Mopar Muscle – October 2019

TECH | FUEL FOR THOUGHT

distributor was pulled from the block and

rested away from the intake manifold.

We unthreaded all the intake manifold

bolts by loosening each bolt in the opposite

order of the tightening torque sequence.

The kickdown linkage and bracket were

pushed to the driver side of the intake

manifold. With everything removed from

the carburetor and manifold, we lifted

the manifold out of the engine bay.

When the manifold was pulled, we

kept the amount of coolant and debris

entering the engine to a minimum. We

were surprised to see that someone had

installed a valley-pan cover in the little

273. The steel intake-manifold gaskets

were lifted from each cylinder head, and

to keep debris out of the engine during

cleaning, we stuffed paper towels into

each cylinder-head port and put paper

towels over the open valley. With the

use of carb cleaner, a brush, and a putty

knife, the cylinder heads and end rails of

the block were cleaned and readied for the

4-bbl manifold. Fel-Pro intake-manifold

gaskets (PN SFL1243) were laid onto

each cylinder head and each block end

rail. Before we placed the manifold onto

the heads, we had to remove the factory

roll pin on the back rail of the block,

permitting the LD4B to seat properly. With

the roll pin removed, the intake manifold

fell into place.

Prior to torqueing the manifold to

the cylinder heads, the 4-bbl kickdown

linkage was slipped into the place

where the 2-bbl linkage had been. The

carburetor return spring bracket had to

be modified to work with the Edelbrock

manifold. The factory intake-manifold

bolts were cleaned, repainted, and torqued

into the cylinder heads. We transferred

the thermostat housing, thermostat, and

temperature sending unit from the 2-bbl

manifold to the Edelbrock manifold. The

distributor was slipped back into the

block, and although we realigned the

reference marks we had made before the

disassembly, the timing would have to

be checked after the engine was again

running. A new gasket followed by the

Brawler carburetor was placed onto the

LD4B manifold studs, and the stud nuts

were torqued to 100 in-lb. The kickdown

linkage was properly adjusted, and the

kickdown spring and carburetor return

springs were fitted to the Holley throttle-

extension lever required for Mopar vehicles

(PN 20-7). A new bypass hose and

upper radiator hose were installed. We

added a heater-hose bracket, which was

not available in 1967 for the 273. This

bracket allowed us to route the new heater

hoses away from the top of the passenger-

side valve cover and around the air-

cleaner housing. The heater hoses were

further tied together with an OEM strap

that we located about halfway between

the firewall and the heater-hose bracket.

The cooling system was filled with

coolant. The PCV hose was connected to

the Brawler, and the distributor vacuum

advance hose was left disconnected and

plugged until the engine was running and

properly timed.

When it came time to plumb the car-

buretor, we wanted the fuel line to look as

factory as possible, which meant we would

not use any high-dollar, braided fuel lines.

The fuel line we elected to use was^5 ⁄ 16 -

inch steel line, which we could bend into

the desired shape necessary to fit to each

float bowl, the fuel filter, and the fuel pump

while clearing all other engine components.

The bending and shaping of the steel lines

required a tubing bender and a double-

flaring tool. The inlets to each float bowl

were changed from the as-shipped inlets

on the Brawler to Holley^5 ⁄ 16 -inch inlets

(PN 26-27) to accommodate the use of