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Boy, I sure hated painting that nice aluminum manifold but that is the way it was. To bolt everything to the motor I got the Hemi engine bolt kit from Totally Auto. If you have not seen these they are a Godsend for you resto guys. All the bolts bagged & tagged with all the original markings. They are about 95% accurate and boy howdy does it make putting an engine back together a whole lot easier. I had a lot of my original hardware and compared it and the differences were very small if at all. |
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I gave the etching primer a day to set up then started mixing up the Hemi Orange PPG paint I got from Mopaints. There about 10 different colors of Hemi Orange out there for sale and since there was only 3 original colors do your research and go with the Mopaints guys because they nail it. Nothing looks worse than a Mopar engine painted Chevy Orange! |
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The object when painting a motor is to keep the paint thin. Spray it a low pressure so you get a good even coverage but if it looks good don't keep piling it on. The thinner the paint the better it will release heat and avoid peeling. |
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For some reason the paint looks spotty in the photo but not in real life. It came out with an even gloss and no shine through of the primer. |
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Make sure you get the spray up, down and sideways to fill in all the little nooks & crannies that a motor has. I let this set up for a few days before I unwrapped it and started bolting things on. |
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Now that all the paint is dry it is time to start bolting some things on. The first thing to do was tap in a new pilot bushing in the crank for the 18-spline 4-speed. Next came the flywheel. I could not find one with the 172 teeth I needed for the Hemi starter, so we sweated off the 143 tooth gear on this one and replaced it with a new 172 tooth gear. The clutch setup I used was the RAM replacement model for 68-69 Hemi cars. The quality was great and the fit was perfect and the complete kit even included an alignment tool. Make sure you torque everything to specs here as you want to avoid warpage. |
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Here we have bolted on the bell housing and you can also see the manifold heat tubes. These tubes run preheated exhaust air through the intake for faster warm-ups. I have blocked these off with a plate on the bottom because I doubt this car will be driven in the snow and it will run much better without them. Also the green arrows show where to attach the chain to put the motor in. As you can see I used the other side, which is farther back on the motor, and this presented a problem in getting the bolt out once the motor was in. |
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Here is the passenger side header installed on the motor after it got it's coating with the POR 15 Factory Manifold Grey coating. The green arrow points to the heat system that is based off of a flapper and a temperature controlled spring. If you are not going to use the heat system just assemble the whole deal but use a stainless tube instead of the butterfly and it will pass gas just like my uncle used to. I have painted the valve covers here with a wrinkle paint from the good Guys & Gals at Mopaints and they came out great. Also in this shot is the Carter fuel pump and the vapor separator that is needed on the Hemi cars. So pretty much it is all ready to go in so why delay lets get it hooked up and drop it in! |
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Purple arrows=bad chain position, Aqua arrows=good chain position. Don't mix them up or you will have all the fun I did of taking the motor back out to get the bolt out of the back of the head. The green arrows point to the orange-panted mounts that are just loosely installed until the motor is dropped in. It is a big help if you have all your bolts & nuts handy as you will want it to get it snugged down as soon as it is in so the motor does not move |
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We come bearing blankets & gifts. After cleaning out the cedar chest and pulling them off the rocker my wife let me use the blankets form the house to keep the Hemi from scratching the fresh paint. We did not tear any of them and they all got a good airing out. |
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Here my daughter and her friend guide the motor in while my wife works the bottom end of the Hemi while I control the hoist. Hydraulic hoist are nice but sometimes had to let down slow. To make that easier I made a “T” handle wrench with a notch for the valve on the bottom of the ram. By having a longer handle it is easier to control the little valve instead of using the handle. Just keep letting it down a little at a time and keep checking all the distances to ensure you are not going to scratch everything up. |
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Here the green arrow points to the now missing exhaust manifold that was just not going to clear the steering box no matter how had we tried, The yellow arrows pint to the bolt holes that both must be dead-on to get this side of the motor down on it's mount. To accomplish that the motor must go down then forward then down then back and there is nothing like jockeying around an 1100 lb chunk of iron in a very tight space to try your nerves. |
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Snug as a bug in the rug all settled in and bolted down. The back of the motor is resting on a block of oak awaiting the installation of the tranny. |
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Only a few little scratches and none that can't be easily fixed so not too bad overall. I like the contrast between the dark green and the vivid shade of Hemi Orange topped off with the black covers. Now to climb back under and get the driver's side manifold back and the starter back on. |
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