Replacing the /6 in the Mystery Machine

After a 3000 mile trip (see this thread -> https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/vintage-vans-general-discussion-f1/neil-and-tom-s-arizona-adventure-t413.htm ) the motor in the van developed a bad exhaust valve and bushing. Seems it was already there, it just got worse with the trip.

So luckily, a guy I know had yanked this 18,000 mile /6 from his little old man '72 Demon ....$200 later it's mine!

So the van is at Tom's house where we've pulled the old motor and we're putting this one in.


The new motor, soon to be painted red.


Out comes the old motor, gotta love those side doors.

SNAFU -> The flywheel from the old motor didn't fit on the new motor, the center was too small. So I took it to a machine shop and had the guy enlarge it...Bingo!

I painted the motor the other day and tonight we put the flywheel and clutch all back together, popped the pilot bushing into the back of the crank (the donor motor was from an automatic setup) and put the motor in. We got most everything hooked up before we called it quits. Hopefully tomorrow my radiator will be ready (decided to get it recored while it was out) and we can put it all together and fire her up!

Oh ya, the bellhousing other bits are painted yellow. I believe my motor should be yellow too. I recall reading about some early Dodge truck motors being painted yellow, but where do you get the yellow paint? I'm happy with the red, which is pretty accurate give or take a year I guess. The yellow would have been cool though....

The doghouse comes apart in pieces. How does that compare to a GM van or Ford? Are they in pieces too?

I have nothing to compare to except my later model vans that I've owned. I must say, the passenger side portion of the doghouse is a pain because you have to remove it to access the side of the motor where the coil, plugs, distributor etc. are. I had that side off about 20 times already!

The radiator comes out with the front section...another pain in the butt. BUT I guess it is all better than the GM option!

I hate it when I type all this stuff then hit the POST REPLY button instead of the SEND button and lose it all!!!

Anyhow, got my rad back today from Cyrville Radiator. I've dealt with them for many years but they always do crappy paint jobs, so I asked the owner if he could do better. He said he'd paint it himself, which he did...it's a beautiful 3-core low flow rad now....right on! Looks like someone moved the top outlet once upon a time..this rad has been around!



Then later this evening Tom and I finished up the motor and after a long battle with the distributor and timing, we got her running. We added an electronic ignition distributor I had along with wiring and box from a '73 Dart I pulled last week. Seems to work perfectly.

I hope I can get as much done on my early as you have in such a short time! Great stuff Bro!

Ya, thanks. Turns out the electronic box doesn't hold the wiring connector very well and the wiring is questionable. I ended up robbing a box from Tom's '69 Valiant and I'm going to replace the wiring with a new one from the dealer, as soon as I get a chance. I also mounted the box under the dog house, but it's really hot under there so I'm going to relocate it to under the front dash and extend the wires as necessary. It's a lot of work and hard with a family and job and stuff....as I'm sure you all know!

Back when I originally got the A-108 an aquantence of mine told me the /6 was going to go soon (he guessed this only because it was old, not due to anything the engine did) and I told him at the time when I have to replace it I'd put in a high performance crate V-8 possibly. That was 2-3 yrs and many thousands of miles ago, back when gas was a lot cheaper. I'm not sure I want to do that now or not, when it does blows up who know how high gas will be.

Well that's just it. I'm quite happy with this /6 in my van, it's got lots of power and I'm not hauling lots of cargo around. I've got a 318 in my Barracuda which I plan to build a 340 for eventually. That's enough V8 for me, no need to have V8 in my van too!

You can still pick up slant sixes cheap too, my $100 18,000 mile one is a good example.

Thats sweet I wish I would of kept the leanin tower of power in my van!! this v8 craps expencive! Hey if you want get me some pics and Ill put them on my site!

not much diffrence with a small block vs slant 6 my 68 pickup has a 225 headers bored big cam and a 600 cfm 4bl carb im running 3:23 rears with the auto 727 and my milage is a little less than my 65 vans stock 273 3spd with 3:55. i like the 3:23 gears a little lazy at the start but nice down the hiway

Hey guys the Dodge doghouse is easiest by far to disassemble,followed by FORD which is a 4 piece unit but not as easy to disassemble as Dodge. Chev/GM is a one piece unit spot welded to the floor which is great for less fumes in the cab area but not easily removed at all. Im using the Chevy V8 doghouse in my 64 Ford but it will be bolted in for easy removal.
Also I ve got 2 good slant 6 225 engines if anybody needs one.

The old phone company van I picked up has a 170 slant six in it. I bought a 225 from a buddy at the Chrysler at Carlisle show last weekend. Should be much better.

Okay, so today I started to redo the electronic ignition wiring. When we replaced the motor we upgraded to electronic ignition but I used bad wiring from a donor car. the plug on the end doesn't stick on very good and it's got bad connectors. You have to giggle it a lot. Also I put the module under the doghouse and it gets really hot in there, I decided that's a bad place for it.

So I'm moving the module to under the dash on the firewall and I'm running new wiring down alongside the factory wiring. I'll solder extensions to the wiring to make it all reach.

My doghouse lid has a little short arm on the passenger side. If you remove the side of the doghouse to work on the motor, you lose the catch that holds the top of the doghouse open!

so I took the long support arm from the doghouse lid from my parts van, drilled out the spot welds and welded it to my doghouse lid. Now I have two dog house lid supports, the small side one and the long center one! I can remove the passenger side of the doghouse and still keep the lid on! It's great!

looking good, i put a 65 dodge engine box in my chevy chop
for two reasons..
first was the accessibility to work on the motor if i had to
(i seam sealed and screwed it to the floor opening) and added an access panel to the pass side section to get to the carb for adjustments if needed without removing the whole side)
second was if the price of fuel or funds ever changed there is room in there for a bigger motor than the 4 banger i put in it

Dodge had a numerous prop rod designs throughout the model run. The first style is like what you first mentioned. Finally they got smart and had the prop rod run from the rad support to the lid.

Also later (69-70) Dodge box lids had two hold-down clamps rather than just the one. Helped seal the lid to the box better.

Eric..there was a fellow at Butler that had a 1st Gen Chevy with the Dodge dog box. First thing I noticed when I popped my head inside to take a look at his interior. LOL!

LEADFOOT wrote:and added an access panel to the pass side section to get to the carb for adjustments if needed without removing the whole side)

Now that's a cool idea for sure!

https://2img.net/h/i167.photobucket.com/albums/u148/Ylwharo85/Van/100_4094.jpg

i love the room i have in my dog house which is how i plan to put a 440 BB in this next winter.

I changed my starter relay and noticed some bad grounds too, so I finally decided to mount my ballast resistor and relay on a piece of metal. This allows me to remove my doghouse and still run the motor too! I added a ground wire too, just in case it's not grounding to the tranny (where the metal bar is mounted). It's an bracket from a Chrysler Newport that was kicking around.

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AFTER