Focusing on my Duster
after all this came the faithful night when a friend wanted me to race his '03 Cobra. i knew his car had run bottom 11's at least, but thought i could hook well enough on the street to get him. My car broke loose for the first time ever on the launch, shot up to 7kRPM and started making a lot of racket from the engine. it turned out a rocker arm adjuster had backed out, and it was just flopping around. i probably couldve just put it back together and kept running it, but seeing as i was already running WELL under the allowed time with no cage, i decided to park the car and really get to work on it. that was about 8 years ago. originally my plan was to build a nasty stroker small block out of an old W2 head engine from my grandparents' racecar, but i realized that no matter how fast i ran with it, it would still just be pretty quick...for a small block. then i stumbled upon a family friend who owned another shop. in the back of his garage, i saw a dusty old engine on a stand and i asked him about it. he replied, "That engine needs to end up in your Duster". a deal was struck, and he ended up selling me everything Mopar that he had. The engine is a 400 B block with Brodix B1 heads. apparently it came out of a '65 Dodge station wagon in the mid 90's, and supposedly would push the 5000lb wagon to bottom 10's/high 9's just on the motor. he also threw in a Powerglide trans with a 4500 stall, trans brake and reverse manual valvebody. the motor had broken the bell of the trans, but he had a spare case to go with it. i ended up with a lot of parts i didnt need/want and was able to sell to recoup some of my money. Nothing much else happened as i moved to a new house and built a garage/shop to work on everything in. i just turned 30, and a friend sold me a 4-Link rear subframe that he cut out of his abandonded project car for next to nothing, and it sparked motivation to get back to work on my Duster. as spring comes, i plan to really dive back into the car when i can get it out of storage and to my new house. i look forward to sharing the build with everyone!
after all this came the faithful night when a friend wanted me to race his '03 Cobra. i knew his car had run bottom 11's at least, but thought i could hook well enough on the street to get him. My car broke loose for the first time ever on the launch, shot up to 7kRPM and started making a lot of racket from the engine. it turned out a rocker arm adjuster had backed out, and it was just flopping around. i probably couldve just put it back together and kept running it, but seeing as i was already running WELL under the allowed time with no cage, i decided to park the car and really get to work on it. that was about 8 years ago. originally my plan was to build a nasty stroker small block out of an old W2 head engine from my grandparents' racecar, but i realized that no matter how fast i ran with it, it would still just be pretty quick...for a small block. then i stumbled upon a family friend who owned another shop. in the back of his garage, i saw a dusty old engine on a stand and i asked him about it. he replied, "That engine needs to end up in your Duster". a deal was struck, and he ended up selling me everything Mopar that he had. The engine is a 400 B block with Brodix B1 heads. apparently it came out of a '65 Dodge station wagon in the mid 90's, and supposedly would push the 5000lb wagon to bottom 10's/high 9's just on the motor. he also threw in a Powerglide trans with a 4500 stall, trans brake and reverse manual valvebody. the motor had broken the bell of the trans, but he had a spare case to go with it. i ended up with a lot of parts i didnt need/want and was able to sell to recoup some of my money. Nothing much else happened as i moved to a new house and built a garage/shop to work on everything in. i just turned 30, and a friend sold me a 4-Link rear subframe that he cut out of his abandonded project car for next to nothing, and it sparked motivation to get back to work on my Duster. as spring comes, i plan to really dive back into the car when i can get it out of storage and to my new house. i look forward to sharing the build with everyone!
