Swapping a stroker Hemi into a Superbird: step by step with pictures!

[70Sbird]

I've been watching this for a while.  And I talked to the owner at length up in Dubuque.  I can not wait for this to be out and about!

Ryan,
This really is a great car, and the owner is a really nice guy!
Lots more pictures to come!

[moparstuart]

I've been watching this for a while.  And I talked to the owner at length up in Dubuque.  I can not wait for this to be out and about!

Ryan,
This really is a great car, and the owner is a really nice guy!
Lots more pictures to come!

[hemi68charger]

Here's my "fix" for the heat tubes......  

Troy,
Why would you even bother to plug the holes in rear of intake if not using the tubes .....?

Don't want rats/mice or any other foreign objects getting in there,,   

Plus it makes for a much cleaner-complete look. Otherwise, it'll be like "something's missing"......

[70Sbird]

The pulley's and belts were the next project that actually took over 3 months to resolve. The owner had already purchased a new P/S pump, bracket, pulley and belt (Saginaw) and pulleys for the crank and water pump (for a 440). A reman alternator and brackets also was in the parts mix. As you Hemi experts are aware, none of these parts would work with each other. Now add in an aftermarket damper on the crank and all bets were off. I could have used the Saginaw pump and a 440 pulley, along with the rest of the 440 style pulleys and used a readily available spacer if a damper of the same thickness as the RB one was used as opposed to the thicker Hemi one. However, the owner wanted the pulleys and P/S pump to "look correct" for a 70 Hemi Bird, so we started all over again with a Federal style pump, bracket, line, press on Hemi only pulley, reproduction Hemi only water pump and crank pulleys, then another alternator with a dual groove pulley that would line up with crank. Now we had compatible parts with each other but still would not line up due to the damper thickness. The solution was a custom made .681" spacer between the damper and crank pulley.  This was one of the most frustrating and lengthy time killers of the whole swap.
Here are some pics of the parts, measuring and the final assembly.

[Mopar John]

Scott,
I feel your pain on the pullies! I have run into that on the racecar. Every time you change something there is ALWAYS something that doesn't line up! Glad your past that!
MJ

[70Sbird]

By now the engine and parts had been in my garage for about five months and I had the engine pretty much dressed, bolted to the trans and K frame, ready for installation. Here are just a few more detail pics of dropping the engine onto the K for the last time, the new trans linkages, choke tube detail as previously discussed and a shot from the top with the rest of the pieces either on for good or mocked up.

[70Sbird]

Scott,
I feel your pain on the pulleys! I have run into that on the racecar. Every time you change something there is ALWAYS something that doesn't line up! Glad your past that!
MJ

John,
At one point I had six pulleys laying on the garage floor in front of the engine, and still could only get two pulleys to line up with each combination. All while using washers to get the crank pulley spacing right for each one, and still not getting it all "right" until he spent the $ for the re-pop crank and water pump pulleys, and I made it work from there....This was one of those problems that took much more time money and beer than I anticipated !

[ACUDANUT]

So how did you make this custom made .681" spacer between the damper and crank pulley ?

[70Sbird]

So how did you make this custom made .681" spacer between the damper and crank pulley ?

A friend who works in a machine shop with access to a Bridgeport mill and a lathe.
Between measuring, then spacing with washers I finally got to a spot where everything lined up. I let him borrow a crank pulley to transfer the six (pulley) bolt hole pattern on to the piece of Aluminum that he had turned to the OD size, center hole diameter and approximate thickness. He did a final cuts for thickness and parallelism on the faces of the spacer on the mill, then drilled the six holes.

[ACUDANUT]

 

[70Sbird]

July 29, The big green machine showed up at my house and it was time to get to work. I took the first picture out in my driveway that evening since the sight of 2 Superbirds in my driveway was WAY cool. (and gave my neighbors something to talk about for a while!)
The engine/trans/K frame/ removal was pretty straight forward, basically unhook everything attached between the engine and the rest of the car. All of the accessories, belts, fan, wiring, and such all stayed on the engine. We dropped the fluids out, driveshaft, exhaust and most of the suspension. We then lowered the car onto the rolling dolly but still supported by blocks/jackstands at the correct level to have the K frame engage the dolly, but not have the full weight of the car on it. I then slung my lifting straps to the car (more detail on that coming) and began to lift. The transmission tailshaft was supported by a jack and the cross member was removed. As soon as there was tension on the straps and saw the nose actually moving up I took out the 4 K frame bolts and lifted away!
When I took my engine out this way, I blocked the front of the car up in the air, disconnected the cherrypicker and rolled the dolly out the front (most clearance). With this one however we wer able to lift the front end high enough (it was really close) to slide the engine assembly out the side while the nose was suspended, then we simply lowered it onto the jackstands . We used a much better method when the Hemi went back in, but I'll cover that later.
So here you can see my buddy Shad working under the car and the growing pile of parts, then rolling the hoist in place getting ready to hook up and lift.

[70Sbird]

Once we had the engine assembly and K frame sitting on the dolly, the actual "removal" took about 15 minutes.
Here are the pics from the rest of the process:

[hemi68charger]

I was going to do the same thing with the cherry picker..... Soooooooooo, I'm interested to see what you used for a sling and what you attached it to....

[FJ5WING]

I was going to do the same thing with the cherry picker..... Soooooooooo, I'm interested to see what you used for a sling and what you attached it to....

Ive been waiting to see that too! I'll need to use it in a few months. 

[ACUDANUT]

 Your not picking up the car by the radiator support are you ?

[70Sbird]

Your not picking up the car by the radiator support are you ?

Yes I am ACUDANUT, that is one of my secret shortcut restoration tips, OK maybe exaggerating a little bit, I really just "hooked" the upper core support or whatever else was convienient !
I've been busy at work and a few home projects this week so I haven't re-sized the lifting pics yet, maybe tomorrow.
For now, here is the last of the 440 pics, the complete engine/trans in front of the 'Bird. I only pulled the fan and the intake vacuum fitting off of it, everything else stayed intact. I fogged the motor before it was shut off, and sprayed a bunch more fogging oil in the cylinders (and anywhere else I could), then sealed it up to keep as much moisture and critters out of it as possible.

I have some mixed feelings about this picture, there is a nice Superbird and it's stamped, great running, matching numbers engine and transmission that I have just separated from the chassis and watched it being loaded into a truck a few minutes later. I have wondered a few times since then when and if they will be reunited at some time in the future.....I would love to find out what happened to my original engine and transmission. I've now just become "one of those guys" that have a hand in scattering original components away from original cars. I just have to keep telling myself that it's not my car and the guy can do what he wants, Still kinda bothers me though

[70Sbird]

Just a few random pics from the time between engines: here was the stripped clean engine compartment including the master Cylinder assembly and brake lines.
He bought a complete Hemi master cylinder/booster/offset brackets, etc. setup from "The Ram Man" This was one of the easiest parts of the swap. All the parts were correct, it went together flawlessly. I ended up only needing to adjust the pushrod between the booster and master cylinder a few turns when it was all done. Great parts from this supplier!
Also replaced the headlight vacuum and wiring harness to cure a few issues with taped up and soldered connections on the old one, and finally here is the Hemi, all dressed up and ready to go!

[70Sbird]

The Lift:
I have been asked now more than a few times how did I do this, so here is my setup. As you can see, this Superbird had already been painted and finished once. I did not want to take off the hood or nose. I have done that plenty of times on my own car, and the nose is a real PIA! Especially with limited help.
A couple of must haves: Two lifting straps of your choice of design. I used motorcycle tie down straps on my car and they worked well too. I guess the only requirement would be a good hook on the end to secure against the channel bolted to the front "bumper" support. Next would be an engine hoist capable of lifting the front of the car. I have a "two ton" hoist that is plenty big for the job. When I did my car I actually was using a smaller one and it worked, but was probably on the edge of being sufficient.
One thing I did not do in prior swaps like this was elevate the rear of the car. This time I set the back of the car up on car ramps (after having to borrow a set of wheels and tires that fit the ramps), it turns out that 255 series tires were wider than my ramps!
So the process was:
Jack up the back of the car, swap tires, place on the ramps.
I used two Kevlar/nylon lifting straps with large cast hooks on the ends. The hooks were much larger than I needed but worked fine. I passed the hooks down through the area in front of the core support (latch tray removed), through the "hole" where the radiator would be, then down along the front framerails hooking the "bumper brackets" from below with the hooks. – See pictures. By passing the lifting straps through the core support it traps them on either side of it and keeps the straps tight against the support so there is no chance of the hooks sliding and the car moving around once it is lifted. I have since done this on a few more cars (without beaks) and it has worked very well each time.
Here are the pictures of the lifting setup. If anyone needs further clarification, details or pictures let me know. BTW I did not hook the hoist around the lifting straps by the tie wrap; the hook on the hoist went through both loops of the straps. The tie wrap was just to keep them together and centered.
Even with my hoist backed off to the 1 ton setting, I had enough clearance to get the front of the car up in the air without hitting the boom of the hoist with the top of the nose, and still allowing enough room to slide the fully assembled Hemi in (just removed the air cleaner) from the side. Then we centered up the engine assembly and lowered the car onto it.

[66FBCharger]

 

[ACUDANUT]

 

[FJ5WING]

Hey Scott that's AWESOME!!!!!

Do you think this can be accomplished without removing the latch tray? I may attempt it with the tray in place.

Did you not any flexing of the nose to fender gaps? this is my only real concern since we spent so much time/energy to make a close to perfect alignment between the two.

Thanks again for running this thread and especially for including the pictures and text about the lifting.

[hemi68charger]

Very cool Scott...... Very simple yet strong it appears...... 

[70Sbird]

Hey Scott that's AWESOME!!!!!

Do you think this can be accomplished without removing the latch tray? I may attempt it with the tray in place.

Did you not any flexing of the nose to fender gaps? this is my only real concern since we spent so much time/energy to make a close to perfect alignment between the two.

Thanks again for running this thread and especially for including the pictures and text about the lifting.

You could probably hang the nose of the car without removing the latch tray, just be sure to keep the lifting straps forward - right by the core support and you will probably be fine. I just liked having it run through the front of the core support and hooked on the back side of it to add some front to rear stability. I noticed no flexing of the body, no change in nose to fender, or fender to door gaps. But, to be honest I never really looked too hard, or tried to open/shut a door while the car was hanging. Since you are lifting from both of the front "framerails" though I wouldn't expect much deformation of the unibody. 

[Charger-Bodie]

Hey Scott that's AWESOME!!!!!

Do you think this can be accomplished without removing the latch tray? I may attempt it with the tray in place.

Did you not any flexing of the nose to fender gaps? this is my only real concern since we spent so much time/energy to make a close to perfect alignment between the two.

Thanks again for running this thread and especially for including the pictures and text about the lifting.

You could probably hang the nose of the car without removing the latch tray, just be sure to keep the lifting straps forward - right by the core support and you will probably be fine. I just liked having it run through the front of the core support and hooked on the back side of it to add some front to rear stability. I noticed no flexing of the body, no change in nose to fender, or fender to door gaps. But, to be honest I never really looked too hard, or tried to open/shut a door while the car was hanging. Since you are lifting from both of the front "framerails" though I wouldn't expect much deformation of the unibody. 

The only thing I would suggest with this method,is to make sure the side rail ( bumper bracket) bolts are very tight. It would suck to all of a sudden have it slip and crunch the cone into a fender.

Excellent way to go though.

[70Sbird]

I finally got all the small pieces swapped over to the new assembly, cleaned and put a fresh coat of wax on the engine compartment and called a couple of friends over for extra hands and eyes for the "drop" or playing with a very large version of "Hungry Hungry Hippo" for those who remember that game! The process war very straightforward, we lifted the car as described above, slid the dolly holding the engine/trans/K-frame  under the lifted car, and carefully lowered the body onto it.