What a battle I've had with this car, if I knew it was going to be this much trouble, I would have left the 6 in it. I had some trouble with it not revving up and while working on it, drove it through the garage door. Then I found out that the problem was that I put a shift kirt in the trans, and when I put the valve body back in, I messed up and something got lodged in the wrong port and locked it in low gear. Add to that the fluid was low so the trans wasn't working until the revs got up and that's how it ended up going through the door. Anyways it is finally running but then there was oil on the valve covers coming from the dipstick and out the breather on the one valve cover. I replaced the crappy generic PCV valve with a proper one for that engine and everything seems fine. It ran pretty good although i need to tweek the shift points in spring when I get her back on the road. Whew , what a summer, something that was going to be a quick swap took all I had and then some to get it done....
If this can just be done! I can't believe all the little things that keep creeping up but I'm close now. I just need to get my torque converter and bolt the tranny on the motor and put it in the car. I had to grind my motor mount pads as well as put slots in them for the alignment pins on the motor mounts. Now I'm beginning to worry about whether the motor is going to sit too high when I get it in. I guess I'll know real soon. The buckets are in as well and the shifter is in the console. I also decided that the trans cooler would mount under the front bumper. It also appears that the stock rad for the 6 won't keep the big 8 cool so I'll have to get it recored or order a new aluminum rad....m.o.n.e.y.....p.i.t. ! The last pic is my helper and sounding board.
The motor is in and looks great. I had to remove the headers because they hit the steering box but I will sell them and get a set of blockhuggers. I had to remove the spacer between the carb and the intake so the hood will fit back on but that was easy. I had to make a new driveshaft and I made it quite a bit heavier than the original, maybe overkill but it was also cheaper. I am now waiting for a new set of headers and my rad to come back and I should be ready to break in the engine. I finally got my brakes fixed and need to hook up the shifter linkage. I'm looking forward to finally driving it .
It's finally ready to go in the car after 2 years, who knew rebuilding a motor was going to be so expensive. I am selling the original 223 - 6 cylinder and 3 speed manual transmission which has less than 2000 miles on them since being rebuilt if anyone is interested. The bench seat is gone and I've replaced it with a set of buckets and a console. I'll put some pics in when the car comes out of winter storage in April.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)