thrashingcows

Looking good, and sounding good. Congrats on getting up back on the road.

I would think the comment of "without fluid drive" means that it's a manual shifted 3 speed tranny...dry clutch style. And the E-brake would be mounted on the tailshaft of the tranny.

No the thermostat housing bypass was sealed up by the previous owner of the motor. I just installed it how I got it. I had to use the old original water pump from the Desoto, fan and crank alignment, so I put the plate on top of the water pump since it had no where to go.

Don't even have a thermostat... Just running straight through right now. Doesn't seem to have any over heating issues yet. Warms up quickly though.

Here is a couple photos of the electronic ignition system I wired up. Used all the stock mopar stuff...ballast, coil and ECU, and wiring. Since I don't have the car wired up yet I had to make a stand alone system to have the car run. SO I went to the wreckers and grabbed a bunch of misc wiring, alternantor, battery cable, starter relay and slolenoid..from a ford...paid $25 for everything I think. Took me a couple hours to wire everything up. I found all the wiring diagrams on-line. And as you can see from the above video it works great.

Sorry I never updated this thread. I had no problem getting the motor started. It actually started quicker then i had ever hoped for. I figured since this was a bit of an off the wall conversion that I would have a fight on my hand with getting the motor to start. It actually fired up within the first dozen cranks of so. Couldn't ask for more. I have driven the desoto around the block a few times...no insurance...Shhhh... And have had no problems. Might be different once I get out on the road, and up to cruising speed, but I hope not. Here's a vid of the car running....

SOmeone posted just recently about a rebuild kit from...Atlas? Anyway it came with a new pin, and then had "C" clip to hold it in place. Much better set-up then the factory rounded over head, or pinned shaft.

Welcome to the site. And Congrats on a cool car! Tons of info here in the archives...play around with the "search" function. I can pretty much find a solution to most problems with a comprehensive search of the archives.

Can you post a pic of the oval head...the one in the link sure looks round to me.

Todd....is your car a 2dr, or a 4dr? And is there a difference in the door latch mechanisms between the two?

I think Don has a very good idea....make a 3 for 1 deal.

Looks great...Thanks!!

You just need a brass adapter. You should be able to ge one from any inustrial supply house. I can't recall what the dimensions were, I used misc fitting I had laying around on my tank in the desoto. The one form the original tank worked fine, and the other one I'm not sure what dimensions it was. I know I did have to carefully rebend the line back a bit to line up though.

Thanks Darin...Appreciate it!

On my old cars, that are garaged, I change oil once a year...in the spring/summer after sitting and not driving most of the winter. My daily driver, 1st gen cummins diesel, I change every 6 months. April 1st, and Oct 1st. I have never been picky on oils, and never had any major problems. Usually buy the Wally world Supertech oil in the 5 gal pail. Just re-branded name brand oil. I do use a zinc additive though.

Great idea! I too have installed a new Tanks Inc tank in teh Ol'Desoto and ran into the same problem. I did manage to tighten mine up without anything breaking, but it's just too darn tight for my liking. Think I will have to do this...Thank you for taking the time to post up the info and pics!!

So been slowly plugging away on the Desoto....have the entire dash out, as well as the firewall insulation etc. Been working on getting the main fresh air assembly redone...clean, paint and new seals. Anyway last night I decided I better get off my duff and get the old bias ply tires off the rims so I can get them down for blasting. Then prime, paint and get my new coker wide whites installed. So yesterday evening after diner I decided to dig out my manual tire machine and get at it. The first 3 tires went fairly easily....first one was the 16" spare for the crewcab that blew up while in the back of the box. The next two were 16" bias ply from the 48 Dodge parts car...other two are on the desoto right now holding up the front end. Then it was on to the stock 15" rims and tires that were on the desoto....well things did not go so easily after this. These tires have probably been on the rims for nearly 30+ years. I fought and fought and thank goodness for my friend, and neighbor, coming out to see what I was up two. He's as hard headed and stubborn as I am, and a car guy to boot, so we worked together for the next two hours at these 5 rims and tires. We had to use addition bars and blocks of wood, and even had to use the truck to drive over the bead of the last one to break it free! So now a couple pics...The tire machine I paid about $40 for many years ago from Princess Auto. I have removed at least two dozen tires from rims with this little machine...paid for itself many times over! And the pile of tires and rims.... And today I used a few of the old tubes from the old bias ply tires to make up some truck sausages...full of sand for weight in the back of the truck come winter season.

I've been searching through the archives for a way to seal up my wiper pivots...Thank you so much for posting up abut the inner tub material...That is exactly what I needed. I've been trying different materials, foam, gasket material etc...but nothing seemed to work right. Think this will do the job.

Well I had another thread asking about the Fresh Air Cowl assembly, and the seals that go within it...here's the link if your interested in the info within. http://mopar.pairserver.com/p15d24ph_forum/index.php?/topic/32467-cowl-vent-assembly-seals/ Here is the part number for the seals I went with. For the Cowl vent seal...top of the cowl and is the main seal. The original number was # 873278 , the Steele rubber number for this part is... 40-0271-54. The lower, smaller fresh air door seal I could not find an original Mopar number for that one. But the Steele Rubbber number is...70-1768-31. Will update fit and finish when they all come in.

If I had dual carbs, then I would have a larger main pipe, then do a Y well before the forward carb and then have them run up and into the air cleaner hats. Like you said you want to minimize the number of sharp bends.

Any piping of cool air from in front of the grille, or wheel well, etc, will give you better performance. i did this years ago at the drags in my slant six 72 Demon. I ran with everything in stock for...think I was about 17.4 sec. Then I switched to dry duct hose from the grille, through the rad support, to the air cleaner....think this dropped me to about 16.9sec. I then removed the paper air cleaner...netted another couple tenths.

Andydodge...if you look at the seal carefully you should be able to see a number on it. Steele puts there number on all their products. YoungEd...Thanks for the help...I found the seal on their website and have one on the way. I also order the cowl vent seal as well. Hope to have them by next week so I can get the air assembly back in.

Thanks for the suggestions. I looked at the foam tape down at Home Depot, but I did not think that the cell ratio in the foam was dense enough to create a water tight seal. That is why I'm going to use the plumbers putty. And thanks for the link there Young Ed....Nice job you did on the dual heater set-up! I will look again at Steeles website, but I did not see the lower air door seal when i went through it....maybe my eyes were tired and I glazed over it.

Not sure if the Plymouth's and Dodges had the same fresh air assembly as the Desoto, and maybe Chrysler? Well I've been rummaging through the archives, and around the internet, and have not been able to come up with a couple seals. I have been able to find the main cowl vent seal...the one that mounts to the top of the cowl and then the vent lid closes down onto and seals. What I'm now looking for are the other two seals on my main fresh air box assembly. Here is the air box. It mounts up under the dash, beneath the main fresh air cowl vent. there is a seal that goes between the box and the under side of the cowl. I will probably use some plumbers putty to seal this one. But then there is the lower fresh air door. It had a seal that slipped over the outside edge, and then would seal against the inside of the main fresh air box. This is the one I can't seem to find. Anyone have any ideas?

Andydodge...thank you for your suggestions. I came across this same info you posted up at an earlier time. I might look into it...don't know yet. I'd like to test to see if the motor even works first, but don't have a way to put 6V to it. The 12V to 6V Voltage reducer is about $20 and I can then retain all my original stuff.