Sunday morning motherlode

E bodies will always be worth more. Only if you're going to sell one.. My buddy has a '64 Porsche 356 SC cabriolet.. It's worth as much as my house, but it was his inheritance from his dad, so it has no monetary value. Your E body has sentimental value, if I remember correctly. It clearly needs to be finished. However, once you get your license back, your daily shouldn't be anything other than a two door post Valiant. Why not? It's not flashy, or expensive.. It's got character, good on gas, and you won't get butthurt if somebody dings it in the parking lot. If your current daily is something modern and beige, kick that shit to the curb.. If it's your wife's... I dunno, gently nudge it to the side?
 
Yes, the Challenger has sentimental value because of my last one. But as far as the rest, I had a pecking order already laid out:


  • The Challenger was to be my special occasion/fun backroad car
  • The Imperial was always intended to be a daily driver, hence the MPFI, EDIS, etc.
  • The Suburban was to be my occasional cruise night/parts chaser not requiring 4WD/"Holy shit look at that engine" car
  • The Dakota is the 4WD winter beater with a heater/junkyardin'/shit-for-which-I-need-a-truck vehicle

The Valiant just really doesn't work into the equation anywhere. I guess it could be the "I don't feel like pushing a clutch today" option, since everything else has a stick... :hmmm:
 
lets do the obvious then..the valiant is the "stand in" for the imp untill its done..since well..the val actualy runs drives stops and needs basicly nothing to be used right now..once the imp is done THEN you can worry about sellinig it for WAY more
 
The Imperial runs, drives, and stops now... of course, it's also untouched project-wise. I wasn't going to rip into a serviceable vehicle until I have room in the garage for it. But in its current form it's a gas-slurping slug of a car, and there's the minor issue of last year's fire damage to it. It sure is comfy, though. :D
 
Pull both front seats (or the bench) out of the VBomb, and stuff the Imp's driver's BarcaLounger in it.. Best of both worlds
 
As for the slant EFI, that's nothing I got off of the slant site. In fact, I have no idea what crank pulley with a Hall effect sensor would even bolt up to a 225 if there was one. If I ultimately go that route, I'd use the Jeep components I have, and megasquirt it. Since I have eight driving antiques, and use half of my fancy carport fixing old sports cars to fuel my dirty habit, I realistically won't have the spare time or garage space to figure out home brewed EFI. So it'll probably remain one of those things I talk about doing, and pat myself on the back for knowing that I'm capable of figuring out given a year and a million dollars.
 
If you stick with a distributor, it's extremely easy. You don't need any hall-effect sensor, you can just use coil negative as a trigger on the MegaSquirt. :dance: It's not until you get into computer-controlled timing or true sequential injection (which really isn't worth the extra aggravation in my estimation) that things like 36-1 trigger wheels and dual-sync position sensors come into play.

Of course the real power and economy are in the spark timing, hence the reason I'd considered running the MegaJolt with a Six Pack. You can't give an engine the timing it really wants or needs with a distributor, period. An optimum spark "curve" for any engine is actually a gradual M shape, with the middle depression centered at peak VE and additional advance applied as the engine accelerates away from it. You might be able to come close with a dual-pickup distributor and a window switch to retard the timing in the area near peak volumetric efficiency, but the setup would be a little sketchy using relays, and it still wouldn't be ideal. Of course, making the absolute best of the MegaJolt EDIS arrangement would involve some load-controlled dyno time--none of that county-fair inertial bullshit, which is both incapable of doing it correctly and hard-coded to be anywhere from something like 15-18% optimistic.

I still have no idea what I'm going to do as far as engine controls for final iteration of the Challenger's 340. I'm probably gonna go broke buying dyno time for the Imperial. :(
 
I'll bet having a dyno is worse than having a pickup truck.. "Hey, Fred.. What're you doing this weekend? Would you mind hanging out where you work so I can dial in my fox body?"
 
I wish I had that problem. I'd have no qualms about telling them, "Sure, but dyno time outside of normal business hours is 50% more expensive." That would be particularly funny if the person asking was, say, an electrician or plumber. :D
 
DeKalb, Illinois.

Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Iron River, Michigan.

What do these very different places have in common? Each is sending one of its sons to my door around the same time on Saturday afternoon, seeking to buy the Valiant. They all know about each other, because I told them... right before I told them, "Bring cash." :dance:
 
Found these under the front seat. '70-'74 Barracuda hood scoop inserts, with the original gaskets. No cracks, chips, or bends, and all the mounting studs are in perfect shape. I think it's bribing me to let it stay.

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Well, things didn't go as expected. I sorta sabotaged the whole deal, and the lone holdout didn't show.

I did the oil change on it, and during that operation I dropped the drain plug. I grabbed the frame to pull myself further under the car, and the only thing that moved was the frame. A big chunk of it came off in my hand, while I remained motionless. The damage is more extensive than I thought, and though it's still very salvageable, it's much worse than what I'd said in the ad. Now, it's really up to the buyer to look over a 47-year-old car closely, but a couple of these guys--there ended up being four--were coming a long way to buy it, and I wasn't raised to be quite that ruthless. One guy had a 700+ mile round trip, in fact. So, I basically told them all, "It's worse than I thought, but I'm not willing to adjust the price downward because of that." 700 Mile Guy didn't care, said he was coming nonetheless and taking it home. The rest apparently lost interest.

I waited all day for 700 Mile Guy, but I'd not heard from him since Thursday. I'd already discussed with a few people that if it wasn't gone Saturday, I would just hang onto it. It's not gone, and I'm almost positive it's late Sunday.

Anyhow, while waiting for that lone holdout, I lashed the valves and replaced the valve covers. It's exceptionally quiet for a solid-lifter engine, which leads me to believe every prior pre-'80 Slant Six I've ever seen desperately needed the lash set. :D I popped the cluster out for a peek to see if I could determine the problem with the gauges, but a few tests lead me to believe there's a voltage limiter problem, a bulkhead problem, and/or a gauge problem (the needle on the fuel gauge isn't even visible). I verified that the temp sender is good but as nice as it was outside, I wasn't going to attempt to check the fuel sender. The yard was a mix of mud and ice not conducive to such silliness.

Then, of course, the master cylinder failed. So now there's that. It could still be driven, but I'm going to replace it. If the weather allows and everything's still at my favoritest boneyard, I'll do that when I swap the small-bolt K-H discs onto it. :dance: I have no intentions of changing the engine anytime soon, so the 8.75" will not get installed anytime soon. It'll remain on Craigslist, at least for the duration of the ad anyhow. I picked up a set of NOS Mopar 3.55 gears for it just in case, though. :D Actually, they were so inexpensive I'd have bought those anyhow, since a 3.55 is a ratio I don't have in my arsenal at the moment.

Buuuuuut... I did order a few small items for it today. A tested, working replacement fuel gauge for $32, a $23 parking brake handle to replace the broken one, the missing front side marker for $24, a solid-state instrument-cluster limiter/regulator for $59 and a $72 Pertronix Ignitor for the distributor--because a new set of points is wasted effort and money since points suck the large one. So yeah, I started spending a little money on it, but $210 covers a bunch of piddly annoyances.

Stretch, who's got a chubby for this car similar if not greater to my own, texted me early this morning in regards to the fact that the Valiant is still in my possession: "OK. Cool then. Next step is stash it and make a plan. I say let's see if Paul has a good rail and if so and if it's a reasonable price we use this as an opportunity to learn how to fix this shit."

My kinda guy. :dance:
 
Dr.Jass said:
Stretch, who's got a chubby for this car similar if not greater to my own, texted me early this morning in regards to the fact that the Valiant is still in my possession: "OK. Cool then. Next step is stash it and make a plan. I say let's see if Paul has a good rail and if so and if it's a reasonable price we use this as an opportunity to learn how to fix this shit."

My kinda guy. :dance:
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:)
Rails are a pretty east fix... If none can be found, they're not difficult to make. I'd be happy to help any way I can.

Please, please, please, stay way from the A.R.T. shit...
 
Well, we have a plasma cutter and a ton of unearned bravado, so that's gotta count for something. :D

The A.R.T. stuff isn't pretty, I realize that, but it serves a purpose. I know people that have used them that were very happy with the results because they cared not one whit about how the underbody looked. The stuff fit and the car was more solid as a result. A.R.T. has kept a good number of cars, including non-Mopars, out of the junkyard so while we may not love the stuff, they deserve some credit for that.

However, since I'm keeping the car for myself I would rather replace the rail or section in a good piece. The remainder of the car is remarkably solid--in case you missed the spare tire well, that's nothing short of a miracle--so though it's only a Slant Six Valiant, I think it's worth doing correctly as long as I can do it myself with some help from Bolt VanderHuge. :)
 
Uh, no. Putting an ART cap on anything is pretty much like taping a tarp over your leaking roof and calling it fixed.
The parts have their place in the automotive world... the trash can next to the workbench comes to mind.

...But I know you won't go that route, especially if the Large Man is lending a hand, so this is just me getting my two cents in... :)
 
I waited all day for 700 Mile Guy, but I'd not heard from him since Thursday. I'd already discussed with a few people that if it wasn't gone Saturday, I would just hang onto it. It's not gone, and I'm almost positive it's late Sunday.
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Friggin craigslist clowns....but funny none the less....:D

Good luck with it Doc....sure is a neat little car!
 
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