Projects 49 Plymouth Business Coupe update

Fixed! The valve cover vent tube was supposed to be hooked to a fresh air tube on the throttle body but I had it hooked to manifold vacuum. It was sucking oil right out of the valve cover into the intake. Great news but I am going to have to pull the trans back out as the throwout bearing is not disengaging the clutch. But compared to what I though I was going to have to do, that's pretty minor.

 

Glad that's easy fix

 

OK, clutch is fixed, grill is on, and a couple of annoying oil leaks fixed. Should be road testing by next weekend! I decided to put a short build video together, check it out if you have 8 minutes to spare.

 

I should be doing a short road test tomorrow; over the last few days I wrapped up a lot of little stuff. I built a new shifter handle with some 1/2" stainless rod, wired the radio and put a check engine light in next to it, got the carpet and seat back in, plus some other goodies. Still a fairly good list of misc to finish but it should start making some short shakedown trips this week.

 

Success! Two short trips today without a hitch!

 

You sir are a maniac...I can't believe how much work you've done in a fairly short (to me) period of time. Great catch on the vent tube and best of luck with the computer work still to come, I'm sure you'll power your way through that as well. Looking freakin' great!

 

Thanks! Other than a few minor bugs to address, it's pretty much done. My wife and I gave it a bath today and took it out a little. It runs and drives really nice. Should be hitting the first show next weekend.

 

Wow! This car came out amazing!!!

 

Well, after a year of driving I have to say I'm not too impressed with the setup. Runs great but the power band is really high on these, the gear ratio on the Ranger trans doesn't match well with the power band on the engine, bottom end power isn't very good, they don't sound very good through headers.....it's like a good looking girlfriend with a really annoying personality. You can only stand being around her for so long and then its time to go. So, back to the drawing board; I'm putting together a 451 stroker for it.

 

hey Pat,

Thanks for the update.....and the candor!

Ray

 

Really appreciate the update. Glad you went for it, still.

 

I'll just call it fabrication practice. Definitely not the first car I made changes to after I "finished" it.

 

The SHO motor left today on a truck to Milwaukee for it's new home in an Austin Healy Bugeye and I got some $$ to help finance the 400 swap. The crank and freeze plugs went in today; I'll be out of town working all next week but hope to get a little more done next weekend.

 

I love that car! The 451 sounds like a good plan. It's cool you were not afraid to experiment with the SHO engine.

 

Thanks! I decided to just stick with a .030 400 with some bolt on goodies rather than doing the stroker but it will still be nice step up over the V6.

 

I did some prep work tonight; I couldn't find the right oil pump pickup for the rear sump pan anywhere as it's out of production and the pan itself was hard enough to come by. So I just welded on a 6" extension and it looks like it will work and clear the crank fine. Also pulled out the clutch pedal as I'm going with a 727 trans, pulled out the 5/16" fuel lines and pulled off the exhaust. I hope to get the short block together next week if the machine shop gets my pistons put on the rods.

 

Pistons and cam are all in. The more I looked at my oil pump pickup the more I didn't like it so I got this one from Milodon for a deep sump pan and did a little surgery on it. This fits much better and has a bracket to hold it in place. I also got the heads checked and resurfaced and started some mild porting. Nothing wild, just cleaning up the bowls and combustion chambers and port matching the intake. As soon as I get it all back together, I need to hunt down a 727 trans and start doing some trial fitting in the chassis.

 

You may have said, but what is the engine make? I don't recognise it in the pics.

 

It's a chrysler 400.

 

What year would that be?

 

1975; came out of a Newport, I believe. Basically a low deck 383 with a bigger bore.

 

Got the short block finished up today along with one head ported and back together. Hopefully I can get the other head finished and have them bolted on in a week or so. Lots of hours at work for the next 6 weeks so I don't have much fun time to spare.

 

I'm so glad to see you still have this car.

 

Thanks, Larry. How's it going with you?

 

Sad day today; my #1 garage partner Monica went home to Jesus. 15 years old; she was a good friend.

 

I'm so sorry to read about your cat!

 

Thanks; it wont be the same without her hanging out in the garage with me. She saw a lot of projects come and go over the years.

 

Sorry to hear about your cat. I'm finally getting settled in our new home in Florida. We are slowly making the house our home and hope to have a new project in the garage soon. Keep all your good work. I love reading your post

 

Thanks, Larry. Glad to hear you're doing well and starting to think about a project. Im sure you can find some nice rust free examples to work on in that warm Florida climate.

I got the motor buttoned up today; time to bolt it to the trans and start building mounts and figuring out headers.

 

I did some trial fitting today and got the motor mounts built. Luckily I was able to reuse the mounting pads I built for the SHO motor and just moved them back. Also, the cutout I had made in the firewall for the SHO was the perfect width for the new engine. The big snafu looks like the factory steering box has to go; the motor is too wide. Looks like she getting a rack-n-pinion conversion. Also had to do some trans tunnel surgery but that was pretty minor. I ordered some block hugger headers and the next step is to modify the cross member for the trans.