OK, time to start a new thread.

Per previous threads I picked up Nicolas's 1978 4 door Dodge Aspen, this will be the first F body I have kept and not just scavenged for parts.

Other than the cancer in the rear quarters, rip in the driver side of the bench seat, and the small rips in the vinyl roof, everything else seems to work OK.... to a certain point....

I got home from work today and had some cold but agreeable weather, so I picked up my bucket of tools, went out the shed and started prepping the car for an engine exchange (this one has an oil separator hooked to the PCV and had a really mean miss when I started it up to move it....), while stripping all the non essential parts I got up close and personal with all the rubber mounts in the car and they are definitely 40 years old, sagged, cracked or rotten.... K-Member and mounts look good, I'm going to have my buddy clean it and the LCA's up and reweld the K, box the steering box mount, and gusset the LCA's (Compared to the A-body LCA these don't look as stout...)

I'm going to say that so far all the parts places that I've ordered parts from have been able to have them on my door step in about a week.
Poly Bushings has a nice set of T-bar bushings, and I'm putting in poly motor mounts (Thanks Johnny!)

Espo had a nice set of poly body to K mounts and had on hand the LCA bushings...

The trunk was filled with an assortment of Moog parts, Lower ball joints, upper ball joints, UCA problem solver bushings....

That leaves a nice set of 11/16" tie rods and ends, and a set of better shocks to get next....

I want to also thank Dennis and the crew at Firm Feel, 2 weeks ago I stopped by out of the blue and they aren't normally used to that, but were very accomodating, and I ended up with rear spring bushings, iso leaf spring elimination plates, a nice pot coupler refurbishment kit, and dropped off a well used saginaw power steering unit I had squirreled away from my 1974 Duster as a nice OEM married set....

I don't think they were ready to hear that it was going into a slant six car, that wasn't being converted to a small block... LOL...

They called Weds. and I ran up there and they had refurbished the box as a Stage 2 box, and rebuilt the pump (the pump and box on the aspen are either shot or toast.. as there is no power assist- and reminds me of the good old days doing demo derby after you loose the PS belt...)

It should drive right when my son Spencer and I finish with it.
I'll try to get some pictures documented during the rebuild in case some future FMJ members want to know what it looks like.

I also have put on the list a transmission rebuild/upgrade, and on the hunt for an FMJ body 8 1/4" rear in 2.93 or 3.21 and matching driveline.

If weather permits tomorrow (and my sagging suspension permits),
I will prep the FDX to give up the old "beater valiant" motor, which was my first cast crank mill, and only had about 15,000 miles on it before I had to let go of that car, so some freshening up the gaskets, and pulling the not quite right for this build OCG cam I had installed, and looking at all the spare "parts" I have laying around the possible build will look like this:

1979 Dodge Aspen Cast Crank Engine
.060 over with Moly Rings
Stock Cast Crank
Deck Height .138

Currrently has a 1974 drool tube head on the mill with a 52 cc chamber and stock valves...

I think I will pull that, and install my "not so wild" ported Peanut Plug head with Engine Builder OS valves an springs... chambers are uniform at 48cc...

If this all calcs out right, it will be about 9.42:1 static compression....I might see if my other lower compression head is available at 50 cc, and maybe lower it to 9.3-ish...

Thanks to Dartsport76 I will install his OCG 819 and matching lifters....and his Offy intake.

Indexing this cam to about 102 centerline should net a DCR of 8.3... which should run on regular or plus depending on recurve, rear ratio, etc....

I am eye balling my old 2 1/4" single pipe from my '74 Duster and it look like it might fit with a little lengthening... but this will castrate a little bit of power out of the engine (I have eyeballed the late A-body headers on the wall too and the matching dual exhaust pipes.. and the street hyperpak on the shelf....LOL)...

Given what I know, and the decade and a half of real world data packed into my desktop dyno program... being conservative on this build should be about 160 hp at the crank at 4K rpm... TQ tops at 3000 rpm at about 245, and that rpm jives with highway speeds on 205/70R14 with 3.21's...
and puts it about 30 and 40 under the 10:1 street hyperpak motor...

That should be more than enough for my son to be able to keep up with the modern driver (it's double the slant I got when I was his age!!! LOL)

It has crossed my mind that if it all comes together by June, I might have to try it out at the first Woodburn race.... It's almost a dead ringer for the F-body version of Ceej's "Hooptie"....

Keep us posted!

I am glad someone is caring for that bronze beauty.

Best of luck!

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Spencer is a lucky guy....

I expect to see Silverton Rd well rubberized next time I'm through.

......I also dream of Woodburn in June....

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

It's lunch time at the Idiot shop....

Have been at it for about 2 1/2 hours now... with the help of air tools, the beater valiant engine is ready to go on the stand.... (still has Reed's 2300 Holley on it...)

I have freed up the Aspen engine except for a couple bellhousing bolts and the Torque Daisy to convertor bolts... I was a bit surprised when the rusty as all get out exhaust flange nuts came right off without any fuss....

We'll see how long my old suspension holds up, if I get both of the motors where they need to go, then I will proceed to tearing down the Aspen suspension... honestly it looks a lot easier than tearing down an A-body suspension....

This next week I can sick Spencer on cleaning part in the tank before prepping for rebuild...

Mailman pulled up a moment ago and the cam and intake are now here... will post more this evening once I see what the end result is.

It's 4pm... you just yarded two full blocks out of 2 cars, and did it all off 2 sheets of plywood.... by yourself... it's time for some real beer....a lot of it, not because you need it, but it certainly will dull that "getting too old for this" complaint that it makes....

Couple things for the record....

1) I like the manual transmission bellhousing better, at least you can get to the bolts on the back of it with a closed end.... unlike the 904 where you need a couple wobblies to get that one bolt that holds the fill tube to the bell....

2) Pulling a full block out of the Duster, no problem, didn't even take the hood off.... Doing it in an F body....well the hood had different architecture and isn't as friendly...especially with that nice big ridge along the front third of the hood really hangs up the gib....also the F-body hood weighs much more than than a A-body hood, and I now have no complaints about the feather duster hood in a one man hood removing competition....

I will post a few pics later... for now, engine to be refurbished is on the stand, and original super six engine is cradled on a movers dolly and keeping the FDX company in the other corner of the shop.


Looking like it's time to clean up, go get a growler and fire up the grille with some BBQ Teryaki Chicken....

Sounds like a great day. Waitin' for the pics!

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

Here are the after shots only about 5 weren't blurry as all get out....I will post the engine teardown pics when I do that in the next week... Fun Tip I will have to remember, is marking the flex plate with a punch since cleaning it will remove the indexing paint spot...

Aspen Fresh Air Intake

Aspen Passenger Side Fender Equipment

Saginaw Steering Pump and Stock Box

Valve Cover Sticker for 1978 but no Torque Spec Sticker

Intact Super Six Stack

Cribbed Slant Six Ready for Storage

Now back to my regularly scheduled beer and icy hot....

Wow, that is quite a lot of work for one guy in one day! Keep up at that rate and it will be restored in two weeks!

Probably not, my pocket book will have to take a rest after the initial shock... Ceej and Fopar can attest that knocking me up on some caffeine I can tear down a mopar in good time... I'm a bit more meticulous and deliberate when assembling things....

I had inspected the brakes and I will have to go through those too, the discs have a fair ridge on the rims and I had to use a hammer to get the driver's side caliper off the disc as the piston had seized shut clamped to the disc, and the rim wouldn't let the pads past it.... (it's going to be a safe car too!!! LOL... I think I have one last set of OEM disc rotors that can be turned....and about 8 sets of calipers as cores...)

I think the last 2 "wishlist" items on my list are an 8 1/4" rear axle (2 messages to Wildcat and no return call on what they have on the rack... would really like a cop car 3.21 rear), and finding a plug and play AM/FM CD player for this dude...

I think the Hpak Duster was jealous I was working on a newer model, and the fact I was looking hard at pulling the low mile 205/70R14's off it for this car...

Seriously- Mopar factory decks are plug and play from the mid 70s through the mid 90s. You can get one of those 1.5 DIN combo CD/tape deck infinity decks out of a Chrysler Town and Country and it will fit in the hold and plug into the factory wiring harness in the Aspen. Try and find a Fifth Ave with the factory rear amp.

Get one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/322479663445


I have had this in the 79 duster volare since maybe 2001?


Get some factory connectors from a blocky caravan 5th ave, k car, caravalle etc from the junk man. And you be choochin!

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Good to see someone resurrecting an F instead of scrapping it

I have the A38 rear bar setup you need, and the 11" drum 8 1/4 (except it is a taxi-spec 2.7 gear).

Too bad you're all the way over there!

Keep up the good work

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O==\=/==O

"A mechanic is Somebody."
- Jim Preston

After 3 calls into Wildcat to see if they have one on the rack from an FMJ, and they just take a message and say they will get back to me...

I might need to import one at this rate....

Rob- hit up car-part.com

Also, try http://www.allamericanclassics.com They say they have an 8 1/4 for a 78 Volare.

The are up the road in Vancouver, WA.