06/17/08: Tomorrow im going to start to put the drivetrain together...if i can find the right size pilot bushing. Scat, who machined the hole to put it in doesnt have a clue how big the hole is, or what part # to order, theyre last guess after calling about 12 times was a 1.75 inch hole, no part #, which is no where near correct, should be about 1.095" i guess im on my own.

UPDATE: 06/18/08 Today i couldnt put the drivetrain together, because i couldnt find/modify a pilot bushing, after looking for a long time, i found a pilot bearing for a 1995 ram 3500 diesel that will work, itll be in on friday...

UPDATE: 06/21/08 The engine is in finally, the car has a few more scars to prove it too. Everything went reasonably well, except for a few unforseen problems, The heads had to come off to have enough room to tilt the engine to clear the oil pan from the k-member.
shifter linkage is going in tom, well be plumbing the throw out bearing, and ordering the water pump and alternator also. The suspension isnt adjusted right; ground clearance is only about 3 inches.

UPDATE: 06/24/08 Today was spent backtracking, taking the heads, headers, and starter off to flip the lifters around. On a sbc the I beams face the center of the block, on mopars, they face outwords. After calling Crane cams, telling them that the lifters will not fit in that way, and asking what im doing wrong/what to do, and their response

"ive never heard of that happen on a 360 block"

The second tech said to clearance the block, on the peaks, but

"ive never heard of having to clearance a whole half of the block"

Well, thats what i had to do, to get the lifter in i had to grind off material on these peaks by the lifters. i like what Crane says about these lifters --> easy installation without machining on late model blocks - know its not a late model block, but theysaid they hadnt heard of having to do this much clearancing even to an early block.

after about 3 hours of carefully grinding 5 of these 8 peaks of metal, theyr all in, and the cars back on track for now. Starting to bleed the clutch and brakes, found some leaks, need to find a new fitting.

UPDATE: 06/29/08 The transmission still leaks, im going to try and seal it one more time tomorrow before we take it to the tranny shop that rebuilt it to have them deal with it. We cut, and re-welded the shifter to make it lower and closer to the driver.

We got a lot of parts today! two UPS trucks at the same time, and a fedex earlier. What came: The radiator, Cutouts, full 2 1/2 aluminized exhaust, pushrods, and a few other things; almost everything we need to get it started.

UPDATE: 07/03/08 Lashed the valves- think i did it right, and installed the intake.

UPDATE: 07/13/08 Its been a week or so , but in that time everything has pretty much been taken care of for the car to be started - Tomorrow! The exhaust is in the car, the spark plug wires were cut to the right length, carb was put on, everything was topped off.

UPDATE: 07/14/08 The car started for the first time (Vid on pg 1), after having to fix a bad ground, and spark plug wires # 5 and 7 being mixed up, it started right up, ran great until oil started puking out of the dipstick (no breathers on valve covers) New breathers are in, hopefully that will vent the extra pressure. The driveshaft is comming from Dennys Driveshafts, should take 2-3 weeks... thats all thats left!

UPDATE: 9/25/08 A lot has happened since th last update, the engines broken in, i drove it for about 500 miles. there are a few problems that are still persisting. The engine still has a bad studder when accelerating, and when idling in gear with the clutch disengaged, it idles 300 rpm lower than beign out of gear (neutral) The hydraulic clutch isnt getting enough throw, its set too far back, so we have to take the trans out to fix it. luckally we now have a car lift!! well do that in a week or so, it shouldnt be too difficult. When everythings setup were going to take it to get tuned on a dyno (of coarse ill have video of that)

UPDATE: 10/10/08 The duster is on the lift, the first time the lift was used in several years. The transmissions out, it took about 2 1/2 hours. Were going to send the transmission in to make sure that while its out, nothings wrong with it, since it was hard to shift into 1st from a stop, and 3rd would want to "grind" slightly. itll be a few weeks before it gets put back in, measuring for proper throw out bearing distance is going to be the hardest part of the job.

UPDATE: 12/20/08

Drove the duster around for a few hundred miles since the transmission was removed to fix the throwout bearing. At about 960 miles, the clutch started to slip if acceperating too hard, plus the throwout bearing had rattled, causing it to thread itself closer to the clutch. The trans went off again with all these problems i remembered we never checked the scattershields alignment. Before i could do this i noticed one of the clutch fingers was lower than the other- the clutch gave out with less than 1000 miles of easy driving (this was causing the slipping obviously). Im looking into why this happened, the scattershields ready to go back in and get aligned correctly, third times a charm.

UPDATE: 03/15/09 Well, ive driven the duster around and it runs great, needs a little tuning still, but its good for a daily driver. I put 3000miles on it, and the only problem ive had is how often i have to get gas. I know that ~9/14 mpg city/hwy isnt that great, but the 14 gallon gas tank doesnt help either so im putting in a 20 gallon fuel cell and slowly replacing the stock fuel system.