Hello everybody,
First let me say that i am not a mechanic. I just wanted a muscle car and have wanted a Dodge Challenger since i was 15. I posted a thread last week about wanting to trade my vette for a Challenger and was able to do so for a beautiful 73 Challenger. All i have ever wanted was a fast 440 car that was a good looking driver with no rust that I was not necessarily going to have to work on. Well, at least nothing complicated to work on. I mean, i can turn a wrench but i really know nothing about cars to the degree that most men are that want old mopar's. I just drive them and look good! I'll probably have to find me a mechanic who can drop by my house and keep this car running right or at least show me how to after a couple of times.
Anyway, here is my concern. I absolutely love the car i have and it looks incredible and that's why i bought it. Well i traded and also gave cash to boot cause i wanted it! Well it came two days ago and i think i have bought a race car and not a street car or maybe i'm ok but just don't know it yet and that's where i need some help here.
Here are the specs as i was told. This car was on ebay about a week and a half ago, it didn't sell and we made a deal. It was listed like this:
450 HP/ 440 auto with a 727 tranny and 6qt oil pan. Rear is a 4:10 sure grip and it has a B&M pro master ratchet floor shifter. According to the auction the tach was disabled due to a new MSD ignition. Well we made this deal site unseen. He bought it from a classic muscle car dealer site unseen and that was only 2 months ago. He wanted to sell because he is going to iraq for a year so when he didn't get his price, he was open to a trade because i think his wife was interested in my vette.
His discription on ebay said it drove like a new car so i'm thinking this is the one and we talk and make the deal etc., etc., Now for the first time i drive this car yesterday after i figure out this cool shifter. He told me i didn't have to really use the other gears and could just go with drive all of the time. I told him i wanted a fast driver that i could do weekend cruise's and race at a occasional red light, you get my drift. Anyway, after driving it for the first time yesterday it seems to me to be straining in drive when i'm driving around town at say 40 to 50 miles per hour. I haven't taken it on the freeway at all yet. However, from a slow roll in first it will melt the tires and after a few seconds pass and i go to second with the pedal floored and then on to drive it's really kickin butt and i can tell the strain is perfect and this is the way that it is supposed to run and now i'm afraid it's not geared right for local drivng around town at a constant 40 to 50. It's very loud with flowmaster headers etc., so maybe it's just so loud that i think it's straining. I don't know. What do you guys think?
It doesn't have a tach and i don't know how to put one on anyway! Should i get a different rearend? Is that it? The person who built this car did a great job with the restoration. It's not a frame off but i think it was just in pretty good shape to begin with so the restoration process wasn't a lot. I'm thinking he built this to drag race but i'm not sure. I'll leave it to you experts for advice. Should this set up work for me on the street? Also, it smells of gas really bad when it's running but it's not leaking. I think it needs somebody to adjust the carb or something or is owning a muscle car and smelling gas all of the time a norm? Please advise
