Home
Before the Restoration
After the Restoration
After the Restoration (2018)
Goodbye
Restoration Journal2001:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2002:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
November
2003:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
2008:
August
2017:
April
June
August
Car Dolly
In-Dash Tach
Send Me Email
Watch a Clip
Have a Listen
References
Library
Barracuda Owners Email List
May 3, 2003
Got the replacement intake ready for painting. Scrubbed it down with Simple Green and rinsed it off. Then I masked off everything that I didn't want to be red.May 4, 2003
Replaced the intake! Boy, it took a lot of time. Dawn and Mikey were out of town, so I spent most of the day in the garage. Let me tell you, this would be much easier with the engine on a stand; my back and legs took a beating from leaning over the engine bay all day.
|
|
In the morning I put 3 light coats of paint on the intake. Then the fun began: I drained enough coolant to get the level below the intake and then proceeded to remove the upper radiator hose, bypass hose, heater hose, air cleaner, plug wires, vacuum hoses, alternator wiring, distributor, coil, oil pressure sensor, one valve cover and the carb. THEN I was able to remove the old intake.
|
|
I cleaned up the mating surfaces on the block and heads (scraped them with a razor blade), and got them clean with brake cleaner. I got the side gaskets in place, and then used RTV for the end seals. This was the part I was worried about - I didn't know how much was enough or too much.
After setting the intake in place, I had a feeling I didn't use enough RTV, so I lifted it out again. I'm glad I did - I didn't have enought RTV to seal the ends. I applied a higher bead, and replaced the intake. Hopefully I used enough; we'll see when I start the engine. If oil comes pouring out, I'm gonna be pissed! I'd rather not have to go through this again.
By this point I was pretty wiped out, so I didn't finish the job. I just replaced things that needed to be replaced so that the engine was sealed up (distributor, oil pressure sensor, carb, valve cover). I'll finish the job some other night.
One other surprise - I can't mount the coil on the new intake in the stock location. I may have to shell out some money for the special 6 pack coil mounting brackets. Here's how the stock bracket attaches:
May 12, 2003
I ordered the 2 brackets that 6 Pack 340s used to mount the coil, and they arrived today. The lower bracket still didn't quite fit, so I had to modify it. But it should work now. I wish the coil could be mounted in the stock location, but what can ya do?May 13, 2003
Painted the modified coil bracket and installed it. I painted it red so it would blend in with the motor and not look completely out of place. The only other things I got taken car of was installing the coil, temperature sensor and installation of the bypass hose fitting on the intake. Getting the old one off wasn't much fun. Used vise grips; I wonder if a tool exists for easier removal of those things?May 14, 2003
Continued working on getting the engine put back together...installed the new bypass hose, after cutting to fit...installed the thermostat and housing...reconnected the heater-to-manifold hose...reconnected the upper radiator hose...got the coil wired up. Its new location required lengthening the tach wire a few inches.Last but not least, I filled it up with coolant. Good news - no leaks at this point. Of course, we'll see what happens when there's some pressure applied.
May 15, 2003
Finished getting the engine in running order: replaced the fuel filter, the throttle return spring, the throttle cable, and the plug wires.Then it was time to fire it up...had to crank for a while to get fuel to the carb, but it started! Hooray! I didn't break anything!
It idles just fine. I got it up to operating temperatures to get coolant flowing, and there aren't any coolant leaks! Excellent! And there aren't any obvious oil leaks (ie. oil didn't come pouring out the ends of the intake). I'll need to really drive the car to get oil sloshing around before I'll be able to deem the oil leaks fixed, but it looks promising at this point.
Then I had a couple celebratory beers! Here's everything back in order:
|
|
May 17, 2003
Took the car out for a real drive, and the only leak I've got is from the passenger valve cover. I'm not surprised; it leaked last year, and I removed it for the intake swap and didn't reseal/replace the gasket.So, I put a new gasket on it and sealed it up good with gasket dressing/sealant.I'm hoping that after a couple test drives, I won't have any leaks, of any kind, anywhere!
May 20, 2003
Cleaned up (scrubbed with Simple Green and derusted studs on the wire wheel) the lower trunk trim brackets. Then I installed the lower trunk trim! Very cool - this was the last piece of "noticeable" trim not on the car, although I still need to install the drip rail trim.Everything went pretty smoothly. I put some anti-seize on the studs so removal of the trim, if ever necessary, won't be difficult. I need to reposition the left tail light slightly to get the spacing correct, but the rear of the car now looks complete.
May 26, 2003
Washed and waxed the car, then took a bunch of pix. So, here's a gallery of images of the car almost completed. The only thing really missing is the drip rail trim.Note: these images are very large (2048x1536). Most are close to 1 MB in size:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 29, 2003
Replaced the left valve cover gasket. Dawn took the car for a joy ride, and when she came back I noticed that it was leaking a bit. I used the same gasket sealant that I've used on the other side, which has worked quite well, so hopefully the driver's side will be dry now.I only hope that's the last leak. I know the intake isn't leaking any more, so if I still get drops of oil under the car, I'll have to start looking in other places.