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Satellite Launch, Part 2: Playing The Valves Like A Xylophone!


Satellite Launch, Part 2: Playing The Valves Like A Xylophone!

Part two in the saga of the 1970 Plymouth Sport Satellite that Kevin (JunkyardDigs) and Luke (Thunderhead289) starts off with the long-quiet B-body Mopar being extracted from the hole in the earth where it sat since…well, if I have the numbers right, since your author was attending kindergarten in Colorado Springs. And it was extracted without the body tearing in half like a sheet of paper, too. That’s not to say that there isn’t rust. It’s a 1970 Chrysler product…even an Arizona car will have some rot somewhere, so an Iowa-based car that’s been down since Bush the First took office wasn’t going to do well, But with the help of two conversion vans and some rope, the Plymouth is out in the open. Sweet! …now what?

The next major item to be addressed is the 318 2-bbl engine that’s sitting in the engine bay. I’ll personally testify to what happens to a Chrysler engine when it’s been sitting for years with no action whatsoever: remember the 400ci big-block I had hoped to dump into the Imperial a few years back? I did an initial teardown, but failed to show just how bad the pistons were seized in the bores. I actually ended up using a steel yard spike and a 10-pound sledgehammer to bash and break the pistons out of the bores. It wasn’t pretty, and that engine had been out of the car and stored in a semi-trailer, wrapped up. The Satellite has been sitting out in the open, with the exhaust in the dirt and the carburetor only covered by the air cleaner.

Most logical people would immediately write off the 318 and begin planning for an engine swap off of the bat. Luke is logical, technically-minded and wants to hit a true failure point before the towel is thrown in. Kevin, whether he wants to admit it or not, is quickly adapting to the Mopar life…which means hope springs eternal. I won’t ruin the episode for you, I’ll just promise that a hammer will be taken to the valvetrain.


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