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1974 Plymouth Roadrunner Clone (re)Build

mschoo92

Well-Known Member
Local time
7:53 AM
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Location
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Hello everyone! Welcome to our build thread; my father and I have been working on his 1974 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus aka the Roadrunner since July of 2018. We have made a ton of progress, had our share of discoveries and setbacks, and as of today are in the middle of a full on rebuild of the car. I've got a ton of photos and information to share, but first a little background:

Dad and I are both self-proclaimed "car guys"; he's been working on cars since he was fourteen or so, and once I hit high school I started to find myself interested in cars as well - it's been a great hobby we both share, and I am grateful to have this project to work on with him. We have very different approaches seeing as he worked as a mechanic for many years whereas I'm a mechanical engineer, but we make a great team. But enough about us and on to the project...

We bought the Satellite in July of 2018 after seeing it in the "car corral" at the Carlisle Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle PA. We lucked out in that the previous owner lived relatively close to us, which allowed us time to think it over. A week after the show, we drove out and purchased the car. The previous owners were well into their project to turn the Satellite into a Roadrunner; the car came from the factory as a 318 automatic but had been converted to a 440 4 speed setup. It didn't run well, and we were told the car had a vibration which they thought was due to an incorrect flywheel. Cosmetically, the car looked great. The car was trailered to the house and dropped off on July 22nd, 2018 and so the build began.

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Our build began shortly thereafter, with the first step being to take the existing clutch and flywheel out and get the correct parts in:
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The transmission was taken to a local shop to get looked at and cleaned up in September of 2018, and right around that same time we received the flywheel and clutch - big thanks to Brewer's Performance for helping us identify and order the correct parts! We definitely circled back to them a few times for parts and information.

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Around this time, we also started to identify different areas of the build that we would eventually want to address. Our plan was to take the build in a few stages. Stage 1 was simple; replace what needed replacing, get the roadrunner running on the road, and get a feel for the car "as-is". Though the end goal was (and is) to build a car with a healthy helping of horsepower and then some, we didn't want to do it all at once.

One of the items we identified from the start as needing to be addressed was the stock 8-1/4 rear end; it was equipped with a 2.76 rear gear and we felt it wouldn't be up to task once the 440 was built up.

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Towards the end of September we received our transmission back from the shop, and we were ready to reinstall everything to get the car moving again:

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One thing to note - reinstalling the transmission on the ground using floor jacks was not exactly "fun". We had used the plastic clutch alignment tool, and if I had one recommendation to anyone looking to do something like this - go for the alignment tool made from an actual transmission input shaft. I'm not sure what went wrong, but we could not get the transmission to slide into position; it was hung up about 1" from being flush against the bellhousing.

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After days (yes, days...) of messing around with the transmission install (even taking it all back apart to make certain everything was aligned) we finally were able to get everything together.

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(words cant even describe how great this was to finally see the transmission fully seated against the bellhousing...)
 
With the drivetrain reinstalled, we went to work on the remainder of components needed to have her on the road. First was getting that treacherous overcenter spring off of the clutch pedal - thanks to the forbbodiesonly community for the suggestion of putting washers in between the spring coils to help stretch it out. Even so, it came off with drama and came violently flying out to land on the seat right between us - thank God it was nothing more than a scare and it hadn't hit one of us, can't imagine that woulda felt too good!
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After the overcenter spring came brakes, and then the car was roadworthy!
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(I had a short clip of the exhaust when we had it running last November, but it seems it's too large to upload. I will have to create a youtube account and edit this post later to add it in.)

With the car running, it was apparent that there was something else wrong with the engine; we were getting a heavy smoke from the driver's side exhaust pipe. Paired with a leaky exhaust manifold the car was drivable but only just. With winter imminent, our build was on hold - come spring 2019, we would start down the path that led to where we are today - engine rebuilt and car disassembled once more.
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This seems like a good spot to stop for now; I have plenty of photos and storytelling to go but I don't want to rush it and skip over details. To be continued!

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What's the inside of that car like, being an SSP, I imagine it's slightly nicer than basic.
Mine came from the factory with no day/night mirror, and no carpet, but with AC!

My build is more of an SSP clone than an RR clone. The 318 is fine for me right now and I don't mind getting 14.5 MPG so I can drive to work on Fridays without stopping for gas both ways.

I just got a power window harness which was the last part I was waiting on for that project, and I've stockpiled nearly everything to put cruise control on and a pistol grip 833OD if I feel like it.

Love the color!
 
What's the inside of that car like, being an SSP, I imagine it's slightly nicer than basic.
Mine came from the factory with no day/night mirror, and no carpet, but with AC!

My build is more of an SSP clone than an RR clone. The 318 is fine for me right now and I don't mind getting 14.5 MPG so I can drive to work on Fridays without stopping for gas both ways.

I just got a power window harness which was the last part I was waiting on for that project, and I've stockpiled nearly everything to put cruise control on and a pistol grip 833OD if I feel like it.

Love the color!

Thank you! I just checked your SSP out in your photo garage, pretty sharp! Did you keep the F8 interior?

Well right now the interior isn’t fully buttoned up as we had some significant tear down to do (I’ll be adding to this thread soon with our 2019 journey so far), but I have a few shots from before tear down - I’ll get more detailed ones as it goes back together. The car is “confused” right now since interior is Sebring and exterior is roadrunner.

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The interior was tan but was painted over black...unfortunately whoever did this didn’t properly prep the surfaces, so the paint wears off easily allowing the tan to show through.
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We ordered a number of parts through Legendary, including the correct 74 upper door panels, a new dash pad (previous one was cracked) and a new center console. After stripping the interior, we took the entire dash pad and frame out of the car and prepped the surface of the frame so that the black paint would stick properly.
 
Yes the int is still F8 but I put in OEM puffy 74 SSP upper panels in white and installed correct buckets seats with buddy seat covered in new Legendary white covers.

The dash pad is still mint as is the headliner (which is NOT the perforated style).

The green/white interior actually takes on a kind or nautical look, and looks like it could have been that way from the factory.

I just painted and installed a factory floor mounted cassette pod for my modern radio.
After buying expensive Herb's interior paint only to find out it wasn't even close, I found a much better match (although slightly lighter) in Krylon Italian Olive, from wal-mart!
I used SEM adhesion promoter after using JB weld lite to fill in where a previos owner had mounted a CB mic holder and some toggle switches.

I'm torn between switching and painting everything to black or as I'm particularly fond of- white cars with blue interiors and red accents. The factory blue int panels tend to fade to much different colors from each other. The F8 apparently does not.

or

I've been trying to "embrace the green" and even considered having an RR stripe custom made in F6/F8 without the bird.

I'm interested to see what those Legendary upper panels look like.
I've heard the backing is plastic.
I just tossed some really poor 71 uppers but almost kept them and saved the metal.
 
Yes the int is still F8 but I put in OEM puffy 74 SSP upper panels in white and installed correct buckets seats with buddy seat covered in new Legendary white covers.

The dash pad is still mint as is the headliner (which is NOT the perforated style).

The green/white interior actually takes on a kind or nautical look, and looks like it could have been that way from the factory.

I just painted and installed a factory floor mounted cassette pod for my modern radio.
After buying expensive Herb's interior paint only to find out it wasn't even close, I found a much better match (although slightly lighter) in Krylon Italian Olive, from wal-mart!
I used SEM adhesion promoter after using JB weld lite to fill in where a previos owner had mounted a CB mic holder and some toggle switches.

I'm torn between switching and painting everything to black or as I'm particularly fond of- white cars with blue interiors and red accents. The factory blue int panels tend to fade to much different colors from each other. The F8 apparently does not.

or

I've been trying to "embrace the green" and even considered having an RR stripe custom made in F6/F8 without the bird.

I'm interested to see what those Legendary upper panels look like.
I've heard the backing is plastic.
I just tossed some really poor 71 uppers but almost kept them and saved the metal.

White and green sounds like a pretty cool combo! Embracing the green is definitely the easiest route but gotta do whatever makes you happiest, either way it's a beautiful ride. I'll try and snap some photos of those upper panels this weekend, got a bunch of engine parts in so we'll be making some big headway into our 440 build.
 
Alright. Picking up where we left off brings us to March 2019 - time to investigate the source of the smoke.

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We began tearing down the top end of the engine to check things out. Soon enough, we found our answer.

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This rag was jammed into one of the intake ports! :eek: Seems as if someone forgot to check the ports before they put this engine together last time. Not knowing what kind of particles this rag could have dumped into the cylinders over time (the rag was crispy, and barely flexible so it was very brittle to the touch) and already being this far in, we decided to tear the block down to see the cylinders.
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The cylinder walls didn't show any notable scoring, but given our plans to build the engine up we knew at this point we wouldn't just be doing a top end kit as originally planned. Instead, we made our choice to pull the engine out and tear it down to the bare block.
 
Engine pull was fairly uneventful (though I'll admit it just about broke my heart to have to pull the transmission we struggled with so much to install and drive all of 10 or so miles).
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After getting it installed on an engine stand, we were ready to get tearing down into the rotating assembly.

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We were able to confirm it was a forged crank from the parting line - that's a win!
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At this point I fell off a bit with the photos. Suffice it to say there was enough wear on the journals and bearings that our decision to pull the engine was more than validated. We got the block stripped bare, then sent it out to a trusted local engine builder for sonic testing and machine work.
 
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Been a long time since I updated this thread - time to pick up where I left off:

With the engine back from getting machined, it was time to put the engine together. We went with Trick Flow Powerport 240 top end kit. Block was painted the correct blue for that year 440.

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With the added horsepower expected from the engine, we made the call to replace the rear axle, and to redo the suspension. We went with a Strange S60 through doctor diff, 3.54 rear gear and an s-trac. Rear springs are +1” over stock and purchased through ESPO spring, and we eliminated the rubber isolator setup with the kit from Firm Feel.

We stripped, cleaned and repainted the k frame, and upgraded our suspension using Firm Feel aluminum isolator delete blocks as well as control arms and heavy duty torsion bars.

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Removing all the 'iso-frame/suspension' stuff is one of the best things you could do. I had a 74 Road Runner that I did that to back in the 80's. Back then, you had to find the cast iron spacers from a police car. Great job on your car.
 
More shots of the work we did on the front suspension - all parts sourced from Firm Feel. After an initial learning curve with setting up the torsion bars/ride height, we were able to dial in a good starting point.

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Having the car back on all four wheels was motivating to get our butts in gear on finishing the car!
 
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With the suspension buttoned up, our focus returned to our 440 build. We got our lifters installed, measured for our pushrods, and got the valve train dialed in. We then test fit our valve covers and intake (we decided to use a dual plane intake manifold versus the single plane intake manifold as was specified in the top end kit - we’ll see how this plays out and depending on the results we may change over)
 
While the engine was getting close to finished, we turned our attention to the interior.

We took out the old gauge cluster and replaced it with an updated auto meter setup. At the same time, we bypassed the ammeter and cleaned up the wiring.

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Wood grain didn’t fit too well with the updated gauges, so I decided to try some vinyl wrap on the dash insert and console top plate:

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As you can see in the up close photos, the vinyl on the dash insert was less than perfect in the corners - I still have some learning to do with working vinyl wrap. It’ll stay for now, but I’m going to either re-wrap it at some point or try to paint it instead.

The console top plate came out much better. We also replaced the shifter handles with carbon fiber handles. View attachment 977318
 
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