2009 Freshen Up the Cuda Project

[BoughtItNew]

Mine now in pieces all over the garage.  Have motor apart for maintenance check and found bad oil leak around #5 intake port gasket!  Kinda thought that was going on because the spark plug was fouling very easily and idle and high vacuum EGT was 300+ degrees lower than the rest.

I put this up on the "Weekend" Thread initially but thought I would start a thread over at here at the more appropriate thread.



#5 Plug BLACK and WET!  No surprize but wondered where the oil was coming from.



Oil laying in the hole, wow, didn't think it was this bad...  I thought I took a shot of the gasket but evidently didn't.  It was wet clear to the port at the bottom.



#7 Next door high and dry



Project will be worth it just to clean and paint the engine and...



All the spaghetti in here!  Guess that's what racing does to a car when it becomes a "tool" for winning!

[elitecustombody]

spaghetti for real! zip-ties and wire loom is your friend,may help you win too,good luck getting it back up and running

[BoughtItNew]

Update:
Haven't had a lot of time to work on it plus the cold weather in these parts kept it inside...but...

Got the trans dropped out a couple of weeks ago.

Last weekend she got pushed out and I got the engine bay degreased along with the transmission.

I checked all the engine bearings and found them in great shape.  Prelubed and re-assembled them and buttoned up the oil pan.  Set the cam 4 degrees advanced.  Wanting to see how the E85 tune up will respond to the increase in bottome end cylinder pressure.  The skinny Flatout head gaskets came yesterday so will finish engine assembly this weekend and get it degreased and painted the correct Mopar Blue for the 74 model.

There is a Auto Meter Alumni re-union on April 25 so that's the target date to have her back up and running.  Going to have to make time to "Git-R-Done!"

Photos will follow because...

[BoughtItNew]

Oh, and on one of those cold and snowy days I got creative...

[Devil]

Your in DeKalb?  I know of a ton of mopars out that way, I lived there for 4 years.

I'm always heading out there if you ever need help.

Ryan

[BoughtItNew]

Been in DeKalb since 78.  Do you get out to Corn Fest or the Turning Back Time show in Sycamore?

[BoughtItNew]

Well, the past couple of weekends have been nice enough to get the car out of the garage and degrease the engine bay.  Also got the engine and trans degreased and ready for paint.  The Moroso oil pan was getting grote looking so I squirted so new black on it.  Degreased and prepped the headers and then sprayed the Duro Extend on them to keep the rust in check.  I'll let that cure a couple of days and finish them up in high temp silver.  Once the new paint on the pan is completely dry I'll mask it off and coat the rest of the motor in good ol' correct for 74 360 Mopar Blue.

Goal is to be ready for the Auto Meter Alumni reunion on April 25!

Photos coming!

[BoughtItNew]

Just finished painting the engine the original Mopar Blue.









Trans is all cleaned up.  I stress relieved all the casting seams several years ago when I first went through it.  Clear coating the case also went miles toward making it easy to clean.



I thought about "hiding" the intake manifold by painting it blue.  Any thoughts on that out there?

[BoughtItNew]

A little more progress.






Machined bullet tips on some studs for valve covers and oil pan.  Using elastic stop nuts to keep things from loosening and leaking.  I figure if they're good enough for a P51 they'll work for me...





Heading into the engine bay for cleanup this weekend...

[340Challman]

Looking good Mike. As for your intake I think you got it. I like to see the bare intake when they are alloy.

[hooD]

Mike,
I like the drain valve you have on the engine block.  That makes it easy to drain the engine block when doing a coolant flush.   

[BoughtItNew]

Thanks, guys, I appreciate the kudos!

I thought about clear coating or even painting the intake (and oil pan) engine color to make it stealthy but the hot rodder in me won out.  The only problem with a bare intake is how dirty they get and then how hard they are to clean.  Ethanol leaves some interesting stains as well and even Gummout has a hard time getting them out.

As for the drain valve, many told me not to do that because they hear it could vibrate open on the track.  I wondered if that would happen why didn't the one on the radiator do the same?  Never had a problem and YES, coolant draining for winter storage (race tracks hate anti freeze) is sooooo much easier!

More to come!

[BoughtItNew]

Since the headers are aged, coating is not an option.  I found this VHT Ceramic coating in a rattle can that is supposed to be good to 2000 degrees.  Any of you tried this before?

Here's a shot of the finished product.  I suspect they will need to be heated gradually during run in to give the coating a final cure.

[vryfast]

nice stuff

[BoughtItNew]

Lots of progress today.  Replaced outdated driver seat harness, finished the rear springs and battened down the axle, cleaned up the underhood wiring, painted the fuel pump bracket, installed the Data Logger Suspension travel sensor brackets and bolted the trans back up underneath.

Goal:  Drive one week from today!


Interesting hammer tone


Stock/Super Stock Spring combo with brackets, anti roll bar, sensor cable and new longer u-bolts


Spaghetti Wiring before.   


Spaghetti Wiring, After Shots, two more below. 





15X8 Cop car wheels waiting for paint and rubber.


Made these for the new spring pack per the Mopar Chassis manual.  Ready for paint on right spring


Left side painted.

Still some more clean up stuff but I have another tractor with a shot front axle I need to get in there so we'll pick a project of the week once she's running again.