On today’s episode, we make solid progress on the ‘67 Coronet convertible project at Rocket Restorations. We also learn that valves work better when they close all the way. @rocketresto
Breaking in the motor reminded me of one of my childhood dreams, I wanted to work at the LX factory and be the one to start new challengers and chargers for the first time.
Hi Jamie, I really enjoyed this video!! It brought back good memories! Like when I bought the '69 GTX. I did what you're doing start the engine to see what I had to work with. When I did so, no success I pulled the valve covers to check to see if valve train was working prooerly. Well! What I found was why I bought the car for $800!! Some person had been working on the engine who didn't know his butt from an onion!!! One set of points in the distributer. Closed welded shut. There was strange things happening inside the engine, Somme valves not opening etc. So right then I decided to pull the drive train out and rebuild everything. Good decision but it took me a year to get my GTX on the road. But it was worth it!!! Luv your vids bro!!!!
Jamie- you’ve quickly become one of my favorite RU-vid’rs! Great content. Great pace, flow, sarcasm… Keep it up and you’ll be at a million before you know it!
Jamie- pulled my 383 from my 66 Charger and installed a 1966 440 out of an Imperial (first yr 440) but not offered with the 66 Charger (weird right?) The 440 fired RIGHT up on a pallet. Didn’t smoke, no drivetrain noises. No smoke. Ran well. Hooked up unknown big block 727 out of 1968 Newport that had bad 383. Now that I have it all bolted into my Charger, it’s super lethargic when spinning over. Switched ground point, switched starter, switched coil, switched dizzy…Even bought brand new 750cca battery. Same symptoms. I only have 3.5 quarts of ATF in trans so far. I don’t think that would be the issue. But- it’s like the trans is dragging to the point of it causing lethargic spinning and hot ground wire, hot positive cable and hot starter. Thoughts?
I really appreciate the explanation about the zero compression. Great diagnosis. That starter sound when you first tried sounded like the plugs were out.
Right. At this point in life I usually don’t even break out the compression gauge. You’ll know right away from the cranking sound that something is screwy…
Dude, you did a great job diagnosing the motor and push rod issue. Before I do anything on a motor I did not build....compression test all the cylinders. Prime the heck out of the oil pump too.
I understand the thinking there, but excessive, unnecessary cranking to get inaccurate compression numbers from a fresh build while wiping off whatever lube is left on the cam and lifters isn’t necessarily what you want. Even in the case of tired old engines, I almost never use the compression tester anymore. The numbers might be a little low, but you will be able to tell by ear right away if one or two cylinders are weak, or if there is something very wrong - like we found here. I believe I pre-lubed this one, but again, it wasn’t my build, and I was under the impression that it was good to go.
This makes me want a shop with a lift so bad lol I’m jealous. Usually when I’m running lines I’m hot sweaty and pissed because there’s usually some kind of insect biting the crap out of me while I’m laying on my back in the driveway so I tend to cut corners on the routing and retainers. Great video!
I just publicly apologized for having lifts to work on now in my livestream on Sunday. Haha. I ran a professional repair shop without any for seven years! As much as I liked doing things the old fashioned way… you’ll have to pry my two post lift from my cold, dead hands.
Jeremy, solid work buddy. Actual diag, repair, and replace. Look at you you're a mechanic! Lol kidding aside seriously good catch with the push rods. Yes 0 compression says valve all day or a giant hole in the cylinder. Seen both haha. The more I watch of this channel the more I like.
Great looking car-going to be a really fun ride. Aftermarket subframe connectors, with todays sticky tires & high horsepower should almost be manditory on convertibles. Friend of mine had a '66 Mustang convertible. Her car had a fiberglassed totally shot floor pan. Only unrusted fore-aft "structure" was the transmission tunnel & convertable's subframe connectors. Had 'interesting' handling.
Ugh. Mustangs seem to be really bad for that. Like they rust all around the perimeter of the floor for some reason. My brother has a crusty ‘68 Dart that now lives on a cattle ranch. I distinctly remember the feeling in the car when you floored it and let off. It felt like it was folding in the middle…
@@DeadDodgeGarage Mustangs had the first big 'Collector' Car' craze. Lot of sleazy 'restorations' back in the '80's- convertibles were the worst. Car should have been the seafoam color w/white interior, powered white convertible top, 289 2bbl, C4. Had a Earl Schweibe 'resale red' paintjob, mix & match wrong year black interior, smogger 302 & xmC4 out of a van...what a mess.
HOLY CROW, Somebody sunk a lot of money in that COOL RIDE, on with vid. WOW, No push rods on 1 side & the wrong ones on the other side of the engine ? Makes me wonder how long that engine will last ? Plus the valves no being equal in length, VERY SKETCH REBUILD, DAMN NICE RIDE THOUGH. Had the same problem with Dorman Trans. lines with adapters, leaked pretty bad. Had to add some Teflon tape to Temp. ( PERMANENTLY ) fix it, LOL.
Sorry, no, I pulled the pushrods. They were all there when I started. Valve heights are always here and there. It’s not that the valves are different lengths necessarily, it’s that the machining is inconsistent from valve to valve. A regular rebuilder wouldn’t be concerned about that (the factory definitely wasn’t.) In a high performance application, one would want them to all be the same. Managed to get leak fixed after the video. Just had to give one of the inverted flare fittings that extra OOMPH of tightness.
@@DeadDodgeGarage GOTCHA, As long as the Valve length isn't out of Spec. that much you should be alright. These are non- adjustable Rockers, Right ? MOPAR STUFF. My OOMPH of tightness didn't work on my application.
Love the 500's I had a copper colored 67- 500 . Was wondering why you went with the GM tranny but at the end of the video you mentioned it having OD. Is there not a Mopar trannie with OD that would have worked?
Not behind a big block, without a truly ridiculous amount of work. Big blocks died after 1978, and the automatic overdrive didn’t come around until the 90s. Since big and small blocks use a different bellhousing, that requires an adapter - and they are also much bigger at the rear , so there is some floor and crossmember in the way. The Silversport kit puts the GM 4L60E in there with very little modification to the car, and makes it a no brainer - if you really want overdrive that badly. Personally, I wasn’t very happy with how it shifted. That’s likely more to do with the program loaded in the standalone controller than the transmission itself.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I see, and that makes sense. So Mopar doesn't make or hasn't made a true big block since 1978? Are all the hemi engines based on small blocks also ? Thanks
Glad ya got it running. But with what ya had to do to get it running l would be very sceptical about the torque of the head bolts especially the one off brand bolt. Are the rod bolts torqued rite are the pistons all facing the rite way or in backwards. Like ya said you didn't build the engine l would be scared of the reliabity of the engine assembler. Just my 2 cents worth
I’m guessing they lost a head bolt or maybe it was damaged. The pushrod mistake seems like an easy enough mistake to make. But I agree with what you’re saying. We will continue running it and keep an ear out for problems. If it has to come back out, then it has to come back out.
@@DeadDodgeGarage it does sound good but for how long if ya know what l mean. Keep the good work up though maybe some day l will stop by with my driver 69 charger. Not perfect but she is mine lol
I'm not trying to criticize,but why dose the transmission seem like it's got a gap at the bottom of the bell housing that makes it look out of wack, mabey I'm seeing things.still very nice,the bottom of the pass side is tight,the driver's side has a gap at the bottom
you have torque boxes on the convertible, you don't need any connectors.... i have torque boxes on my 440(model) convertible and my 67 r/t convertible....
So Jamie as a engine builder I hated guys that had stuff built someplace else then had me install it. Or thought they could build a engine. So case 1 guy builds a 67 hp 440 with flat top pistons. Turns engine over and locks up solid. In 67 they used closed chamber 915 heads not 906 castings. Different pistons. He used 906 pistons that came up to deck height. Carnage, bent valves. Bent push rods. Junk pistons. Cure start over. New pistons and valves that were not bent and push rods. So 3 grand later it ran. He had a professional shop build the motor. Told him ya should have come here first. Oh you did my bad I was 2 expensive. Ya can pay me now or pay me later. Case 2 push rods. 383 .020 decked block for more compression he said. So used 440 push rods. Nope bad plan. How It ran is beyond me. No power popping up the carb. Came here to get the carb set up and timing set. Problem bent push rods and used old rockers and shafts all rockers stretched to death. Pulled heads and valve marks in pistons. Well lest say cost more then a carb kit lol. The list of people who think they can build motors is long. The ones that can is short. 48yrs and never lost a motor so beat that. I no longer fix people's mistakes and won't take those jobs. Haven't for 20yrs. Less stress but miss the humor. Oh and my Red Forman dumb ass impression.
Wow. Yeah… I want to know how that ran too. I’ve only built 15-20 engines, but I’ve been in many, many more than that and have a good idea how things work - and how they don’t.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I said it ran but barely he towed it in here then he started it back firing and shooting flames out the carb. At first I thought timing off but later reveled much worse issues. Stretched rockers is a big problem for mopars and frankly it's the only reason it ran. 383 and 440 push rods are very different. The guy was a idiot. But again this is 30yrs ago.
@@jamesmayle3787 , you lost me there. So do you agree or disagree on the Bcool setup on this car? What do you think about the pushrod situation? Have you personally ran into this? Please share your wisdom on this?
Because frankly it’s an easier conversion than the comparable Mopar overdrive, and if Mopar made a “great” overdrive, I’d like to know which one that is. The GM fits much better than the Mopar overdrive (no cutting required,) and it’s readily available in a kit from SilverSport. Time will tell how it actually performs, but on paper at least it’s a great solution.
Haaahaha. No it’s all good. It’s a good kit, it fits better than the 46RH series Chrysler overdrive transmission and requires much less work to adapt to the big block. Electronics are readily available to make it all work. $5000 for a rebuilt transmission with an extra gear and everything to make it fit seems like a pretty fair deal to me. And while 4L60 GM transmissions definitely aren’t known for their longevity, the Chrysler overdrive isn’t any better. Worse, probably. If it works as well in this car as we think it will, I think we’ll be ordering a couple more.
I do not like GM SHIT, on a Mopar, your videos are so cool, I watch all the time, great job, but please, leave that GM,(General Mistake) with them, Mopar is always top notch!!! Mopar Nate Philadelphia,Pennsylvania
I understand, but I really have to disagree - in some cases, GM’s got the goods. And I’m not above using them. I actually explain the transmission choice in more detail on the latest installment on this car.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I'm not knockin' you, I like what you're doing, I guess I'm a purist, keep doing what you're doing, if it's good for you, guessing be good for me!!!
