A shadetree installs a fresh set of 906's on the ol' 440

[oldbee]

"Senior shade tree"? Is that title for getting it handled or for his age? I resemble that!!!!!!! Also moparedtn- good idea letting the better half do the video. I had mine start up a fresh rebuild one time and asked what the oil pressure was and she said 0. "Why's it still running then?" I said.Turn it off!!!

 

[moparedtn]

I quit paying attention to the math formula for milling the intake to compensate for block and head milling a long time ago. That only works in a perfect world and there was nothing perfect in the casting and machining of this stuff 40-50 years ago! Core shift plays a huge role and you need to just do a mock up to see how things fit. Also, you really shouldn't mill the intake since it will then only be useful on that particular engine. Mill the intake side of the heads instead.

On your engine, did the intake sit high even with the thicker Felpro head gaskets and using just the steel intake gasket? Makes me wonder if the block has been decked. The factory intakes etc usually fit reasonably well when you use stock type gaskets even though I've found a few that didn't.

Thanks and hey there Cranky!
Originally, I had the FelPro (well, it came from Mopar Performance but the gaskets said FelPro right on them ) "paper" gaskets on both sides of the usual metal bathtub gasket, like I said.
When that didn't work at all (intake sitting too high/bolt holes not low enough), I removed the paper gasket from the intake manifold and shoved it back on there, leaving the paper ones on the heads and the bathtub.
Still too high, but I made it work.
If I had gone ahead and taken the paper ones off the heads as well and just left the bathtub, it might have made just a bit of difference, I guess.

I know one thing - I'm sure done with picking that damn factory cast iron intake up (and reaching way over into the engine bay with it). Thing weighs a TON.

 

[moparedtn]

Nice GTX, love the '68s! Good work and thanks for sharing.

Thank you sir. You're very kind.
Thanks for reading along!

 

[moparedtn]

"Senior shade tree"? Is that title for getting it handled or for his age? I resemble that!!!!!!! Also moparedtn- good idea letting the better half do the video. I had mine start up a fresh rebuild one time and asked what the oil pressure was and she said 0. "Why's it still running then?" I said.Turn it off!!!

Been there, my friend.

As far as the "title" goes, as long as they aren't calling me cuss words, I'll take it.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Cranky]

Yeah, those stock intakes are not exactly light. 40 lbs irrc. If I pull one off of anything that's mine, aluminum goes back on!

 

[moparedtn]

STATUS UPDATE 9-15-16:
I took her out for her maiden shakedown drive today, despite it being over 90 degrees F out here again.
I got stopped down by where I turn on the state road and a big cloud of smoke rolled out, scared hell out of me - until I remembered that the formerly leaky valve cover gasket had soaked the header.
Whew...
Off I went on a nice, easy drive of about 15 miles round trip, including some highway and some city driving in it. No rush, nice and easy.

The car runs so differently now! It's much smoother and quieter and dare I say, more "docile" even. I kept it to no more than 4000rpms, but I did do a little spirited driving as I gained confidence in it and it never skipped a beat.
You know how that sort of drive is - you have "rabbit ears", listening intently and imagining every little sound could be something catastrophic.

The temperature was all over the place as it burped the cooling system over and over, always scary to watch on TWO temperature gauges.
That does lead me to one item of possible concern - I had caught most of the coolant in a pan when I drained the radiator at the start of this job and made sure to keep it clean enough to go back in when I was done (it was new coolant, after all).
But when I let it cool down this afternoon and went to top off the coolant, it took almost another whole gallon!
That's sort of unsettling. I haven't seen it get rid of any, either.

Oh well, if something was wrong I think I'd have seen it today, so I'm guardedly optimistic.
A few more short test drives will help with that, too.

 

[moparedtn]

Yeah, those stock intakes are not exactly light. 40 lbs irrc. If I pull one off of anything that's mine, aluminum goes back on!

What would be a suitable replacement for the stock dual plane on a mild engine?

 

[Cranky]

The Eddy Performer is ok for a mild engine but the Performer RPM is better....and is more expensive.