68 Roadrunner with 440 6 pack

[am3rican]

Hi All,

My wife and I are expecting our first child in a month, which means I will have lots of time home to work on my car:hello2:

I have an older restored 1968 roadrunner with a transplanted 440 6-pack. It runs great and has had an engine rebuild with less than 4000 miles since rebuild, but at time of rebuild they did not use ceramic headers. The under the hood temperatures are incredibly hot. This has caused a few problems. When the car was painted, they did not use a high-heat engine paint. It has started to blister in a few spots near the wheel wells as a result.

I'd like to replace the headers with ceramic coated to help with the heat. Has anyone attempted this without pulling the motor? I know a 440 is a big motor so space is a bit limited.

 

[BeastlyBirdie]

You have to lift the engine about 2-4 inches.

 

[Meep-Meep]

X2 ^^^ It will be a fight and you will wonder at least once why you did it.

For the amount of work involved I wonder if it will be worth doing. To me it doesn't seem that it will help much.

 

[68 HEMI GTS]

Hi All,

My wife and I are expecting our first child in a month, which means I will have lots of time home to work on my car:hello2:

as a relatively new dad my self, boy are you in for a surprise.... lol congrats on the baby!!

 

[MoparGoneWow]

Do you have a picture of your engine bay with the 440? I am thinking of swapping my 383 for the 440 in my 68 RR..

 

[am3rican]

Left bank, right bank, center. Air cleaner is off as I just cleaned them and need to replace the throttle body gaskets. As you can see, it's a tight fit. I hate the wire covers. They were not my choice and will get replace eventually. It's a 440 6-pack so I have the lift off hood. The hinges were removed.

View attachment 144892

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as a relatively new dad my self, boy are you in for a surprise.... lol congrats on the baby!!

Thanks!

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X2 ^^^ It will be a fight and you will wonder at least once why you did it.

For the amount of work involved I wonder if it will be worth doing. To me it doesn't seem that it will help much.

You're right but the heat cannot be good.

 

[snakeyes]

 

[am3rican]

Thanks snake eyes. I'll have to figure out how to flip the photos

 

[383MovingViolation]

WOW....you need to do something with all those wires.

 

[am3rican]

WOW....you need to do something with all those wires.

For sure, it's my winter project.

 

[Basket case]

lets see the whole Car!
and agreed, spare time for the car once the baby comes......not so much!

 

[am3rican]

Taken this spring

 

[68 HEMI GTS]

i don't think the headers are causing the issue with the paint. looks like the prep, or lack of it. best way to change them out would be lift the motor a little and probably slide the torsion bars back. there's not a whole lot of room. i know with my tti's i lay them in before i even set the motor down. gotta love 440+6!!

 

[Garys1969RR]

I put Jegs ceramic coated headers in my 69 RR. Was putting different heads on, so figured it would be easy to put headers on at the same time. WRONG ! Still had to raise and tilt the engine a good 2-3 inches on each side to get them in. With out heads on it! And its a low deck 451! My advice would be to build a heat shield out of sheet metal, put it between the headers and wheel wells. A lot easier. And I don't see how ceramics are going to reduce under hood temps much. Good luck!

 

[am3rican]

Poor paint prep seems to be the consensus as well. I'll hold off on the headers until a later time. I'll focus my efforts on sorting our the engine bay

 

[Basket case]

nice looking '68 :icon_thumright:

 

[am3rican]

Thanks basket case. Mopar or no car!

 

[Basket case]

Thanks basket case. Mopar or no car!

got any more?:happy1:

 

[am3rican]

Nope not anymore, just down to my beater mitsubishi and my wife's suv. Traded my truck in to buy her a bigger car.

Despite the awful engine bay paint job, everywhere else the paint was flawlessly done. I've had auto body guys admire the work on it at car shows.