What’s going on?

Just to create a place holder, here’s where I am at the beginning of 2023.

Absolutely nowhere.

I was hoping to report that my engine was assembled and had been fired up but of course I am so far from that. Once I get back to the engine, it shouldn’t take that long. This is one area that I do have experience on so there is no intimidation factor involved.

So what the hell is keeping the engine from going together?

Technically nothing, but I wanted to have the exhaust finished, at least to the mufflers, and hopefully acquire a driveshaft. With a 6 speed replacing the three speed, I need a shorter driveshaft but before I could measure for one, I had to set the pinion angle of the rear end to make sure it was on a parallel plane with the engine and transmission, but first the exhaust.

I started with a MagnaFlow exhaust kit, part number 15819. It’s a header back, X-Pipe system. I pick up this kit before I had finished the headers. I had intended to make a 4 to 1 header but as you know, I ended up making Tri-Y’s. At one stage I had read that Tri-y’s prefer an H pipe and 4 into 1’s work best with an X-pipe. Once I switched to Tri-y headers, I was not about to waste even more money and replace the X-pipe with the H, this thing is going with the X. Strangely enough, the articles I had read matching header design to cross pipes are gone, can’t find those articles. As of late, it doesn’t appear that it matters.

Unfortunately my headers are not really centered under the car and they’re longer than they probably should be. Once I got the headers bolted to the X-Pipe, the mufflers were slipped on and they’re nearly sitting on top of the rearend.

Head hung in despair.

The pipes to the mufflers are welded to the X-pipe as they come in the kit. I cut those puppies off, shortened them and expanded the short sections coming out of the X-pipe. I wasn’t ready to back purge the stainless steel pipes so I made it so the pipes would slide into each other so I could do a lap weld instead. On top of this, it should have been easier to test fit all of the components.

I wish I could say everything fell into place with all of the modifications but it just wouldn’t be true.

I finally had to step away when I felt that one of the pipes had to have material added to the muffler side to bring the muffler out to match the other side. After measure, cutting and sanding the extension piece and welding it on, the muffler appeared to be in the exact same place as before I started.

I walked away for almost two months.

I spent the break working on the engines stub cam and breaking parts over on that side.

There was also a little tryst with a 440 chrysler engine that took me away from what I should have been working on. Firing up the Mopar stimulated my desire to hear the Cammer so the RB was kicked back into the corner of the shop and got back to SOHC. I was swapping out the valve springs when I got pulled into the 440 fire up so I went right back to that little project. This is when I discovered that the oil passages hadn’t been machined all of the way through so that was corrected.

I also took some time to CC the heads and short block to calculate what the static compression will be and I during this process, I found out that the combustion chambers are 6cc too large.

It wasn’t long after this that I tore the short block apart to do some work on it because I can’t make up my freaking mind and it was at this point that I felt it was best to go back to the exhaust and try to get the rearend aligned, remember, the suspension had been swapped out to a three link and coil overs. I installed the system but didn’t adjust anything, I figure now is a good time as any to put that thing to bed.

One focus of my ire was the transmission cross member. I built it years ago because I had to have a way to hold the transmission in. I had put arches in it to clear the exhaust. In theory it should have worked except I got lazy when finishing up the headers. One side lined up perfectly with its arch but the other side wasn’t quite as fortunate. I tried to hook the X-pipe to the headers and because of the misalignment of the header and crossmember, the only position the pipes would come together properly caused the X-pipe to be justified over too far to one side from the center line of the car. Before I found the misalignment, my biggest concern was that the pipes were sitting too low for my tastes, especially just after the exhaust pipe couplers. The only way to correct this was to modify the tranny cross member. After some chopping and grinding, I think I have the clearance I need. At the time of that fitting, I was happy with the results.

Because I have the attention span of a squirrel at times, I bounced between the exhaust and the rearend for no particular reason. I’d be working on one and get an idea for the other. Eventually I got the major adjustment I needed to perform on the rearend which was getting the pinion angle set. All I have left is to center the rear under the car. I’m off by maybe 1/2”, I still have an uphill fight with the exhaust so I get back to that. Long story short, I finally get the exhaust bolted in, it’s nice and solid, nothing rubbing or hitting and the damn mufflers are angled to the left. You know? I had to laugh. I was adjusting and fitting for a couple of days and things weren’t perfect but it would work. I never saw the mufflers so out of whack until everything was welded up, clamped and bolted together. Only then does that big freaking zit pop up on the end of your nose just as you’re going out for that first date with your crush.

This caused another short break. Fortunately, instead of going off and pouting, I had some real work come up. Actual employment. My daily driver decided it wanted some attention too so I’ve been chasing gremlins on that.

I was in denial. I told myself the X-pipe offset wasn’t going to affect the final outcome and I am absolutely wrong about that. I had a theory about how I could fix this alignment issue. I ordered a couple of pre bent pipes, one has a 15 degree bend and the other has a 45 degree bend. The existing pipes are both 30 degree. All I need is to move the X-pipe over by an inch so I’m thinking what I need to do is replace the 30 degree pipes with the 15 and 45 degree bends. Not wanting to be destroyed when I cut and weld the pipes only to find out I was completely wrong, I grabbed a big piece of cardboard, a pencil, protractor, straight edge and framing square and starting laying out the new exhaust.

Instead of the 45/15 combination, I found that if I replace the right side 30 degree bend pipe with the 45 bend, I got the X-pipe to move over that one inch I was aiming for. On top of that, this allowed the X-pipe to move forward by 2 inches. From what I’ve read, the X-pipe should be as close to the headers as possible. It’s not optimum but it’s better. Of course this is all wonderful on paper, I have to see if I can duplicate it with the actual pipes now.

I finally got around to ordering a driveshaft. I had been dragging my feet on setting the pinion angle and now that it’s set, it was a simple project to take the proper measurements. I ordered the driveshaft from Denny’s in New York. They have a sheet you can download and print out that hand holds you through all of the necessary measurements. According to their website, they’re behind on their orders so it’s gonna take a little longer than usual to get the driveshaft. I’d like to have it installed before I attempt the exhaust again to make sure I give it enough clearance but I’m impatient. I have some 3” exhaust pipe. That should work as a good stand in for a driveshaft.

Onwards, upwards and backwards.