WOW!!! What an attention to detail.... Its going to look great!!

_________________
MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

Hey Richard,
Thanks for the compliment! I didn't have any trace of compulsive obsessive disorder before starting this rebuild but I certainly have developed it after months of this kind of approach!

The POR 15 heat paint has a tolerance of up to 1400 degrees F. Check it out here: http://ppcco.com.au/paints.htm

I have a mate who used the same heat paint product on his 1968 AMC Javelin and the paint is still looking great 8 months down the track, no sign of burning off and it is only a margin lighter in shade. I believe the "trick to help it out" is to pre-cure the heat paint to 200 degrees C for an hour around 48 hours after you have applied the first coat.

Cheers Gordo

_________________

Sorry , I missed the 1400 F. I just saw the 700 and thought it was F. not C. , the exhaust temp should be about max of 1200 F.

Richard

_________________
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Sharrp!!!

One thing caught my eye—this manual choke setup probably isn't original to the car. The 2bbl VE-VF models came with an automatic choke as standard fitment. This had a black bakelite round housing where your manual choke housing is mounted, and a steel tube leading vertically through the 3rd runner of the exhaust manifold. Same tubing setup shown here for the North American throttle plate anti-ice system. Your exhaust manifold has the raised flat on #3, but is not drilled or fitted with the through-pipe where the upper and lower heat tubes were fitted. I am guessing someone in the past swapped the manifold, couldn't find a 2bbl unit (the 1bbl exhaust manifold was just like yours: raised flat on #3, but no through-pipe) and installed the manual choke conversion at that time.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

No worries Richard!

_________________

Dan, I was hoping you'd put in your trademark "Sharrrp" comment and you have made me a very happy man in doing so!

Regarding the manual choke on my rig, I think you are right about it not being original on the 2BBL VE-VF models as I have noticed that most of the VE Regal Valiants in my car club optioned with the 2BBL have the steel tube you mention on the exhaust manifold but most of them are late '68 and early '69 builds. There are a few anomalies on my particular Valiant which some people have stated may be because it was very early in the production of the VE model. It was the 606th VE made (stamped the 10th October 1967) and "apparently" the very first VE Regal sold in Australia (this info can only be verified by word of mouth from the son of the original owner who said his father was told this by the dealer at Commonwealth Motors upon purchase on 31st November '67). Being such an early build, this may account for the absence of the automatic choke & steel tube on the 3rd runner of the exhaust manifold as it was very common for early builds of Australian Valiants to be fitted with older set ups before they had finalised the upgrades. Chrysler Australia LTD ran on a shoestring budget throughout is relatively short existence and sometimes released models early in a production run with the previous models gear. (A handful of the early VG models had slants fitted because Hemi 6 wasn't fully developed.) I was also told that the slants fitted to VE and VF models should have five welsh plugs on the manifold side of the block where my slant has only three like the slants in earlier model Valiants. It's a matching numbers engine (CC2250607) so it hasn't been replaced at any stage and the engine builder said it had never been opened up before. Also most VE-VF 2BBL Regal Valiants should be fitted with a brake booster and front disk brakes but mine never was, drums all round. The car is extremely unmolested and original due to the fact it was purchased as a weekend and holiday car, not a daily. The original owner bought it not long after his retirement, took it on a few very long trips up and down the coast of Eastern Australia in the early 1970's on a few 2-3 month vacations (I suppose it's not really a vaction if your retired! ). By the late 70's and the 80's it was a weekend runabout. The original owner passed away in 1993 and his son inherited it. It was put on blocks and under a blanket in a his garage from 1993 to 2000 then he got it going again, drove it every few months up until he gave it to his grand daughter in 2006. Her husband was a Chrysler nut who was stunned at it's originality after 40+ years. They drove the car only on weekend trips every few months. When their marriage broke down 2009, that's when I picked it up when the grand daughter desperately needed money as her daily driver had died. Anyway, that's a bit of irrelevant history for you, there's a lot more history on the car but I've ranted on enough already.

With this all said, you could be right about the manifold being replaced at some stage and that's something I'll probably never really know. I believe the OEM slant manifolds were notorious for corroding at the heatbox between where the intake and exhaust manifold meet which resulted in exhaust leakage. A lot of folk just replaced them with extractors which were a far better performance option anyway but for sticklers of originality, that's not the done thing. I still have the original manual choke which I should take a photo of to see what you make of it.

Cheers Gordo

_________________

VERY clean Val,you should be proud of your find and your workmanship! I love the VE shape,I own a VC and VG (both regals),but theres something really clean about a white VE Regal,those white walls just finish it off perfectly.The engine is interesting,as you have already worked out,its an early engine,but the choke deal is interesting.Maybe take a look under your air filter housing,does it have a small fitting for the hot air pipe to be plumbed into? (you probably know,but hot air was drawn thru the filter,down via the exhaust manifold and to the choke bi metal) .The manifold is different to my one BBL VC,they had two 1/4" holes tapped for the choke and no cut out in the choke well,plus no lump cast in for the hot air pipe fittings.Im imagining that a shipment of donks were sent to OZ minus accessories (to keep up OZ content apparently) They were planning on running the email alts and carbs and Bosch distributors etc,except they got the engines without the hot air plumbing,and as you say,the shoe string budget came to play and a manual choke was fitted....who knows,just guessing,or as was mentioned the exhaust manifold may have been replaced,but it looks like it had the original steel shim hot box gasket and being a low mileage car you would think it wouldnt be blown out or cracked but you never know...either way its a beautiful car,you should be proud of it!! If you ever want to convert to the hot air pipe setup let me know,I have some bits you will loooove! Cheers,Steve

Thanks for your positive feedback Steve!

I have had a look into the exhaust manifold further and noticed that there is a manual choke cable bracket that is mounted on the exhaust manifold (on the third runner from the firewall). The bracket looks factory yet I haven't seen one like this before on any VE fitted with 2BBL 160HP slant. With that said, most don't use the OEM manifold anymore, just extractors because the original manifolds had corroded so it's hard to confirm. I have attached some photos:



You can see the bracket here.


It looks like I will have to remove some of the new manual choke set up on the carby so I can use this bracket.


Here it is pictured clean up (top bracket).

Cheers Gordo

_________________

Damn yer good! Keep us posted!

_________________
66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

Just a quick question, does anyone have a slant where the first exhaust manifold stud is shorter than the rest? I went to replace all the original studs with new ones and the fist stud is shorter and it is made that way, not chopped down.

Cheers Gordo

_________________

As I didn't have any decent photos of the engine finished, I took a few this weekend to give an idea what it looked like before going into the Valiant. Here they are with my usual repetition:







































Getting ready to drop it in with a fork lift.... we abandoned the forklift to do it properly.

_________________

We abandoned the bodgy forklift attempt and decided to do it properly with a engine crane and leveller.






"We've got bush!" to take a quote from Porkys.






Without the manifolds, the passenger side of the engine bay is insanely empty. Talk about some serious room there! It wasn't until we put the slant back in that I realised the crazy angle slants actually sit. The manifolds hide how far over it lays and make it appear less slanty.

_________________

As for my post on the short manifold stud:

I took out the short manifold stud (the first stud on the top row) and replaced it with a new, full length stud expecting the block end of the thread to stop short but it went through as per the rest of the new studs. I have no idea why the original stud was short and I am glad to now have all 13 studs being brand spanking new.

_________________

Day-yum…that's clean enough to eat off!

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan! Once the engine is started, I'm sure it won't be clean like this for very long. As for eating off it, there's certainly enough room on the passenger side of the engine bay to set up a dinning table or at least drop in an esky of beer! With the steering column being on the other side in Oz, it sure leaves a lot of space. No doubt, it is a nightmare to do anything on the steering column if it needs attention as it's pretty crammed on the other side.

_________________