In the last update on his rescued Dodge Challenger, Dylan McCool tore into the front suspension, all the way to the base, and rebuilt just about everything. For a car that has sat longer than I personally have been alive, that’s pretty much the safest bet that you won’t have to dive back into the car later on down the road or worse, find out that something had failed when you’re at highway speeds. You can skip on the beauty part of the restoration all you want, but only a fool skips on safety. New bushings, new control arms, a thorough check-over and all of the bits are good to go back under the E-body. That’s one major section finished…now, it’s time to move on to an autopsy.
I’ve been looking forward to this part of the Challenger’s program because I want to see just how similar McCool’s situation would be compared to that boat anchor of a 400ci Chrysler I thought would be a cinch to rebuild. In my case, I had to use steel poles used in land surveying, an eight-pound sledgehammer with a rag wrapped around the shaft so as not to screw up the bore any more than it would already be, and enough anger to scare away an entire barn’s worth of wasps and hornets. (It’s how I operate.) Dylan is much more level-headed than I am…he let the Challenger’s 318 sit for a couple of months, soaking in a bath of Marvel Mystery Oil and automatic transmission fluid, the winning combination, and…it didn’t do squat. Nothing. A punched-out 360 will instead get dropped into the car, which will be fine, but that still leaves a question unanswered: just what happened inside of the 318? Why is this engine completely immobile?
Piston ring to wall corrosion. Just one cylinder will lock it up tighter’n a drum. I have a nice 331 Chrysler Industrial hemi that spent it’s entire life doing nothing but running a welder, and it had just one rusted ring to wall piston, and it had to be completely broken down to get it to move. The engine would probably clean up with standard bore and bearings if not for that one cylinder.
Again, WHY? Aren’t you afraid that 360 will twist that poor thing up like a soft pretzel from the kiosk in the shopping mall (Mmm… soft pretzels…)? A 318 with a four-barrel is pretty spunky. I had one in a ’70 Dart Swinger back in the day, and it was a riot!