Hello every one,
Too start off, I have a '74 Duster that I am working on building up. I know its not a really cool cuda or a challenger (never could afford one) but... never the less I thought you guys would like to see it, that and I had some questions...
I guess I will start from the begining, I picked it up three years ago,
The guy that had it told me that the engine was "locked up" while I was talking to him I happen to grab a belt and was able to turn the crank backwards. So I knew the engine wasn't "locked up"
but for the amount he was asking ($560) I couldn't pass it up. It was all there,
It has a little bit of rust and body damage but nothing I don't think I can handle so, I latched on to it with a tow bar and drug it home.
The first weekend I had it I tossed a battery in it and hit the starter, all it did was hum. It didn't click it didn't do anything. I was a little confused
after trying one or two things I ended up turning the crank again by the belt and hoping back in to try it one more time. This time it turned over almost a complete revolution before making a big THUD. I thought oh crap... I dropped the oil pan only to find a destroyed rod... I pulled the heads and found that the piston had slapped the head
,
bent a valve and pushrod
and apparently they kept it running after the broke the rod because the chiesled the crap out of the crank...
So I coudn't decide what I wanted to do with it. Do I pull the engine, bore it out and rebuild it? Do order a crate engine and go from there? I could always building my own small block from a junkyard block...
While I was trying to decide what I wanted to do I ended up coming across an a-body 8-3/4 rear end
I quickly ditched the 8-1/4 which housed the peg leg 2.73 gears and built up the 8-3/4 using a 742 case, limited slip, and 3.23 gears.
I used a set of HD 3" over arched springs, Moser custom alloy axles, and the biggest factory drum brakes I could get ahold of.
I decided that I wasn't going to keep that 318 that was beaten in to submission so I pulled it out and rebuilt the front end. I dropped the k-frame, replaced the ball joints, replaced all the worn bushings with poly bushings, welded up the k-frame, sand blasted it, sand blasted and welded up a some custom made lower control arm plates out of 10 Ga Stainless, and swapped in a set of 1.09 Torsion bars, and a 1" front sway bar.
Before I put all that back in there, I did a little bit of work to the engine compartment...
I replaced the master cylinder and brake booster, ran new SS brake lines to all new brakes, and so on a so forth...
I am planning on welding in sub-frame connectors and beefing it up some more as I go, but for now...
Then I found it... I found my new engine!!
and transmission for that matter.
It was a '73 Chrysler Imperial that was about 500 miles away from home, the gentleman was nice enough to let me show up with a cherry picker for a 3 point hitch on his tractor too extract the engine from its grave on his farm. For $150 I scored this
A complete '73 440 and 727 tranny.
I dis-assembled it and had the block hot tanked and new cam bearings pressed in.
Since I am doing this on an insane (tight) budget I have to be crafty, I retained the stock cast crank, LY rods, and stock 73 cast pistons.
I slid a Comp cams (cam specs here
http://www.compcams.com/Technical/Search/CamDetails.asp?PartNumber=21-223-4) I picked up a set of 516 Closed chamber heads at a swap meet for $100 and had the exhaust seats cut out for the larger 70's valve (also hardened seat), an valve job on the intakes, new freeze plugs and guides, and a list of other things... which I plan on porting a little bit... my estimate is that with my head gaskets,and CC size I will be about a 9.0 to 1 compression ratio.
I picked up a Weiand dual plane aluminum intake... (here -
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=WND%2D8009&autoview=sku) I plan on running about a 750 - 800 CFM carb, electronic ignition, and a set of fendwell headers
... yes that is my kitchen table... I plan on running a converter with a stall slightly higher than stock but nothing to wild since I don't have a very aggressive set up.
Well... what do you think? What kind of performance range do you think I will get out of that set up? horse power and torque numbers???
Let me know what you think of the car.