Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

Been working at the behind muffler section over the last couple of days. I cut the over axle section from the rest of the pipe to make it easier to work with. From there I cut it into two sections. I trimmed the former into muffler portion down 3" to help pull it forward and better fit the v-band flange. I tacked it to the flange and put it into place to see how it would do. It looked ok but I had an idea to try the other portion as the bend is greater. That worked out better. I trimmed it down some, cut the tack welds on the first portion, then held the two together to visualize. That will get be past the frame, have room over the diff, more space for the tank, more space for the shocks. Tacked those two together and this is the result. I think it's going to be fine. I had an idea originally about using oval tubing in areas but as I'm counting pennies I experimented on a remnant piece. Squeezed it down in my vise. Same dimensions as what I could buy. I'm thinking I might be able to get creative on the rest of the tailpipe. Squeeze it down in the tire area then keep the round the rest of the way out, cut and reclock some. We'll see.

 

[ckessel]

So I thought my routing solution was going to work. I sat back, looked at it and realized, close but no cigar. The pipe running under the rail would interfere with the caliper and hose plus some other stuff. My current thinking is to cut through the rails and put a pass through sleeve in[ welded to the rails of course]. I tossed around a few iterations with either over or just round. I looked to see what I might be able to use with a large enough id for the pipe to get through but small enough od to fit into the space available on the rail. Looked at some different possibilities but nada. Then I thought about driveshaft tubing. Turns out a 3.5" od tube will just barely fit the rail, by what I'm measuring, plus the pipe can get through. A driveline shop not too far away has a remnant I'll pick up to see if it might fly. I do already have a 3.5" holesaw in my arsenal. Today I put the car back in the air to visualize, mock up with templates I made etc and see how it might work. I'll need to get 3 180's, 2 90's and a pair of 45's. The 180 will hook onto a short 90 off the muffler to go over the diff, get trimmed down just as it crests, have a 180 split in the U to give me a sharp 90, go through the sleeve, come outside of the rail with an immediate 90, come down a little to the 45, then head back along the rail towards the bumper. I wanted to get an idea of where the tire/wheel will be in that area so I made a cardboard template and marked the inner well with a white crayon to show the tire arch. Behind the diff tube the well comes out some, it's not flat since I just widened the stock one. I mocked up the dimension of oval tubing along the rail in that area with some lumber. Checked that to the well. Looks like I can pull that off if I oval the pipe after it comes through the sleeve and let to go back to round after the wheel well. I need to make some sort of slip sleeve joint on the inside of the rail so I can assemble/dissassemble that unit when needed. At least thats what I thought of today. I spent some time earlier pulling weeds at here at home while I was thinking up solutions. Whenever I start brain farting, I stop for the day. Usually mid afternoon. I'll toss things around throughout the night while watching the tube, taking a shower, plus surfing. Who knows, I may change my mind again the next time I look at it.

 

[ckessel]

As I need some capital for the 65, it's going to get back burnered for a bit. I started moving some stuff out of the area, removed the mufflers and mid pipe, dropped the engine/trans out today. Tomorrow I'll get some wheels on the back and bolt my dolly onto the front. Some friends are coming over to help me push it off the lift and over to the other bay. Have some more pieces of equipment to move too. I'll move my dually out of the other stall, vacuum and then mop the floor. Haven't mopped it ever, needs it. Other side where the lift and 65 is will get the same treatment prior to the move. With the vacant lift open for a few days, going to toss the wagon on for some changes. I got all of my KD pieces on hand now, thank you Greg and Rich for the pack that was sent. For my uber driving to take my friend to the med facility for pre op tests, he scored me the rest of the KD pieces needed plus proper pieces for the accelerator system. With the accelerator and KD, the PO put on some generic cable units on. Don't work worth a damn, brackets flex, no KD or full throttle. Gonna get squared away finally. Saturday my friend is bringing his 47 Ford F1 over for me to do some work on. I need to make up a pair of inner fender panels to start the project. Possibly a battery mount and some other items. Sometime after I get that done, he's going to bring his Hudson over to work on. The Hudson will get a Jag IFS unit grafted in and possibly the IRS too. He scored both units off of a donor. The IFS is supposed to be a straight forward graft in. Looking forward to both of those for the challenge and the needed dough. I've been holding off on both of those as I'm trying to sell the dually. After 20+ years of ownership, I realized I don't need it. The wagon will do 95%+ of the work the truck was used for. Have not been having any luck with serious buyers on it, just scammers and tire kickers. So in the meantime, it will get parked outside while I'm working on money makers.

 

[ckessel]

Today I wrapped up the move. Put the car on wheels to move it. Before that took place, I vacuumed the area again, then sprayed some orange degreaser solution on, brushed it in, then mopped. First time mopping the floor. Glad I have the industrial bucket/squeeze and mop. Used to use that at our old house. We had 1900sqft of tile to do, worked great. When I got that side done, I cleaned the other stall some using the same methods. 3 friends came over for the push party. The 65 is on the other side again like a couple of years ago. Probably start on one of Darren's rides next week.

 

[ckessel]

Since my lift is open for a few days till Darren drops off his Hudson, I took the opportunity to put the wagon on so I could put the KD pieces on that Greg and Rich hooked me up with. Way better than creeper diving. I also got rid of the generic cable unit the PO had put in for the accelerator. Installed a cable from Mancini, cable bracket from them made by AndyF, proper throttle arm adaptor from Holley. Now I have full throttle and proper KD operation. After swapping out main jets, I lit it off but have a fuel leak from a bowl screw gasket. No spares so I'm going to get some from my old boss down in Nipomo. After thats done, I'll reset the mixture and speed then take if for a drive to see if I need to tweak the KD settings. Also had a general look around while it was up in the air.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Since my lift is open for a few days till Darren drops off his Hudson, I took the opportunity to put the wagon on so I could put the KD pieces on that Greg and Rich hooked me up with. Way better than creeper diving. I also got rid of the generic cable unit the PO had put in for the accelerator. Installed a cable from Mancini, cable bracket from them made by AndyF, proper throttle arm adaptor from Holley. Now I have full throttle and proper KD operation. After swapping out main jets, I lit it off but have a fuel leak from a bowl screw gasket. No spares so I'm going to get some from my old boss down in Nipomo. After thats done, I'll reset the mixture and speed then take if for a drive to see if I need to tweak the KD settings. Also had a general look around while it was up in the air.

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Let me know when you are ready for the wagon to change ownership. Lol

 

[ckessel]

Ha! I'm happy to sell you my dually.

 

[ckessel]

I scored bowl screw gaskets from my old speed shop boss, plus some others to have on hand just because. No more fuel leaks! I nipped the return spring a couple of times to give it some more tension and pull the butterflies closed at idle, lengthened out the middle vertical KD rod a few times to improve the 1-2-3 shifts. Good to go there. Now I have full throttle and KD happens around 40 or so. Higher it doesn't hit so I'll see if the last rod adjustment helps there. Happy with where it finally is. Again, thanks Greg and Rich for the cast offs and Darren for hooking me up for the remainder to take care of my Uber driving for him.

 

[Kern Dog]

That RH collector on the header looks great.

 

[ckessel]

While the engine is out, I'll pull the headers off and finish welding where I cut and modded. That way I don't have to weld in weird positions. Also have an oil fill bung to weld to the valve cover, after I put a hole in it of course. The engine out will also enable me to remove oil films etc and squirt the flat clear on finally. I'll also swap out the k-frames and put the coated one on. The one on it currently, another 70 unit, I'll get it tanked/do some welds and reinforcements. I plan on using that one for the wagon. Already have lower arms and center link[ if different]. I'll gather up the bushings, joints, rods, arms etc, plus t-bars, sway bars, springs for a needed upgrade. Shocks I think I'll use the RCD valved Bilsteins that I got for the 65. Will get some double adjustable units from Viking for that. I'll also use the upper arms I got from Firm Feel for the 65 on the wagon and get a pair of the SPC units from BAC along with a box for the wagon.

 

[ckessel]

Today I was able to weld up the collector on the lh header. I'll see if I can do the rh one tomorrow. Getting low on Argon.

 

[ckessel]

Had enough Argon, so I was able to get the rh header welded up.

 

[ckessel]

Have Argon now so since I was done with weed pulling, I put an oil fill bung in the lh cover. I figured out where the best spot would be, cut a hole in the cover, rinsed it off first with some old Mopar Super Kleen[ basically low potency wax and grease remover], then followed with some old Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner[ outlawed in the state like the SK stuff but really gets the embedded junk out], followed by a wash down with Acetone and scrubbed with a wire toothbrush and finished off with some alcohol plus further wire brush scrubbing. Once that was done I hit it with the Wagner heat gun to burn out the residual oil absorbed into the casting. I then positioned the weld bung onto the cover and gave it a couple of tacks. Pulled the tape off and gave two more opposing tacks. Before I got after the welding, I heated the cover up in the soon to be welded area with my propane torch. Also I found a flat spot on my bench to clamp the cover to to stop any warping. Got it welded up now. Tomorrow I'm going to put some JB Weld onto the back seam where the bung sits on the cover. Just in case I get oil seepage from that area later. Darren is supposed to drop his VW Thing off on Friday. We'll get a game plan going on that. There are several tasks to do on it. After its done, he'll pick it up and bring the Hudson.

 

[ckessel]

Today I worked on the weld to smooth it out some. After I put some tape on for protection, I tried using a Rat Tail file. Kept getting into the tape with that. I was looking at putting a carbide cutter in the air grinder but aluminum just gums up in them from the high speed. Then I used my drill. Put it on low speed and that did the trick. Took awhile but thats ok. Had my Pandora playing, so no big deal. Once that was done I blew the cover off, then dropped some JB weld into the seam on the inside of the bung where it meets the cover. There and a couple of weld spots on the back of the cover for just in case there are any potential oil weep spots. Put it back on tomorrow.

 

[Kern Dog]

Is that all TIG welded? The valve cover looks great.

 

[ckessel]

Yup, gettin Tiggy with it. I'm soooo glad I took the classes.

 

[Kern Dog]

Learning how to balance the torch, the pedal and filler rod sure isn't easy for me.

 

[ckessel]

It took me awhile to get the hang of. One of those do it a lot and it becomes second nature. My TIG is like the MIG use. If it's been a bit since I used them, it shows until I get back in the groove. Even then there are times I rock and others it's like, go back to the drawing board rookie. Very self critical.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Use WD40 on your high speed bits to keep aluminum from clogging them. I do that when porting aluminum heads. Works pretty well.

 

[Photon440]

Use WD40 on your high speed bits to keep aluminum from clogging them. I do that when porting aluminum heads. Works pretty well.

I use MIG nozzle anti spatter spray, it works pretty well. I've also used nozzle tip dip gel.