New Member, New Polara

Wow! How was this ride being held together? And driven cross country!
I truly enjoy this thread. It's inspirational!
 
Congratulations on getting the stub frame out. And having something to mount the replacement to.
 
Wow! How was this ride being held together? And driven cross country!
I truly enjoy this thread. It's inspirational!

Well the front bolts/outriggers are what actually locates the stub and transmits the forces, and that was actually hunky dory. Relatively at least. The rear box section only really supports the tortion bars. Probably a mercy the bars were so clapped out, even in that state I watched the rear box section relax as i turned down the bar adjusters.

Is it really a mystery how the car was held together? Not really. Should it have been driven like that? Absolutely not.

She'll be right.
 
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So what should the crank bolt size be?

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1-3/16" is too small, won't go on. 1-1/4" is too big, and turns it but is very sloppy. I would not put an impact to it.

What is this?


Also, I decided while i have it apart, I'm going to do the valvetrain/cam. Do the heads this winter. Splits the money up and I won't be pulling the dampener with the sheet metal on.


This seems like a good fit, 440 source is great value for money, so I might as well get the entire valvetrain at once from them. It's a bigger cam but not too big. It'll just be a main street bruiser, not a serious race car. Gonna go full roller though, hardened pushrods, the whole nine yards. In for a penny, in for a pound. Or a thousand.

Ow my money.
 
Upon further research, 11/16" whitworth has compatable threading with SAE, and a head that's 1.200" across.

This is ******* whitworth. Not on my bingo card for today.
 
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More orangey than I had hoped but not bad. Ill paint the pan, covers etc when I pull it all apart to do the cam.

I also decided that since I want a roller cam, the factory springs will not take it. So **** it, time to do the whole top end. I have the money, why not.


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Oops!
 
Pretty sure that crank bolt should be 1 1/4”. Use a 6 point socket if you have it.
Travis..

Yeah sure should be. I put a six sided 31mm to it, which is 1.22", still loose. 1-3/16", or 1.1875" will not even try to go on.11/16" Whitworth is 1.200. It's a whitworth bolt.

I'm looking at that engine pic and can't figure out what's holding it up.

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Actually it's in Substance Painter. None of this is real, go home.


So my new top end, roller lifters, rockers, pushrods, distributor etc is on it's way. can't wait. Went with the Comp Xtreme Energy 230/236 cam. Should work very well with the stock converter and see a massive power gain for only a mild loss of milage. No thumper cam insane overlap for me. Even if it does sound cool. Really hoping the valve relief in the piston will be deep enough so i don't have to drop rods. Guess we'll see.



Which remarkably makes my motor very similar to this thing. Even the overbore (if grandpa is to be believed). But my motor is 10-1, not 9.4-1, i'm using a much better 7186 manifold and i'm using 440 source heads, not the factory 906 heads. So Blue's gonna have even more oomph than the motor trend mill. And look what that thing pulls.

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This is gonna be a rocket ship.

Just in time for winter!
 
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Does your engine not have 516 heads on it? If it hasn’t been apart, it should. I’m interested in how far below deck your pistons are and what your calculated compression ratio is with 440 source heads.
Travis..
 
Also, that crank bolt isn’t whitworth, it’s not a Norton. But hey, if it fits it ships (usps joke, you might not get it being Canadian, eh).
Travis..
 
Does your engine not have 516 heads on it? If it hasn’t been apart, it should. I’m interested in how far below deck your pistons are and what your calculated compression ratio is with 440 source heads.
Travis..

Yeah they look like those heads. It has been rebuilt around 2000, and now has modern looking aluminium pistons in it. It's a factory 10-1 motor so the stock pistons should be zero depth flat tops. I'm really hoping that when it was bored out they put in valve relief pistons. Compression was very good, all pots around 130psi, really don't want to mess with dropping them.

440 source chamber is advertised as 80cc. Might have them milled down to preserve the compression ratio, not sure. Gotta get the motor back in the frame to take the top end off and see whats in there, my only engine stand is occupied right now. Might I get away with flat tops? Don't know. I'll have to clay it no matter what's in there.

Also after speaking with people, the stock converter is a bit tight for the cam I bought. But big blue was bought with a towing package, ergo the LSD, so it might have the high stall factory converter which is close enough for my purposes. I've spent enough money on this garbage already. Fingers crossed.
 
Still waiting on engine bits to show up and I'm still patching the floor. Really dragging my feet because wire brushing under the car upside down sucks and I don't like it.

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Though in unrelated news, took Sketchy Bob drag racing for the first time, got the big prize for shitbox division. Highlights were cutting a .009 reaction time and running a perfect ET of 10.926 to cinch it.

Not powerful enough to spin off the line on a prepped surface so it ET's way slower than it actually is. I'll make it properly fast eventually but i've got enough garbage to dump unreasonable amounts of money into, presently.
 
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Bought another engine stand so as to not play musical stands with my 351. Tab was way longer so my bolts didn't fit. Cool.

These torque converter numbers mean anything to anyone? I'm really hoping this is the high stall towing package converter, which theoretically the car should have, but it's also turquoise so who the hell knows.
 
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Tomorrow the violence begins. Again.

Not impressed with the quality of this stand but it's the only one i could get today. Welds are not remarkably reassuring. But it's only about 150 pounds load per bolt/tab. Oh well.
 
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Cracked open the motor. It almost looks immaculate inside. However there's some serious wear on 3/4 of the passenger side bores. Small spots of rust and some piston skirt wear right at the bottom. I thought the rust was from me powerwashing the block, but the one with the open exhaust valve was the only one without rust in it. Go figure. Also, it completely lacked intake gaskets, whoever put this together last figured the valley pan was enough. No wonder it had a vaccum leak.

I also measured the bores at 4.255. It's entirely stock. Was that rebuild in 2002 real? Was it just a dingleball and rings? If it's 60 years old, how does it still have the crosshatch and 130 PSI compression?

Regrettably it has the expected flat tops. It needs new pistons anyway, the bores are almost good but there's enough trouble that I think it's time to visit the machine shop. It's .020 over time, i think.

I'll have to do the math, but hopefully that means I can keep the 10-1 compression ratio without miling the new heads any.

Drats.
 
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The person decided it only needed the valley pan is MA Mopar. That's how it's supposed to be.

Sounds like maybe it wasn't rebuilt...or maybe a quick rering and bearings if anything.
 
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