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

[cudak888]

Today saw the Satellite's very first run under its own power.

Still a few things to do before it's complete (PCV system, finished fuel line, compressor, 18" fan and shroud, etc), but it's more or less all there.

That custom alternator bracket is gone. The spacing against the head just didn't work the way it was supposed to, and the slot was simply too large to work well. Metal seemed brittle too. I replaced it with one kicking around in the shed - I think it came from a Universal diesel engine. Looks the part effortlessly.

The 1406 was rejetted and fitted with springs and metering rods to 1405 stock specs. Conversion went like a charm.

One thing does have me concerned though - the 6.5psi max pressure requirement of the AFB carb. Since the AFB/AVS carbs were spec'ed new on these cars back in the day, I would assume the stock fuel pump adheres to this specification, though the stupid plastic fuel filter really makes me wonder about that.

At any rate, I'm not keen on adding a regulator into the line - I don't want the added complexity or more potential leak spots.

One other problem: The throttle plates hang open on acceleration, which turned out to be the source of most of my high-idle/choke issues. Soon as I started pulling back on the pedal with my foot, the problems went away. Either the 2bbl return springs aren't cutting it, and/or the throttle cable housing isn't backed down far enough in its bracket.

The 904 is also slow to shift at times, but I'm pretty sure it's low on fluid - seems to have lost most of its fluid sitting in the driveway. That, and I need to get that all-important kickdown linkage (which a local Mopar guy says he can get for me for $50 - seems a bit high when the whole linkage can be had for $150).

Now that I've had the car over 2 mph, the shot tie rod ends are more apparent than ever. The Viper front brake conversion is next for this beast, so that'll all get taken care of at that point. Funny how I still ignore the weatherstripping, the shot driver's door latch, and the fact that the keys that I got for the car fit the ignition and trunk only - not the doors. Priorities, priorities

However, since this Lagnum (Maglam?) LA-roller-Magnum-headed 360 build is more or less done, I'm going to close this post with some celebratory beauty shots. Now that I can put the car anywhere under its own power, it's a lot easier to do!

I'll still drop in from time to time with updates, and the rest of the car's build will be at FBBO in this thread:

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?96118-68-Satellite-4-door-light-refurb-and-big-fat-engine-swap

-Kurt

 

[DK73]

Wow that is so awesome Kurt [THUMBS UP SIGN] Regards Lars

So I'm a proud owner of one Mach 1 73! Regards Lars DK73

 

[cudak888]

Big steps backwards this extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend - but, in the long run, it's a good thing that I caught this.

Remember how half of the lifters on the engine had been replaced on the passenger's side?

There was a good reason for that. The lifters on the driver's side all started failing to pump up with fluid after about a week or two of sitting, which brought me to the point of pulling the intake to find out what's up.

Long story short (VERY long: http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=316085&page=9 ), the driver's side lifters do pump up, but bleed down very quickly and cannot maintain the necessary preload on the rockers.

At first, I thought this was a gallery blockage issue, which I quickly dismissed by checking flow at each bore (excellent) and by swapping lifters from one side to the other (bad ones wouldn't flow no matter where I put them, the good ones always flowed regardless of their position). Oil pressure is excellent, so that pretty much ruled out block issues.

Now that's where this just became sadistically irritating: Neither the Sealed Power nor Melling lifters I bought today - brand new - would pump up. I tried soaking them, then pumping them with oil in my drill press (with a pushrod in the chuck), and trying to prime them under the hood with and without pushrods installed.

Nothing worked.

Side-by-side comparison - no oil at left w/new Sealed Power lifter, oil to no end with one of the good lifters from the engine:

And a video:

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wALp_S2rhsc

In the video, the new Mellings are on cylinders #6 and #8; the "good" lifters from the passenger's side are distributed in the front of the engine on #2, #4, #1, and #3; and the problematic lifters from the drivers' side are mounted in the #5 and #7 spot. The Sealed Power lifters were already returned to Advance Auto by then.

The video hasn't been edited and may be confusing (priming begins at 0:53), but as you will see, the Mellings barely dribble oil, the "good" old lifters shoot oil like no tomorrow, and the "bad" old lifters bleed down almost immediately after oil pressure is applied to them.

I also show how the old lifters have oiling holes at 90 degrees rather than 180 (straight up), but that's a Mopar oddity, and the video also shows me spinning one of the lifters 90 degrees to show that the flow doesn't change.

At any rate, I must have tried every lifter bleeding trick in the book, and I've come to one conclusion and no other: Both the Mexican-made Sealed Power lifters and the U.S.-made Mellings are junk.

I now am awaiting a used set of Magnum roller lifters that one of the fellows on the Mopar A-Body forum disassembled, cleaned, and tested for his stroker small block until he decided to change the direction of his build. I'd rather have good used (and fully cleaned) lifters that work than new lifters that don't!

Oh well.

P.S.: I was hoping that I'd be able to clean up my workshop after the engine was done.

"JUST KIDDING!"

This is what happens when your car hobby money has to come from selling stuff on eBay. It's an explosion of project car parts - in boxes - alongside stuff that doesn't sell on eBay - in boxes - and random crap you don't know where to put - in boxes - plus projects you never had time to organize and threw - in boxes - topped with everything else you forgot to put...in boxes.

Heck, that engine lift strap is still hanging on my bike stand, and I didn't even notice that until this minute. Maybe I have to take more photos of my junk heap to figure out what to do with it.

That also reminds me - the fire-damaged LED light panel should come back in the house now, if it doesn't smell like bad barbecue still.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

I haven't really been posting much about the lifters, but I finally found out a LOT about the LA roller lifters vs. the Magnum roller lifters (yes, there is a difference), and the need to pump the Magnum lifters up with a priming shaft in the engine - NO exceptions.

Everything is covered in nauseating detail in this thread, and is a must read if you want to learn about the variations of Mopar roller-cam lifters:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1971061331#post1971061331

Long story short, I'm going to get 16 new lifters for this thing, prime them correctly, and button the whole thing back up again. What a saga...

-Kurt

 

[Boss1Ray]

Congrats on all the successes/milestones! That is a sweet looking Mopar. Love the look. Need a spot light on the DS door... LOL

Keep in touch!

Ray

 

[cudak888]

Congrats on all the successes/milestones! That is a sweet looking Mopar. Love the look. Need a spot light on the DS door... LOL

Keep in touch!

Ray

Thanks, Ray! I'll call it a success when the engine is running without any lifter clanking or coolant leaks at the intake gaskets.

No door spotlight, but it has a hand-held GE spotlight hanging from a hook on the bottom of the passenger's side dashboard, with a coiled power wire

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Just installed new lifters today - and they all pump up as intended.

Granted, one of the lifters is rough in the bore - I'm going to exchange it for another - but this project is back up on the move

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Returned the one offending new lifter, and got a replacement. Pumped up all the lifters, installed the pushrods/rockers, and checked the hydraulic pressure against each rocker - no give on any of them.

After installing the valvettrain, I pressurized the system again to check for oil at all rockers. Results A-OK.

Here's where I am at the end of today. Decided not to rush it and to get a new pair of intake gaskets tomorrow. These are completely oil soaked.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

SUCCESS! One running LA 360 turned Magnum!

Only problem I'm having is copious smoke from the right-side exhaust manifold, which was doused in oil more than once by the original LA roller lifters. I wiped it down top and bottom, but it still smokes to a rather alarming extent.

-Kurt

 

[Mister 4x4]

Coming right along! ::thumb::

How's the, uh, Mustang doing, BTW? :whistling:

 

[cudak888]

Coming right along! ::thumb::

How's the, uh, Mustang doing, BTW? :whistling:

Tomorrow, the Mustang is going to be fired up and placed into the spot the Satellite took over for way too many months.

Have to finish the left quarter, adjust the crossmember between the framerails, and do something about epoxy sealing the trunk - and everything else - properly. The spray trunk paint in there is utterly useless (new rule: "2K or nothing").

-Kurt

 

[Mister 4x4]

Cool! Just pickin' on ya, Man!

 

[cudak888]

Cool! Just pickin' on ya, Man!

Nobody is harsher on me for letting that project fall by the wayside than myself, believe me.

Not looking forward to the cost of painting the SOB though...

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

One last thing was plaguing the build - a very leak-prone transmission pan gasket. Since fluid had been leaking out steadily, I decided this was a golden opportunity to replace the gasket with a new, steel-core Chrysler resuable gasket - and upgrade the pan to the latest one used on the A904's modern offspring, the 42RH/42RE. The filter needed an extension (like a fool, I didn't photograph it), but the install went flawlessly:

Original filter. Front band clearance was A-OK.

Rubber gasket coated with RTV on a rough pan that was tightened down with 80% factory bolts and 20% whatever was on the shop floor that would fit. Work of a true hack.

A bit of ATF+4, and it should be good to go.

-Kurt

 

[cudak888]

Couldn't resist this today. Spiritual successors and all that:

...and a bit more classic Mopar:

-Kurt

 

[Qcode351mach]

...and a bit more classic Mopar:

-Kurt

Nice :coolphotos: Dragnet and Adam-12

 

[cudak888]

Nice :coolphotos: Dragnet and Adam-12

Almost! It's not a Fairlane 500, but close.

Honestly, I'd lose my mind if I had an opportunity to get a '70 Montego 4-door.

-Kurt

 

[Mustang Dynasty]

Cool! Just pickin' on ya, Man!

Yeah man. Went out to the garage to fire her up, and found this. :^/ Yeah its a day to pick. Its April Fools Day. Today I hide!

 

[cudak888]

I'm busy buggering around with weatherstrippng for this car.

I ordered two NOS pieces of 4-door weatherstripping last week (because it was freakin' dirt cheap - I think I paid less than $40 shipped for both parts) which arrived a few days ago. One 2570244 window run, and one 2570238 front door inner felt.

I'd never seen what this rubber-and-felt piece looks like when off the car and in a pre-installation state, so this was a perfect opportunity to photograph it to see if the pattern is reproduced as a generic piece of trim (rather than model/door specific), preferably for a sane price.

Thanks to the For A-Bodies Only forum, I found the answer reasonably quickly - Metro Moulded Parts part #WC 33-96 is a 96" version of this window run that can be cut to fit, and is $22-$26.70 wherever you find it (Jegs, Amazon, eBay). Now that's more like it, price-wise. The part is also not exclusive to Chrysler, as one source lists the following:

This product fits 91 vehicle variants.

American Motors (AMC): 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Cadillac: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Chevrolet: 1 models, 3 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Chrysler: 6 models, 18 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Desoto: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Dodge: 8 models, 21 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Ford: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Gmc: 2 models, 4 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Imperial: 4 models, 10 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Lincoln: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Mercedes Benz: 1 models, 3 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Mercury: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Oldsmobile: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

Packard: 1 models, 3 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Plymouth: 9 models, 21 variants between 1965 and 1967.

Pontiac: 1 models, 1 variants for 1965.

At any rate, that solves window run issues for framed 4-door A-bodies and B-bodies from this era; not sure if the same trim also applies to the '71 redesign.

This does not, however, solve the problem of the window run that slides into the vent and quarter window channels. The front ones are listed as Mopar 2570243 in the '68 parts manual; shared with the Valiant and Dart. To my knowledge, they are not reproduced. At present, only one is on eBay right now - NOS, for an insane $224. Time to find out if that one also comes in bulk; unfortunately, the eBay photo doesn't really show the cross section too well.

-Kurt

P.S.: Soon as I have enough for one door, I'm going to clean up and install one of the stainless Ventshades I bought for it. Nice little period piece - and it really screams "county fleet car from the '60s or '70s." If anyone out there is sitting on a few of these for Mopar applications, let me know if you have these.

 

[Totalled]

Back in the day, JC Whitney used to sell rolls of universal window channel, seals, and other such parts.