On the Road Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCd6wyGMmbU

a list of the bigger projects completed on the 68 B over the Winter 2021 and Spring 2022 months

* Installed Roller Rockers, B3 valve train optimization shims, new pushrods, installed
valve spring retainer bushings, modified the valve cover to accept the higher positioned valve train
* Installed Tuff Wheel and adapter
* Re built 8.75 differential with new 3:55 ring and pinion
* Installled a Wagner adjustable PCV and Moroso vapor catch can
* Built brackets and trim necessary to mount quad headlights and custom grill work.

I am quickly running out of reasons to not drive this car.
I had rolled the odometer back to zero, when I started this project. The odometer is currently setting on 260 miles.
It is a 'Go' from there.

I will post a few more photos of the projects listed.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The B3 rocker shaft shims significantly reduced the travel of the rocker rollers across the valve stem tip.
But they also moved the rocker shaft up over .200 and to make that work I needed new pushrods and a modified valve cover.
I added up lifts on the ends of the valve cover for clearance and moved the vapor containing baffles to the outside of the valve cover. To make a nicer flow of the PCV piping I swapped
PCV and air intake positions.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The goal of the new grill was to add an engine air intake, reminiscent of what was hot Rod stuff in the 60's and at the same time make it look like something Mopar could have done in 1968 and at the same time not do any changes that would impact re installing the original OE head lights and bezels.
This was an interesting project, and its done.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

The OE steering wheel on this 68 Barracuda is just absolutely perfect. Has a nice shine, no cracks.
I am wanting to drive the car aggressively and I felt that a thicker steering wheel rim would give better
turning grip and at the same time I would not be stressing the nice OE steering wheel. I like the way the Tuff Wheel
looks and feels.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Coolness on all that!

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Good job John!

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Been doing some local driving to run up a few break in miles and to establish the reliability of the car.
The photo below is of the car using it as a Grocery Getter. That day in the parking lot independently had two sets of folks approach me saying
"that car is just beautiful, what is it?"

I now have 330 miles on the car. The last trip was a 20 mile out and back, all highway. The fuel milage was 17.9 mpg on that stint.

Pulled the sparkplugs to do a compression test
the cranking pressure for 1 to 6 are
195, 190, 183, 190, 183, 185

I also adjusted the valves

I have the AF and VE tables adjusted good enough that the car starts and drives easily. No bogs or hesitations.
I think I can tune it a bit better for more performance and economy.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Glad to hear you are driving the car around more. 18 MPG for 20 miles from a cold stop is very good, since it takes the car more than 10 min to warm up. I assume that is not all hwy miles too... I like those cranking compression numbers for pump premium too. Excellent work.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Lou, thanks,
the calculated Static compression ratio is 10.67 and the dynamic compression is 8.37

no signs of pinging yet, but I know the fuel is a tad on the rich side and the timing curve is very conservative.

I plan to get back into the AF and VE tables soon.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Those numbers are very close to my 11.5 to 1 race engine. Mine are about 187-190#. Your car should run very well!! Congrats!

_________________
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

Thanks Rick,
you probably have a longer duration cam so it needs more static compression to overcome the bleed off ahead of IVC.
the cam I have in this motor is 254 @ .050

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Its been a while, but I have been busy. Last summer M and I picked up and moved from Indy to rural Ohio, Greenville OH to be exact.
I like it here a lot. That also means we spent a lot of the past six months in the buy-sell-relocate process. We are finally far enough through the
process that I had time to do some Barracuda stuff.

I need to do some EFI engine tuning, the motor starts, runs and drives, but is nowhere near optimized.

I always like to check the general engine health as a first step,

checked valve lash, it previously was set cold at .021 on the intake and .022 on the exhaust sides.
the intakes checked cold at .023, .022, .021, .022, .023 and .024
the exhausts checked cold at .023, .023, .023 ,022, .023, and .024

it's been 600 miles since the valves were last lashed, looks to be wearing in nicely.

with a cold engine the compression checked at
190, 185, 183, 183, 185, 185
Seven psi range from high to low with about 800 miles on the engine.

the next action item is to do more to restrict oil to the valve train. I wanted the roller rockers to get plenty of oil, and there is.
I have an oil separator on the PVC valve piping and the separator reservoir will fill in about 100 miles of driving.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

An update on the restriction of oil to the top end project.
Some background: the head is an 87 hydraulic lifter head, the cam core is a hydraulic cam core with the full groove on the read bearing journal, the oil pump is a hydraulic motor aluminum body pump with the wide rotor.

I added a Moroso canister in the PVC piping as oil was getting into the plenum through the PVC piping. That helped but the accumulator would fill in about 100 miles of highway driving.

The roller rocker shaft is raised and moved a bit off center using B3 Rocker stands. The B3 Rocker stands did a fine job of centering and reducing the roller travel across the valve stem tip.
See Photo below.

The stand at the #6 end has clearance cuts at the mounting bolt hole. I made a brass bushing to fit inside the stand bolt hole to take away the clearance between the stand's through hole and the OD of the mounting bolt. The B3 stand has two clearance cuts 180 degree apart. I also closed one of the clearance cut oil passage opening with high temperature epoxy.
Reassembled everything, re set the rockers, started the motor and watched for oil flow. The oil got to the #1-cylinder valve springs and push rods (sequentially up the shaft) but I wanted to see a bit more oil sooner.

I took it all apart and filed a clearance groove into the brass bushing. The clearance groove leads directly to the oil passage in the B3 stand. Reassembled everything and did another re start and watch for oil. At idle the oil arrived sooner and there was more of it. I will leave the oil restrictor with this set up and do some driving and monitor oil pick it in the Moroso canister.

I also spent time with the MS3 Pro getting the Idle Air Control back online. The IAC drivers had burnt out and I sent the ECU in for repair. This was probably last fall. It is now all working properly again. The 68 Barracuda starts like a modern car. Turn the key and don't touch the throttle. The motor immediately settles into a nice idle with the ECU monitoring engine coolant temperature and closes the IAC to take out air and that then takes out fuel as the engine coolant warms. It seems like every time a spend time with the MS3 Pro I find another handy toggle. I found a panel that I can set so when doing a hot start, the Manifold Air Temperature sensor gets a nominal reading of 100F as opposed to a heat soak induced temperature of 250+F. That will help hot starts.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Over the past two months I have parked the 83 D150 and have been daily driving the 68 Barracuda. This has given me the opportunity to do a lot of tuning on the MS 3 Pro MPFI system. The car starts like a modern vehicle, just turn the key and it starts and goes. The motor has 1000 miles on it and I gave it a check up.
Compression from 1 to 6 was: 180, 180, 180, 180, 185, 185 it broke in nicely.
I also adjusted the lash on the roller rockers. I made a few .001 to .002 adjustments but nothing major.
The car gets a lot of attention here around town.
I do not plan to attend any slant six races this year, perhaps next year. I am playing a lot of pickleball, as well as golf, hiking and other ventures.

I have met several other local car crazy guys, a couple of them have really nice Mopars and I do enjoy the 68 Barracuda.

_________________
Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

Thanks for the update John.

_________________
Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.