67 Fury 440 Engine Problems

According to my stepdad, he says, everything is new BUT he will try a couple of these things mentioned. I will definitely keep everyone posted.
 
Update:

After 4 months from posting this. My stepfather technically gave up and got fed up with the Fury. He decided to bring the car to an engine specialist/Mopar guru/his friend in Old Saybrook, CT. @FURYGT has used him for a couple of his cars. My stepfather was originally going to leave really early in the morning and drive it to the guy. But after it ran so crappy he decided to use AAA. I'm talkin' worse than before too. So he went to back the car out of the driveway to turn the car around, he got it out in the road and it stalled, he got it started, pulled it in the driveway and let it sit to cool off. Started it again, and it was fine.
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Is the exhaust heat crossover ports blocked off?
They should be to avoid boiling the fuel. You have an electric choke after all and the added heat under the carb is not necessary.
Are you running a spacer between the carb and intake? A one inch spacer should work.

I agree to an earlier post the fuel line should have a heat sheathing on it and not against the right side exhaust header.
Check the vent lines at the fuel tank. 67/68 should have a short one clipped to the frame and the other going in and out of the trunk.
Make sure they are not plugged.
Gas cap should be of the vented type.
440's love lots of initial timing and as a result needs lots of fuel. She may be running lean.
4 months since last update?
Same fuel since then?
Today's fuel is not like the real gas we used to get so it has a short shelf life.
3 months around here anyways.
Hope any of this can help.
 
On a street engine with an iron intake manifold, no heat at the bottom of the plenum CAN very possibly affect how the engine runs when it's cold (the engine, not specifically the ambient air temp). That heat is there to aid in fuel atomization in the first place. Just as the exhaust heats the plenum on an inline motor for the same reason. Now, each engine can be different in how picky it is about this! Aluminum intakes are less picky too, as they will heat up from engine heat from the cylinder heads quicker, by observation.

So, we might choose to disagree about blocking the heat riser on an "everyday driver" engine, but it can give that last bit of power for a drag race competition engine. In either situation, the carb mixture, idle mixture, and automatic choke TUNING need to be optimized for the heat riser being blocked, from my experiences and observations. Many later model factory EFI engines have cylinder heads without any heat riser passages, but this should not be an indication that the heat riser passages should be blocked on a carbureted (or bolt-on EFI) engine.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
So after 7 long months from my April 2019 post, we finally got the Fury stroker 440 figured out. Unfortunately the car is still not fixed BUT we now know what's wrong. The problem is that one of the pistons has failed.

So whats's the plan of action?, bring the car home tonight for starters. Then yank out the old stroker engine and put a stock 440 in. My stepfather says that it could be fixed but he would need new pistons, have it bored over again and I think a couple other things. And that's money he just doesn't have right now. He says he is going to use a few parts from the "bad" engine and then most likely sell the rest of the motor for parts.

One we get the old motor out of the car and get it apart, I could get pictures if anyone is interested.
 
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So after 7 long months from my April 2019 post, we finally got the Fury stroker 440 figured out. Unfortunately the car is still not fixed BUT we now know what's wrong. The problem is that one of the pistons has failed.

So whats's the plan of action?, bring the car home tonight for starters. Then yank out the old stroker engine and put a stock 440 in. My stepfather says that it could be fixed but he would need new pistons, o rings, have it bored over again and I think a couple other things. And that's money he just doesn't have right now. He says he is going to use a few parts from the "bad" engine and then most likely sell the rest of the motor for parts.

One we get the old motor out of the car and get it apart, I could get pictures if anyone is interested.

Very sorry to hear this. I know your step dad must be very discouraged. Appears that a complete do-over of the engine is in order. Possibly a $4000 repair. . . Aaaarrrgghh!
 
Very sorry to hear this. I know your step dad must be very discouraged. Appears that a complete do-over of the engine is in order. Possibly a $4000 repair. . . Aaaarrrgghh!

The quality of all stroker pistons is not created equal. Get it home and pull the heads to see if the block is damaged. You might be able to get away with a new piston set with the fresh rings and bearings. Most of the time you will not get that lucky as a failed piston will often score the cylinder wall, but it won't hurt to check.

Dve
 
The quality of all stroker pistons is not created equal. Get it home and pull the heads to see if the block is damaged. You might be able to get away with a new piston set with the fresh rings and bearings. Most of the time you will not get that lucky as a failed piston will often score the cylinder wall, but it won't hurt to check.

Dve

Yes. And I'd be worried about the crank too. . .
 
Yes. And I'd be worried about the crank too. . .

A lot would depend on what happened, if a piston top caved in or cracked, it probably did not shed a lot of metal. If a skirt gave way, the engine should be knocking like hell and that cylinder wall is probably toast. I would pull the oil filter and look for metal. Bore scope could probably reveal a trashed piston top and/or scored cylinder.

Dave
 
The engine was built by a well known high performance MOPAR engine builder who also built my 520" stroker and several others for friends. I'm sad to hear this.
 
The engine was built by a well known high performance MOPAR engine builder who also built my 520" stroker and several others for friends. I'm sad to hear this.

There must be more to this story. I would think the engine builder would want to look over the wreckage of this motor and at least participate in the effort to fix it. . .
 
There must be more to this story. I would think the engine builder would want to look over the wreckage of this motor and at least participate in the effort to fix it. . .

I, and my stepfather would want him to look over the motor and try to fix it. Unfortunately he cannot, because he passed away
 
I, and my stepfather would want him to look over the motor and try to fix it. Unfortunately he cannot, because he passed away

Oh. . . So very sorry to hear that. I hope you all can ultimately get it fixed without too much expense. I know a good engine builder / machinist who could help, but he is in Westminster, MD, which may be too far for you.
 
Update-

It's been awhile since my last update so what's goin' on with the motor? So, a few weeks ago my stepdad took off the air cleaner, valve covers, carburetor, alternator, and took out the radiator and drained the coolant, spark plugs, spark plug wires, motor mounts etc. Technically all the stuff to get the 440 stroker motor ready to be pulled out of the car. Although the headers, heater lines, power steering pump were not taken off but rather "moved aside" in the engine bay. He didn't want to deal with the hassle of taking them out, anyway he got everything off/out the motor so all he had to take out was the engine block.

So now, the motor was pulled out from the Fury yesterday (Sunday December 15th) and is now on an engine stand. The transmission is still in the car, my stepdad went through the motor today and says everything looks good from what he saw. Pistons and everything. However just from sitting a few weeks there is now a little bit of rust forming on the heads and block. So, he sprayed some WD-40 on there to help it from getting worse. Now we are trying to figure out a plan for what to do next.

Right now the motor is "looking" like it can kind of be saved thankfully. Plan to hopefully be announced soon. Please note that I would post some pictures but my phone is "out of commission".

Just figured I'd give everyone an "update". Thanks for reading.
 
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OK,

So it's been a while since my last update. Here's the plan for the time being for the '67 Fury stroker 440. Mind you the plan could change, (I will keep you updated)

The pistons are out of the motor, and the 3rd and 7th pistons look to have little scratches but nothing huge that would cause the motor to be doing what it is doing.

So, Here's The Plan For Now- Invest in a mic and see how bad the cylinders are inside, if they are too tight hone them to make them bigger then put the motor back together, then drop it back in the car.

Otherwise, sorry but that's it for now stay tuned......
 
I think ur Mopar guru missed the boat on this 1. No way in hell would a bad piston cause it to run like u described. Also u found no bad pistons. If not fuel or spark, u may have tight valve guides but I think Im reaching here. When u get it back together it will most definitely run the same. Maybe the sock in the tank is plugging up with rust from a rusty tank. Unless u find the problem first. Kim
 
Hi all, It has been about a month or a little bit more since my last update. As of right now and I am trying not to jinx it here, the engine looks like it can be saved! In my last post I messed up and got my information a bit wrong, I originally said it was the 3rd and 7th pistons that were scuffed, IT IS ACTUALLY the 5TH and 7th pistons. Anyway here is the latest....

We Found The Problem! It is as we originally thought, the problem is in-fact the cylinders and NOT the pistons. Another friend of ours named Rich looked at the pistons and he said that the scuffs on the 5th and 7th would not make the car run like it is. So he gave us a measuring tool to borrow to measure the inside of the cylinders.

Yesterday Sunday Feb 23rd- The cylinders were measured, then the pistons were measured for comparison. The cylinder measures at 2,000 difference, and the cylinder measures smaller than the piston so it's a bit tight. It is supposed to measure within 4-5,000

So What Is Next?- Take the crank out and hone the cylinders alittle bit.

Here are some pictures of the engine out of the car
hotrod 1.jpeg
hotrod 2.jpeg
hotrod 3.jpeg
hotrod 4.jpeg
hotrod 5.jpeg
 
Yesterday Sunday Feb 23rd- The cylinders were measured, then the pistons were measured for comparison. The cylinder measures at 2,000 difference, and the cylinder measures smaller than the piston so it's a bit tight. It is supposed to measure within 4-5,000

Man that just doesn't sound right. You need to find out what the piston manufacturer recommends for clearance for starters. If someone put it together with pistons larger than the bores....... that would be a pretty big oops.

004-005 if a pretty big gap,0025-003 is a pretty common number depending on the material of the piston.
You can get bad readings on the piston if not careful. Measure 25 times, hone once.
 
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