65 Dart Engine Swap Page
65 Dart Convertible Pages
This is the convertibles 318 when I brought it home. My friend Darren and I drove up to Champaign Illinois and pulled the motor out of a 68 Coronet. The heads looked to be rebuilt at some point and the bottom half looked to be untouched. The motor was grimey but sounded really good and ran really strong. A trip to the carwash after some scraping and it cleaned up pretty well.
Upon taking the intake manifold and cam out, I found several valve guide seals cracked or missing and also found a lot of carbon build-up in the heat crossover. I decided to pull the heads and check out the cylinders/pistons. Very little wear on the piston walls and only a slight ring groove. I changed the cam to an "RV" unit, replaced the worn out original timing chain (almost 2" of slack) with a double roller, and replaced the 318 valve springs with 340 dual springs as well as 340 rockers. I also swapped the Performer Intake from the 66's 340 onto the 318.
I gasket ported and polished a set of "302" heads off of an 85 Diplomat as well as the Performer intake. It was a lot of work and hopefully it will be well worth it.
These are the "302" heads before and after. The stock ports are on top, the ported on bottom. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't show all of the benefits of the porting. When I tore down the heads, I could barely get my index finger in the intake ports sideways. When I finished, I probably had an average of .25" more clearance.
When I port the heads for the 66's 340, I am definately going to use the MP templates. I was a little hesitant about breaking through a water jacket or into the pushrod hole. Go figure.
Other than the intake, heads and cam, the only other addition was new gaskets throughout. At some point, I may convert over to electronic ignition, but that will be long after the 318 has been running. One project at a time.
Here is the 318 assembled and painted Chrysler Red. I think it could pass for a stock 273 4 bbl don't you? I coated some 273 exhaust manifolds with Eastwoods hi temp coating and they really seem to be holding up well! In Nov. 2000, I installed a set of try-y Spitfire Headers. They fit well and are very well made for the price. I'll probably go with them on my 66 as well.
In Apr. 2000, we yanked the slant 6/904, did some minor painting, cleaning, new tranny lines, V8 radiator, and fixed the MC brake lines, fabricated a dual exhaust tranny X-member and dropped the motor in.
I tried to drive the convertible as much as possible to work out the bugs. A persistant tranny leak kept me a little frustrated and unable to park in driveways! The shifter linkage and kickdown were also a thorn in my side and continue to be. I replaced the floorpan and while it was out, I installed my 727 that was in my 66. The tranny no longer leaks and shifts great. I had to use a Lokar kickdown cable as the stock kickdown linkage interferes with my "adapted" column shift linkage. Still fine tuning the cable. It had horrible instructions and is not really made for a Chrysler throttle lever.
I still have to yank the Spitfire headers back off to do some clearance work on the drivers side and might send them off to be coated or just recoat them with POR high temp coating. I finally get to have some descent exhaust on the car!
