Week #176

No more waiting. It was time to start the motor. The exhaust was in so no more obstacles. It just happened to be my birthday so it was a great day for firing it off! Some Mopar club friends came over early and helped make sure all went smooth. It took a while to find a happy place for the timing but in the end it ran and it was a good day.

A few issues came up. There was a definite exhaust leak at the drivers headpipe to manifold joint. This would have to be addressed at some point as it was too much to ignor. Also after the breakin period we just couldn't get the motor to idle anywhere below about 1200 rpm. New carb gaskets and some tinkering helped but the idle thing would have me scrating my head for a while. Lastly, someone spotted a nice sized puddle of oil just below bellhousing. Initially we thought it was a rear seal... I didn't believe it but I had settled in with the idea of dealing with it. Turned out to be a plug I had put in the hole where the factory oil pressure sending unit went was not in very well and oil leaked from there, down the bellhousing and dripped right below the rear of the block... easily fixed!

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