I really have not done much to the truck in the last couple months. I am just now getting back to working on it. Monday evening I did start cleaning up some of the wiring and and re-wound some of the ugly wires. I charged the battery up and tried to bump it over and silly me did not put in any of the torque convertor bolts!! So I installed new ARP bolts and locktited them in place. I did get new rear tires and had them mounted on my pro star wheels so once I have the 8 3/4 completed I can bolt the whole assembly in!

More to come.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

It runs! After 3 or 4 evenings and a Saturday I finally got to crank the race truck over. I removed about 15 wires from the harness that belonged to the Lean burn system and did some clean up of the existing wiring. I installed the relay for the electric fan and my breaker for the brake controller on a nice aluminum plate and mounted a second relay beside it for a back up.

I only ran the truck long enough to make sure I had oil pressure (and maybe a minute more) and I had 58# on initial start up. Next up is to put in the driveline and back it outside so I can run it for 20 minutes or so and break in the cam. It has an open 3" header, remember, so it is pretty loud inside the garage.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

I got the truck able to move under its own power, and pulled it outside and broke in the cam. I have plenty of oil coming up top and my oil pressure when hot is 32# at idle and about 55# above idle. I have actually run it for 5 or 6 hours trying to run out some of the old gas that has been in it for 9 months, but that is pretty much a lost cause since I have 3/4 of a tank in it. I will probably just top it off and run the tank through once it is on the road.

Here are a couple photos of the progress.

This is the wires that are left after you remove all the excess wiring.

This looks a little better after it is cleaned up





Front end before

And front end after


It is starting to shape up a little.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Cool. I'm jealous.

By the way, the wiper modification that I spoke of a while back works like a charm. So no more wiper linkage falling off or breaking in the middle of a rain storm.

Thursday it goes over to get exhaust completed between the header and the rest of the system. Then off to be aligned.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Real progress Rick. It looks really good under the hood now. Nice work too.


Ron

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62 Val, 66 Dart, 16 Ram 2500 Mega

Good job Rick!

Brian

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Flyin' Brian

74 Duster, 225, rear-mounted blow through turbo at 12psi boost, street/strip car
"Sixy Beast"

Low oil pressure cutoff switch

Ok, I found the one I wanted from Central High Performance in NC. It looks like NOS and it was from Mopar Performance. Part # is 412033 just in case anyone else wants it. It cuts the ignition at 15# so that gives you a little bit more of a safety cushion over a 7-10# factory one although I am sure they would work too. Cost was $20 plus shipping.

Rick



Got the exhaust completed. I had them make the piece that goes from the header on the D/S to the Catalytic convertor on the P/S bolt in. That way I can easily drop it out if I need to pull the transmission again. I drove it the 3 miles from the shop to home and it ran great! Pulls strong & sounds good. I ran it up to probably 4000-4500 a couple times on the way home and was real happy with it.

Some bad news though, and a question? I had run the engine probably 3 or 4 hours at the house over the last week or so trying to burn off some old gas and I never seen any smoking from the engine. But when I pulled into the driveway it is blowing blue smoke pretty bad. This engine didn't smoke at all before and I am wondering what might be causing this? Did I break some rings or is there somewhere else blue smoke could be coming from?

The bottom end of this engine was not touched other than to install a mild cam and new oil pump. Head was planed .060 and I had oversized valves installed.

Thanks for any help.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Well, I went out and fired up the truck again this morning and watched for smoke on start up and I had zip! None! So I ran it until it was hot and ran it up and down the neighborhood a couple times and I have no smoke. That is good but what caused my smoking last night?

Rick

The truck runs really nice! Can't wait to get the 3.55 gears in it!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

It is possible it was the new pipes burning the oils coating them out.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I am just a little confused. I started the truck again and ran it up to temperature again. And I didn't see any smoke. So I left it run for about a 1/2 hour on a little bit above idle speed( probably 1000-1200 rpm to burn off some more old gas) I noticed it smoking again. Not as bad as last night, I don't think, but still a good bit.

Dennis, I am guessing that it is not from the new pipes as the piece was only about 3 1/2' long. I suppose the extra compression from the head work could have been just enough to overcome some weak rings?

Oh well, at this point it is going together as is. I will run it for a while after it is fully back on the road and see what it does. I will probably do a Compression test soon.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Did Ryan drive it?

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I laughed for 30 seconds when I read that!

But No!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

I did a Compression test on the truck before we left for vacation. The truck was fully warmed up and I had compression between 168 and 175 on all 6 cylinders. So it doesn't appear that I have any broken compression rings. So why so much blue smoke? Is it possible that just setting for a year caused an issue with the oil rings?

What about the year old gas? It is old too but it does run fine. I will add some new 92 when I get home and drive it over to get the front end aligned before painting.

I'm still a little concerned about where it could be coming from.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Valve stem seals? Stuck oil control ring?

A few years back I bought an old Briggs and Stratton engine to power a pressure washer I was building. The engine had sat in cold storage for several years. When I first started it, it smoked like it had NO oil control rings left. But it ran well, so I left it alone. I drained the old oil and filled it with synthetic oil. After about ten minutes of running the synthetic oil must have freed up the oil control rings and it stopped smoking. It still runs like a champ and burns no oil to this day.

My advice is run your engine for a bit with synthetic oil and see if that doesn't fix the problem. If it doesn't, check if the valve stem seals have dried up.