The Lawn Dart

[Deceus]

Got a lot done considering I didn't get there from karting until 4. Got the instrument panel on the run stand and hooked up to all the needed sending units. My dad got the wiring for the ignition worked out. Got the exhaust mocked up for the driver side and ran into an issue on the passenger side. Went through all my parts and realized the seal I ordered was for the drum setup and not the disc brakes so it was a good thing Jeff wasn't relying on me to have it rolling by Sunday.





pointing right at the corner of the run stand. Had to order a small elbow to weld on and then we'll be in business.



ugly but function (probably)


Had to drop $400 on a carb. We thought we were going to be able to salvage a California emissions Edelbrock 1400 by rejetting it but it seems it was just drilled to fit a single metering rod. No big deal, i was kinda regretting not being able to get the black powder coated version to match the rest of the engine. Now I can.

Got a pretty solid plan for the rest of the build. Just going to buy some body wheels to get the front end rolling that way I can focus on just the engine and not worry about if it'll be ready for the trailer.



Once the motor is broken in, I'll throw it on the cradle I bought for it a while back and never used. Once everything is here I'm gonna pickup a k-frame stand and bracket to lift the front of the car. I'll be able to assemble the majority of the car on that stand and just roll it under the car once it's ready.

[Deceus]

Jeff said the trailer is ready to go. Most of my orders seem to be in on time. Got Friday off to get things organized and hopefully Saturday morning we'll be firing this thing up. The plan right now is to just throw the motor on a cradle and put it in the back of the truck. I don't think there's any way I'd have the time to assemble enough of the front end to get it rolling. Too many potential brickwalls as well (like ordering the wrong set of wheel bearing seals like i did last week). With any luck it'll be in Harrisonburg by Sunday evening and then the real fun begins. It definitely won't make it to the show, but it shouldn't take too long afterwards to be ready.

[*insertusernamehere*]

WOOOO!

[Steve85]

This is good stuff!

[Deceus]

Water and oil everywhere, got to hear the motor turn over though. Having problems getting power to the coil and getting the water outlet to seal so we're gonna jump on it first thing in the morning.

[Jeff]

A friend is riding with me. Leaving around 8. See you tomorrow!

[Deceus]

A friend is riding with me. Leaving around 8. See you tomorrow!

Going to leave the motor here if it's being too stubborn. I can always rent a pickup to grab it once we've worked out the bugs. The body and the rest of the car will be ready to roll regardless.

[davej]

I've got a landscaping trailer you can use to pick it up if you need it.

[Senor_Taylor]

Just throw it in the trunk of the challenger.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[JPolen01]

Just put it in the bed of jeffs truck

[Deceus]

It's full of break-in oil and pissing water. Plus I'd really like the peace of mind know it's ready to go in the car before I take it 3 hours away from the best help I know of.

[Deceus]

Was a long weekend, mostly full of disappointment but nothing catastrophic went wrong. Just typical engine building shit.

Friday went pretty smoothly. I mostly packed shit up and tried not too be pissed that the $37 exhaust elbow I bought was a 3" pipe despite being bagged and labeled as a 2.5". Made a quick trip to Advanced Auto and some time with the ole deathwheel and little welding solved the issue.





Saturday started with a leaking water pump. Turns out I didn't torque the 2 bolts behind my belt tensioners. That got fixed and then water was pouring out the back of the O-ring water neck I bought. We tried 3 different times to get it to seal before I said screw polishing this turd and bought a stock style one from Advance Auto. That seemed to be leaking from a bolt hole but after 2 more tries I saw where the water was coming from and it was a crack in the housing by the bolt. Figured that would be fixed with another trip to the store so we primed the oil pump. It started leaking behind the oil filter adapter. Made a post on a Mopar page and after a ton of useless comments on my oil filter and choices on engine paint, I found out I simply didn't torque it down enough, added some sealer to be safe.





Wasn't dead in the water until Sunday morning. I tried moving one of my power steering lines and it popped right off. It was a steel fitting with a band that crushes down on the hose. It looks like it wasn't on right so instead of crushing, it simply pushed the hose out a bit. 2 bottles of expensive ass royal purple power steering fluid and a gallon of water were all over the engine and floor. The good news is it did finally turn over and we did finally get spark.



Jeff came Sunday and gave me a positive end to a frustrating weekend. First time it's been out of the backyard in years and within an hour we had a Mopar guy stop by and check it out with his 440 6 pack Super Bee when we stopped for Lunch.







I honestly can't thank Jeff and his friend Jason enough. They left at like 9 in the morning to drive 7 hours round trip to move a stranger's car and probably didn't get back home til around 9 when all said and done. It blows me away that there's someone out there willing to do that for me. Hell 9 times out of 10 I can't even get people to drink beer even when I'm buying haha.

[Jake]

MM is good people :thumbup: Glad you had a positive end to the weekend with Jeff and Jason! Projects are called that for a reason - at least you're learning along the way and will know that everything has been done right once you have it totally buttoned back up.

[Deceus]

The engine did end up staying at my dad's. It's a high pressure line, a good water neck and some fuel away from firing up. Once it's up to temperature and has oil pressure, lord knows what else is going to leak but so far it's looking pretty good. I think my starter is louder than some people's motor.

Just going to buy some assembled lines and a nice machined billet aluminum water neck. I was going to buy one from the start but told myself spending $60-$80 on a water neck was fucking stupid. That'll show me.

[Deceus]

Well now that it's here I'm not sure where to start. Definitely need to get everything organized. Without the K-member I can't reassemble the front end yet. I'll probably just start with the interior even though it's the lowest priority. Still need to mount my gas pedal and shifter. Might as well put all the panels back on even though I have no headliner at the moment.

Definitely need to run to Harbor Freight and start picking up things I know I'll need. Cut-off wheel, mini impact, torque wrench and a decent set of 1/2" sockets is probably a good start. I need my panel to start running my headlight wires. I emailed Classic Dash and asked if I could order a blank instrument panel and just got "I don't know" as a response. I let them know it states right on their website they're special orders and still haven't gotten a reply. Might just see if I can't get my own made. Don't care how shitty it looks at the moment, just needs to hold everything until I can find one of these for sale:

[Deceus]

So the bad news is I won't be able to break-in my motor this weekend because my dad is busy but the good news is the rest of my car is here and I have some stuff I can work on. I really need to at least roll it out and wash the layer of filth on it that has accumulated from sitting in a backyard for years. I'm afraid to try and roll it by myself because it's impossible to be the steering, brake and gas myself. I'd rather not watch it sail off into the distance down the hill right outside my place. Need to come up with something so I'm not relying on someone to come over just to move it. Maybe just loop a ratchet strap around my waist so i can move it and act as an anchor at the same time. If this is my final entry I likely died trying to save the damn thing.

[Jeff]

Sorry I'm just now posting, we had a great time helping get it up here. Glad that part went so smoothly. Now you need to get it together by next year's show! I'm going to make sure I am there next year.

[davej]

Need to come up with something so I'm not relying on someone to come over just to move it. Maybe just loop a ratchet strap around my waist so i can move it and act as an anchor at the same time. If this is my final entry I likely died trying to save the damn thing.

You can anchor a winch to the floor a la DJ's setup, or do my poorman's version with a harbor freight come-along and chain for like $40.

I can also just run over there at lunchtime most days and help push.

[Senor_Taylor]

I can also just run over there at lunchtime most days and help push.

Do you offer the same service for bowel movements?

[Deceus]

You can anchor a winch to the floor a la DJ's setup, or do my poorman's version with a harbor freight come-along and chain for like $40.

I can also just run over there at lunchtime most days and help push.

Not sure I have a good way to anchor anything in this garage but that's a good idea for future reference once I actually own a place.