Motor Removal

                
Removing the motor on the Dart Swinger is fairly straight forward.  Begin by removing the bumper, grill, headlights and bezels, lower cowl, radiator, water pump, electrical harness, carb, heater hoses, exhaust manifold or headers, tranny cross member, starter, fuel pump and fuel lines, and various other small parts you'll find in the way.  after the bumpers are off, the first thing to do is remove the two long bumper brackets that bolt to the frame rails.  I skinned half my legs off hooking on these SOB's.  I bought a motor hoist new for $130.00 and was worth the investment since it would cost more to rent over a long time period.  Another good investment was a motor stand for $45.00 (make sure you get the 4 wheel model).  Removing the starter was a pain in the ass because of the tight squeeze from the headers and its a heavy pig to so I bought a new Mopar mini starter for $55.00 that provides 60% more cranking amps and is half the size and weight.  It also resists being a heat sink for the headers!

Before you start removing the motor, drain all the fluids.  You'll need lots of containers for the tranny fluid, engine oil, and antifreeze.  I disposed of these fluids by taking them to a "Wally World" auto center.  Don't pour the stuff down the drain!  I decided to unbolt the tranny and pull the motor separately.  Support the tranny with a floor jack and then remove the bell housing bolts, linkages, and cross member.  Slide the motor forward to disengage the shaft from inside the tranny and then lift the motor out.  You can pull both at the same time but the car needs to be on a ramp so you can get enough clearance to tilt the tail piece of the tranny to get them both out.  The headers are a tight squeeze and just undo the bolts and leave them behind while the motor gets yanked.  One steering arm goes between the header pipes and it takes a lot of beating with a steering removal fork to loosen it.  Oh ya, steal a box of large zip lock freezer bags from the kitchen for putting in all your various nuts and bolts.  Use lots of baggies and mark them with a big tip felt pen.  Months later you'll appreciate my advice when you try to figure out where the heck all the nuts and bolts go.  I have a digital camera and took lots of close up pictures of the dismantling process so I could use these to help remember where all the stuff goes.

After the motor was out, it is time to scrape off all the 33 years of accumulated grease in the engine bay and also remove all the other small parts.  Now is the time to remove the heater, windshield wiper motor, battery tray, master cylinder, and all remaining electrical stuff so you can sand blast the engine area.  Now you can also see how much rusting there is to repair.  Remember to do it right and cut out the old rusted parts and add new metal where needed.  Fill imperfections with body filler and sand smooth.  If you want a show car looking engine and engine bay like in the examples below, you have to take your time and work at it.  Don't rush!  Fully degrease everything and paint with a high quality epoxy primer and then paint to your body color.  When ordering parts, don't forget to order a motor bay gasket set of seals for the windshield wiper motor, heater motor, wiper arm shafts, and others.  Also order a new rubber bumper set for the hood since these will be all rotten.  Pitch the old cruddy windshield washer bottle and radiator overflow jug and get new ones.

                       
My motor is the first picture.  I want it to look like the next two examples.  Solvents, sandblasting, metal work, a little paint, and a lot of patience can make your engine bay look like this.  Read this article about Mopar engine detailing.  After I yanked the motor, I decided to re-gasket the entire engine so I pulled the heads, knocked out all the old engine freeze plugs, and scraped off all the paint and grease.  Get the brass freeze plugs ; they look nice and last the long.  Oven cleaner works wonders for this cleaning process along with spray on painter stripper to remove all the old paint.  My motor turned out to be a first series 1970 360cid model with "J" heads so I got lucky with a 255hp rating.  It should have as much snort as the 340cid.  My engine already had a street cam, Edelbrock RPM intake, and headers so I wasn't planning on adding any more zip.  I also port and polished the heads and did a three angle valve grind.  Read these three excellent articles on everything you wanted to know about Mopar heads but didn't know where to find it.  I would suggest you buy a new stainless steel engine bolt set rather than re-using the old rusty and half rounded original ones.  You can pick these up for a good price on eBay.

Cylinder Heads Part 1, and Cylinder Heads Part 2, and Cylinder Heads Part 3.

[HOME]