It’s always the small details that trip you up on project cars, and recently for Scotty that’s been the flexplate-to-starter motor clearance on the 318 small-block in his VE Valiant ute.

A factory Chrysler flexplate wouldn’t cut it at Scotty’s target of 400 horses for this little ripper of a 318, and finding an aftermarket item that didn’t foul on the starter was proving to be a tricky task.

After trying a bunch of starter and flexplate combos, Scotty found that a full-circle TFI flexplate and an extra-clearance Mopar starter motor was the right duo. Success!

While we could’ve just modified the parts we had to suit our needs and keep on truckin’, Scotty was hellbent on finding a bolt-in solution so that anybody in a similar bind would now know which parts to shop for. Let’s face it, not everyone has a buddy with a lathe on standby to make stubborn parts fit.

A bunch of other schmick parts also rocked up for the VE, which we’ll see Scotty bung onto the car in future episodes. Those include a new air cleaner to get the intake under the original Valiant bonnet, a pair of gauges for water and oil vitals, and some thermo fan controllers to trigger the glossy fans on our Aussie Desert Cooler radiator.

We’ll see all that, along with plumbing of the fuel system, cooling, transmission and more in future episodes, as Scotty gets closer to finally firing up this 318.

Big thanks to our sponsors Ryobi and Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse for supporting all our Carnage antics.