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I am feeling defeted on my 73 RR

Another example of why you should do it yourself. Even if you have to buy a few special tools or extra gaskets if you screw something up, no one is going to give the same attention to detail that you will.
 
I have installed the bigger valve setup too... one of the machine shops installed and seated new valves at very diff height each one... some with 0.040" difference between them ( I think more ). Had to take it ot another machine shop to try to get them equalized once again... well not perfect but better now.

Montclaire... I'm trying to get finished my car to take it to Spain with me.
 
Oh yeah, we tried the SRT8 thing in 2010. Its sitting in the garage with a dead battery covered in dust. Nobody ever drove it, 40k mi on the clock. New cars are boring.

Yeah I have a Scat Pack Challenger. It is fun but no where near the same smile I get from driving my classic.
 
I can identify with the frustration. I'm building my second '74 Sebring Plus. She's a rust bucket. My avatar is the car as I bought it 3 years ago. In those three years, i and some friends and relatives, have emptied my wallet repeatedly rebuilding my car. The HUGE benefit that I have is a brother and a cousin who were/are racers. My brother has built numerous engines for dirt track drivers and my cousin is a drag racing maniac that does his own work. They did pretty extensive rebuilds on my 360 LA and the 727 Torqueflite as well as the entire brake system, suspension and steering, total rewire of the car, gauge swaps, etc. The list goes on and on. Three years and about $15000.00 later, I still haven't driven the car consistently. I did manage to sneak in a dash cap and just got some aftermarket front buckets (Procar Elite, very nice!). My biggest issue has been bolts coming out if every possible place. Three times towed home due to a bolt head cutting into the oil filter (twice) and dipstick tube being ejected from the pan (once). Turns out the bolts walked out of the block allowing separation between the block and trans housing. Still scratching our heads on that one. Anyway, once I get the bolts replaced and put a dab of blue loctite on them, I'll take her out for another test run. I have to shoulder most of the blame for my problems. My brother told me that my car was no longer just a "daily driver" and that I would have to keep a close eye on things and tighten and torque bolts every so often to avoid things like this. I got lazy and now I'm paying the price. The good news is that, after each test and tune session, the car gets stronger and stronger. It's never going to be a top fueler but, it's going to be a lot of fun. I still need to get my sure grip swap done and then maybe I can look at cosmetics next fall. As they said in Galaxy Quest, "Never give up! Never surrender!"
 
An update: Yep it is still sitting untouched since my last post. I am leaning more on striping it down and calling it quits...
 
An update: Yep it is still sitting untouched since my last post. I am leaning more on striping it down and calling it quits...
Well, " A mans got to know his limitations". as Clint once said. I've been working on cars since the 70s. Every time I have someone do work for me, they do a **** job. That's why I chose to learn to do things myself. I'd rather buy the tool, than put up with some indifferent jackass. I have to learn to paint again, because the *** I used didn't put enough paint on the car. You couldn't see it until it was in direct sunlight. Hard to pull the car apart again.
Remember, it's a machine. it's not the cars fault. It's the people working on it. If it's fixed right, it will work right.
You have to decide if you have the ambition to complete this car. If not, sell it to someone else. If you do, take the help offered here. put that trans part in it, and see if it works. But, fix the electrical issue first. that is the most urgent problem. And make sure of your grounds. they will absolutely cause the high charging rate.
 
An update. I decided the weather was nice enough to try to work on it.
I pulled the valve body, installed the orfice restrictor I had gotten from CRT
Started the engine to test the trans. Success!!! The rear wheels didn't lock up on the 2-3 shift!!!

Now the big bummer. On start up there was a definitive clatter. After running the engine long enough to test the trans, I did a temp reading of the exhaust pipes. Cylinder #8 was 100 °cooler then the rest. I pulled the rocker cover and yep cylinder #8 has a loose rocker. I am sure the lifter colapsed for the second time.

So moving forward I will be keeping the pos.
I am so deep in it I won't get half of my money back. So I will have to eat the cost of doing it again.

I will not be keeping the roller set up as I think it's the block causing the issue. I want to go to a solid flat tappet cam. I have looked at quite a few cam manufacturers but most solid cams have a lift higher then what the stock eddy rpm heads can take.
I also don't know what springs are actually on the heads, just the shop said "they would work" on both the hydraulic flat tappet and with the roller cam.
When I bought the heads they were new second hand on ebay and was not given the part number for the type of springs that were on them just the eddy head part number.

I can't really afford to go whole hog on doing everything I wanted to do like send the heads to Hughes and have them go through the heads and do the super prep job and springs and ever thing else. But I don't want to take the engine apart and not do it...

What do you guys recommend???
 
IQ 52 does a great job on heads. Been doing big blocks for years, and he is in Idaho, so not too far from you. Try to do most , or all of the work yourself. That's the fun if it, learning new things. Plus it's way cheaper, and you know it's done right. Take your time, no hurry. Tackle 1 problem at a time. Focus on that, until it is fixed. Then move on to the next one. Run it by the forum, research it, then plan a course of action and go for it! I've noticed there are a lot of Mopar guys in Oregon. Andy F is a really good one. Knows and builds big blocks really well. Good luck!
 
Also, if you need crash parts for the RR i have frame rails, aprons etc.

FWIW, I'm not a fan of TCI. Sounds like the band overlap is dicked up. Or maybe the clutch pack clearance is too tight? DVW could help you on this one.
I have gotten the trans issue fixed... at lest I hope so,
My father in law is now willing to sell me his RR, and the satellite he bought for a parts car. So I might have a good engine to put in for this season. We shall see...
 
I’m sorry that you are having bad luck, we have all had our share. A lot of guys say do your own work.... I agree but some things cannot be done at home in a basic garage. We were lucky enough to find a date code correct block for our 70, but as luck would have it, the guy that decked the block removed too much material and ruined it. He did get a new block for us but of course was not a dated to the car. After that experience, we took the heads to a different shop to have .050” planned off and intake faces machined to match. When we finally got around to cc the heads, we found that only about.025” was removed and nothing cut from the intake face. So we took them back and told them but we did not have a receipt so we got charged again for the job.... $400! A bit steep for having heads planned imo.

As far as the cam, I run a solid lifter, racer brown cam in my 340 with an advertised .520” lift and it worked amazing! I had it in a Mirada and ran low 12s at 113mph with iron heads. Would highly recommend that cam to anyone looking to build a street/strip motor.
 
I understand the frustration as many do.

I went through so much of that with my 1st 72 Plymouth when I was a young man, fresh out of school in the 90's. Bought it out of a junk yard. Didn't know much. Nobody wanted to help. I did as much as I could figure out (pre-internet). Paid people to do the rest... Jobs that they couldn't have cared less about - on a car they thought was junk. Paying to have stuff done only to have to re-do it. Struggling with the money side of it. Cutting corners concerning MY comfort in order to be able to spend more on the car. Not running my house AC in the summer or heat in the winter as an example. Eating sandwiches. It was my only car and for months I had to limp it to and from work or to the grocery store for bare essentials, nowhere else because it had very low oil pressure. Finally got a new engine built, put in, and was about halfway through saving for a paint job when, on the way home from work, the car got totaled out by a complete moron. Other driver had no insurance, no license, and no way to pay me. I only had liability. Lost so much. Was hurt in the wreck. My old man let me put it at his shop for a while but constantly bitched about it being in the parking lot. Couldn't find another one to swap parts onto (again, pre-internet). Sold it for $1500.

I was upset about that for a long time. So many regrets. Could have done this. Should have done that. I always work hard to finish what I start and it bothered me.

Fast forward 20 years. Had been buying somewhat older cars ever since and teaching myself as I went. Never owned a car built after '93 until last year. So I learned a lot over the years.

The day came, I bought another 72. Fixed it up. Went through issues. Learned from them. Finished it. Sold for a good profit.

Again, bought another 72. Went through more, different, issues. Learned more. Finished it. Sold it for a good profit.

Every time I built the next one, things went better. Every time I took more of the responsibility of things upon myself, learned stuff, and the builds went more smoothly.

So I bought ANOTHER 72. Used the profits from the other 2 I built to pay for it. Ended up with a hell of a car if I do say so myself and I built the entire car in 9 months. I can do everything to one of these myself except machine and build an engine or a trans - but I'm hoping to learn that soon as well. For now I just trade my skills out to a friend who trades me his and shows me stuff. I work on one of his or his customer's cars, he'll build me an engine and let me help.

I guess I'm rambling but my point is: It's all a process. NOT a procedure. You learn and things get easier. Sometimes there is no guaranteed 1+1=2. Sometimes it's 1+1+1+1+1+1 to finally get to 2 but if you stick with it, you will get there. But if you quit, that's it. It's over. You feel like a failure. You regret. You hate. You wish you would have done things different. Take it from me and don't give up. Take a break instead and learn.

I'm sorry you have been having these issues. For me, it really helps to forget everything else on a project and focus on fixing one issue before letting yourself think about the next. Otherwise you get overwhelmed. Which I think is the point you may be at.

Keep your head up
 
I got $30k into my charger it's currently a bare shell! But when it's time to go together I shouldn't need anything!
 
If you want to test the valve springs pull the heads and bring em over. On the cam I'd figure out what is happening with what you have before starting over from scratch. I think you are in a good place to stop spending money until the issue is clear. Could be minor. Trust me it's going to P O you now and again and that's the reality of *any* relationship or other goal that worth achieving.

Anything that costs money and doesn't go well is hell irritating, I'm not trying to take away from that. Feeling like Clark Griswald at Christmas is normal for car guys all year round.
 
If you want to test the valve springs pull the heads and bring em over. On the cam I'd figure out what is happening with what you have before starting over from scratch. I think you are in a good place to stop spending money until the issue is clear. Could be minor. Trust me it's going to P O you now and again and that's the reality of *any* relationship or other goal that worth achieving.

Anything that costs money and doesn't go well is hell irritating, I'm not trying to take away from that. Feeling like Clark Griswald at Christmas is normal for car guys all year round.

I am done with Hydraulic lifters. I have ordered a complete mechanical cam package from Hughes.
part numbers as follows:
HUG1129 x16 Dual springs
HUGSTL6064AS-8 cam 260/264 108LSA .619 lift
HUG5012EDM x16 solid lifters
HUG30360 full gasket kit ( I need to have the oil pan customized and just needed all the gaskets)
JGP0186 x8 QTS break in oil for their cam guarantee
HUG5679 push rod kit
I feel I can sell off any of the roller cam parts that are still good. ( I am assuming that nothing is good) to recoup some of the grand I just spent.
If you are feeling up to it, I could use the help changing the springs, and I am also wondering how I am going to break in the cam with just the single spring and then install the inner springs. Is there a way to do that with the heads still on? Yeah this is going to be a fun learning experience.
 
As an update for the engine work.
I have pulled the intake and the heads to get the lifters out. All the lifters and cam lobes have damage. What I believe to have happened, is the springs were not strong enough for the weight of the lifters in motion. As we hit 5k+ RPM the lifters were coming off of the cam, and then smacking back into the cam. Basically the shop who did my engine, set it up for failure from the get go. Bullet custom engines is no longer there, there is a different shop name. I have contacted my credit card company for a charge back, however it has been over a year since the charge for my CC. They were not able to do it.... Basically I spent $2300 to ruin my engine.
 
Engine is done! Reinstalled with all the correct parts. Ran it for break in, She is a beast! Tire smoke on demand. I have almost 200 miles and a tank of 93 through it. It is crap for street manners, the cam was a little bigger then expected, but we are talking some good power out of it.

I would like to say thank you to all who have given me the encouragement to keep on this. I have learned alot. This has been a 2 year long project so far and I am happy to be able to drive it.
 
I'm gonna disagree with Mopar_Chuck in the fact he said some things can't be done in a basic garage. I restored my car from top to bottom, rebuilt every single component, trans, power steering pump, axle, you name it, did the body/paint, interior, did it all. 2 things I didn't do, machine the block or plate the items needing plating, and I did it all in my garage. I know a guy who paint a black car in a garage with a dirt floor and it had one of the best paint jobs I'd ever seen. Don't get frustrated. Make you car a fun hobby and a good chance to learn what you may not know...
 
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