My 71 Duster work in progress

I went through my junk and found a white (218) and a green (290) pump cam. The carb had a pink (330) cam in it. Green is the most aggressive, so I took the pink one off and put the green one on. Problem solved, no more hesitation. I might be able to go back to the 32 squirter now (or maybe even smaller) but I don't feel like taking the carb off to do that right now. (choke is in the way).





It doesn't sound like much here, but note there's no sneezing or sagging
 
you really wont notice trans temp at general use...a bunch of hard pulls, hills, hard down shifts etc is when you see something happen so honestly forget about it.....in other words unless your abusing it, its not effecting anything
 
We took it out today for a several mile drive.

It seemed to stay cool until I got into a stop-n-go area and then it heated up and didn't cool down.

It got baptized today, an unexpected storm came up and soaked it. We were just a couple of miles from home at that point.

I opened it up at one point and stuff flying out of the vents about beat us to death. The interior looks like it's been used as a daily driver for a year without vacuuming now.

It still won't do a burn out. I can stand on the brakes and gas and it does one of those slow motion deals where the tires are turning but they aren't *spinning". I won't be surprised if it's got a stock torque convertor in it. Need to read up on how to figure that out.
 
oof even my 273 with 2series gear would atleast spin a tire on a stock converter, so somethings gotta be wrong
 
I have a sneaking suspicion the low compression readings from a week or two ago have something to do with it but hate to start thinking about that. There's no smoke and almost too much oil pressure, so it doesn't seem like the engine's worn out.

I'm hesitant to start pulling things apart to figure out if the cam is installed wrong or if the heads need work because there's basically no room to work with the engine in the car.
 
I've got a repro shroud, mildon HV thermostat, and a mildon HV water pump on the way. When I refill l'm going to add some water wetter since that seems to help according to the internet. Hopefully this overheating problem will be a thing of the past, or at least will be under control.

I can't find the post in this thread where I discussed rad hoses with Jass, but it looks like a standard pair of 340 hoses will work if I trim them to fit so I'm going to give those a try. If not I'll have the old hoses in hand when I return them so I can try to match them with 2 out of 10,000 hoses at the parts store.
 
if memory serves most of the a body hoses wer all the same but when you needed a "tweak" the truck hoses could give you extra length after the bend...i know when i put a c body rad in my fish i used truck hoses to get the length and just cut to fit

also..im sure doc will pop in nbut i thought water wetter was just a lil dish soap?
 
I don't think I'll need extra length on the hoses. My one concern is that I'll have to cut it too close to a bend. I may drain it down and take the hoses with me to start with.

I don't know if WW is really just dish soap but based on the search I just did there's a lot of people on the internet that think so and report that it works. I guess the question would be how much? Some say a couple of drops, I saw another say a couple of tablespoons. For sure soap suds wouldn't be conducive to cooling so you don't want to get carried away with it.
 
It looks like it had cut down 340 hoses on it to start with



It also had some sort of a high volume 160* stat in it.



It's going to have a Milodon high volume 180* stat in it now.



The main difference I see between a high volume water pump and a standard water pump is a plate welded to the impeller. I guess that keeps it from throwing water the wrong way. I just noticed it looks like the impeller is reversed from the stocker. I was reading the other day about GM using a reverse-rotation water pump for serpentine systems, so I double checked and it says it's CW rotation so it's the same regardless of it looking reversed.
Milodon Mechanical Aluminum Water Pump



I also see the new pump has fewer fins than the original.

I also got the shroud and it seems to fit OK but the truth won't be known until I finagle it all together with the fan in place. I need to go pick up some small bolts for that. I bought some 1/4" bolts but the mounting clips on the rad are for a much smaller bolt/screw. I also need to match up some belts for it, this time a little bit longer than the bare minimum that's on it.

I picked up an honest to goodness bottle of water wetter too. I figured better to go with that than to dose it with dish detergent and blow the cap off with suds :)

I tried to save a little money by using full strength antifreeze and picking up a couple of gallons of distilled water at Menard's. I think that saved $2 a gallon compared to the 50-50 premix.
 
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It's all together now save a longer alternator belt. I picked up belts at NAPA and asked for about an inch longer than what was on it. They got the PS belt right but gave me the same exact length for the alternator. I'll swap that belt for a longer one tomorrow and take it for a spin to see if there's any improvement. I let it run in the garage to about 200* and everything was holding pressure.

When I refilled it I used 1-1/2 gals of distilled water, and about 1/2 gal of coolant. From what I've read water cools better. I also noticed that since it was drained I'm now seeing some rusty crap floating around as the thermostat started opening. I need to address that eventually.

It seems like there's more air drawn through the radiator now with the shroud installed. It sounds like a jet plane in front of the grille.

I don't recommend these repop shrouds either. Mine was in a factory sealed box and had a repair on the top passenger side. It looks like it broke in the mold and they hot glued it back together. I weighed my options of paying shipping again to swap it and likely getting the same thing the next time and went ahead and installed it. If it does the job helping the engine to run cooler I'll live with the little bit of ugly on it.

I pointed the heat gun at the headers and found the front tube is a helluva lot hotter than the back one, on both sides. Weird.
 
10-1 odds are the crap in the block is at the rear lowwer end IE you really have to pull the rear freeze plugs and the rear side ones to get any results, its the spot for shit to build up and sit, ive had blocks fresh off the hot tank still have crap back there

as far as the header temps id be looking keepin tabs on the plugs to verify the front isnt lean with an air leak
 
I figured the rusty stuff was coming from the engine. The radiator flows like crazy. Actually started circulating before 180*.

An intake leak causing the temp difference would be about right, since I just replaced the gasket. I'll try to remember to pull the plugs after we take it for a drive today.
 
#1 #7 plugs both look about the same. No fouling, not too rich, not too lean, kind of brown in color.


Of course I managed to break #7 putting it back in because I was using a wrench on the socket, it's tight to the header, and the older I get the sloppier I work.

The temps were a little more under control, but it's a lot cooler today than it has been. It may be one of those it is what it is deals.

Had a deer brake check me. No ABS for sure. No insurance claim either.

Noticed a clicking noise related to the RF wheel turning. I think that was related to a slightly loose bearing and a slightly warped/untrue rotor and the brake pads. There's nothing hitting when the wheel spins anyway.
 
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Learn from my mistake - I took the car out this weekend, it was running hot and surging, so I thought maybe the carb could use riching up a little bit. I thought it had 70 jets in it and I have a set of 72s so I took it apart and found another pair of 72s in it.

I scrounged around and the smallest jet I had larger than a 72 was a 78. I thought, go ahead and put those in, the worst it will do is smoke when it starts and maybe it will show me if a bigger jet would help. Nope. It wouldn't start at all. I pulled a plug after having the 78s in it and it was dripping wet.

I put the 72s back in it and no start. I let it sit for a few hours thinking it would dry out but still no start. If it doesn't start this evening, the plugs are all coming out and the carb is coming off.

Sometimes I wonder where the fun is, in this hobby. ;)
 
I pulled all the plugs yesterday and they were all still a little wet so I torched them dry.

I didn't try to start the car again. The #6 plug has cowed me. If it doesn't start I'm likely to end up pulling it again - fighting that one in and out once is enough work for one evening :) Anyway I'm hoping the plugs were the problem but as always I'm skeptical.

With the overheating and having experienced the wonder of a motor vibrating on elephant ears for a while, I'm back to thinking about getting a crate magnum stroker engine for it. The problem is a delay in the builders I've looked at, and deciding if I want to go with a 4speed for ++$ or stick with an automatic. And then there's the question of spraying the engine compartment while it's out and all that involves so I may never change anything and just stick to 20 mile round trip drives :)
 
One more thing I'm trying to cool it off - I just ordered front and rear hood seals.

Supposedly the front one prevents hot air being pulled over the top of the radiator and into the cooling air stream at idle. The rear one prevents hot air being pulled out the back of the hood and into the cowl vents.

They won't hurt, might help, weren't expensive.
 
Maybe it's time to take a break from this car & work on the other one?

I guess I was lucky on the other car, worst problem was a Vac leak on the intake (because I did the sealing on the gaskets wrong of course) & the gas guage would only go to 3/4 tank, just before I sold it it went completely dead & after hearing your story I'm glad I didn't even try to fix it!
 
This car would be OK if it just wasn't running so danged hot.

I managed to forget to order a jet kit so finding out if a step or two richer makes a difference won't happen any time soon. But I do know now that 6 steps richer is a bad idea.

The A12 needs welding, metal fab, etc. Trust me I'm a lot better at fixing mechanical stuff than I am doing that. (y)
 
I was too, but after the other car , this one was ALMOST easy.
Are you going to do it yourself or farm it out?
 
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