1970 Coronet Wagon - "Queen Bee"

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Made great progress and then the project came to stall...

Installed dakota digital gauges, wired up the engine and 6al MSD box. Discovered the MSD box was broken. Redneck wired up the cheap Chinese ready to run distributor to get it started. Engine Fires right up every single time which is super cool! Sounds mean as hell, unfortunately quiet mode is still loud so i ordered another set of flow fx mufflers and will run the exhaust out the back. Then we tried to move it...

Transmission has no line pressure. With the tires in the air it has all forward gears except park. I got the transmission from an older gentleman who restores b bodies and removed this trans that was running for one that was number matching. I failed to ask how long the trans had been sitting before purchasing. Turns out 8 Years. It's Junk. Definitely a huge loss. Not sure what the plan is. Not too thrilled of the idea of rolling the dice on another used transmission.

We managed to push it around to the alignment rack and boy do these things suck to align. I used antisieze on all my adjusters and they still required alot of strength to turn the adjusters. Not to mention we had to pull the wheels and re-calibrate each adjustment. Overall a stout alignment. Id prefer more caster for high speed stability, but I also wanted 1.5-2 degrees of negative camber to help out in the corners. My M3 which was a handling machine and great on the highway was over 7 degrees of caster and 2.5 degrees of negative camber. I like them set up pretty aggressive.

We had a shop party for customers and the wagon was a crowd favorite. Definitely made me feel better about a junk transmission. I will find away to get some exhuast videos uploaded later this weekend.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Video Editing is not my forte. Heres some short clips of the Exhaust.

I believe its Due to the Hydroboost and "small" Carb. But I am super pleased with 18" of vacuum at idle at 5,000 feet of altitude. Zero vacuum is used off the motor. Thing cold starts perfectly and has a nice chop to it.



Check it out and let me know what you think!

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

My Coworker ran out side when I first fired it up and said "wow that really sounds like a daily driver..." Same guy who drives a Prius. All my dailies have been questionable and thats how I like it.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Merry Christmas! Feeling good, As the project is movable! Ran the Exhaust out the back and added another set of Flow FX mufflers. I ended up picking up a TCI Street Fighter Transmission. Not My first choice, but I found one in stock and it was the cheapest option and the fastest. I ordered it on Monday and did burn outs on Friday. Also threw on a Grant Steering wheel.

Took her "easy" and used some water to be "nice".

 

[YY1]

I officially love that car.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Hope Everyones year so far has treated them well. Life has gotten busy for me and thus the cars progress has slowed. I opened up a second shop in Johnstown Colorado and have a newborn baby to attend too at home. My mopar baby has only had a few things ironed out.

Carb throttle blades were drilled for idle circuit tuning as it was running stupid rich.

Picked up a 4 core frostbite radiator on sale 50%. Coworker installed this for me. It looks great- went with a small block size so no cutting. When the shroud and electric fan goes on sale I will pick those up as well.

Hoping to get it streetable in the coming weeks. Papa needs his wagon lol. Body work can be tinkered with while the baby sleeps at home!

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Spent a little time this week on the wagon.

Worked on getting the Gladiator or JL Wrangler sway bar modified. Had to cut 5” off both ends so it lined up right. Then Put it in the press to crush the ends which was extremely scary and sketchy. Then we ate up 7 drill bits for the new holes. Coworker was able to recommend endlinks off a 2018 Toyota 4Runner. They work nicely maybe too long. Gotta check it out at ride height.

Heres the Jeep bar vs stock and it installed.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Co-worker also made some brackets to mount the trans cooler properly. He made them with our new flat stock bender. Turned our super nice. Also used preexisting holes in the car.

 

[Viewsonic]

I love the wagon. Ive been following it long before you bought it. I wish my 70 coronet wagon was as far as yours, however, i have a hard time finding time to do mine. Life gets busy. Im not far from you, im up in Wyoming. Theres another gentleman here in Wyoming building a 1970 coronet wagon, im slacking behind on mine. Anyways, hope to see more pictures of yours soon, coming along great

 

[YY1]

My 67 wagon is now officially a "retirement project".

1 year and 6 months to go.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

This is why I was getting after it so hard before my baby came... Made killer progress. Hopefully She will get to a tinker here and there stage someday soon. I am great at little things. Just gotta get over the get it driving hump. I have faith you all can get yours going someday as well. Would love to see some more mopar wagons. Gotta get mine going to take it to some of the mopar events.

 

[Viewsonic]

This is why I was getting after it so hard before my baby came... Made killer progress. Hopefully She will get to a tinker here and there stage someday soon. I am great at little things. Just gotta get over the get it driving hump. I have faith you all can get yours going someday as well. Would love to see some more mopar wagons. Gotta get mine going to take it to some of the mopar events.

I have a 1969 sport satellite wagon as well, and its complete compared to my 70 coronet wagon. Im trying to finish tinkering with that so i can have it running for this summer, but this damn holley carb i have on it is just fighting me. That and not being very knowledgeable on tuning carbs has thrown me through a loop. Im way more skilled with newer fuel injection systems and getting those running well. Guess its just the generation i was born in. I need to go buy some metal and get a welder home so i can finish working on my coronet. Im needing to find a few parts too if you come across anyone parting one out. That or a 1970 satellite. Id love to make mine a 9 passenger wagon. Just for the awesomeness of it. Maybe one day I will stop being a stooge and post my wagons on here, but im terrible with keeping up with posts and stuff like that.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Being in wyoming I bet you need to drill the throttle blades because you are leaking fuel out of the idle circut and running rich. I have a wideband O2 i use for tuning. We could tune it at my shop off i25 next to Johnson’s corner.

 

[RemCharger]

Have you ever contemplated how your X pipe is positioned?

 

[Viewsonic]

Being in wyoming I bet you need to drill the throttle blades because you are leaking fuel out of the idle circut and running rich. I have a wideband O2 i use for tuning. We could tune it at my shop off i25 next to Johnson’s corner.

Are you right outside of loveland? That name sounds familiar. I dont travel through Colorado often, but if i am able to find someone parting a wagon out, id definitely take a trip down there. Ive been looking into a wideband 02, my job allows me use of a dyno anytime i want, so it will help, but im waiting for the computer to get fixed.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Have you ever contemplated how your X pipe is positioned?

Yes, in order to fit 3 mufflers and the cut outs I had to turn it sideways so it fit closer to the transmission cross member. I bet it cost me a whopping 2hp-5hp. Not too worried about it, However aesthetically its annoying.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Are you right outside of loveland? That name sounds familiar. I dont travel through Colorado often, but if i am able to find someone parting a wagon out, id definitely take a trip down there. Ive been looking into a wideband 02, my job allows me use of a dyno anytime i want, so it will help, but im waiting for the computer to get fixed.

Yessir just south of loveland. Very cool! A dyno would be a game changer.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Yes, in order to fit 3 mufflers and the cut outs I had to turn it sideways so it fit closer to the transmission cross member. I bet it cost me a whopping 2hp-5hp. Not too worried about it, However aesthetically its annoying.

Its also not even close to centered because those headers are trash. Extremely frustrating

 

[RemCharger]

Yes, in order to fit 3 mufflers and the cut outs I had to turn it sideways so it fit closer to the transmission cross member. I bet it cost me a whopping 2hp-5hp. Not too worried about it, However aesthetically its annoying.

I hear what you're saying. But you've probably underestimated your hp loss by 10X. Just trying to help. Albeit late.

 

[MaxWedgeWagon]

Here are some interesting test results from engine masters. I cant find all the videos however, They also confirmed bashing your headers to fit does not effect hp. As well as exhaust cut out gains regardless of where they are in the exhaust system. The x pipe vs h pipe was 1hp loss with an x pipe.

In regards to my wonky x-pipe - the test between single exhaust vs dual is significant comparing a 90 degree merge vs Y merge. Basically 2hp. The black widow x pipe merge hole is massive and free flowing. The fact that I have all straight through or free flowing mufflers and dual 3” exhaust with cut outs. Is more flow than my rv 440 or stroker build will ever need to be driven on the street and occasionally raced.