Here we go. One last time...

moparedtn said:

A couple of quick videos where I take it up through the gears:




Bonus in the 2nd video: I leave my right turn signal on like old folks do.
(It doesn't self-cancel like the left side does)

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Thanks for the ride, it was fun ! I know how you must have felt as it's not been that long since Brutus got on the road. Beautiful country, mountains are nice, but hard to beat rolling hills and lots of green vegetation
Yep, adjust your clutch where it feels comfortable and it will really spoil you ,after all those years of stiff over center spring.......................................MO

Cornpatch MO said:

Thanks for the ride, it was fun ! I know how you must have felt as it's not been that long since Brutus got on the road. Beautiful country, mountains are nice, but hard to beat rolling hills and lots of green vegetation
Yep, adjust your clutch where it feels comfortable and it will really spoil you ,after all those years of stiff over center spring.......................................MO

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We were sitting at the cruise-in and my wife asked me what was wrong; apparently I was sitting there quietly, staring off into space.
I told her that it had occurred to me that the fight with this car had been so long that I didn't actually know how to act now.
Still don't, really.

Give your wife a BIG kiss for watching over you! She sounds like she enjoyed the ride too.

very nice. sounded great!

oldbee said:

Give your wife a BIG kiss for watching over you! She sounds like she enjoyed the ride too.

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Yeah, there's several little mini-videos she made while riding shotgun on the trip.
I told her video would be handy for insurance claims and court appearances later.

LOL!

1969 Hemi RTs said:

very nice. sounded great!

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Thanks, much obliged. I do admit I like the sound of the Mopar purpleshaft cam in it, which I'm guessing is the 484/288 one. Wonder how much vacuum that cam is supposed to produce? I have about 10Hg right now.

Well, this may very well be the last post I make on this thread.
(Crowd goes wild!)
No, that's a good thing. I think.

After spending yet another couple hours re-grading my road yet again after last nights' rains of biblical proportions (seems like that's the only kind we get anymore),
I got back in the garage this afternoon to work on the GTX some.

I ran the adjustment on the clutch up quite a bit to try and raise the pedal up off the floor some more, as far as I dared anyways, and that seems to have helped a little.
Hope that doesn't put undue strain/wear on the clutch.

Fired her up and once warm, set timing to where it seemed happiest by ear (vacuum gauge aided) and noticed initial timing wound up slightly off the factory scale, so I want to say around 13BTDC?
I left the vacuum advance hooked up for now. Time will tell on whether it stays hooked up.
I also adjusted the idle mixture for best vacuum, which turned out to be only about 1.25 turns out. She still stinks at idle, so I'm not concerned about too lean.
Kinda smells like victory to me.

Lastly, I installed what every 440 I've owned for many a year now has had on it:

These were made by a good friend out in California (he still makes them sometimes) and given to me as a gift many moons ago. It's my way of saying the engine is probably going to stay for a while.

Cleaned up/uncovered my workbench, put stuff away. Tons of parts/fasteners left over:


That's good, right?

Finally, registered the clutch with Centerforce for warranty and called it a day.
Next....probably time to start selling off parts I don't need.

Folks, thank you SO MUCH for hanging in here with me all these months.
If I'm honest, when I started this I gave myself less than a 50/50 shot at getting this done before....well, you know.

After tons of help from afar (and above!), this day has arrived.
I don't really know how to act right now. You mean I can just go hop in it and drive it? What a concept!
I just keep looking at my wife like "I did that??"
Very grateful to everyone, to my wife, to the man upstairs.
Maybe he'll let me stick around a bit and drive the damn thing, who knows...

Did you give a kiss yet?lol. Thank god no more posts, just kidding; it's been an awesome post...( I know there'll be more forthcoming)

Come on, Ed! Buck-up. This is just the start of a new adventure. Get in that car and drive it everywhere you can. Did you guys go for malts yet?

coloradodave said:

Come on, Ed! Buck-up. This is just the start of a new adventure. Get in that car and drive it everywhere you can. Did you guys go for malts yet?

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We went this evening, matter of fact.
Got some fresh gas in the car, too. Gauge almost reads correctly.
This was a bit longer continuous running of the car and she did fine, but a couple issues have made themselves evident now:
1. The carb has an off-idle stumble
2. She runs warmer than I'm comfortable with - and in fact, when we got back home and I shut it down, she did that Mopar thing where she promptly purged herself of some coolant. Hey, they always did get rid of what they didn't want, right?

moparedtn said:

We went this evening, matter of fact.
Got some fresh gas in the car, too. Gauge almost reads correctly.
This was a bit longer continuous running of the car and she did fine, but a couple issues have made themselves evident now:
1. The carb has an off-idle stumble
2. She runs warmer than I'm comfortable with - and in fact, when we got back home and I shut it down, she did that Mopar thing where she promptly purged herself of some coolant. Hey, they always did get rid of what they didn't want, right?

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Bump the timing up a couple of degrees at a time until it starts cranking slow when hot or you get some 'pinging' on acceleration. Might help both problems. Otherwise play with the accelerator pump linkage. At what temperature was it running?

coloradodave said:

Bump the timing up a couple of degrees at a time until it starts cranking slow when hot or you get some 'pinging' on acceleration. Might help both problems. Otherwise play with the accelerator pump linkage. At what temperature was it running?

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I will be disconnecting the vacuum advance - that should take care of the "jitters" on part-throttle cruise it's exhibiting. Always has before on the ones I've had. Must have something to do with the Mopar electronic ignition deal, I dunno.

Yes to the accelerator link - if there's a stronger shot position available, I'll take it a notch up and see how that helps.
Before I do that, though, I will pull the carb off and go through it one time to give it a light cleaning and inspection. It's been sitting a while, best to give it the once-over even though it's practically new (1000 miles according to previous owner).

Temperature-wise, it appears to be running about 190-200 even with fair temps here in the 70's. The dash gauge gets to halfway; my cheapy temp gauge under dash says 200.
No idea what thermostat is in it. I have a Stant 180 degree Superstat on the way and will be drilling a small hole in the flange of it for burping purposes before installation.

I told ya, it's always something!

A bit of an update:
I have been trying what was suggested with the timing, inching it up more and more. She still has plenty of go, but the nervousness/surging only got worse.
Now, I've reverted back to only 10BTDC and I noticed she starts a darn sight easier now, instantly firing. Mix screws give max vacuum at 2 turns out. Accelerator pump now set at 2nd hole. Vacuum advance re-connected and I replaced the PCV, which was raising quite the whistly racket.
Out we go again, test driving....

Oh well, guess this isn't over now after all. She gets hot, REAL hot, going down the road, then spits up when I stop. It got in the low 80's today and that was enough, I guess. I guess this 3-core 26" stock-style looking brass radiator isn't enough, especially with the core support opening still being 22", shroud or no shroud.
It's not the right shroud anyways, but now I'm wondering if this is the reason the seller of the engine was so quick to be "helpful" when I bought it....

Forget that noise I posted earlier.
I ain't done yet, dammit. MF'er isn't going to get the best of me,
not after all I've been through.

moparedtn said:

I'm done. It's not meant that I have this, obviously.
I said this was the last time and it is.

Y'all have good lives.

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Don't quit! Get the sabre saw out cut the support open. Try another distributor. A guy I knew had an overheating problem I loaned him a distributor it was ok. Hope somebody else chimes in.

I have looked back at your pictures of the fan and shroud, and it appears that the fan might be too far out of the shroud. Displaced airflow through radiator core is totally dependent on the depth of fan blade in shroud.
If the fan blade is too far in you are creating a wind tunnel straight at the motor and not having enough fan blade to direct hot air to pavement(which is the only place open enough for air flow)
An ideal amount on older cars with solid fans was 60% of fan blade in shroud to pull air through and 40% outside to direct hot air to pavement.
Not saying this is what's happening, but certainly worth looking into.

Is the clutch on the fan any good?