A Valiant Restoration: Day 3 & 4

According to Google, valiant is defined as "possessing or showing courage or determination".  In addition to literally restoring a Plymouth Valiant, I believe that the restoration itself is a valiant act.  It's Jacob trusting that I know what I am doing and am able to help him know what he is doing.  It's taking something apart that most people wouldn't dare in fear that they'd never get it back together.  It's knowing that there are risks but valuable rewards to be won.  Maybe, I'm being too deep here, but I just think that the name of the car is significant for this endeavor that we've taken on.

We continued pulling parts off the engine and cleaning them up. Many of the hang-ons got cleaned up and painted.  Both Jacob and I were pretty impressed with the turnout.  This thing is going to shine under the hood.

I borrowed a couple lifting eyebolts from work and an engine hoist and engine stand from Daniel.  It wasn't too bad pulling the engine out, but it took a bit to figure out how to get the transmission all the way off of the block.  We figured it out, though.  We bent the eyebolts into a nice J-shape so I bought some new replacements from Fastenal to return to my work.

With the motor out, I feel like I could probably benchpress the car right off the jack stands, not that I will be trying that or anything.

I realized during the third day that I had a shop manual from 1962 for the car.  I bought it in an ebay auction probably 7 years ago or so knowing that it would come in handy someday.  I read through some of it concerning the engine and discovered a way to find out which motor it is.  As it turns out, it's not a 225 like I always thought.  It's a 170.  It's the exact same motor except for the height of the block is shorter than a 225 and the connecting rods are shorter.  This gives it a shorter stroke which gives it better fuel economy, less torque at low RPMs but greater power at higher RPMs, less engine stress which means greater durability.  It won't be a super-power for Jacob which is good, but it will last a long time, be easy on gas, and will have good passing speed capability.

Jacob mentioned that he would like to get some bucket seats for it to replace the bench seat in the front.  So, I'll be on the look out for some period buckets seats.  It would be nice to find some Valiant bucket seats, but in order to keep them on the cheaper end of the spectrum we'll likely have to find something else more common.  I like the idea of replacing the bench with buckets because it would allow for a custom console to be built.  And, I could see Jacob and myself getting pretty creative and fancy with that.

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