My 71 Duster work in progress

We'll see how getting the old headers off goes once the new ones arrive. I expect lots of sawzall action. There's no reason to try to save them.

I'll have to pick the motor up too, so out comes the heater box - needed to do that anyway - and hopefully it will come up far enough with the elephant ears and transmission on it. I'm also hoping the headers will fit with the elephant ears and I won't need to switch to conversion mounts yet. Only way to know is to start in on it.

I'll be able to get the starter on and off in the future without removing the headers or raising the engine, but chances are the next one will outlast me.
 
On the 74 the hole in the inner fender was so distorted I actually got a full size starter out & a new mini in thru the wheel well now that I straightened that out & am getting new exhaust I wonder what the situation will be???
Hopefully mine will outlast me too!
 
I'd definitely run a mini starter to give myself as much room as possible on your car especially if you're going to run headers.

I started taking it apart last night. Noticed while taking photos of the headers that it looks like if I drop the center link and raise it up high enough they will drop out the bottom. I doubt that, but it looks that way anyway.

I'm going to remove everything in front of the engine. Alt and P/S pump are going to make it easier to get to the elephant ears, and the radiator/shroud/fan are going to keep from breaking things. Ideally I can just bolt a lift plate to the intake and hook the cherry picker directly to that, and leave the hood on the car.

I'm hoping at most I just have to raise the engine up a little bit, R&R the headers, and drop it back down. But, like I said before, I doubt that.

The new headers are scheduled to arrive here tomorrow. I'll have to buy a starter (duh), flange pipes (not cheap either), and studs or bolts. I'm hoping to go with studs if possible to avoid having to drain things if the headers ever need to be unbolted. I would go ahead and get the head pipes too but for some reason they think two pipes are worth an additional $490. Nope. I'll drive it to a muffler shop and get something made up to connect between the exhaust that's on there and the flange pipes.
 
Well I put a mini on it when I got it, not a lot of use, only drove it around a few times, now it's been laying around for 15 years!
 
I've got the headers here now. I've been standing around wondering if it would be easier to drop the center link, raise the car a mile in the air, and try to take the long tube headers off, or if I should just go ahead and break out the sawzall and get it over with. If I cut them off I won't have to mess with the suspension and maybe won't even have to raise the car more or raise the engine at all.











More in next post
 
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The instructions say to raise the engine about 1/4 to 1/2 on the passenger side and to raise it about an inch on the driver's side. With the elephant ears, it's already raised up an inch. The new headers might just install themselves! :D

I did pull the fan and shroud off just in case I have to move the motor, to avoid accidentally breaking the shroud or banging the fan into the radiator and pulled the alternator and P/S pump to give me more room around the ears.

Passenger side


Driver's side - note the frame rail isn't notched like the other side is, so it's only going to come up so far before the ear runs into it.
 
Some people shove Hemis in them.

I'd rather have a small block in it. I was seriously considering that BP engine above, but Gina wasn't, so that was that. The headers were expensive but they were a whole lot cheaper than a new engine and trans, and hopefully a lot less work.

My next task is to pick up some good sawzall blades and start hacking away at those rusty beasts tomorrow morning. I'm hoping if I cut them apart under the torsion bars and at the flange they'll fall right out and that I can actually get the saw in to do that.

Lots of hoping in this thread ...
 
I was thinking that could be fun, but then the area to work in & the positions the body has to contort to to get at em maybe not?
When the hood on the 73 was beyond repair, after wasting money dipping it, I had some fun cutting the heck out of it , at least I saved the scoop area to fill in the holes the last dig bat cut in the 74's scoops!
 
Yeah at first glance it looks like I could just get a long blade and start hacking away, then I start looking at all the things around it that I can't cut and it becomes more stressful. I also have to start from the bottom up because if I cut the top loose then I have a problem holding it still while the saw does it's thing.

Ideally I'll cut it before the collector and after the flange so I just have 8 tubes to mess with fishing out of the chassis.

I've got a messed up left shoulder that limits where I can work too.

Studies have shown that the most stress-free and happy workers do demolition for a living.
 
.. and they're off



The passenger side slide right in



The starter was expensive at one time, now it's just pieces of metal in the shape of a starter



Today is more cleaning up, pull the steering column, and figure out if I have to grind the "extra boss" and the corner on the steering box mentioned in the instructions. The steering box says it's needed "with the 440" so I'm hoping that doesn't apply to my 400. Less grinding is more better.
 
It was broken before I got to it but that doesn't make me feel any better about it.

I started in with a box knife trying to scrape away the RTV and it kept getting floppier until I just fell off.





It was apparently broken, bolted to the engine, and gobbed up at the bottom, before I got to it.

The universally used press-in dipstick tube is the worst. Seems like it might have been better to tap it and then screw the tube in and out. But no somebody decided it was cheaper to press them in and the other mfrs line up. Not a problem when a car is new, but as they get older and you have to remove and replace the tube it becomes a problem but it's not the mfrs problem..
 


Got it. Removed the steering column and the broken dipstick today and that's enough. I need to order up some parts now.
 
The good luck getting the broken end of the dipstick tube out made my day. I saw myself taking more things apart to get the oil pan off to drive it out. Glad it didn't come to that.
 
Any day that ends on a good note is much appreciated, I getting closer to my next attempt at a paint shoot with great trepidation!
 
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