Hey everyone, I'm the FNG. I have a 64 valiant with the 225 in it, and have some questions about upgrades. First, I'm trying to build this as a daily driver and as cheaply as possible. It's gonna be somewhere between the rat rod/kustom categories, so are there any companies besides hooker and clifford that make headers and cams that are reasonably priced? Second, which intake is best to use with which carb? And if I do all 3 of these upgrades, what kind of performance gains am I looking at, and is the push-button auto tranny going to stand up to it? Thanks for the help, I've been researching a little bit for about a month since I bought her and finally found this place last night.

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Road Devils CC Nomads
1964 4-door Valiant

Welcome!

This may sound funny but the first thing I do to a old A-Body is put anti-sway bars onto the car.

Next, a good tune-up including a valve adjustment. Usually this leads to some distributor recurving work.

If the engine is worn-out, find a differnt engine to rebuild 'on the side" and then swap that engine in when it's ready.
DD

Cams have been a popular subject lately so gaze through a couple thread towards the top to get some ideas. Frankly the best bang for the buck is to find a place like OregonCams (probably somewhere closer) that can regrind cams. You'll want something around 270 duration with .44 lift. This is a lot better deal than Clifford, second is to the comp cams you sometimes see on Ebay that is a complete package, but I think even those are pricey now.
The headers is a personal choice, I've really never heard of monstorus gains from them for the money. There is for sure some better places to spend the money, but once again you'll have to talk to people who actually have run them.
The intake I would get an Offy from someone here or off of a website like Performance Automotive Warehouse or some equivalent. The cliffords have a water jacket setup that you might want (texas get cold like Oregon?) and would suggest finding one from someone. I ordered a cam from Clifford once when I was ignorant of other options, two weeks later canceled the order cause they hadn't even shipped it out yet.
So, you put a cam in, headers, and a 390cfm carb intake combo. It will defintley liven the car up! However, if the engine is tired, the lifters aren't replaced, the cam bearings are shot... your probably going to be disappointed you just wasted close to a grand. These are some good parts, but a waste if the rest of the engine is livened up. I bought a seperate slant for $75 a tore that down. It consisted a lot of what your talking about, but with head work (3 angle, manifold match, bigger valves) which I heavily suggest decking .1 off your head over anthing else. Last the block was simply hot tanked and new bearings and seals. Even though it's more of a project than headers and intake it will (I promise) be more satisfying and not terrible expensive. Good luck, don't forget rebuild or not there is a lot of power and reliabilty in doing basic tuneup procedure like recurve, oil pump adjustments, and valve lash.

Thanks for your help guys...I found a place here that does machine work/cam grinding REALLY cheaply...and they've been recommended to me before by a buddy of mine. Probably gonna try to do some of this stuff after the Lone Star Roundup in April, so I'll keep you posted.

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Road Devils CC Nomads
1964 4-door Valiant

Welcome aboard!

Look into Dutra duals for a good but different exhaust system.

Don't worry about the pushbutton 904. It will take a lot, and you can upgrade some of the internals if you need to with V8 parts.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

Thanks. Definitely gonna check into something exhaust-wise before the Roundup. You ever been to it?

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Road Devils CC Nomads
1964 4-door Valiant