Projects My first hemi car

I’ve never heard of the molasses/ citrus bath, might try that next. I tried the evapo rust and it seems to have worked ok. I found three cracks in the bottom of the intake and tried for the first time brazing them. Don’t laugh at me, I already laughed at myself enough

 

Got my lower bellhousing to weld still. I ground it into a valley already but I’m going to try some nickel rod on this one when I get my hands on some

 

I’ve acquired 220v Hobart handler 175 from my lady’s dad recently and started fixing up my frame and body mounts

 

I have a carb spacer I think on going to drill through for the small base wcfb holes and countersink then so I can mount the edelbrock on my intake

 

When prepping for paint, they tell you to clean x3.
For that brazing, it is similar. Dirty stuff around the heated areas flows into the molten metal, contaminating it.
Get it cleand and as rust free as you can, making sure there aren't more issues. Then preheat if you can (stick the intake in an oven, pull out with welding gloves). It's not necessary, but will cook off lots of junk and help with the process.

 

I had a valley ground into and cleaned it the best I could. I wish I had an oven in my garage but unfortunately I don’t

 

The only power I've got in mine is a long sunbaked extension cord.
Work with what you've got. There's a thread by a member who is building out in the yard with hand tools.

 

HH has a squeeze plate that necks down to the OEM holes. Install taller carb studs. I found on mine that I also had to install a phenolic spacer on top of the squeeze plate due to crappy gas we have today. If this was the common dry intake you could drill out the bore holes, but being the rare wet intake the squeeze plate is the way to go.

 

I would like to buy one, but my funds are limited as of now so I’m trying to make use of what I have

 

So say we all!

 

Glad I’m not the only one. Although I didn’t think I was. Was hoping to have my car running and moving by this time this year but that was shot down by a crappy winter season of work. The big money item I’m trying to save for is a HH 727/518 adapter for my long bell hemi coming in at a little over 1000 bux. Gonna try hard to get that this summer

 

Made my own squeeze plate today thinking I’m gonna do a little bit of grinding on the intake to try an smooth the sharp edges

 

I’m going to weld the exhaust crossover shut with my MiG welder as well.

 

Got the exhaust crossover welded shut, my intake and carb on today! As well as some more floor pan patches tacked in.

 

Got my spark plug wires made today, distributor set in with a gasket I made along with a hold down I made outve some kind of latch , lower bell and starter bolted on, oil pressure gauge in place. Tried to remove the intermediate shaft with no success to prime the oil system with a drill so I just cranked it with no plugs in it many times. Had damn near 40lbs cranking it over and oil started dripping off the rocker shafts so I hope that’s good enough very close to a fire up! Just need to get fuel to the carb with a mr gasket fuel pump I have and just didn’t have enough line laying around and power to the points with a hood battery instead of the crappy one I have

 

A stout piece of wire bent into an L will pop the int. shaft right up, usually.

 

Also should I add more zinc to the engine oil I used? I used rotella t4 15w40

 

There's a bunch of Threads on the subject. Pre SM & CJ oil has ZDDP. After that it's pretty much gone to help the car companies reduce their emissions. But supposedly "something else" has been added & adding zinc could cause problems. A lingering controversy.

 

Well I got the fuel system plumbed and primed today and the wires and coil setup for a fire up today and no go . No spark from the points for some reason. I accidentally broke the fiber insulator that the stud on the dizzy goes through. I glued it back together with some silicone adhesive and thought I was good but apparently not because I’m getting continuity from the stud to the dizzy body. Not sure what to do

 

She finally lives!

 

Congrats! BUT, you have a VERY HEAVY engine on what appears to be a very light-gauge engine stand. Be very careful with what you're doing . . . it sure looks like it could easily break your stand and then your feet! Just trying to look out for you!

 

On your carb spacer plate . . . given the small sizes of the original manifold, you should try to blend in the lower holes to the upper spacer. Having that sharp edge really hurts flow. I don't know how much material you have to work with (in the cast iron), but if there is enough, blend the 4 ports all the way to the spacer plate size.

 

Coolant looks low....

 

Thank you but trust me friend this stand is better than anything you can get at hobo freight. For example it has a solid steel bar at the pivot point instead of a hollow tube like most engine stands. It’s held a 12 valve Cummins and. 1200lb Detroit diesel. She is stout.

 

I did that with a carbide burr before I put everything together. I just forgot to take pictures

 

I have to agree with @Bored&Stroked ; that looks really shaky as a run stand. I don't care how it's made or where it came from, just watching the video gave me the heebie-jeebies. I had an early hemi on a storage stand that's a lot closer to the ground than that, and it went over on me when I hit a stray bolt when I was pushing it across the floor. Also, I wouldn't run it so long without any water. At least get a couple of flex hoses and a piece of proper size tubing and fill it with water if you want to run it over a minute.

Congratulations on a successful startup. I have a couple of early hemis and would hate to see any damage come to that one

 

She’s sturdy and fine idk what kind of stand you have but I couldn’t flip mine over if I tried. Thanks though.she will get water as soon as I get money for new freeze plugs

 

Sounds like you have things under control . . . carry onward!

 

Thank you brotha. Next will be an extended run time. Might just set it in the car to make it feel like the car is close to driving. And put some water to her to keep her somewhat cool. Sure wish I made better money and maybe she would be closer to rolling by now