My 1970 Super Bee 383 A31 car

[71RRHI]

Vin stamped on bottom passenger side just above the oil pan.

 

[davek]

should be numbers next to the oil pan.

 

[DeltaV]

There is no idle stop solenoid.

Hit 95 on the HWY 20 bypass just now. No problems. Fixed the fuel leaks and idle problems. Incremental improvements seem to be making a big difference so that's great.

Local speed shop guy is trying to say rebuilding the original block isn't worth it to achieve a numbers matching car because they deck the numbers. I think he's wrong. Aren't they on the passenger side on the side of the motor?

There is a pad on deck towards the front and near the distributor.

Pictured below is mine with the following stamped into the pad:

F 383
5 13
HP

My original engine is a "383"
I'll assume the proceeding "F" is because my Charger was built during the 1970 model year.


"5 13" looks like a date like May 13th.
Note: My Scheduled Production Date was 523...as in May 23.

HP designates high performance ...Magnum in our Mopar parlance.

My Charger has 77k miles on it. Maybe it doesn't need decking? Maybe it does? Maybe it's within normal production tolerances? Only my machinist (when I have one) will know and I'm not turning it into a race motor.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over the loss of these pad stampings if the block needs decking for some good reason. I'll have plenty of better pictures for documentation...someone always asks.

 

[DynaBro]

There is a pad on deck towards the front.

Right but it's not the ONLY way to verify the numbers, right?

 

[DeltaV]

Right but it's not the ONLY way to verify the numbers, right?

Correct. What's important, especially for those concerned about "numbers matching", is the partial VIN stamped on the pad above the oil pan.

 

[DeltaV]

My 70 charger PB drums had very little loops in the lines

View attachment 1726932

Ok, I have 11" manual drums. My MC and lines. Never been touched after leaving the factory as far as I can tell.

 

[DynaBro]

Ok, I have 11" manual drums. My MC and lines. Never been touched after leaving the factory as far as I can tell.

View attachment 1727070View attachment 1727071

Still makes more sense than my mess!

 

[DynaBro]

Day 2: Me, mechanic.

Neutral safety switch wire snapped at the 23rd hour. Meaning I had to catch a plane shortly after and was stranded an hour outside of town and still had to store the car. Of course I didn't know such a thing existed. Or what it was called. Solved it using only a phone light and a lockblade. Figured whatever it was it either went hot or ground. Had to battle the grommet through the fire wall and then grounded it to the mount for the wiper fluid lines because that's all the stingy old wire could reach. Car started. I win. Looks like I'm going to be in for a long ride.

 

[DynaBro]

Some other stuff I would be interested in:

Networking with members Around the MN WI border (I'm near Red Wing). Especially 70 Super Bee guys.

383 rebuild stories and threads to look at. Eventually plan to rebuild from my original block.

 

[DynaBro]

Some previous owner also did an awful job repainting the red stripes on the tail panel. Any threads where a member did a good step by step with a successful restoration?

 

[seventysuperbee]

Grey wire out of the msd box goes to the tach flat terminal then it should have 12 volt to it from a ignition source blue wire or studded terminal on the back of the tach

 

[seventysuperbee]

I’m

Came with car. Fixed the timing today. Found the fuel lines leaking at the carb from the connection joints. Both of them.

When coming to a stop I like to get into first early with the clutch in. Seems like I really have to force it. Is this common with the 4 speed? Seems like the car wants me to almost be completely stopped before it’ll accept the shift into first. Honestly all the shifting is a bit odd. Very easy to miss first and end up in third.

You almost have to be completely stopped to go into first or very low speed probably 5-10 miles an hour maybe

 

[A4GTX]

‘68-‘70 B bodies are notorious for leaking trunk lid gaskets. I had a ‘68 Road Runner that was original paint with practically no rust except the trunk floor was rotted out.

 

[DynaBro]

‘68-‘70 B bodies are notorious for leaking trunk lid gaskets. I had a ‘68 Road Runner that was original paint with practically no rust except the trunk floor was rotted out.

Mystery solved I suppose. Thanks for the knowledge!

 

[DynaBro]

Grey wire out of the msd box goes to the tach flat terminal then it should have 12 volt to it from a ignition source blue wire or studded terminal on the back of the tach

So I could just run a whole new wire straight from the gray wire to the tach and do the same thing to the coil or battery just to see if it functions?

 

[71Charger]

Nice car! Fresh air hood, pistol grip 4 speed and high impact color! Wow!

 

[DynaBro]

Well my car arrived yesterday and I am becoming a little bit disappointed in it's condition. Lot of oil coming from around the filter/pump area, which was not as bad the weekend I bought it. I plan to clean it up and do an oil change (the current filter says it was done 5/23. I am swapping to a Wix 51515 and Lucas Hot Rod 10W 30) and hope the issue is simply a leaking oil pump gasket.

Question 1: do I need to prime the motor when I complete this? Seems like it would be plenty lubed and all I would have to do is ensure the pump was wet inside. Just being over precautious.

Related, the oil pressure is very high. Like VERY high. Assuming the gauge is working properly what should I be worried about here? Did the previous owner possibly run heavy oil, or a high volume pump maybe? This motor, although ugly, was rebuilt not very long ago (mileage wise) and the notebook the owner who did it says they added harder valve seats, some other info I have to go dig up. Could this oil pressure be by design? I was planning on getting the numbers off the block today for research but can that even tell us anything considering it's been molested?

Question 2: Please link to the best oil pump gasket. I know there's a lot of discussion on what one is good and I just want to buy it now.

I have another thread about the A31 High Performance Axle Package components where I am asking about the fan. Current fan is a 5 blade and was supposed to be 7 blade torque drive.

A31 package 7 blade torque drive fan stuff.

Any further info, pics, links to the right parts, etc., is appreciated. This is a VERY hard piece of information to track down as it appears these A31 packages were scarce, which makes sense. Why bother when you could just buy the 440 and all of this was included? There are no sets of photos featuring these components that I can find.

 

[dadsbee]

Hate to sound like Renton, but What is "Very High"?

 

[DynaBro]

Some more photos of this morning's leak. Looks like main seal to me. And the front maybe the oil pump gasket but I am not positive.

 

[DynaBro]

Hate to sound like Renton, but What is "Very High"?

Close to 80