Project Red Baron (1992 LeBaron Convertible

[3.0LeBaron]

i bought the car 3 years ago for the price of a 2001 Grand Prix shell

it's a loaded base model has the white leather interior, the heated rear glass in the top, power driver seat, A/C

here is how it looked when i got it



















then the trans "died" and would only go in reverse and neutral and the supply fuel line started leaking so it sat in my garage for 2 years



this is how it looked about a month ago and i decided to start working on it bought a parts van for cheap as i thought it had a A670 but was another A604 so i will roll with it as it only had 10,000 miles on the rebuild the van it's self had 89,000







cleaned around the car and checked it out last week and got it running. car is still rust free only rust form sitting was the aftermarket aluminized exhaust









was not hard getting it running again replaced the rubber fuel lines with AN fuel fittings



and after 2 years it started right up



i then removed the inoperative A/C system form the car as the compressor was seized and with the unknown shape of the condenser and evaporator did not want to mess with it





i also started on fuel line version 2.0 as the AN line was kinking on the supply side





the long term plan is to turbo. started getting parts like .040 pistons for the Van engine and started tairing the van engine down this way i can still drive the car wile i build up the van engine. i can also convert the car to megasquirt using a stock engine as i also plan on converting the ignition system to a DIS

[paduster]

i guess i aint the only one doing lebaron vert. are those stock pistons? and i did a 5 speed swap are u planning on building a auto or swapping to a 5 speed

[3.0LeBaron]

those pistons are +1mm or .040 over with a dish for a 8.8 compression raio

trans plan is build up the van a604 i have internals from a turbo PT cruiser's 41TE and see what happens =and swap in a 3 speed when it blows. I would love a 5 speed but my knee says no to that

---------- Post added at 11:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 AM ----------

also got the trans in the car to work after swapping int he TCM fromt he van so i think the TCM just failed

[paduster]

cast or forged is my question and a stock style replacement or after market

and nice on the tcm swap means u dont have to swap trans yet

[3.0LeBaron]

i believe they are cast hyperucratic what ever. so stock style? no idea they where new in 1989 i bought them this year for cheap

[paduster]

cast is stock and we have found 3 differnt style pistons some are stronger than others thats y i ask sundance6g72 he had a thread on it a while ago

[3.0LeBaron]

ahh i see yeah i have no idea i did not even know there where different styles

[paduster]

yea and some are stronger than others

[3.0LeBaron]

have a link to the thread that talks about the pistons?

[paduster]

http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...hlight=pistons

[3.0LeBaron]

after looking at that they are the older 8.85 style with the thicker top ring land

[Sundance 6g72]

the worry about replacement pistons is that the companys producing them only need to make them handle 141hp. We are lucky that the stock pistons can see 500+ hp and survice (maybe not long term)

im all for trying your pistons but i cant say im confident that they will like lots of horsepower.


1993 was the switch over date for the stock pistons. I know this because my factory motor had the first gen pistons while most 93s have the newer style.

the 10:1 pistons are also pretty strong if you avoid detination.

[3.0LeBaron]

that is true and these ones where made before the switch over was even thought of. the van engine is a cheap build so longevity is not really a main concern. i will do things more correct with the stock engine i take out of the lebaron

[Sundance 6g72]

my point is, if the current pistons are fine and the block does not need to be bored out, why bother with new pistons?

[3.0LeBaron]

do to pitting in at least one cylinder bore of the van motor

[Sundance 6g72]

ahh i see. I wanted to bore my origonal block. Its got some scratching where i melted piston #1. Never did it because i wanted oem pistons. might go forged some day with that block but thats expensive :P

well hopefully they hold up really well. the cool thing about v6 and v8 is that each cyl sees less horsepower than the 4cyl equivelent. I think that why our headbolts work so well, they only see half the horsepower than if they where on a 4g63.

[3.0LeBaron]

hopefully they work too and if not oh well i paid $70 for the pistons and $300 for the van and then got $300 from scrapping it and $150 form selling some parts so i will still be a head lol

[3.0LeBaron]

got the heads off cylinders look perfectly fine soo i have spare pistons then in case i ever need them in the future


got the parts i needed to finish the A/N lines on the fuel rail and got new o-rings installed should beable to get the car going agina soon


new problem though need to figure out how to drain the 5 gallons of crap out of the fuel tank