Putting a 426 Hemi in a Junkyard 1969 Plymouth Belvedere! | Roadkill

we are back at Performance Auto in Burlington Wyoming and we're going to build a Hemi badier in the Boneyard I've never been here I've never seen this car the thing is almost like brand new yeah it really is and so that one over there they got another belor since the last time I was here this junkyard or actually like Personal Collection is basically a Mopar specialist they have a whole bunch of project Vehicles here that's what this one was it's a 69 Plymouth valadier no engine no trans and I brought Parts which I'll fill you in on to make this thing great and I'm going to need both these guys' help cuz we've got five days and we're going to replace every nut and bolt in the whole drivetrain fortunately they cleared the shop for us so you want to help me push it in ah it's my favorite thing to do ah this thing rolls great and I think Fri Burger must be doing most of the pushing basically the car needs engine trans drive shaft rear end rear suspension cooling everything everything that makes it go right yeah so do you want to go engine and trans first or do you want to go rear axle first well it has a rear axle currently so maybe that's the last thing all right so let's put the Hemi together okay all right that's step one assemble Hemi Mike you want to help me get the hood off oh yeah right when you are sir okay just hold up the front a little bit oh wow we just handled that like nothing it's pretty light too yeah Steve can you tighten this around there we go stop that's it yep mint oh that does a good old main cap where does it go to there's a main cap right here there's a angle bracket oh but we're not using it I'm changing the oil pan because I've learned my lesson so many times about like thrashing on dirt and corners without a road race pan okay okay I think that's it right okay right I'm going to need some pipe plugs all right oil pump next there we go one of the things I want to do is modify the steering column now this is a column shift car so it has these arms here which come off the bottom of the column and activate the transmission shifter and uh they're just in the way when we're going to put that big hammy in there so I'm going to cut those off it actually came out pretty good the 426 Hemi uses a different motor mount than the other big block V8s in the Chrysler line the good news is that the K member in the car is the same be it a 318 or a big block the thing is the Hemi won't bolt to the big block K member unless you've got this kit right here from Schumacher creative Services it is an adapter Mount that allows the Hemi three bolt pattern to go onto that K member a normal 440 or 3d3 would have like cast in ears that come off here this has this instead now the other thing you need to know about the Heming is these three bolts right here are not blind they go all the way through to the crank case so they will leak oil so you do need to seal them a little bit all right I hear good things happening is the sound of a beer being cracked open or what are we talking about here kind of good things and I know we're going to break this in properly for two or 300 miles before the first burnout or you know drag race so I'm going to go the extra mile and wipe my handprints off of this 80 to 120 grit surface finish uh-huh uh-huh driving 750 Mi on the highway we don't need that kind of negativity here on roadkills so we're just going to send it higher uh you know we don't have dowels in the bag of this block oh really yeah that's a good catch well I found a couple big block Chryslers here that have the parts that we need including distributor hold down and dowel pins on the bell housing surface I have my feet down on terraferma when it comes to taking out dowel pins I don't live an illusion you know I'm not trying to send a rocket to Mars I know that they're going to be stuck these are all Big Blocks and they're Firma now if you had a small block they go all the way through and you can Hammer them oh this is working Steve oh yeah you're a genius Out Boy there you there you go next one ah got it there go now we can put the engine in the car like butter right there want a souvenir we have our new dowels in the block we're going to bolt the bell housing on with a couple bolts and we're actually going to test fit the transmission out here just to make sure everything's cool and that the splines will line up with the pilot bearing in there and that way hopefully we don't have to fight it as much once we get underneath the car this little ear right here you know I used to say we're not very good at this and uh that used to bother fry burger and now my opinion has changed this is season 13 we are very good at this you know how I know because last year we'd have got all excited and just thrown the Hemi in the car and then spent the next four hours on our backs finding out that oh hey the bell housing doesn't go on and when you try to put the headers on they hit the bell housing but not today no we're test fitting things perfect oh yeah we're good cleared yeah let's try the other side [Music] it clears it let's um just slide the trans in and see if it goes okay I think we just need to turn it okay it's not in the spline yet I think it's trying to but it's stuck on the disc so what's going on here is that he's trying to mimic the struggle that we're going to have underneath the car later by solving it now the Hemi fourspeed is distinguished by an 18 spline input and this has a 23 it's just the transmission that was available so it's a little smaller it's not technically correct but we don't care you know we're trying to test fit things and make sure that once it's in the car we don't have a problem putting the transmission and mating it to the back of the motor and uh sure enough it does not want to go in there it could be that our clutch disc is not perfectly in line with the back of the crank and the trans it's out of alignment the tool won't even go in now so we need to loosen up the clutch [Music] nice we just did this on finegan Daytona and we know that with this oil pan it won't go in with the clutch and flywheel cuz it'll hit the firewall so we should remove it after all that trouble we just went through we spent so much effort getting the clutch perfectly aligned and now it's got to come back off oh that disc is slippery this car is at this moment getting a Hemi for the very first time it is in a shop that's never had a Hemi in it before yes that's what they [Music] said looking good let's uh get the headers in let's go halfway down first wow that wants to go down really quickly I think going have to kick leg why don't you get this header in this timey is 426 in and it has been built up a little bit it started out as a Mopar crate engine it's 10:1 compression it has a small hydraulic roller cam in it it's like 242 at 50 I think and on our engine master show this thing made 560 horsepower so it's not a killer but it'll be fun we are real close to my motor mount yeah you're Square over the motor mount that header is going to it's got it you've got it too far back if you go down then that helps my situation all right here it comes down very carefully so this isn't perfectly aligned cuz the screwdriver will go through it but this bolt [Music] won't coming up is that engine tilting yeah or am I crushing the oil pan it's tilting it's tilting let's go slow oof yikes now is when we find out how Rusty this is underneath [Music] okay this will go right on let's bolt it in okay go before we put this header in let's put the fly wheel in the clutch and this is disturbingly easy I feel like something's about to go wrong don't talk about what you you say that now we're going to install the clutch again after we test fit it out outside of the car this is a McLoud Street extreme setup I like it because it's got the ceramic pucks on both sides of the discs and Steve and I have figured out that these withstand our abuse right out of the box better than like the typical friction material okay good I think [Music] so there we go [Music] we're actually about to try and put the transmission in we've been making incredible progress the bbody actually uses a different crossmember for a fourspeed than it does for a three-speed or an automatic so I had to order that on eBay they didn't have one here at the yard a little on the on the tip you noce oh yeah this thing's actually really rust free it's undercoated which is a bummer to me but it's not bad all right go ahead yeah tail up it should go in I don't know how we're looking left to right but this thing should go in the back of the trans has to come up a little bit there we go nice yeah nailed it is it all the way in it's real close we just need to put bolts in it trans is in [Music] it's installed but not tightened we still have a lot to do but I'm concerned about the piece of wood that we put between the Hemi and a firewall I hope it's not caving in my firewall right now look a Hemi and a beler I know that's pretty sweet right and I'm just going to take the chain off right now cuz I don't think we're going to need it no I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this was the most successful first day in the history of any road kill shoot it was pretty incredible like wow yeah pretty amazing it's in the car yeah we're finally ready to get the radiator in here let me give you a couple tips about Mopar Muscle car radiators there's two sizes basically a 22in core and a 26in core this thing had a 318 engine in it originally and had the 22in core we're going to be putting a 26in core that is actually out of a c body which would be like a Town and Country or a fullsize polara what you should do when you install the bigger radiator is cut this section out right here so that you got more air flow but honestly we're running out of time we got to get this thing going so we're going to drop the radiator in Mike just drilled a hole and we're going to bolt it in and it's going to work even with the 22in opening this is yet another come back and make it right later kind of moment this car is rapidly becoming one of my favorites great those guys gave me this shroud off of this radiator man this thing is going to cool good wow look at that actual coolant or should I say anti-freeze because it freezes here in Wyoming and this thing's going to stay here for a little while we're right now at the point of like rushed butchering the wiring is a disaster but it's functional we just want to hear the thing run tonight so I think we got to do the antifreeze uh it needs fluid in the transmission so we don't spin that dry gas in the tank gas in the tank turn the key that's it yeah it's going to be loud you might think this is full of sweet honey barbecue sauce but it's actually premium high octane gazoline it's the perfect size to inject the gasoline right into the bowl without spilling a drop you got the extinguisher just when this backfires because the ignition's too far Advanced uh be a big fire there we go that's a lot of gas now that's a moderate amount I'm ready to start it how about you I'm pretty flamable myself pump shot it has it I just checked it okay ready yep yeah oh first try yes y that's all we needed to know pretty sweet if this fits I know I do not have High Hopes but I do hope and we attempt it all right we're going to actually try and drive it who gets to drive oh who do you think any I'm totally content to watch it Zoom by I gotta be honest I'm now Hemi Dave I am ready let's go first drop well we did [Music] it than a [Music] worker I wonder when the last time this ran and went down the road was some grandma bought this thing do and puted it around with a 3 in and a three speed on the tree and now it's a hot [Music] rod [Music]

Channel: MotorTrend Channel

Views: 476,035

Keywords: motortrend, motor trend, motor trend channel, automotive, auto, 1969 Plymouth Belvedere, plymouth, belvedere, '69 Belvedere, '69 Plymouth, Steve Dulcich, David Freiburger, Mike Finnegan, Roadkill, Roadkill New Episode, Roadkill Full Episode, Roadkill New Season, Roadkill Full Season

Id: LLla2RVpWqk

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2024