I got this 1965 Dodge Dart, with 225 /6 and 3-speed manual, just couple of weeks ago. It has some running problems, everything is out of adjustment or adjusted wrong/out of spec. I actually got it running better just today, now it's more driveable, still not perfect though. It is a bit ugly, it has some rust spots here and there and the clear coat is in quite bad condition.

Also the interior is in pretty rough condition and there is no sound proofing or trim in the roof. First thing is to instal some sound proof in to it so it is quieter to drive, especially in rainy weather.

Last friday it already broke down so that I couldn't engage the first gear or reverse. It was because the clutch wasn't disengaging properly. I had to take the transmission out and inspect the clutch. It turned out to be broken stop pins/rivets and because of that there were some parts misplaced in the clutch disc. It was still possible to hammer the rivets like they were supposed to be, so I did that and installed all back together...works with no problems.

Very nice. Thank you for sharing and welcome to the Forum!

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Awesome

thanks for sharing! Are you from Finland? Russia? I don't recongise the Registration Plate.


Best of luck!

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

From Finland. The black plate is not the usual one we use in here though, I believe you can get one against a small payment. Also, a black plate is used in museum registered vehicles (or whatever it is called elsewhere) which my Dart is not.

Nice to see another finnish slanter here

Welcome aboard JukkaK. It's a great bunch of guys (and gals) here.

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“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

Hey, likewise!

I guess it is supposed to write here about what's going on with our cars.

Mine isn't a project per se, but today I had another mishap with my Dart, nothing major though. When I got off work and walked to my car I noticed that the right rear tire was completely flat. Fortunately I work in auto repair shop so I was able to drive it slowly in and see if I'm able to find why my tire had let all the air out. In a little bit of a rush, I started to take the tire out but didn't notice that the threads on the wheel studs were left handed (open clockwise) so I ruined one lug nut by trying to remove it with an impact gun but I actually just tightened it an the thread went bad. Well I guess it'll hold the wheel on with only four lug nuts till I get a new one.

Anyways, it turned out that the tire had an inner tube in it and the valve of that inner tube was bad. I just removed the inner tubing, installed a regular valve in the wheel and installed the tire back on the rim, it seems to hold air just fine. I'll see if the other tires have inner tubings as well and probably remove them too now that one tire already doesn't have one in it.

It turned out that my daily driver Dart is actually a major project. Chasing the rough running and misfires turned out to be low compression on number 1 and 6 cylinder. I took the cylinder head off to inspect valves and seats, they're complete junk, the valve guides are super loose and the valves are worn so badly that the valve faces are a little bit U-shaped.

I did some testing.

Test #1, narrowing down the problem: I lapped the valves even though they're junk, installed the cylinder head back into the engine and did the compression test again to see if there would be any difference to see if my problem is only in the cylinder head, there wasn't any difference.

Test #2, A poor mans cylinder leakage test: I shaped a rubber hose so that it sealed against the spark plug hole, sealed the air blow gun in to the other end of the hose and shot some compressed air into the cylinders which were bad, the air went straight through to the cranckcase. I did the same test for the "good" cylinders to compare, they sealed way better altough they leaked too, but there was a big difference.

Next step is to remove pistons and inspect them. I'll have to measure the cylinders for taper, out of roundness and exessive wear. I'll also have to measure the piston - cylinder clearance. I hope that I will be able to get away with only honing the cylinders and installing a new piston rings. I doubt it but worth a check. Of cource I'll need a cylinder head job or a new head too.

The problem is several broken piston rings. There was broken rings in the cylinders that had a good compression too, I didn't know that only one compression ring seals that good. You might wonder that maybe those rings broke when I removed the pistons but it is clearly visible that they have been broken for a while based on the wear they have. Thankfully the cylinders are fine and only one piston has some damage.

Cylinders are now honed and the first piston is installed with new piston rings. I ended up reusing the old pistons which might raise some questions but I have to do this as cheap as possible. The car will never see any hard driving anyway. The piston ring grooves on the pistons were still in spec when I measured the clearances with new rings.

The engine in my Dart is now fixed and I have driven about 200 miles since then, so far everything is great (*knocks on wood*). Here are couple of pics.

If I had known sooner I would have given you a set of low mileage stock pistons with good rings. Those look pretty scuffed.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

They would've had to been .060 oversize pistons. It'll work great as a cruiser that it is. I managed to take every sharp edge off of it and it actually wasn't as bad as it seems in the pic after I ran them in the parts washer. It was #6 piston that had the damage, rest of the were fine. Thanks anyway!

Congratulations (knocking on wood). Bet that is an uncommon site driving around Finland!

Lou

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