1966 Dodge Charger original 318 Restoration

[Ben Zajd]

So this is my first classic car. It took my friend 7 years to finally convince me to buy a classic. After many failed attempts of searching for something I truly wanted, and that was also in decent enough condition for my budget, I just happened by chance across this 1966 Dodge Charger hiding in the booneys of West Virginia. It just happens to be my father's favorite car, so it makes it that much more special in that we can share in the excitement of this resto journey. The previous owner had traded a Harley for it 2 years ago, but decided to put his money into his 1950's dodge truck instead and his wife was making him sell the charger, he tried selling it by word of mouth only for awhile with no luck and then his daughter listed it on facebook for him the day before I discovered Facebook had classified listings. I got one hell of a deal on it compared to sold prices of other 66 318 chargers in worse condition I researched. For as long as he had it, it was garage kept and covered and he only took it out once a week up and down the rd just to keep the engine running. The only rust on the body is in the trunk pan, caused by a water leak at the window, I believe the seal is aged severely on the bottom of the back window and causing a leak into the trunk which leads me to believe the owner previous to the gentleman I bought it from kept it outside uncovered. It is the original matching 318, Odometer says 46k miles, but there ain't now way, I'm guessing it was rewound at some point. The Carb was a total mess with many parts jimmy rigged, others replaced with improper parts, vacuum ports either sitting open or junk deteriorated hose on it with a screw plugging the end. after fixing all that, She starts up just fine every time and purrs beautifully, but she runs a little rough once warmed up and the choke opens and then cant keep her idled when in gear and I end up having to two foot it when i come to a stop just to keep it from stalling. I have made multiple attempts to reset and make adjustments to the carburetor but have only been able to get 12-13 inHG on my vacuum gauge and only if i set her idle high and mix running rich. I've already ordered a new Carb to put on and will eventually rebuild the original carter 2barrel, but if any one has any tips in the meantime let me know. I have been spending the last 5 days so far doing a fair amount of misc maintenance up and down the whole engine bay. Currently doing cooling system flush but it's nasty, first drain came out as black as oil, and still looking like chocolate milk after about 6-7 flushes with cleaners, I have a new pump and new radiator on the way but want to get as much junk out of the block as i can first, It is definitely still the original radiator and original pump........Still lots of work to do, but she has a whole lot of potential. I'll take engine pics today and upload them later tonight.

 

[threewood]

Welcome to the site and congrats on the car. It looks great!

What are your ultimate plans for it?

 

[Mogre]

Welcome aboard. Nice car.

 

[-Ed]

Awesome ride! Welcome!

 

[shorty64]

sounds like maybe a vacuum leak somewhere. after checking the various vac tubes, have you tried the old squirt some WD-40 or similar around the carb base/gasket area, and the intake manifold to head areas? I'm assuming you have cleaned out the gas tank and lines so no water or old gas.

regardless, nice car and good luck!

 

[Auggie56]

Have you checked your ignition timing?

 

[Ben Zajd]

Welcome to the site and congrats on the car. It looks great!

What are your ultimate plans for it?

Ultimate plans are to strip the paint (looks like the silver was painted over the original red and is not the best job) and address any defects in body and then have it repainted to original red. Ill also be updating the interior to original as possible. For fun sake i was thinking of throwing a 360 in it, with plans to have the 318 rebuilt that ways i will always have the original.

sounds like maybe a vacuum leak somewhere. after checking the various vac tubes, have you tried the old squirt some WD-40 or similar around the carb base/gasket area, and the intake manifold to head areas? I'm assuming you have cleaned out the gas tank and lines so no water or old gas.

regardless, nice car and good luck!

Thanks, and yeah it sounded like a vacuum leak originally on the vacuum advance hose going to the distributor but replaced it and the vacuum leak i though i could hear was taken care of but still hasn't performed better. I have not tried the spraying carb cleaner method to check the gaskets. I will give that a try sometime this week.

Have you checked your ignition timing?

That's the next step. I don't have a timing light and there is no timing tape on there. Going to drive it up to my buddy's garage this weekend as he has all of that equipment.

 

[Ben Zajd]

Here are the engine bay pics as promised. Still lots of maintenance work to be done but shes getting there at least she is safer to drive now, before i did the cooling system flushes i kept overheating. check out the last pick of the radiator flushes i did yesterday, first drain came out as black as oil and the first flush wasn't much different. this thing definitely sat for a very long time and is probably the original radiator by the looks of it. Its funny looking at the color pallet change with each flush. I did a total of about 6 flushes so far. Going to do a power flush next with a hose as the normal flushes don't seem to be getting me anywhere very fast. Like i said in first post, i have a new radiator, water pump and thermostat on the way but want to get as much junk flushed out of the block and rest of the system before installing those.

 

[YY1]

Does it have a fender tag?

Are you sure it wasn't originally silver?
Silver with red int was a fairly common combo...and the spare tire well is silver.

..and finally, not to burst your bubble, but that is an "LA" 318 in there and can't be original.
A 1966 318 would be a "polysphere" and would have big heads with scalloped, 2 bolt valve covers.

 

[Ben Zajd]

Does it have a fender tag?

Are you sure it wasn't originally silver?
Silver with red int was a fairly common combo...and the spare tire well is silver.

..and finally, not to burst your bubble, but that is an "LA" 318 in there and can't be original.
A 1966 318 would be a "polysphere" and would have big heads with scalloped, 2 bolt valve covers.

You are correct sir, the seller didn't claim it was an original engine, I was just making an assumption it was still the original block just with the top end being replaced, once i got it up on the lift i finally located the assembly date cast onto the block of Nov 1976, so it obviously was pulled from a 1977 make vehicle. (will edit the thread title). My plan is then to build myself a 360 to drop in next year and then sell off this 318.
It does have a fender tag and it was originally red. Also, you can see the red underneath, someone obviously took it to MAACO for their cheapest paint job or had a friend do it because they didn't bother to do the work of stripping the previous red paint, nor remove the charger symbols and just painted around it (you can see the red showing through the imperfections especially here since the silver is pulling off here around the symbol)