Well I was starting to freak about how much this little 276 Desoto Hemi was costing me but it turns out that parts are seeming like great deals. I bought some brand new Old stock in the original Mopar box pistons, pins and spiral locks for $179 so now I dont have to worry about the ring lands that were a bit on the large size. I am relieved. I also rechecked the tapers on the bores after cleaning them up a bit , I only have .003 taper and piston clearance of .0015 which is perfect. I had the cam reground and a lifter welded and then parkerised and ground to 214 deg duration with 435 lift and got a bottle of Zinc additive and some molylube from Delta Cams for a whopping $91 including shipping!!!!!! I cant believe how cheap that was.(THANKS DELTA CAMS!!!) Then I got the engine, heads, rocker ***embly, valley pan, oil pan, valve covers all hot tanked with a costic chemical. It cleaned all the nasty black sludgy oil that you couldnt scrub off your hands without removing skin. They, then removed the cam bearings and installed my supplied bearings and honed the cylinders for $100 total !!!! . Thank you Jay at JAYS Machining in Everett!!!!!! I bought a set of intake valves that are NOS from Ebay for $27 , 6 exhaust for $40 and a friends father inlaw said he will do the heads for free and he knows engines as he owned a Nitro Methane dragster that was in the high 4s low 5s. So soon it will be ***embly time!!! I'm so stoked. I need to get all the engine together and mount the transmission so I can figure out where the drive shaft tunnel needs to go and also where I can mount the steering box, shft etc. I just finished the rear frame and 4 bar suspension and it works great. So now the car is "ROLLING" back and forth on its own suspension!!!! Yee Haw!!!!!It feels like a big milestone!!!! I'm hoping that I will be able to take it to the Unfinished nationals this year, and maybe if Im real motivated drive it to "Billetproof. ( Not likely but what a dream) So as you can tell, with the engine work and the rear suspension done, I AM FRICKIN HAPPY!!!!
Nice work on the deals. Where did find the NOS items? I have a 276 myself and would like to find some good deals like that to keep the cost down. Thanks, Chris
Sweet, sounds good, cant wait to see it on the road! PS thanks for the roadster door, my dad just got the roadster body he's always wanted, and the doors on it are the only bad part, so he's halfway there
No problemo on the door, and thanks for the rear differential, it fits like a glove!! I have about 1" on each side of the body to the inside of the tire. Only problem with that door was that I didn't have another one to give you. I'm hoping this year for the carb to be mobile. I go on spurts but the last few weeks, things moved along real fast. Unfortunately I am up in canada redoing my brothers kitchen and then next weekend is the Portland swap meet and the next weekend.............
I need to get the memory in my camera developed and then I need to get more film for my digital camera. Smart ***!!!
The Jalopy Journal
