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512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread


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I filled the brake light switch body with brake fluid to hopefully avoid a pesky air pocket and screwed it in. I’m not sure which circuit feeds the switch with pressure- the aftermarket prop block also handles splitting duties for the front brake lines. Maybe any air trapped behind the switch can make its way back up to the MC with a little time and tapping? I am going to gravity bleed the front system a bit and see if the pedal feels good. 

 

I don’t know if wrapping the switch in a blanket will help much- it’s not reflected heat from being near the headers I’m worried about- more like the oven temps of the engine bay in general. 

 

If this one fails in another 500mi I’ll have to look into either a mechanical switch on the pedal arm or re-locating an electric pressure switch to somewhere cooler. I am hoping the original was just poor quality. 

 

Here’s the new one installed with new spade connectors to replace the mushroom style slide on clip. 

6B818DAC-EB33-4FC2-B37C-1C644D95BD72.jpeg

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18 minutes ago, Radarsonwheels said:

I am hoping the original was just poor quality

Happens often enough.  We have a rebuilt transmission in a dodge caravan. It always shifted hard into 2nd since rebuilt. Then the new shift solenoid failed, and now shifts fine after replaced.

Basically the switch was on life support when it arrived.

 

No idea what circuit your switch runs off of, I recently found out on my chevy. Rear wheel cylinder failed, it is the small reservoir in the master that feeds the rear drums, while the larger reservoir feeds the front disk with the larger pistons.

Wont help if you lost no fluid though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got around to relocating my lift pump for the surge tank. I had made a bracket that put the inlets and outlets all inline with short rubber connections from the lift pump to the surge tank inlet and out the other side of the surge tank to the high pressure pump. 

 

The problem was that while the 70psi EFI pump is an inline canister style the lift pump hangs down from the in and out barbs with the wiring connections even lower hanging off the bottom. Once I set the truck back on its wheels the rear (lift) pump was the lowest part of the rear of the truck. I’ve driven carefully and it was fine but if it did catch some road debris or a tall manhole next to a pothole it would at least scrape the wires off it and at worst make a leak in a place where the entire tank could siphon out. No bueno.

 

It’s been really nagging me to do it but I had to disconnect the hoses which want to dump the entire tank, cut off the bracket without setting a fire, and find a new place for it to live with curvier plumbing. 

 

I got a big stainless drip pan, stuffed sparkplugs in the open hoses with minimal leakage, let it dry off, and sliced the bracket free with a sawsall and a ready fire extinguisher. Then I used the rear bumper bracket bolt to secure the pump bracket to the frame. Now it’s tucked nicely between the fuel cell and the passenger frame rail and the plumbing is all safely and securely re-done. 

 

I have also been procrastinating about my headlights- the driver’s bulb is defective (sealed 7” beam but the inner bulb is dripping down inside the body and doesn’t shine much light) and they are both aimed way low. So I took the lazy way out and ordered one new bulb. My instinct is to swap the pair but the good one doesn’t have a lot of hours on it. When the new one comes in I’ll swap it out and aim them both a little higher. 

 

I drove it to work Saturday. The brakes seem 100% again but I’m flirting with the idea of some louvers in the hood to let some heat out. Maybe the switch was cheaply made or defective but all that heat in there can’t be a good thing.

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IMG_8806.jpg.1a10382418cc69ddb3cab24f259572ef.jpgHi Radar - My strong recommendation is to find somebody to punch louvers in your hood.  Trying to weld louvered panels into a curved hood would be extremely difficult to pull off, even for an expert body man.  I picked up an extra hood for my P12 and had a local "old timer" (sorry, Roy!) stamp it full of louvers and it was worth every dollar.

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2 hours ago, 59bisquik said:

Loving the fuel pump. I think I have the same one and its the noisiest damn thing on the truck!

 

Thanks Bisquik!

 

It’s a carter deadhead carb style pump that feeds high volume low pressure to the surge tank so the EFI pump won’t ever run dry. The surge tank overflows back into the main fuel cell along with the return from the regulator from the throttle body. 

 

Mine has little rubber isolators which definitely help some with the noise. 

 

I have had the big holley pumps on muscle cars before and they are louder. Kind of reminiscent of the buzzer on a high school basketball scoreboard! I’m spoiled with this holley efi setup. It cycles the pumps for five seconds or so in the run position, gives a little shot to wet the intake for startup, then turns off until you crank it. 

 

Once my motor is dumping out of dual 3.5” flowmasters under the bed the pump noise is not so noticable ? 

 

I like the carter pumps too though I’ve had a bunch of them and never ran WOT for long enough on the street to outflow one.

 

here’s a pic of how it was before- it was hanging pretty low

2E7F21C3-2CCE-4B96-B9B2-39D943B5ED44.jpeg

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File under ‘genius moves’-

 

I managed to wire the lift pump backwards!

 

I went to buy gas and get groceries (5-10 min drive) and had an off idle hesitation once on the way there. Uh oh that never happened before!

 

When I got to the store I let it idle and checked the fuel pressure gauge on the firewall. It was swinging from 60-70 psi. It’s supposed to be 62 but always ran at a solid 70, probably because my return line is marginal. 70 works fine though and you can reset the working inlet pressure in the ECU to the actual reading which I did awhile back.

 

I felt the surge tank- should be cool but it was warm. Hmm must be sucking on the regulator return from the hot engine bay instead of being constantly filled and cycled by the lift pump. It actually ran really well on the way home but when I parked it and shut down I cycled the key to hear the pumps and they sounded wrong & struggly.

 

More investigation looking for a kinked hose or backward wiring quickly revealed the problem. Hopefully I didn’t do any damage running the pumps dry but I think I’m ok. 

 

On an unrelated topic the gas pump math said I’m right around 6mpg haha not bad for almost all stoplight hotrodding!

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8 hours ago, RNR1957NYer said:

IMG_8806.jpg.1a10382418cc69ddb3cab24f259572ef.jpgHi Radar - My strong recommendation is to find somebody to punch louvers in your hood.  Trying to weld louvered panels into a curved hood would be extremely difficult to pull off, even for an expert body man.  I picked up an extra hood for my P12 and had a local "old timer" (sorry, Roy!) stamp it full of louvers and it was worth every dollar.

 

Wow that looks awesome! The hood is easy enough to remove- I’ll put out feelers and see who can do it around Philly

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Got the new headlight installed. High beams were more like barely adequate low beams in dark areas before but I mostly have streetlights around here. Can’t aim em in the daytime so I just gave each one 3.5 turns in to tilt up on the adjusters.

 

They’ll either be fine or I will be aiming them at the garage doors to adjust them tonight or soon if it rains like it’s supposed to today. 

 

The fuel pumps are happy again with the correct polarity wired into the lift pump and it’s such a relief to not worry about the low hanging pump any more.

 

I will probably end up making a piece of hard line to finish the 180° turn from the lift pump to the surge tank. It has plenty of room for a decent radius and I used stiffer fuel injection rated hose secured with heavy zipties and heater hose insulation at the rub point but steel line will give peace of mind that it won’t ever kink with age. It does mean two more hose clamped connections (possible leak points) but with bubble flares used as hose barb flanges I am confident in my plumbing. 

 

I did a photoshop mockup of the aftermarket bolt on aluminum louver panels. I don’t hate it but I think it smacks of boy racer pep boys double stick tape accessories a little bit?

 

Right now the leading plan is to get louvers punched similar to Oil Soup’s but maybe with one more short row on the sides. The idea of an outside row appeals to me visually but if it would send dirt and water directly onto my wiring harness and electrical accessories on the inner fender that might be a reason to skip a 3rd row. 

 

I’m thinking more oldschool rounded louvers, probably 3” would look best? The school locker flat style I’m thinking would look out of place on a round hood. I also don’t want too many so it ends up looking like a wood rasp. 

 

It will be kind of involved because I have to scrape 10 yr old dynamat off the insides that has been heat cycled a lot (a cold day would help a lot for that), temporarily slice off the inner reinforcements, and disassemble the butterfly hinges, not to mention sanding off the paint, driving an hour each way to drop them off, and repainting them.

 

I am still not opposed to installing some kind of bolt on vent. Maybe not the bolt on louvers but lots of muscle cars etc. had cool looking chrome vents of different styles. I would love to see or hear suggestions if y’all can think of any cars with cool mesh vents or chrome pieces that would look at home as much as possible. Swap meet or vintage ebay pieces maybe? Something a little worn but not too beat up in case I ever finish the bodywork and paint on the old girl. Definitely in the vein of 50s mix n match oem brand kustoms not some modern high tech stuff.

 

Anyway here’s the photoshop mockup for a laugh. 

C333FD73-97B0-43B3-A957-D8830415F549.jpeg

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6 hours ago, Radarsonwheels said:

Got the new headlight installed. High beams were more like barely adequate low beams in dark areas before but I mostly have streetlights around here. Can’t aim em in the daytime so I just gave each one 3.5 turns in to tilt up on the adjusters.

 

They’ll either be fine or I will be aiming them at the garage doors to adjust them tonight or soon if it rains like it’s supposed to today. 

 

The fuel pumps are happy again with the correct polarity wired into the lift pump and it’s such a relief to not worry about the low hanging pump any more.

 

I will probably end up making a piece of hard line to finish the 180° turn from the lift pump to the surge tank. It has plenty of room for a decent radius and I used stiffer fuel injection rated hose secured with heavy zipties and heater hose insulation at the rub point but steel line will give peace of mind that it won’t ever kink with age. It does mean two more hose clamped connections (possible leak points) but with bubble flares used as hose barb flanges I am confident in my plumbing. 

 

I did a photoshop mockup of the aftermarket bolt on aluminum louver panels. I don’t hate it but I think it smacks of boy racer pep boys double stick tape accessories a little bit?

 

Right now the leading plan is to get louvers punched similar to Oil Soup’s but maybe with one more short row on the sides. The idea of an outside row appeals to me visually but if it would send dirt and water directly onto my wiring harness and electrical accessories on the inner fender that might be a reason to skip a 3rd row. 

 

I’m thinking more oldschool rounded louvers, probably 3” would look best? The school locker flat style I’m thinking would look out of place on a round hood. I also don’t want too many so it ends up looking like a wood rasp. 

 

It will be kind of involved because I have to scrape 10 yr old dynamat off the insides that has been heat cycled a lot (a cold day would help a lot for that), temporarily slice off the inner reinforcements, and disassemble the butterfly hinges, not to mention sanding off the paint, driving an hour each way to drop them off, and repainting them.

 

I am still not opposed to installing some kind of bolt on vent. Maybe not the bolt on louvers but lots of muscle cars etc. had cool looking chrome vents of different styles. I would love to see or hear suggestions if y’all can think of any cars with cool mesh vents or chrome pieces that would look at home as much as possible. Swap meet or vintage ebay pieces maybe? Something a little worn but not too beat up in case I ever finish the bodywork and paint on the old girl. Definitely in the vein of 50s mix n match oem brand kustoms not some modern high tech stuff.

 

Anyway here’s the photoshop mockup for a laugh. 

C333FD73-97B0-43B3-A957-D8830415F549.jpeg

Something like those would look pretty cool. If all else fails, Ive got an idea....... Ya cant go wrong with an Air Grabber :P

air grabber.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got all the old dynamat and six layers of paint off my hood butterflies, which took a little elbow grease, hand strength, and a few shorter work sessions to accomplish. 

 

So now the tops and bottom of the hood sides are down to shiny bare metal, ready to get dropped off at the shop that punches louvers for hotrodders- ol 55 in Doylestown PA. It’s about an hour drive.

 

I have the layout all marked off in sharpie and triple checked for symmetry and parallel. I don’t know what spacing the louvers in each row will be from each other- I think most shops use the last louver up against the receiving die to index the next one so I’ll have to discuss the actual pattern with the machinist there when I drop them off. 

 

I think that means that they will start at the front of each row then work toward the windshield edge. So I’ll have to decide if I want them to more closely follow the front or back of my layout design and also whether I want the louver rows even or staggered or what.

 

I think I’m going for 3” wide round topped older style louvers, not the straight flat topped ones like a gym locker- more like a wood rasp. ((((( not [[[[[[

 

’themoose’ over on the HAMB did a much appreciated unsolicited photoshop mockup for me- it’s a slightly different style of louver and layout than I want but real close! Here’s that pic and a pic of my basic layout for the punch shop.

C871B161-98E2-428E-9808-F6924BE222A2.jpeg

1D77DB28-3DF9-4C8F-9F64-180868FA6C47.jpeg

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Hi Los

 

Well that’s my orange srt8 challenger so I’ll give a hard no on that one, but my wife has a late model v6 charger that could use some louvers. Her hood already looks good so I think starting with the roof is probably the way to go.

 

edit: now that I think about it an ‘09 6.1 hood is WAY less rare than a 54 C-series hood...

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22 minutes ago, RNR1957NYer said:

Trust me - all the effort and drive time will be worth it; every time you look at the louvered hood you'll smile!

 

Thanks RNR

I know I am not 1/2 way done here. They will need a lot of hand sanding of the sharp edges from punching plus I have to figure out how I want to protect them after that. I should probably take this opportunity to remove the rest of the crust and at least epoxy seal them so if/when I do the rest of the body work I won’t have to undo any hasty BS I do now...

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1 minute ago, Radarsonwheels said:

think starting with the roof is probably the way to go

LOL .... watching a guy build a roadster on youtube, he really wants louvers on the trunk lid, but worried about water getting into the trunk ... And it's like uhhh ... you got no top.

 

I am sure your wife would love the louvers on the top, will feel the sun shinning through ... will be the happy car.

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29 minutes ago, Radarsonwheels said:

 

Thanks RNR

I know I am not 1/2 way done here. They will need a lot of hand sanding of the sharp edges from punching plus I have to figure out how I want to protect them after that. I should probably take this opportunity to remove the rest of the crust and at least epoxy seal them so if/when I do the rest of the body work I won’t have to undo any hasty BS I do now...

The guy who punched mine wanted me to take the paint off both surfaces;  even if your shop didn't ask you to, now's the time to get both surfaces of the hood ready to prime and paint (and the top side finish, patina not, won't survive the stamping).  Then, as you note, you will have some deburring to do.  When you prime and paint it, make sure you get good coverage on the edges of the sheet metal at the openings.  I decided that I wanted to paint the hood underside International Red to match my wheels.  I shot the hood black and cleared it, then masked all the openings making sure there would be no red bleeding onto the top side. If you decide to do this, make sure the clear has completely hardened, and still be prepared to carefully wet sand & polish out some masking tape texture (and random red in my case) from the clear.

 

Or, you could paint both sides matte black....IMG_8928.jpg.3b746da3f42f404063342bf282e6b11c.jpg 

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Yup both sides are bare clean metal, out past where the louvers will be. The inside is clean from the front brace/inner structure back and the outside is a little smaller but plenty past the punching operation. They definitely don’t want to dull their dies punching through paint. It’d be like using good fabric shears to cut cardboard.

 

There is a lot more hood to prep to do before a good paintjob and there are crannies too- all the hinge and latch nooks ugh. Maybe I should just get them blasted and powdercoated... probably lots of sanding, drill mounted wirebrushing, and epoxy primer/sealer sprayed in my garage.

 

and yeah the garage is trashed I gotta take a night and tidy up!

 

You can see how the insides and outsides look in this pic.

 

 

4E58ACD1-60E6-4A49-86CE-7C1DEDA786B5.jpeg

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