When a 1968 Plymouth Satellite 4-door enters your life...

[cudak888]

The internet is a strange place. Found this and a number of other project photos of the car today from the P/O. Never seen them before:

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

A bit of progress tonight. Opened up my Fel-Pro master gasket set, only to find the timing cover gasket broken:

Went out and bought a Magnum-type aluminum core gasket to replace it with. Nice thing too, as the Magnum gasket does away with the extra bolt hole that the standard gasket provides for the poly-head 318s.

Got the pan on with the Fel-Pro 4-piece pan gasket. Didn't go on too neatly (my love for The Right Stuff and gasket shellac has something to do with this), but I don't expect it to leak either:

Not going to do anything else at this point until the heads are mounted - and I've got a bit of a surprise in store...

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Surprise! Found myself a pair of Magnum heads locally in excellent shape.

Cleaned up the decks on both the heads and block, and put them in today with new Fel-Pro head bolts. She's looking nice. Went with HEMI Orange to stay with the '68 police car specs, even though this car stretches the definition of a clone:

Mind you, this is more or less a mockup. I'm short two rockers, pushrods, an intake (the Eddy was there mainly to keep the lifter gallery free of paint as was the oil filter and spark plugs) and that nasty looking lifter.

Still, there's enough here that I can put it in the engine bay and worry about all of that later.

I have a week off, so it's going into the car without drilled heads. I'm going to bite the bullet and dig up a Magnum-compatible M1 intake and call it a day. Could be worse.

EDIT: Just realized that the dipstick isn't strictly in its factory spot. Arrugh...

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Teardown of the original motor for removal officially began today (complete with a lot of GoPro footage - TBA), and it's pretty much ready for removal as it sits:

There wasn't a single bit of antifreeze in it - just water. I'd hit a rusty gusher every 10 minutes. Oh well, constipated motor.

Photo doesn't show that I made sure to pull the 1967-style, poly-318-compatible timing chain cover before the evening was out. Can't wait to throw that on eBay and (hopefully) turn it into some play money for the rest of the build. Unfortunately, this cover also confirmed my fears - this is a '67 motor with a '67 gasketed distributor. So much for reusing the dizzy for startup. Ah well, it forces me into doing the HEI ignition module upgrade which I planned on anyway.

That said, I made it a point to mock up the large-flange, driver's side 1992-1993 Magnum exhaust manifold (P/N #53006619), as I don't believe I've ever seen photos of the clearance one gets when installing these manifolds in a power-steering equipped B-body:

Looks tight...

...but it isn't:

Rear exit dumps so perfectly between the trans and torsion bar, you'd wonder if Chrysler actually considered backwards compatibility with the B/C-bodies, given the coil-overs in Dakotas and B-series vans. (Please ignore the rubber line on the other side of the torsion bar - that's the previous owner's so-called repair of the trans cooler supply line and should not be found in any stock B-body):

Pretty sure I've heard they don't fit the same SBM w/PS combo in A-bodies, unfortunately. Someone would make a killing repop'ing 340-style manifolds if there weren't so many cheap headers out there.

The saga continues tomorrow...

-Kurt

 

[Totalled]

Orange...? I thought LA's were light blue?

 

[cudak888]

Orange...? I thought LA's were light blue?

In '68, the 225 and LA engines were red, B engines were turquoise, and the 383 hi-po/police, 440 high-po/police, and 318 police-only engines were HEMI Orange, along with the 426 itself. I'm taking a bit of liberty with the 360 as the 318 police motor.

Someone did a pretty thorough job of turning the original 318 into HEMI Orange as well, from what I can see that isn't grimed up. The crankshaft nut is the only red thing that I can find.

The switch to blue happened in 1970-71, though I believe you could find either color straight through 1971, depending on the build month and motor batch. 440 colors went all over the place too. 1972+ standardized with blue across the board.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

I think something used to be here.

Anyone for a '68 Satellite gasser?

Interesting B-body left-side engine mount observations. Though these mounts look like A-body mounts, the rubber isolator bolts farther forward on A-bodies:

• The 360 has one less ear (bottom rear) than the 318 for mounting, but retains the same double ears up front.
  
• The left engine mount has material spanning all four ears. Some online discussions had me thinking that the mount would need material welded to it. No need.
  
• The forward bottom mount hole - necessary if you want all holes properly bolted on the 360 - is not drilled on my mount, but the steel is stamped with more than enough material to drill the necessary hole without any issue.
  
• The modification requires no welding. Drill it, bolt it, forget it.
  
• The isolators are NOT original. The rubber is marked "Made in Korea."
  
• Some sites report that the rear ear casting on the 360 sits farther forward, requiring a shim. From eyeballing my photos, it certainly appears such.
  
• Note the addition of the third freeze plug on the side of the block.
  
• Doug Anderson's article reported that these later blocks move the bolt hole for the transmission reinforcement brackets forward 1" on the side of the block. Sure looks that way. You can hardly see the original, but it's behind the chain holding the engine down. Compare its position with the center head bolt, then do the same comparison on the 360. Sure makes a difference to visualize it.
  
• I don't know if the 1989 360-to-A518 brackets are going to work. Might need 1988-91 LA-to-A500 brackets.
  

And one other thing. This motor is SUPER GRIMY. Block has as much oil crud on the outside as it does on the inside:

Also - I have a theory of what's wrong with it, and why it has three cylinders with abnormally low compression readings. I don't think the cylinder walls are scored, and I don't think the valves are sticking open.

I think it's blown both head gaskets, and the reason it hasn't been obvious is because there wasn't ANY coolant in this engine when I drained it (or when it drained itself out of the timing chain cover bolts). It's full of water - entirely. Even an engine filled with water usually has some old coolant in it that'll work its way out during a teardown, but not a drop of green ever showed it's face out of a cooling passage during the entire removal.

If this engine has a dual head gasket failure, and never had coolant in it, it would explain two things: 1. The rust on the rockers and rocker shaft, and 2. The fact that the oil hasn't turned to expresso yet.

We'll find out when I swap engines on the engine stand. Should be interesting to see the inside of this thing.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Previous owner thought that the trans cooler line could be repaired with a rubber hose, so I need to bend a new line and install it tomorrow morning, before the engine goes down.

Cleaned up the engine bay a bit today, sprayed the K-frame, and touched up the factory undercoating. Came out decent, seeing as I wasn't aiming for anything but "better than it was before":

In other news, motor mounts are on. Had to drill the left mount, and shim the right for the B-body brackets. The front ears on the 360 are also notably thicker than the 318, and required longer bolts.

Reference photos. Don't you love those not-so-flat rear ear surfaces? Bends the bolt nicely. Yech.

And, thanks to some wheeler-dealing with forum member mderoy340, I now have an M1 intake atop the Frankenmagnum:

The best part is that this is the version of the M1 that supports Magnum heads and the LA offset water pump bypass and thermostat outlet. It's the Mopar equivalent to the Crossfartwind intake. Part number is P4532588:

-Kurt

P.S.: The replacement lifter came in from RockAuto. I filled it with oil and put it in the bore. It felt terrible. You could feel casting flash scraping against the bore. I pulled it out, and put the pitted lifter right back in. Figured it was the lesser of two evils, i.e.: Don't screw with success since '89...

 

[cudak888]

Everything went as perfect as one could ask for, except for the passenger engine mount, which refused to line up with the K-frame without some persuasion.

Unfortunately, when I went to install the bolt, the welds on the nut at the other end gave way. All of them were cold welds. Bolt still wasn't centered when I installed it. I can still tighten the two, but I still have to center the stepped edge of the bolt with the engine mount. Won't be easy no matter what I do (and I'm not out of the notion of considering a new mount, not that I expect it to be different in terms of fit).

Otherwise, the M1 intake, B&M flexplate, and center sump pipe and pan were pretty much the only aftermarket doo-dads I needed to throw on the Frankenmagnum to make it fit. The rest is glorious excess.

And in other news, Greaseball gets taken apart:

I was hoping for '67 closed-chamber heads since everything else on the engine was dated '67, but the engine threw a killjoy and dumped open-chamber 675's on me:

See anything interesting?

Hello there, Mr. Burnt Valve. Looks like that water-in-the-coolant-only mantra of the previous owner came back to bite this engine in the butt.

Still haven't found the culprit of the third problem cylinder, but really didn't have time for figuring that out yet. To think that I may have been able to solve all of this with a simple valve job or another pair of heads...but that wouldn't have been as fun

-Kurt

 

[Totalled]

So, magnum heads on a LA360 long block, but it's roller, so it's kinda like you put a magnum long block in it anyway?

 

[cudak888]

So, magnum heads on a LA360 long block, but it's roller, so it's kinda like you put a magnum long block in it anyway?

Bingo. Far as I know, the only real difference in the block is the size of the rear seal by some hundredth of an inch. Even so, Fel-Pro specs the Magnum seal for the '89 LA, so even that may be the same.

The piston tops are different, as is the balancing of the crankshaft though. The '89 roller LA also has a slightly hotter camshaft with the necessary long snout to run the fuel pump eccentric, plus the older LA water pump cover.

Supposedly - with exception to the pistons - the 360 Magnum crate motors were built absolutely identical to the Frankenmagnum I just put together.

-Kurt

 

[Totalled]

Will the 904 behind it hold it, or is it a 727

 

[cudak888]

Will the 904 behind it hold it, or is it a 727

I'm told the 904 should hold up to it.

Looks like a new torque converter, so the trans rebuild that the PO claimed may actually turn out to be truthful, unlike the engine claims.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Ordered a pair of replacement trans cooler lines. This is how the box arrived:

Sure enough, the one line I needed of the two is bent. I could probably straighten it out, but that's not what I paid for. It's particularly off-putting, because I ruined three 6' bend-to-fit lines trying to make that curvature a week ago. Now this one arrives damaged too.

Murphy is working overtime here.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Latest progress. New water pump installed, along with the old engine's fuel pump and fuel line. I'm going the 1970+ route with the water inlet on the passenger's side. I'm hoping I won't regret this.

Almost installed the '89 van's power steering bracket (actually got to the point of installing the rear bracket, as seen below), but got fed up with the fact that it requires a needless 1/16" spacer on the main bracket's lower bolt. Heck with that, I'm going to pick up the proper '70+ brackets.

You can barely see it, but the van's '89 mini starter has been installed too. Didn't clean up that well, but it's passable.

I'm probably going to stay with the 1989 pulley wheel and crankshaft pulley. Gives me a few extra belt options.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Ok - small update, but lots of things learned about the 1980's B-series van/Ramcharger PS bracket. This is what I had to work with, which didn't make much sense:

Enter a few photos from various Ramcharger sites:

"So that's where it goes." Turns out the PS pump was cockeyed all this time due to the wrench adapter being moved up top.

Now knowing how Ma Mopar intended its installation, I went ahead and installed the 1989 brackets this evening. I put a washer at the bottom to space out the bottom bolt, which would have originally been spaced forward by the magnetic pickup adapter, but otherwise, it's as originally intended to 1989 specs:

Lots of space to read the drivers-side timing marks, and the two-bracket setup (not including the PS tensioner) is super simple:

This is the point that I realized that the dogbone is in the way of one of the water pump holes used by the Bouchillon Sanden brackets. Then it finally dawned on me that the dogbone is a spacer for the air pumps used on these engines. It isn't needed at all, not even for reinforcement (the casting is really light aluminum and wouldn't hold up to much stress at all), which is what I thought it was for in the first place. What's more, it's so soft that it could be easily filed (or even just reversed) to work with the BPE bracket, but why complicate things?

Soon as I have a new bolt...bye, bye dogbone.

That said, I'm going to order a PS pump rebuild kit, and remove the dogbone soon as I have the Bouchillon brackets on hand.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Opened up the power steering pumps tonight to "see what I could see."

1989 Ram Van B350 unit at left with press-fit pulley; 1967 (1968) Satellite unit at right with Woodruff keyed pulley:

Since the '89 bracket uses those three holes in the pulley for easy access to the mounting bolts, I'm going to use the later pulley for the purpose, even though it's a bit larger. The van had a virtually identical steering box to the Satellite - I'm hoping the difference in pulley diameter won't make that much of a difference.

Not sure which flow valve to use though - the old valve from the '67 pump is 1/16" shorter, but has the same three washers as spacers against the spring.

This little discovery has me ticked just a bit though. Since it's a 1980+ pump, it has metric mounting threads. Supposedly the pressure valve hose adapter is metric as well:

I'd like to avoid any metric if I can - bad enough to lug around imperial sockets alone - and I'm not sure if I can swap the '89 shaft onto the '67. I believe I have a third Saginaw spare from my '79 Lincoln as well, so I'm not without options.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

My China-in-a-box "KKS" 1970-style radiator arrived today:

Test fitting. It's getting painted black, no matter what. Sticks out like a sore thumb now.

I was pleased - not to mention a bit surprised - to see that it lines up more or less perfectly with the factory bolt holes.

It's about an inch and a quarter lower than the factory radiator, which - I believe - is to facilitate the use of this radiator in M-bodies - Fifth Avenues, late Furys, and Dippies. The angled cutout at the bottom right would certainly seem to suggest so, anyway. Radiator shroud mounts sure look like they're made to accommodate an M-body radiator shroud.

Chinese cap. Bah! Go play on a Kawei W1 and leave my Satellite alone.

-Kurt

 

[Totalled]

Chryslers used saginaw pumps, eh?

 

[cudak888]

Chryslers used saginaw pumps, eh?

Saginaw or Federal pumps. Could go either way depending on the car and the year in some cases.

It's an interesting bit of kit, that's for sure. I'd liken it to a swapping a 302 in one of our mustangs to a later MPFI 5.0, without the additional doo-dads for EFI.

-Kurt