66 Coronet 500 Driver, Light Resto

[Nxcoupe]

Monday night, I decided I had to know if I was right about the speedometer being stuck feom painting the needle. It was a pita but I got it apart and sure as crap, it was stuck on the needle stop. I flicked it, it went PING, and released. The paint had sried to the stop. Now I have a working speedo. Yay!

 

[Nxcoupe]

After discussing this with WildRT, I decided to kill some baby seals and let all the 134 out of my system. I hooked up the gauges and turned the knob on the high pressure side, but when I opened the valve on the low pressure, the pressure jumped up a bunch. That confirmed my txv was stuck closed or blocked. Turns out when I poured oil in the hose, it drug a bunch of trash to the txv with it. You can barely make out the issue, fine, black goo.

 

[Nxcoupe]

New TXV should be sitting at O'Reilly's. This means the ac system will work soon. Yay! The entire system is getting an overhaul when the engine comes out

 

[Nxcoupe]

I stopped by O'Reilly's yesterday on my way home and picked up the new txv. I waited for the shop to cool down and installed it with the provided orings.
But first, let's back up a bit. Getting that txv loose from the evaporator inlet was an absolute bia$$ch. I was convinced I cracked the inlet tube at the evaporator. The old one did not have a hex made onto it at either threaded fitting end, so no way to grip the txv while breaking the fitting loose. I finally used a blick of wood to stabalize the assembly, clamed vice grips on it, and positioned the wrech so I could squeeze both of the simultaneously and it broke loose! Tgis after about 3 hours of cussing, frustration, yet no wrench throwing, I am improving.
I pulled a vacuum on it and it instantly went down as far as the gauge goes. I let it sit for 30 min and it went up 3" vac. I turned on the vacuum pump amd pulled on it for 15 min and then closed the valves and turned off the pump. I went inside for the night.
I came out this morning and the gauge still read 28 or 29"!!! I call that fixed. I charged it with 3 cans, pressures were 30 to 40 low side and 175 to 250 on high side, 99 deg shop temps. Ive cold air blowing out the vents.
I hooked up my laptop and worked on idle tuning and got that dialed in to where I am happy with it, and took it for a ride. Ran and cooled great.
New issues, need to put my ccs or css, whatever, into my coronet and put my og radiator into the belvedere. I think that will solve my 200 deg running temps. Not hateful but cooler is better on this old thing.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Worked on cold start up this morning. Tired of rough starts. Hard to tell which is affecting it more, running on 5 good cylinders and 3 weak ones, or the tune. Lol. Going to hook up the wot ac cut out output and ac on input after I get these heads ported I'm working on.

 

[ckessel]

I have EFI planned in the future, multi port, but not going to waste my time right now since it has an appetite for oil.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I have EFI planned in the future, multi port, but not going to waste my time right now since it has an appetite for oil.

Get with me when you are ready to get one.

 

[ckessel]

Will do. The 65 is already set for it, got the engine that way from Indy. The wagon will get it in the future but only after I redo the electrical from stem to stern. I picked up a Street Dominator that I'll get bungs put into and rails to match. I'm thinking about getting a distributor from a 5.2/5.9 Magnum to use for it at that time. According to Haltech, their system needs either magnetic pick up or Hall effect to run it. The Magnum is Hall effect and no advance mechanism. Not much difference in shaft length, see the picture of an old A dizzy compared to my new stocker. Next time I go to the wrecking yard, I'm going to nab one plus get some pigtail material off the harness. While I'm putzing on that, I'm going to see if the Magnum fuel rails might work with some mods. If so, get them too. Haltech will most likely be one of the Power Tour West sponsors again. If so, I'll be asking questions about which unit, what else is needed[ besides the obvious] etc.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Well, yet another kick in the crotch this evening. Took my wife out to eat to show off the ac functioning in the coronet and the new suspension, gauges, etc. Well, cruising down the highway, the temp gauge is creeping up past half way. I glance down at the holley screen and 216! Holy crapola! I turn off the ac we roll down the windows and it starts to cool off a bit. Still 200. It never overheated since I had the radiator repaired and put the new fan clutch on from Megaparts. I pulled it into the garage, since she broke my zip tie repair on the passenger door glass, I did in the parking lot of the hotel in Carlisle.
I'm out here in the garage since it's cooled down, a LOT, and was porting on my heads. I took a break, as my hands get numb from holding the motor too long, and thought I'd look over the cooling system. I grabbed the viscous fan and gave it a flick, and it just spun freely. I thought it was a thermostatic fan, so I grabbed a flashlight and a mirror and stuck them and my face down where I could see it and yep, it's thermostatic. That's when I noticed the clutch oil all over the water pump and clutch to fan bolts. You know, it had already started growing 'hair' on it, it had been leaking so long.
I paid like 240 bucks for this damn thing 3 years ago and it's already junk! I bet it doesn't have 300 miles on it. Garbage. I ordered one of the ones from hayden through Amazon, be here Monday. Probably fit like garbage but if it keeps my engine, that is barely holding onto life, from melting down, it's worth it. It may fit like crap but I'll deal with it. Can't catch a break.

 

[ckessel]

Expensive junk. Gotta love it. Good thing it didn't take the radiator and other stuff out.

 

[HawkRod]

Well, yet another kick in the crotch this evening. Took my wife out to eat to show off the ac functioning in the coronet and the new suspension, gauges, etc. Well, cruising down the highway, the temp gauge is creeping up past half way. I glance down at the holley screen and 216! Holy crapola! I turn off the ac we roll down the windows and it starts to cool off a bit. Still 200. It never overheated since I had the radiator repaired and put the new fan clutch on from Megaparts. I pulled it into the garage, since she broke my zip tie repair on the passenger door glass, I did in the parking lot of the hotel in Carlisle.
I'm out here in the garage since it's cooled down, a LOT, and was porting on my heads. I took a break, as my hands get numb from holding the motor too long, and thought I'd look over the cooling system. I grabbed the viscous fan and gave it a flick, and it just spun freely. I thought it was a thermostatic fan, so I grabbed a flashlight and a mirror and stuck them and my face down where I could see it and yep, it's thermostatic. That's when I noticed the clutch oil all over the water pump and clutch to fan bolts. You know, it had already started growing 'hair' on it, it had been leaking so long.
I paid like 240 bucks for this damn thing 3 years ago and it's already junk! I bet it doesn't have 300 miles on it. Garbage. I ordered one of the ones from hayden through Amazon, be here Monday. Probably fit like garbage but if it keeps my engine, that is barely holding onto life, from melting down, it's worth it. It may fit like crap but I'll deal with it. Can't catch a break.

It's a shame that so many of the reproduction parts are inferior. The problem is, you never know what will work well and what won't.

Yeah, Yeah, we should be happy that they are even available, but it's annoying to have to replace stuff that is essentially new. At least this is a pretty easy and quick fix...

 

[68BabyBlue]

It's a shame that so many of the reproduction parts are inferior. The problem is, you never know what will work well and what won't.

Yeah, Yeah, we should be happy that they are even available, but it's annoying to have to replace stuff that is essentially new. At least this is a pretty easy and quick fix...

I was really spoiled with Baby Blue. When my friend Bob owned the car from 1974 to 1983, he replaced just about every part in the electrical, cooling, braking, and suspension systems with Chrysler NOS, because that was all that was available. Then he parked the car, selling it to me a couple years later. It still performs like a new Mopar to this day.

All three restored cars I've owned since gave me nuisance problems with reproduction parts. It's made me appreciate the value of OEM components.

 

[Nxcoupe]

It's a shame that so many of the reproduction parts are inferior. The problem is, you never know what will work well and what won't.

Yeah, Yeah, we should be happy that they are even available, but it's annoying to have to replace stuff that is essentially new. At least this is a pretty easy and quick fix...

I am hoping this Hayden one will last a while longer. Been working on the tune as well, but it's difficult with cylinders dropping out and coming back randomly, so I think it's about as good as it's gonna get.