70 Challenger RT - EFI 6 Pack Conversion

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

Cool project! Look forward to seeing how it turns out.

[74BlueFish]

    Ha Ha  my bad.      Yes air cleaner make sense to me,  All I could think of was the air conditioning.

[70chall440]

   Ha Ha  my bad.      Yes air cleaner make sense to me,  All I could think of was the air conditioning.

All good, done similar things myself a number of times...

[74BlueFish]

Too bad you have to hide that beautiful intake with an air cleaner.  It looks awesome.

[wantone]

in my best joe dirt - daaaaang

[70chall440]

Too bad you have to hide that beautiful intake with an air cleaner.  It looks awesome.

Yea, I have had several people say that and in one case a friend was trying to convince me to use another (slimmer) air cleaner so the intake could be seen, but to be honest I don't have any issues with using the stock system, I think it all works well together.

I will try and get the car into my working shop (I have 2 40x60 shops, one is for working in and the other is for storage); lay out all of the parts and start the conversion.

[Matt70]

Interesting thread    Beautiful car too, love the steelies and dog dishes   
 

[70chall440]

As mentioned, the conversion began yesterday in earnest. For those considering this or anything like it, I will try and post information as I go for your review and/or enjoyment.

First step was getting the car started and moved over to the shop with the lift. As always, this was not as easy as just cranking it and required a little priming to make happen. This isn't uncommon due to the long periods between starting and driving the car. Yes I should drive it more but I don't, so I have to live with what occurs. I managed to get the car running, didn't like to idle, running rich, etc.

I got the car moved over to the lift finally all good. I then removed all of the new parts/pieces that will be used to convert it over to EFI. Once up in the air, the first effort was to remove the existing gas tank/fuel system. Due to previous efforts with regards to this system, it was not overly difficult to disconnect. At one time I had an electric fuel pump near the tank to push fuel to the mechanical pump, however had issues with the electrical system and removed it thinking it was drawing too much from the system (turned out not to be the case).

I then had to drain the tank, this turned out to be a little bit of an issue in that the tank contained more fuel than I had anticipated. This resulted in a fair amount of spillage which I can still smell..... Not a big issue, but a slightly messy one. Once I got past that, I removed the tank which required removal of the rear valance. I then got the 3/8 SS braided fuel line I had previously used off the car. The line was easy to remove actually and contained a surprising amount of fuel. This will be replaced with alloy metal lines.

Before I quit for the night, I took a look at the new fuel tank, specifically the sending unit and pump system. At face value, it can seem a little intimidating but once you think it through it is pretty straight forward.

Here are some pictures (because I know how much everyone loves pictures).

[70chall440]

Not a lot to report thus far, yesterday was "one of those days" where everything I touched seemed not to work or was some problem. I managed to get the in tank fuel pump installed which would seem pretty straight forward, however it isn't. You have to cut the feed tube to the right length so that the pump with the sock is close to the bottom of the tank, however once you install the sock onto the pump, you are kind of committed as the little metal ring grabs the plastic part of the pump; meaning that if you are "mocking it up", you will rip the sock metal ring off when you actually try and remove the sock so you can put it all together... ask me how I know... that said, a heat gun will soften the plastic that the little metal ring sits in on the sock so it can be reinstalled.... going to try and work on it today. Trying to determine where the MSD box is going to reside; that thing is big.... (I knew that, I have 3 of them...).

[70chall440]

Got some work done today; its slow going due to a lot of preparation and planning. I needed to get the new tank sorted out with the pump and sending unit installed. The sending unit was straight forward right up until I put it in the tank, I was thinking the float would go rearward, however it actually goes sideways. This took me a little time to get figured out and I had some gasket sealant on the rubber gasket (as per the instructions). After getting both the pump and sending units in the tank, then I built a wiring harness for the pump. The sending unit has a ground stud on it, so I ran that to the pump ground so I only needed 1 line to come off the sending unit like the original.

I then set about building a clamp for the fuel lines; I wanted something that would hold both the feed and return lines solidly so I can form the lines from there forward. I will be running soft lines from the hard lines to the tank.

I broke out my home made tubing straightener; I built this thing in like 20 minutes after looking at the commercial versions thinking that if it didn't work, oh well. I am happy to say it works quite well and I used it when did the lines on my Cuda as well as my 52 PU. The pulleys are off of a home gym I bought at a yard sale for my son years ago.

I think the clamp turned out well and will securely hold the lines where I want them. I incorporated a heat shield since it is near the exhaust pipe. I will put some insulation (Hushmat) on the inside just because I have some and I think it will help.

I also took some time to fix the filler tube. It is normally held in with something #8 sheetmetal screws which have stripped out over the years. I put some 8-32 Nut rivets in it so that problem is done.

[Cudaragtop]

  Nice work Mike.

[brads70]

You might want to add a 45 and a couple pipe nipples to get that one line out past the tank. I did on mine. When it all gets bolted up you won't be able to tighten the fittings if necessary without dropping the tank, and it might hit the trunk floor when you get a fitting screwed on there.

[70chall440]

You might want to add a 45 and a couple pipe nipples to get that one line out past the tank. I did on mine. When it all gets bolted up you won't be able to tighten the fittings if necessary without dropping the tank, and it might hit the trunk floor when you get a fitting screwed on there.

Good point, now that stop and actually look at it, you are absolutely correct. I will work on that. Brad, do you have any pictures of yours?

[brads70]

Good point, now that stop and actually look at it, you are absolutely correct. I will work on that. Brad, do you have any pictures of yours?

Sorry I just looked but , no I didn't take any.

[70chall440]

Sorry I just looked but , no I didn't take any.

No problem, I think I will just install the lines before mounting the tank. Should I need to remove the tank, then I can disconnect the lines at the hardline end. If something were to happen where a line is leaking at the tank end, well then I guess I would have to drop the tank.