5.7 Hemi swap into the Marty Robbins 1969 Daytona with pictures

[pettybird]

 Great job with your Daytona
This is my 5.7 Hemi project.
 how did you get your alternator to operate?
 -Teemu-

we're brothers through color!!!

it works if you hook it up to the 1970 regulator--just hook one of the terminals on the alternator to power and one to the green wire coming from the regulator.  

[moparstuart]

cool set up

my buddy scott put a 6.1 in his challenger convertible ,  very nice set up

[pettybird]

It's pretty bad when you haven't posted in your own thread for so long that you have to go back and see where you left off!  It was supposed to be a nice day today but it's cold and sprinkling, so it's a good time for an update!

I didn't like my upper radiator hose, so I went to O'reilly's and got another.  I have the part wrapper somewhere, but after some minor trimming it looks like it was made for the car.  There's even (a little) better access to the power steering reservoir below, which is handy.  The lower hose is a different story.  The inlet on the water pump of the truck motor is so fantastically large it's comical.  The radiator outlet is normal-sized.  Guess which factory hose was cut when the engine was taken out.  My solution SHOULD work fine...I hope.  I found a hose which reduced the engine side a bit, found a hose that increased the radiator size a bit, and found an exhaust adapter that fit both.  I trimmed the hoses, trimmed the exhaust adapter (one of those short pieces of pipe at the parts store) and got the angles right.  I carefully removed the whole thing and wrapped it with self amalgamating rubber tape.  The tape is advertised as 100% pure rubber that sticks to itself.  It's non-adhesive, relying on friction to keep it together.  People use it to repair garden hoses and the like, and it's there as nothing more than insurance for the fittings on here.  I then clamped it all together with radiator clamps.  It hasn't even thought of leaking since it's been together.  The car did boil out some coolant (more on that later) and it came out the cap, not through the hose. 

[pettybird]

Two apologies for the pics--one, Flickr doesn't allow you to grab bigger pics anymore.  Two, I was rebuilding the front suspension of the car at work last weekend and remembered I had my camera with me, so I snapped a few pics LATE into the project and didn't put much thought into them...

The power steering idea proposed a page and a year ago didn't come together.  First, I couldn't find a place willing to put the big fitting on the line with the flare I needed.  No one wanted to touch it.  Secondly, I lost the damn fitting.  Seriously--it's gone.  No idea.  I don't need it any more, so I thought it would be under my pillow in bed by now, left by the Forgotten Car Part Fairy.  She's been to you, too--don't deny it.  After sulking, I took the fitting out of the pump while it was on the car.  BOING, said the spring/valve/check ball combo inside.  Ah well, a couple short minutes of swearing and crawling around in the garage later I had the pieces back.  I looked at the fitting to see why it required such a long lead on the hose fitting, and found nothing.  I assume it's there to help the assembly line workers cross-thread them in the most effective manner.  Cue bench vise and sawzall, and now I just needed a normal length nut.  Back to the hydraulic hose people, who were as unhelpful as before.  I learned to NOT tell them it was for a car, because that put them immediately into seizure/lawsuit weariness mode.  On my visit to my second NAPA store I found a store manager who pieced together a Weatherhead set for me.  The most aggravating problem is that the fittings are two different sizes, and by that I mean there aren't fittings on both sides which take the same diameter of hydraulic hose.  The solution was to take a small 90 degree fitting for the gearbox, swedge it onto a smaller, 6" piece of hose, press that side into a pipe adapter, use a larger size hose on the other size for about 5", and then into a steel compression fitting holding the proper fitting for the pump.  AAA discount later I was out the door in about $50.  Considering I guessed at the lengths needed it came out really well.  The return hose is another stupid piece on the trucks, as the hose from the rack to the pump is 5/8"++ for reasons only Chrysler knows.  It was so big I was able to take the original piece of 3/8" line from the 440 and stick it INSIDE the hose from the truck.  I mused for a while, then cut a small length of 3/8" fuel pipe, stuck it into the 3/8" hose, and stuck that into the truck hose.  I wrapped it all back up with the amalgamating tape like the radiator hose, used a couple clamps (the pipe inside prevented it from crushing) and it hasn't leaked a drop in more than two months.  Check out the new power steering gearbox, too--Cordoba application.  The old box developed some mystery leak at times and held fluid others.  I talked to Steer & Gear at the 'nats and they told me not to worry about the pressure out of the newer style pump--there's a regulator built into the box from the factory.  This is a common question on the 5.7 swap threads...  I used the 'doba box because it was over $100 cheaper at AutoZone than the 1969 part, and one of my local stores had it in stock.  Use a 1973-1974 B Body pitman arm to keep the geometry the same:  You need to update the arm because the only real change after 1972 is the sector shaft size, meaning your old arm won't fit.  I priced out the new arm, finding rockauto.com having the cheapest price, but ended up buying one at the 'nats for $30. 

You can also see where I mounted the MSD box under the tray.  If you don't like your inner fender, it's great.  Otherwise you may cringe a hair when you're taking a ball peen hammer to the area at the very rear of the battery tray where the ignition box (which tucks so well under the tray it looks like it grew there) hits the body.  Since this was the ONLY rusty area anywhere on the car (good 'ol 1970's leaking battery) it needed to get cut out anyway on this car, so I whacked away.  It *just* allows me access to the serial cable port on the front end to connect the cable to the laptop.  I also used carriage bolts to hold it to the tray as they were slim enough to not aggravate the battery above. 

[pettybird]

The moral of this picture is:  Find an exhaust shop that'll work with you, and is cool with custom work.  We made an appointment with shop #1, and they made us wait for an hour before we brought the car in.  They then frowned at what I wanted, shook their heads, told me (in similar words) that I was an idiot, and wanted $400 to install the X pipe I brought.  We kindly thanked them, and left.  I called up the shop I took the B5 car to in like 1997, and they remembered me.  They told me I could come in right then, and that they weren't busy.  I managed to do all of that from the car as I have (and really like) my new Moto DROID X phone--my first smart phone.  Awesome technology.  Well, we went over and yes, they got the car in immediately.  They wouldn't let me drive the car into the bay, so I had to go over the starting procedure with the guy--ignition key on, ignition switch on, fuel pump on, start switch...off is the reverse of that.  I hate custom wiring.  They looked it all over, shot us a price of $225 with the sidepipes I needed, and got to work.  They welded it all together, mated up the mufflers on the car, and sent us on our way.  I might have mentioned it before that I was adamant about keeping the mufflers as they are whisper quiet.  Like, sneak up on ninjas quiet.  This will be our trip car, and my least favorite noise of all time is exhaust drone.  I'd take a car full of minaret prayer wailers instead.  Besides...it has exhaust cutouts...why do I need noise all the time? 

You can also see the XV flexplate underneath, as well as the Mopar deep transmission pan and the really swell TTI headers.  At this point I also have the control arms back in with new bushings, the new steering box, new ball joints and a new idler.  It's about 10:45PM after starting before noon.  I'm toasted.  Mom came along to keep me company, and I put her on parts washing and cotter pin duty.  It IS her car, after all. 






These aren't on yet because I needed another set of header gaskets...dumb setback.

[pettybird]

Don't mind the bent fins...I've got to get underneath and straighten them.

There's a gap in the core support below the radiator as it's shorter than stock.  It also didn't come with a transmission cooler.  There was one on the car already (in front of the radiator) and I thought adding one more would be a good idea.  This is a street rod cooler from Summit.  It took up the gap perfectly, and gets its own airflow.  I bent new lines to it from the transmission and hooked it all up.  Amazingly nothing leaked.  The transmission hasn't blown up yet, so I'm calling this a victory.  The lines get pretty close to the exhaust in a couple places, so I'll wrap one or the other in heat wrap. 

[moparstuart]

 

[pettybird]

I hung the side pipes and cutouts today, but don't have them wired.  I set them for full open, and the sound is cool but VERY different.  It's not that loud as it only has 2.5" exits out the sides, and the X really mixes things up.  It sounds awesome when you get on it, though.  I'll have to take it out in the next couple days and run a sound clip. 

[tan top]

nice !!  thanks for posting pictures    looking forward to seeing & hearing sound video 

[70Sbird]

Hey Doug, it's been a month since the last post!
inquiring minds want to know, how is it running/Driving?

[dangina]

cant believe i missed this thread - a great read and a great car do u have the electric butterflies working yet? i always wanted to know how well they worked...

[BigBlockSam]

looks great 

[pettybird]

It's almost there.  The carb sucks, I need a better kickdown linkage, and there are a couple odds and ends which need attention. 

Come to the meet and see it in person!