Another daily driver?

[90guy]

Well guys, I am on my third daily driver for this winter. :crazy: Started with a 76 chevy, after 2 days of work to drop the oil to find metal shavings. Well sold that truck and bought a 80 wagoner Amc 360, Chrysler 727, motocraft 2 barrel. Well this rig wasn't all cut up to what it was suppose to be from the seller. Had many flaws and personality to it. So I sold that and bought a 77 powerwagon from some one that is a friend with my dad and we have known the truck our whole life. So now it will be running the route of work. 318 with a 2 barrel holley. I already have bought a sp2p intake and a 600 cfm edelbrock carb for it. And have purchased a bunch of misc parts for it. Anyone have personal experience with the dodge. It's mostly chevys up here.
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[RIDE-RED 250r]

I can't offer you the advice you are seeking, but nice old Dodge! I love the old trucks. :beer

[slashfan7964]

Love those old Dodges :D

Is that a Power Wagon?

[90guy]

Yup old power wagon

[fabiodriven]

Yup Power Wagon, just like the post says. I don't have any experience with them personally but I'd certainly give one a shot. That's a nice looking truck and I don't mind Dodge. What's it got under the hood? I'd have full length headers and stacks on that inside of two weeks. Is it a 4 speed?

[90guy]

Thanks Fabio! Body wise it's in nice shape would deserve a little paint. Has the 318 with a 2 barrel right now. Goint to edelbrock sp2p with a edelbrock 600cfm. Looking at headers for it right now haha! I like stacks. But around here all this out of state ruckus oil field workers run stacks and I frown upon them. So I will stay away from that for now. Has a Chrysler 727 3 speed. NP203 tcase and Dana 44 on it. Pretty solid Drive train. I thought a dodge would be a healthy choice they make one Hell of a drivetrain but they bodies kind of lack with heavy doors etc... But I like mopar. I like <06 gm. If an older ford ever came a long id try that as well lol!

[slashfan7964]

Yup Power Wagon, just like the post says. I don't have any experience with them personally but I'd certainly give one a shot. That's a nice looking truck and I don't mind Dodge. What's it got under the hood? I'd have full length headers and stacks on that inside of two weeks. Is it a 4 speed?

Yeah I must have missed that. The 70s Power Wagons are my favorite Dodges, other than some of the 80s body styles.

[fabiodriven]

That is an excellent drive train from top to bottom. The 318 will never blow any of that stuff up.

[coolpool]

Nice rig! I seem to remember having to unclog more than one EGR intake crossover on the 318's. Not sure if it was common on all, or only ones that came in the shop I worked in in 1984/85. It only affected the warmup if I remember correctly. Does this truck have the infamous ballast/resitor on the firewall? If so I often hear about the old Dodge guys having one in their glove boxes on standby.

[90guy]

Nice rig! I seem to remember having to unclog more than one EGR intake crossover on the 318's. Not sure if it was common on all, or only ones that came in the shop I worked in in 1984/85. It only affected the warmup if I remember correctly. Does this truck have the infamous ballast/resitor on the firewall? If so I often hear about the old Dodge guys having one in their glove boxes on standby.
Thanks for the info CoolPool. I did some research and by what I am running across they had 2 versions of that ballast resistor the first one was 56-70- then 70-76 So I might have lucked out there! Haha! The truck is currently at my parents place 4.5 hours away. Man do I want to turn wrenches on the thing haha!

[90guy]

Been working on the truck. New rubber upped to a 31-10.50r15 on it. 4 barrel edelbrock intake with a 4 barrel edelbrock 600cfm. Roll bar and lights, turn light lenses, tail light lenses, dash cluster, big ol flaps out the back. Just herculined the rocker panels today trying to make it look better. She should be ready to roll by winter! haha!
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu265/tumor633/065B51B4-4FF0-4702-A85D-C8C8FE2E4165.jpg
http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu265/tumor633/27A8085A-CD9A-492A-BEE3-B47DDE0DDEC1.jpg

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I have been tinkering on my K-10 the last couple of weeks too! ;) :beer

[oldskool83]

www.dodgetalk.com there are a bunch of 1st gens guy theres.

[90guy]

I am now on that forum. Appears to be about the same 1st gene guys at ramfourm lol.

[90guy]

Well, decided to do the headers for it this weekend. Passenger side. Piece of cake. Drivers side. Absolute nightmare. Grinding, Hammering, scraping, Cussing, Pulling a master cylinder, Jacking the motor up out of its rubber mounting stud. This was an absolute pain compared to the ones on chevy 350s Ive done before. Thought it would be a simple straight forward process. Now I have them in place I need to get a compact starter off 88> models. Then I can finally bolt it together. My lord. Haha

[DohcBikes]

ALWAYS start with the drivers side on any header install. Im sure youll get er done:beer

[90guy]

Well defiantly been a while since I last talked about this truck. Lasted all winter which I needed it to. On the first day of spring according to the calendar Something let less in #3 cylinder and was beating the bottoms of spark plugs in and a knock under heavy load. So in terms I blew the motor up. So then I decided I needed to find another 318 to build for it this winter. Bought a nice virgin 318 tore it down and started taking measurements when a 318 came around that was built some with 5000 miles on it. So I sold the ol 93 Cr250 and decided to go that route. Got the motor had to ad a Double roller timing set of course. But it has a few goodies on it. I don't have a whole lot into this motor after selling stuff that came with it. Put some chrome valve covers on it. Pulled it on trailer to my buddies shop an hour away. Got the old motor out and as we where swapping a few things around took a wire wheel and ground the engine poo off the motor and found out it was a 360. Everyone had told me it was a 318 so I bought a 318 for a straight across swap. I was wrong. So Ended up grinding the weight off the torque converter and a week later I had found some motor mounts for a 4wd with a 318 in it. Of course the motor mounts weren't exactly what I needed. with some modding Got it put back together. Timing off a hair running a little rough I left the town at 10pm hoping the truck would make an hour drive. So now It is in my yard swapped caps rotors and wires and carbs and now it is running smoother. Still have to install my street fire ignition box. But it just isn't the same torque as the old 360 is. After all this work to find out I am a little disappointed with this little motor. Ill get some pics up soon.

[plastikosmd]

maybe u are still losing power in the timing issue that may still exist?
did you swap over the 600 carb?

[90guy]

I'm not sure if it is a timing issue or not. I'll hAve some time tomorrow to install that cdi box and have to regime it again then. Yeah it had a edelbrock 1406 on it so I swapped it for mine I rebuilt this winter. It's gotten a lot better since I have been messing with it. I'm wondering if it is not the cam. It's got good throttle response at idle. But just no low end torque. Around 2000-2500 it seems to start pulling pretty decent. Still get to tinker a bit.

[plastikosmd]

only was associated with one 360 in my life. It was a bit nutless at the low end. This was in a big 1 ton with a large garbage body on back. I always figured it was the gearing on that machine. You should feel the difference between a 318 and 360 in the same vehicle esp with intake/gearing the same? Did you change the flexplate out with a weighted one?

[90guy]

Took the 360 out and put the 318. So I would feel a torque difference even with a slopped out 360. No weights on the flex plate. Weight is on the Torque converter. Took that weight off not to cause problems with the internal balance of the 318.

[plastikosmd]

Distant memory, thought u had to either externally ballance the 360 or add weighed flex plate for swap to work. Sigh, all this engine talk makes me want to hurry up with my man cave garage, still a year away

O wait, reread what u posted, thought it was 318 going up to 360 not back

[90guy]

Yup thats what I figured you where meaning. Yeah you are right on the external balance. This one was externally balanced on the torque converter. Haha that sucks. I do love having a man cave!

[plastikosmd]

U are a lucky man, keep us updated

[90guy]

Street fire cdi is in running a lot better. Little video showing the cam sound.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ojRGWmyHmSo

[barnett468]

.

Just saw your post, I wonder why, lol?

What exactly do you want to know about the truck or engine?

Here’s some general info in case you were not aware of some of it.


INTAKE MANIFOLD

If you usually drive it in temperatures that are around 60 degrees or more, I would install block off plates in the intake manifold . . this will increase power by cooling the fuel charge and it will reduce the potential for getting vapor lock or boiling the gas in the carb especially with ethanol gas.


CARB

In case you didn’t know, Edelbrock makes two models of that carb which are a 1405 and a 1406 . . the 1406 is called the “economy” carb and is jetted leaner than the other . . either would likely need to be jetted to match your engine better than the stock setting but i just saw that you installed a different carb recentlyi.


HEADER GASKETS

Remflex gaskets are 100% graphite and will not burn out like most others . . They also have more crush than all the others so they seal better.


COMPRESSION

Those engines have around 8.5 compression which is pretty low . . their pistons are also well below the block surface at tdc which increases the potential for detonation . . you can increase the compression and reduce the potential for detonation at the same time by installing thinner head gaskets . . the thinnest ones available arte made by Cometic and are .027” thick . . regular replacement gaskets are around .041” thick, however, if the engine has never had the heads off, the factory Chrysler gaskets may be thinner than .041” and closer to .027” . . if this is the case then you obviously would get no benefit from using the Cometic gaskets by themselves but you would still benefit from using them as replacements if you removed the heads to mill them . . even with the thin gaskets, its likely the compression would still be around 9.0 but the combustion chambers and the height of the piston at tdc relative to the top of the block would need to be measured to determine exactly what it is after which point the heads could be milled to achieve a compression ratio of around 9.3 – 9.4.

In general, if you have a high rpm cam, it will lower your compression due in a big part to the late closing time of the intake valve . . increasing compression will increase hp and tq throughout the entire rpm range.


IGNITION

If your distributor does not have a vacuum advance module, you can get more power by switching over to a regular chrysler cdi system or something similar . . if you have a vacuum advance you can recurve your mechanical advance by getting advance springs p/n P4007968 and installing both springs . . if it pings sat all, you can reinstall the factory light spring and leave the other optional spring in place . . you should buy an adjustable vacuum advance can and set it to add between 6 – 8 degrees of advance and connect the vacuum hose to ported vacuum not manifold vacuum.

i just read the additions to your post and see you have a high perf ignition . . in general i would try it at around 10 - 12 degrees btdc at idle and around 32 - 34 degrees all in around 28 - 3000 for a start then plug the vacuum advance into ported vac.


CAMSHAFT

If you have a high tpm cam, you can lower its rpm range buy advancing it around 4 degrees which will be 8 degrees on the crank.
.

[90guy]

Haha Yeah I was tired of seeing all the Arguing on the forums so I went through and started ignoring everyone who was starting lol :P. Glad to see you back tho! Being already built and in the truck I dont think ill be pulling heads off to install thinner gaskets. I was going to deck the block on the other 318 to raise the compression. Will have to take a look at these header gaskets though. Sick of everything leaking. As for the carb. Its off the 360, So jetting should be decent. Truck runs great Will be driving it to work tonight for the first time to see how it is going to run. This truck is my winter rig. So most of the time it dosent see temps above 60.

[barnett468]

Haha Yeah I was tired of seeing all the Arguing on the forums so I went through and started ignoring everyone who was starting lol :P.

no comment, lol



Glad to see you back tho!

thanks, i appreciate...and i have no further comment at the moment, lol.




Being already built and in the truck I dont think ill be pulling heads off to install thinner gaskets. I was going to deck the block on the other 318 to raise the compression. Will have to take a look at these header gaskets though. Sick of everything leaking. As for the carb. Its off the 360, So jetting should be decent. Truck runs great Will be driving it to work tonight for the first time to see how it is going to run. This truck is my winter rig. So most of the time it dosent see temps above 60.

yeah i didn't think you would rip it apart again just for that . . it was mainly just for future reference in case you didn't know about these types of things . . i see people on a weekly basis that toss a big cam and some heads on their engine that have bigger chambers thasn the one they took off so they get pretty bimmed when i tell them they are down 30 hp or whatever it might be in their case because they bdfidn'y account for their compression.

as far as milling the blocks, i often leave the pistons around .003 - .005 below the block in case something tragic happens to it . . it doesn't hurt to run them up to around .015" above the block in most cases but i prefer not to do that if i can avoid it.

anyway, it sounds like you know about these things so i doubt i can tell you anything new so i hope it goes well and i'll check out your thread from time to time to see whats new.

as far as the remflex gaskets go, they are mainly what i use . . i positively guarantee you that they are the best by far, but don't try to bend them . . i have used them several times on warped, leaking headers and they fixed them, plus you can hold a torch on them and they wont burn.

regards