Street Freak Rambler build

[LetsFNgo]

So here’s a new build thread for the forum. Unlike my last 2 this one is more ongoing and is still very far away from any type of completion. So they’ll be a couple of posts bringing it up to speed then I’ll post when I do or get something.

My SC Rambler needs a lot of parts. I already had 1 parts car, but had an opportunity to purchase this car for 800 bucks and couldn’t say no. It started life as a bottom of the barrel base model 1968 2 door post Rambler. 199 straight 6 auto with almost no options. At some point in its life it got smacked lightly in the right front corner but not hard enough to damage anything major. I originally wanted it because unlike most Ramblers, the quarters on this car are fairly nice and don’t have any rot holes. Which is a major win for me.

Once getting the car home it sat, and sat, and sat. And when I finally went to cut it apart realized the little car was way too nice to cut up even though I didn’t need another project. Talking to my dad about it one evening over a couple beers we both complained about never building a gasser. But I have that 68 Rambler. Which is basically a poorly built slightly uglier Chevy II. So why not use that?

So soon after a Speedway straight front axle showed up at my door, and a Dana 60 I had laying around for something else got pushed into service for this car.

Will continue in another post. Pics are up to this point.

[LetsFNgo]

So parts started being ordered.

A friend donated a set of 5.13 gears for the Dana 60 and while I was originally hoping to use a factory Dana Sure Grip I picked up that turned out to be no good. So a spool got installed instead. I put the whole 60 together one weekend and loosely installed it. A set of new N50-15’s I had are mounted on old American Racing slot mags in the back. And I’d love to find a set of slot mag front runners, for now I have a set of 14x6 slot mags I’ll eventually use on the front.

The speedway kit installed easily. I was able to use 1 of the factory strut rod mount holes to set my front axle and was able to make the whole straight axle a bolt in affair up to this point. I still need to figure out front shock mounts. But that’ll happen soon.

To help with mock up I installed a junk 360 amc block, the scattershield and 2.64 first gear T10 I’m going to use. The engine combo will be in the next post.

[LetsFNgo]

So the original plan for the engine was to use parts I had laying around to put something together, unfortunately the original 360 block I planned to use was no good(cam bearings were loose) so that block got used for mockup and a 68/9 390 block and crank I picked up rough and cheap got sent to the machine shop. Where it all still currently is.

I started ordering parts planning to do a 12.5:1 390 with my tunnel ram and twin Dominators. But a mistake I made ordering pistons turned into something better. The pistons that showed up from weisco are dished pistons, putting my compression ratio at 10:1 at the best. But when something like that happens the best thing to do is bolt a blower on it. So I picked up 3 8v71 Detroit diesel blowers(1 is actually for a 92 series). And I’ve ordered all the parts to convert one to gas use. AMC blower manifolds are incredibly expensive, so I sourced an Offenhouser dual quad manifold and sent to a local machine shop with the blower for mock up. He’s going to modify the Offy manifold and weld a plate to it to mount the 8v71 blower.

Otherwise the engine is a .030 over 390 with forged Weisco pistons and Molnar connecting rods. Crower is making a custom cam for the blower(they’re also taking back the other cam I originally ordered for the higher compression build so I can’t recommend them enough). It’s going to be a solid flat tappet custom grind with about .550 valve lift and 114 lobe separation. The heads are ported 1970 390 291C cylinder heads. I’m hoping to make between 8-10 pound of boost with the blower.

[LetsFNgo]

And finally here’s where we are today.
Ran to the machine shop and dropped off the pistons, stopped by the other machinist doing the crank to drop off 1 rod with a bearing in it for him to measure and start cutting the crank.

I’m still quite a ways away from building the engine but it’s coming along. The heads are being worked on, the block is being sent out for align honing before the crank bearings get installed and measured so the crank guy can cut the mains to size so all my clearances are 100% right the first time. Hopefully by the end of this month the block will be mostly done. We’ll need the crank to mock up and see how deep in the hole the piston and rod combo is. Since I’m using 401 length rods and pistons I’m going to end up down in the hole probably .040”. But for a low compression blower build that’ll probably be ok.

Came home and began mocking up the ladder bars for the front mounts and the headers so I can start cutting things. The drivers side fits minus the steering shaft. The passenger side is a shitshow and will require quite a bit of cutting to fit. I’m trying to jam Hooker 7103 AMX 1 7/8 headers into an area not designed for them at all. Luckily since I’m not using the front suspension mounting holes I can cut what I need and go back and clean it up later.

Thanks for reading.

[big gear head]

Are you going to use housing floaters on the rear end? If you don't your suspension is going to bind up.

[LetsFNgo]

That’s actually a problem I’m trying to work through. I was thinking of mounting the eyelet of the bar into a shackle. That should allow it to move while still helping to limit axle twist. Honestly I don’t know much about the housing floaters and I really don’t want to rely on the bars to locate the rear axle.

[big gear head]

I used Alston housing floaters on my Camaro before I switched to coil over shocks. They worked great with my ladder bars and allowed for ride height adjustments.

[LetsFNgo]

Little update
Had a couple hours yesterday afternoon to start really gutting the car to begin all the paint and bodywork. The real pain is going to be removing all the undercoating all over the undersides of the car. I have a portable sandblaster that I’m hoping does a decent job of blasting all of the undercoating and rust, then I can do the small rust repair work and begin sanding the body. My dad and I also need to finish removing the rear window and a few other things.

[RALLY]

Love this build. Keep us posted.

[LetsFNgo]

Small update
Picked up a set of carbs I plan to use. They’re in the mail right now. Holley 6109 Tunnel Ram 750 double pumpers. I’m sure they’ll need rebuild kits and I’m not sure what will need to be changed to be run on top of a blower. But I’ll figure it out.
Also spent some time this week rebuilding the blower. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow since it’s under my workbench but it’s all blasted and cleaned. The rotors are now triple pinned and I have the front and rear plates ready with new bearings and seals.
Should have some other updates in the coming weeks. I need to order a rollbar since I want it to be able to run down to 10.0 without an issue. I’m not a fan of rollbars/cages on the street but I’d like to do dragweek/sickweek and other drag and drive stuff with this car. Which also means I might swap the 5.13’s out of the Dana too. But we’ll cross that bridge in the future.

Last picture is my son helping to disassemble a spare 8v92 blower I picked up.