Dartgame

No but they are great fun for playing with cats. Mine has a laser pointer that our cat will chase around. Of course being careful not to hit his eye...

Can you turn the bolt inside the spring and bracket ? If so, work it and use the hammer to get it out.

Hmm - well if it does not leak then I'd say good to go...

Does not look like it has been leaking. If I understood your description this "crack" is on the head and not the block ? My guess is this is not an actual crack, but rather a casting mark perhaps ?

I used a local driveshaft outfit they knew exactly what I needed, and had made these in the past - similar price as well.

On my 52 the split for the front brake line is a brass block that sits on the frame under the battery box toward the left of the core support.

Hardware or autoparts store. If these are indeed studs and not shoulder bolts. You would need to pull the center section and find it out.

If its a open rear end (not sure grip or posi as some call it) then if both wheels are off the ground and not in gear or applied parking brake then one tire will rotate lets say clockwise, the other will turn counter clockwise. And yes if one tire is on the ground, the other can turn as well off the ground.

Great ideas guys. Need to get the block out of my machinists shop where it has been siting for a while. Will probably do this next week. He is probably closed tomorrow...

Good thought- need to examine a piston outside the block.

Thanks - I'll give the 1/4 tap a Shot - problem with heating is I'd need a acetylene torch to get enough heat - which I do not have. Machinist was suggesting a slightly smaller drill to weaken the piston thereby allowing to collapse. Good idea about threading into the piston as well, but with as hard as this thing is may be an issue as well. But we will see what works.

Hi All - I am working on a salvage '53 218. Person that gave me the block had it hot tanked, which is nice, but they did not remove the pressure relief valve assembly. I was able to remove the cap/plug and the spring, but the pressure relief piston is firmly stuck/rusted into the block. Have tried heating soaking with oil, and using a huge easy out..No good. In speaking with my favorite machinist about this he is suggesting drilling it it out. In order to do this he would like to see what the piston looks like. Which brings me to my question. Does anyone have a used pressure relief valve assembly they would be willing to sell me ? Or a piston from one of these ? I know I can buy a new one from VPW, but am trying to avoid as much expense as possible should this block end up being junk... Thoughts & comments appreciated...

My guess is pilot bushing- not easy to change...

John Edge - I am very interested to know about the oil filter system on your car. Is it a full flow or a partial like most ? If it is full flow can you talk about how you did that ?

I used synthetic jute type carpet padding and adhered it using spray contact cement on one of my darts. It stuck and has not fallen in over 16 years. I was mainly interested in sound deadening and not insulation. If I were to do this again I would probably use the stuff like you found...

You are right they were used in motor homes and such. Probably a lot of those had 4 bbl too. I only know for certain what were used on car applications.

Correct, that's how the calculation works. You choose the max rpm you intend to run. Nope - all 440's used in cars that I know about, have a 4 bbl of about 650-750 cfm or larger on them. Thermoquads used on later 440's are about 850 cfm, six packs I think were about 1050 cfm ? 440's always were a high output motor to my knowledge. Depending on the application the 4 bbl primary butterflies are about 1 1/2 inches on TQs and for AVS or AFB carbs the primaries are 1 7/16, or 1 1/2 " IIRC. The real flow determination is the Venturi size anyway. My point was to show there is a method of calculating the engines demand for air flow. I believe putting a dual carb set up on a flat six is an excellent idea. Mainly for fuel distribution problems the stock set up has. Theoretically the center two cylinders are going to run richer than the two end cylinders because of where the stock manifold places the carb. Dual carb manifolds equalize the fuel distribution by the carb placements.

There is a standard formula used to calculate the cfm requirements for a given engine, which uses displacement, estimated volumetric efficiency and anticipated maximum rpm. I did a calculation for a mildly warmed over 440 I built years ago. I assumed 85 % VE, max rpm of 6000 and the cfm requirement came out to be somewhere between 650 and 700 cfm. CFM = (CID X rpm X VE)/ 3456 440 example - (440 X 6000 X .85)/3456 = 649 cfm So most folks over carb their motors for normal street use without knowing it. For racing over sized larger carbs are usually used.

On my 52 there is a union about half way down the frame towards the front, maybe yours does too. Good place to join your new piece to the old.

I am familiar with rod balancing under normal circumstances, as Elwood points out you match to the lightest rod. I've had rods balanced, shot peened, and reconditioned with new rod bolts for mopar small & big blocks in the past. They have the balance pads needed to make them a matched set. I admitted my idea was probably unworkable, because of the potential for damage to a given rod. It was just a passing thought. Since you can apparently balance them by smoothing out flash and so on that makes more sense. Elwood, are you able to get replacement rod bolts for these motors ? Eventually I see myself building one of them,and am curious about that. Too bad the 218/230 rods don't have balance pads like their bigger brothers.

My guess is piston bore. A 73 dart with disc brakes uses 15/16 bore rear wheel drum brake cylinders, and 15/16 bore master cyl.

I would do the same, paint them !

Assuming the rods are to be reconditioned with new bushings and the big ends resized. My thought is to balance the rods to (counter logically) to the heaviest or the middle of the set prior to reconditioning., by adding material to the big or small end as needed, with welding. Or by removing weight as Elwood describes above. Adding weight is Probably not practical and detrimental to the metallurgy - so this might be a completely stupid idea. I certainly do not like the idea of removing ribs etc., that will weaken a given rod. The rods in these motors are spindly enough as is compared to a mopar small block. Has anyone looked at the specs on a slant six rod ? I wonder if they could be a substitute- but I seem to recall that the 23 inch motors rods are offset some how ? So maybe not.

Interior stuff looks great ! Are the door cards re pops or originals ? I hope to retire in a few years, I have a couple of boomerangs to move out before that can happen.

I made my own, bought a universal 6 cylinder set that has straight spark plug boots. You cut to length and attach the distributor brass connectors. Best done using a mandrill (for lack of better term) intended for mashing the ends of these things. Or you can take the plug wire into your local parts store and they can match one up to the length and sell it to you. Most parts stores have singles like that.