rear.. you could lift the front wheels when launching.    

 

I had one of those 1975 Monzas with the V8. 265 or whatever. Had a 4 speed standard. It was a fairly quick car. You could squeal the tires pretty good. 13" wheels and skinny tires. Burned lots of oil, but was fun. A neighbor got his dad's Cordoba with the lean burn problems. He just put on an adaptor and used an aftermarket carb, and it went pretty good.

aspeed wrote:
 I had one of those 1975 Monzas with the V8.  265 or whatever.  Had a 4 speed standard.  It was a fairly quick car.  You could squeal the tires pretty good.  13" wheels and skinny tires.  Burned lots of oil, but was fun.  A neighbor got his dad's Cordoba with the lean burn problems.  He just put on an adaptor and used an aftermarket carb, and it went pretty good.

Yo Alan, yea.. do you remember "Dobi"? They were an aftermarket company that catered to the GM H-body cars. Ground-effects kits.. etc. I have an old brochure somewhere..

Having 4-lug wheels and a V8 engine wasn't one of GM's best ideas. Serious rodders went with a tube-chassis, 5-lug wheels and BIG vented discs on all 4 corners,

An older Dodge pick-up truck for sale in my locale.. last Fall..