Ever Had a Car That Was Cursed?? I Think I Do...

[Moparman01]

I've had my '69 Charger GL replica for the better part of 15 years now, had a lot fun with car the first couple years but then it's been all down hill since. The car had a 318/904 in when i first got it, and other than the 318 needed valve seals it ran like a top, never ever even thought about over heating, and was reliable as could be. Then i got the bright idea to convert the car into a big block car, 440/727 and thats when it all started. I bought a short block off a friend of mine that was supposedly gone thru and ready to go, and i had a set of 906 heads plus the intake and carb for it. So while i was collecting the rest of the parts to convert the car over, i loaned the engine to a friend of mine so he could get his 68 Charger on the road while his motor was at the shop being built. Motor ran great!! So the next season in it went into my car, and first time out it overheated so bad the B&M shifter cable melted in half leaving it stuck between gears! Had to take the drive shaft out to get it on the roll back to get it back home! So after swapping out a t-stat...then water pump (several times), hoses, belts, several different temp t-stats, several different gauges, new radiator, re-cored a 26" radiator, different fans, electric fans, you name it i never got the over heating problem solved. So after fighting with it for several years i decided to bite the bullet and have a new fresh 440 built from scratch from another block i had stowed away in the garage. $6500 bucks later, after dynoing, i had a nice strong 450hp 500ft#tq motor that sounds and runs pretty damn good...but the curse continues. New motor, over heated first thing. So again with the t-stats, water pumps, hoses, and re-re-cored my 26" radiator yada yada yada...still runs hot, but better than it was at least. Meanwhile, while fighting that issue, i have also, twice in fact, fried the main wiring harness, almost burnt the car down one time! Plus, i had a fuel pump go bad that left me stranded one time, and another electrical gremlin that got waiting for the tow truck another time. Let's keep going, maybe this was a lucky brake however but, i had a brake line come loose and the pedal go to the floor, the lucky part is it happend IN my drive way after going for a ride! Ok, well it was a brutal winter in the northeast as we up here all know, but the weather has finally broke and it's time for car season to begin. Did an oil change on the General today, fresh new Shell oil and filter, fired it up, ran it for a minute, shut it down to re-check the oil level, and the oil was milky! I had to keep puttin the dip stick it in and pulling it back out to actually comprehend what i was seeing! I start my cars up ever 2 or 3 weeks thru the winter and let them run for 30-45 minutes to keep the juices flowing, there's a good chance that our record sub-zero temps all winter may have cracked the block, even tho yes it had anti-freeze in it, and i remember checking the temp level of the coolant when i put it away for the season, i'm pretty damn sure i was good to -15-20 below 0, but that was 6 months ago...Anyways the thought of selling the car may be in the works now, i've had enough, don't know yet but we'll see. There's been a number of other little things with the car too, but that's to be expected. I swear the car is cursed, guess it didn't wanna give up it's 318...

[Cooter]

Um....."Christine" comes to mind here.

[Mopar Nut]

All of my GM muscle cars were.

[Charger-Bodie]

Um....."Christine" comes to mind here.

Christine would fix herself , not have constant problems .

[myk]

My '97 Camaro Z28; there was a problem with that car every week.  The week after I took it home from the dealer the convertible top came loose and hit me on the head as it was coming down...

[TUFCAT]

Um....."Christine" comes to mind here.

Christine would fix herself , not have constant problems .

except occasionally killing people...

[polywideblock]

on the overheating issues do you have one of the aftermarket water pump housings? i'v seen articles in both mopar rags where said housings restrict water flow to the point that overheating occurs  440 sorces one was a real problem if I remember right

[myk]

Not a bad suggestion; what water pump housing are you using, 'OP?

[Moparman01]

Unlike Christine the car hasn't killed me yet, but it's working on it! I've been thru both stock original water pumps and housings and aftermarket units. Had the Mancini aluminum pump and housing for a while, now I have a stone stock pump and housing. I've been thru probably 5 different water pumps.

[polywideblock]

mancini was another offender I think     


knew it was on here somewhere as well       http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,96616.0.html

[rt green]

b&m shifter cable melting. I had that problem once. didn't have the engine grounded to the frame/body.

[Kern Dog]

I had a 73 Camaro that was involved in 5 separate collisions in 5 years. Once I was hit in the left fender. Twice I broadsided cars when they crossed in front of me against the right of way. Once I understeered off the road into a ditch, another time I oversteered into a hillside.
I thought THAT car was cursed. Looking back, a better driver would have been more aware of his surroundings and could have avoided contact.
I was 18 when I bought the car. In the 30 years since then I have been in 3 accidents. ONE was my fault. I drive just as fast as before but my skill level is much greater.

[Ghoste]

mancini was another offender I think     


knew it was on here somewhere as well       http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,96616.0.html

The Mancini one is a good housing.

[rt green]

two engines overheated in the same car. think about what hasn't changed. airflow? same fan? crappy shroud? something is the common. did you mention the second engine didn't overheat in the other car? 

[jaak]

When I was 17/18 year old, I drove a 1987 Dodge Daytona. That car was a turd. Every week (sometimes 2-3) times a week, something would tear up on that car. The day I bought it, the shifter cable broke and I couldn't shift it out of drive. Major stuff I did to it.... had to buy a junk yard trans and replace it, went through 2 computers, and it got a rod-knock in it so I rebuilt the bottom end. Not to mention all the small stuff... coil, alternator, starter, etc. all that stuff got replaced at least once while I owned it.

This was way back in '92 when I got it. Gave like 3500 bucks for it, sunk a LOT of money into it, after 2-3 years sold it for 500 bucks. It was a lemon, but it isn't all bad, I guess some of my car 'education' come from spending many hours on that thing with a wrench in my hand.

Jason

[LaOtto70Charger]

She just wants her 318.  Mine likes to get a new part every couple months so than nothing unexpectedly breaks.

[cudaken]

 Mopar Man 01, I felt your pain! Picked up my 69 Charger Rusted / Trash and it BB had death rattles with 102500 showing. Replaced the timing chain, redone the heads knowing the short block would die fast afterwards. Dam thing ran Very Well and I be damned I got another 65,000 miles out of her!

But, I could not leave it alone. Pulled the number matching motor for a 426 a friend had. I had drove the 426 before I bought it and it ran great! Installed the 426 and I was a happy boy! Let the Charger sit 3 months while I worked on a friends car. When I started driving it again when I stuck my foot in the carb it smoked so bad you could pick it up on radar!   But darn thing ran like a rape ape?

Ran a compression test and I had a 20 pound spread.   Ran a wet test and compression number did not change so it must be the heads! Had the heads repaired and two of the valve guides where so bad after the retainers where released the valve fell out!  So that had to be, wrong!   When I stomped on it, it still looked like afterburners where kicking in? Started calling it the 42Sick.

Had a good offer for the 42Sick and the Blower Bug had bitten! Shop that I wanted to do the machine work was booked for 8 months, so I picked another one. Told them to check the deck height (was told the 440 I bought had a 0 deck height) and let them start the work. When I got the block back saw a bunch of things I did not like! First thing was the blower intake would not fit? Turns out they checked the deck height but never told me it was .020 under height?   Plus they painted the motor, and there was over spray on the cam, timing chain and such.

In the mean time, I met a Mopar Guy that raced his 67 Barracuda and he turned me on to his guy, thanks Mike I think. Dan did my heads and did great work! So, I asked him to check out the short block to have him make sure it was right! Told me it was good to go. Again, I saw a few things I did not like!  

Called the machine shop I wanted to use, and they gave me a name and number to a guy they farm some of there work out to when they are behind. He picked up the 440 and did the custom fit push rods and looked it over. I told him I want the motor pulled down and checked which he said he did. This time the 440 looked like it should and I thought I was ready to roll!

Went to install the blower after the intake had been cut and found the blower drive did not line up!   Dyers sent me a belt drive for a BB Chevy! So off to another shop to have that fixed!

By this time the 440 had 300 miles in the bed of a Dodge Pickup! Got the engine installed and I was in love!

http://s83.photobucket.com/user/cudaken/media/Bodywork/1-IM000081_zps490b79f4.jpg.html]

After say 150 miles I started hearing a knock at idle? Friend and racer thought it was a bad wrist pin. So out it came again. Found on number 7 rod only one rod bolt was tight? Also saw scaring on 5 pistons that looked odd for the miles on it!

So off to machine shop # 4! There are 2 versions of the TRW / Speed Pro pistons that carry the same part number and I had the older version. No one mic the bores to check skirt clearances.   Plus, one of the TRW / Speed Pro pistons was marked .030 over bore, but was only .015 which they do no make!

I spent $15,000 on the blower motor, a extra $800.00 on having it checked and then another $800.00 to finally get it right!

Now if had just left the original motor in the Charger!   So I really do know where you are coming from!

Cuda Ken  

 

   

[Moparman01]

CudaKen, that was a good read!! What's with these things not wanting to give up their original engines? I love that big bad blower sticking up outta the4 engine bay!

I don't know, a buddy of mine stopped over last night and said it's a good possibility the moisture in the oil could be a bad valley pan gasket, oh how happy i would be if it was that easy! Or, possibly a bad head gasket but i thought you'd see that in the exhaust and not oil?

rt green, in the airflow department the only thing that hasn't been changed is the grill. Like i said it's has a twice now rebuilt radiator, once for the old engine and again for the new. I've actually tried a different fan shroud as well, and numerous fans themselves, including electric!!

[Lord Warlock]

I've had a couple cursed cars, one in particular seemed possessed by the devil and was out to get me.

Was in 1989, my dad was holding my charger in trust that i'd buy it back from him now that I was out of the military, I owed him a little over 2000 for the charger, had offered to pay him over time but he kept telling me to pay off debts first and worry about the car when i was solvent.  I got an idea to buy a different car, fix it up a little and flip it for a profit, and use the profit to pay off the charger debt so I'd have it free and clear.  (I had traded my charger to my dad for one of his newer cars when I entered the military right out of college, he said he'd hold on to it till i was out and would sell it for the same price when I got out) Anyway, started looking at cars in the 1000-1500 range in autotrader (was no internet back then) Found a nice looking 1970 1/2 Camaro in Tampa, about 4 hours away from my house.  Went down to check it out, had fresh paint, and ran fairly well with a 350 auto in it, but it was a little worn and the interior was pretty shot, Jacked up the car with a hydraulic jack I had brought with me, looked for rust underneath, and didn't see any (just didn't look in the right spots i guess...found it on way back).  Drove it around the block a few times up to about 40mph and it seemed to run fine.   Talked to the wife, decided to buy it and let her drive my mustang while I drove the camaro back to Jacksonville.  It had a couple small bumps under the vinyl top that I could tell were rust, but it didn't look severe, figured I could put a new top on it cheap enough.

Got on the interstate on way home, and got up to 65mph, and the carpet started flapping in the breeze.  Evidently I missed a rusted floor pan hole, turned out there wasn't much floor under the pedals near the firewall.  A little disappointed I'd missed it, but kept driving home.  Got it home ok, and after a couple weeks, took the interior out, found the rusted floor pan problems, ordered new seat materials, new door panels, new carpet and a few trim parts, and dropped it off at a friends house who did interior work to have him check out the roof rust and get an estimate on how much to fix the rusted floor.  He bartered services with a friend to weld in new floor metal, and it looked like it was going to be ok,  but when he got to the top, He called me to come over and see what he'd found.  Go over, look over the work done, pleased with it, but then he pulls off the chrome trim on the windshield and shows me the problem with the roof... there was a 4 inch hole along the roof line, that had been plugged up with old socks, some cardboard to give the top something to cover, and the chrome trim hid it all well.  Damn, this was gonna cost me, the friend said we really needed to cut off the top and weld on a new piece, told him that wasn't a realistic option as it would blow the budget to hell, he said to give him some time and he'd figure something out, a few weeks later, get a call to come over again, go look and he's showing me the rear valence, turns out the entire rear valence of the car wasn't metal at all, but was bondo over rust, someone had actually grinded out the body lines in the bondo to make it look like sheetmetal.  I was starting to feel crushed, I could see all the profit going out of this deal, the 500 in interior repairs was nothing compared to the 2000 in body work I had to do to the roof, and rear valence, and around the rear wheel wells where we found more rust hidden under bondo.  Got it all fixed, but the pretty yellow paint and black Z28 stripes was now covered  with primer in places where the work had been done.  I would have to have it painted again soon.  Took the car to the paint shop, had them spray a decent Polyurethane enamel and put new painted stripes from nose to tail, car looked great when I got it home,  rust was fixed, body looked nice, interior was new... only spent about 3500 on it, could probably get 5k for it at this stage.  Looking up I thought, but it wasn't to be.  

After I got the car back, my dad finds out I'd bought a project car to work on when he came over for a visit, wasn't very happy.  A month later, he shows up with my Charger in tow, and drops it off at my house...he'd hauled it from Pensacola to Jacksonville...about 400 miles, tells me if I can afford another project I can deal with the charger storage myself, unfortunate, but I understood his position he needed the storage space to park his Airstream trailer, I have the charger backed into the single car garage, the Camaro sits in front of it, my mustang in front of that, and the wife's capri on the street in front of the house...I now have 4 cars and storage for only 1.  Camaro sitting outside in winter, hey its florida, it doesn't really get too cold here, didn't think i had to worry too much, go out to start the camaro to take it for a short spin around the block, and find water gushing out from under the car.  checked the radiator, water pump, hoses etc,  all looked fine, then I found the problem, the whole left side of the block had frozen and pushed the cylinders a half inch out the side of the block, freeze plugs were all sitting in place happy as could be, but block was trashed.   Continued...post was too long to post in just one.

[Lord Warlock]

Bought a 350 motor and installed it myself, a few weeks later I go out and crank it over to start it, it makes a funny sounding cough noise as it starts, sort of hiccupped still started, but as I'm letting it run, I see smoke start to pour around the edges of the hood, as I get out to open the hood, as I'm fumbling with the latch, I see the new paint on the hood bubble up in a 8 inch circle, get the hood open and see the top of the motor on fire, it backfired and caught a small leak from the fuel line on fire, and basically fried the paint on the hood in about 2 minutes.  Another 500 dollars of paint gone to shit.  Fix the damaged fuel lines and cooked wire harness, got the hood repainted again for 300, get it home, and a couple weeks later, the transmission blows up, strips out drive...although reverse works fine.  Have it towed to a shop nearby, they give me an estimate of 500 to fix the transmission, tell them to go ahead, a month later they call me up telling me its finally ready but they had done more work than originally quoted...to the tune of an extra 1200 in costs, if I didn't pay they'd hold the car until i did or sell it ...had to pony up the cash to get the car back.  Pissed off, broke, but finally have the car driving and running again, I drive it home from the shop, stop at a gas station about 3 blocks from the house, fill it up and then the damn thing wouldn't start again Pushed it aside to the edge of the lot, walked home fuming in anger.  As I walk thru the front door my wife takes one look at me and promptly jumps out of my way to avoid me, I walk thru the house to the back wall, and kick the wall next to the sliding glass door in anger, I did change the direction from the glass door to the wall...we just rented and glass is more expensive than wallboard....my foot went thru the wall and out the other side...sprain my ankle, and now have a hole in the house to fix along with a car broken down a few blocks away.    

Wife drives me back to station with tools in tow, realize the distributor was loose, timing is off, fix it, get it running.  Drive it home.  Park it in disgust.  Let it sit for a few weeks.  Next time I pop the hood to adjust the carb and do a little tuning, I'm leaning on the radiator listening to the motor idle, something doesn't sound right, I lean forward to hear better and feel the aluminum fan rip off the tips of 8 of my fingers.  I pull my hands out of the fan and watch blood squirt all over the motor, the driveway, and the charger as I stumble into the house to get my hands in the sink under the faucet, and get them on ice.  Just the skin on the ends of the fingers was cut luckily, but I couldn't use any of my fingers for several weeks, just had two good thumbs.  Made doing my job difficult since I answered the phone and processed credit card applications over the phone, got reassigned for a temp position till healed.  Let the car sit bloody for a few weeks.  Hands eventually healed.  Car was running ok, but took it out for its first drive since it tried to kill me, and the battery proceeds to blow up, spraying acid all over the engine bay.  By now, I have put 10,000 into a car I had hoped to sell for 5000 and only make 1500 in profit.  Wife gets pregnant, we decide to buy a house and move to a place with a two car garage...but the bank says we have too much debt and have to sell one of the cars to eliminate the loans.  My dad bought the camaro for 5k to help me out...and the curse transferred over to him....he had a few "issues" with it before he sold it a few months later...at a loss.  10 years later my parents were visiting and he brings up the fact that I still owe him the 2000 for the charger...now I'd offered to pay him that debt several times but he always put me off to pay other debts off first...but this time I go to the bank, cash a check and come home with his 2k, pay him off, happy he held on to the title as long as he did.  And finally own my charger after about 8 years of having it in my garage but not doing anything with it. (it sat another 20+ years before I finally restored it this year) The kid my wife got pregnant with has now graduated from college.  But at least the cursed Camaro is gone, and the charger is mine again, and looking better than it did when i first got it.  

[Bandit72]

There's an old man here in town with a warmed over 318 sitting in his barn that his oldest boy built for an early barracuda with zero miles on it, it has a "fireball" cam from the 70's that he swears is haunted. Says that cam has been in at least one of all 3 of his boy's cars over the years and everyone of them has been totaled within a month. One of them was pretty serious, banged up 2 of em' pretty bad. The last engine it was in he finally said no more and put it up in his barn....I've been trying to buy it from him but he refuses to part with it....

[cudaken]

Like i said it's has a twice now rebuilt radiator, once for the old engine and again for the new. I've actually tried a different fan shroud as well, and numerous fans themselves, including electric!!


Mopar Man 01, do your self a favor, replaces the radiator. I left out my battles with the 42sick running hot. There where times it hit 200 degrees. Did all you listed and still got hot. I borrowed a friends 68 Charger A/C 3 row radiator and got the temp down to 180. My self, I like 160 so I went with a cross flow 3 row, Charger never has seen over 160!

Good luck, Ken

[Challenger340]

I feel you guys pain.... I really do, problems are not fun !
That said,
I can't help but feel a certain amount of the problems being experienced, relate to poor Engine Rebuilding ?  Overheating/Bad radiator Rebuilding ? Tuning ? yada, yada.

Not trying to put salt in any woundes... but my point being that these Cars & Engines... WILL RUN JUST FINE in Hot Weather in my experience ?

Case in point...
2 weeks ago in Las Vegas it was fairly warm, 90*F.
I sat in that heat a few times... once stuck in Bumper to Bumper traffic for over half an hour at an accident on the interstate, never moved more than maybe 1/4 mile, and again at a construction zone...
The temperature gauge did climb slightly... still well within range, but that's it... that's all.... it idled in gear a little rougher.... probably due to fuel perculation ?
But I just sat there with my foot on the brake moving ahead a bit at a time as required... no problems.
just sayín...
if an original 133,000 mile 440 Magnum... 10:1 Compression, that has never been touched, and that pings slightly on premium Fuel when nailed, and goes like a raped ape, can handle the temps just fine ?
IMO,
other problems may be present that are causing your overheats ?

Tuning ? too Rich mixtures can burn slower, causing too much of the Cylinder Wall to be exposed as a heat sink...
Radiator ? too fast of coolant flow through the rad with insufficient time for the heat exchange/cooling
Timing ? again related to tuning and fuel... can expose too much of the Cylinder wall to peak combustion temps ? they absorb too much heat ?
Headers ? underhood temps are too high ? yes, Chrysler Engineers DID IN FACT account for Airflow travelling "around the Engine" in the bay to assist in total cooling load.
Auxiliary Trans Coolers in front of the Rad ?
and most importantly....
Camshafts that dump Dynamic Compression, or useable pressures even further on lower Static C.R. engines, with bad mixtures, that slow the burn rate at low rpm.... again exposing too much of the walls as a heat sink to peak or "Late" temps.

just pointing out... there can be MANY reasons for overheat conditions on Engines that otherwise should be just fine ?
I do not believe in "Jinxes"

[Cooter]

I know in my own experience, I see rebuilt/built 440's with the same 100k? 200k? Mile fan clutch.
while they may appear to 'feel' ok, in fact, swapping for a new one might surprized ya.

[marshallfry01]

I know this sounds crazy, but I have heard of general lee owners having overheating problems when the Dixie horn is mounted in front of the radiator.  If your horns are mounted there you may try re locating them to the inner fender.  I have no way to prove this, but I have heard of people having this problem more than once and it seemed to fix the problem once the air horns were moved.  It would be a cheap way to fix it if that is what it is.

[cudaken]

Tuning ? too Rich mixtures can burn slower, causing too much of the Cylinder Wall to be exposed as a heat sink...

Dam 340, I never knew that! I was taught that a lean condition could cause over heating but not to rich!

Sure wish I knew you (And was close by) when I had the Blower Motor built.

I found out later the reason the 42Sick smoked so bad and I all ready suspected it, 4 of the 8 pistons oil rings gap's where lined up. 

Learning again, Cuda Ken 

[Moparman01]

Challenger340, you are absolutely right these cars will run just fine in warm weather! I know first hand, my dads 70 Cuda with mild built 440 (built 20+ years ago) will idle and run all weekend long in Carlisles brutal heat and traffic and only barely nudge the temp needle above where it normally runs! But one thing you mentioned I do have on my Charger, a trans-cooler mounted in front of the radiator. Everyone whose ever looked at my car said it wouldn't make any difference, even so I have no idea where else to mount it. I have, just to mention, tried a brand new 2 row cross flow aluminum radiator.

[6spd68]

Like i said it's has a twice now rebuilt radiator, once for the old engine and again for the new. I've actually tried a different fan shroud as well, and numerous fans themselves, including electric!!


Mopar Man 01, do your self a favor, replaces the radiator. I left out my battles with the 42sick running hot. There where times it hit 200 degrees. Did all you listed and still got hot. I borrowed a friends 68 Charger A/C 3 row radiator and got the temp down to 180. My self, I like 160 so I went with a cross flow 3 row, Charger never has seen over 160!

Good luck, Ken

Agreed, I'd be 3-core alluminum all over that setup.

Every engine I've built has been high compression, so they've never been fun in the temperature zone...

Do you get the 'rage' when you're sitting in traffic too?  Watching the temp guage rise whilst your temperature rises as well?  (Very easy with a lot of power, roaring exaust, and a manual transmission...  That much I can promise you.)

I feel your pain sir