new motor for the 62 dart

[neal zimmerman <neal.zimmerman@xxxxxxxxx>]

well, I dont actually have  the 62 dart to my place yet, but I rounded
up a 440 for it.
   It was built at a shop[ for a guys ski boat and after 25 hours of
operation, somebody torched his boat while sitting in the front yard,
luckily he was home and  ran out and put out the fire, the motor was
fine but the boat was a goner, so he yanked the motor and its been
sitting in his shop for ten or fifteen years.
   I was a little leary of the story, but  we pulled the valve covers
and plugs and used a light scope  to look around in the motor and it
did indeed look very clean.
   So I asked him if he would take less if I just let him keep all the
boat specific stuff.  He agreed, and we set to yarding off the Nicson
flywheel bellhousing, front mounting plate, back mounts, a funky water
pump setup and huge water cooled aluminum exhaust manifolds.
   So with great fear and trembling I began to tear the motor down
when i got it home.
1)   first- off came the intake manifold, an old edelbrock  aluminum,
valley looked clean as a whistle,
 2)  pulled the valve covers again,( cool old vintage Weiand finned
aluminum units with tall aluminum breathers) l, everything looked
clean and new, no gunk , and new looking ISKY mechanical rockers and
pushrods.
  3) then i yarded off the  906 heads, with great trepidation, but the
combustion chambers looked barely  used and the piston tops hadnt even
got a consistent layer of soot across them, some of the piston tops
were  still exposed aluminum, they are marked .030 over, flat tops, so
I will guess 10-10.5 compression
   4) pullled off the funkey Dooley aluminum oil pan and checked out
the bottom end.  I need to find a correct pan for a 62 dart as this
sucker, would only be suitable for a rail or a boat.  Its cool though
with internal baffles and one way doors.
   I decided to take the whole  setup out to my machinist( yes I
finally found a good one that will actually talk to u, and explain
stuff, instead of rushing u out the door: Steve's Performance Machine,
Dexter Oregon).
    He said it looked pretty good, no lip at the top of the cylinders
and definitely forged pistons.   Hes not done tearing it down yet.  He
says we have to toss the cam as a boat grind would never work. he
thinks honing will work fine, although he wants to take the heads
apart and touch up the valves , might have him port them a  wee bit
while he is at it.
    I think I will run a mechanical cam, maybe Dons favorite Racer
Brown grind , although these are 906 heads on the motor, so maybe that
one  wont work.
    I want to run an old  mechanical tach drive distributor i have,
and find a mechanical tach, ( just for nostalgia sake), so I will
upgrade the distributor with a Pertronix setup.
    I am considering one of the bottom end girdles available for  the
440s, but they are spendy and I dont know if they are a direct bolt in
or need special machine work to install, probably just overkill
anyway.
   The motor came with a large flywheel, but I cant decide if I want
to  run a four speed or find the  pushbutton shifters for the car and
run an automatic, . as I have a new rebuilt pushbutton big block trans
in the corner.  the pushbutton setup would be more period correct I
suppose.
   My end goal is a poor mans 413 ramcharger clone, eventually getting
the Max wedge  intake and exhaust setup, although I have priced that
out and by the end of that it would be 4000 dollars to do.
  Thats it , sorry for the ramble on, just excited-  This ugly car is
becoming more and more beautiful every time I think about it.
    neal zimmmerman, eugene oregon