'68 Barracuda Formula S Fastback Restoration
Continuing on (This time typed correctly!)
After 2 moves (to Tulsa for 8 years, then to Denver area in 2007), I got the Cuda reliably on the road. But not really running well. The engine didn't idle smoothly and didn't have a lot of power. The trans lost 1st/reverse due to a broken servo and tosted the rear band. I rebuilt the trans but it shifted way too early. Would bark tires in 2nd, but was sluggish when shifted automatically even though throttle position rod was adjusted correctly. Must be tailshaft governor as this trans came from a van. Then I determined that the valve job done during rebuilding the 340 was terrible. Compression was low in the 100 to 125 PSI range (although at 5800 feed altitude!), but I built a leakdown tester and found that 5 values were leaking, both intake and exhaust. Trip to the machine shop and reinstallation, but leakdown showed that 3 values were still leaking. 2nd time a charm as a different person did the valve job this time. But these problems made me want to use one of the other 340's so I got Edelbrock heads and freshened up a 20 year old build of my spare 340. Parly in a quest to save weight and partly for performance. A dyno run of the 340 that was in the Cuda show 320 HP at the wheels (altitude corrected), so I know the second 340 would perform as well. This one has a DC 280/0.480 cam similar to the '68 340 4sp cam.
The photo below is how the car looked before I committed to do the body work and paint. This was taken in 2019 on Ridge Road near Castle Rock, CO. The rims are Weld ProStar 15x7 front and 15x8 rear with 235-60x15 BFG's and 255-60 BFG's front and rear. The *** is too high as I went with Mopar Perf road race rear springs with 1" lift thinking I needed tire clearance. Need to rectify that later which I will detail in the future.
This is how the car looked before sending it to AMD for quarter panels and rear valance replacement.
![20190907_135550[1].jpg](https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/20190907_135550-1-jpg.1716068523/ "20190907_135550[1].jpg")
Continuing on (This time typed correctly!)
After 2 moves (to Tulsa for 8 years, then to Denver area in 2007), I got the Cuda reliably on the road. But not really running well. The engine didn't idle smoothly and didn't have a lot of power. The trans lost 1st/reverse due to a broken servo and tosted the rear band. I rebuilt the trans but it shifted way too early. Would bark tires in 2nd, but was sluggish when shifted automatically even though throttle position rod was adjusted correctly. Must be tailshaft governor as this trans came from a van. Then I determined that the valve job done during rebuilding the 340 was terrible. Compression was low in the 100 to 125 PSI range (although at 5800 feed altitude!), but I built a leakdown tester and found that 5 values were leaking, both intake and exhaust. Trip to the machine shop and reinstallation, but leakdown showed that 3 values were still leaking. 2nd time a charm as a different person did the valve job this time. But these problems made me want to use one of the other 340's so I got Edelbrock heads and freshened up a 20 year old build of my spare 340. Parly in a quest to save weight and partly for performance. A dyno run of the 340 that was in the Cuda show 320 HP at the wheels (altitude corrected), so I know the second 340 would perform as well. This one has a DC 280/0.480 cam similar to the '68 340 4sp cam.
The photo below is how the car looked before I committed to do the body work and paint. This was taken in 2019 on Ridge Road near Castle Rock, CO. The rims are Weld ProStar 15x7 front and 15x8 rear with 235-60x15 BFG's and 255-60 BFG's front and rear. The *** is too high as I went with Mopar Perf road race rear springs with 1" lift thinking I needed tire clearance. Need to rectify that later which I will detail in the future.
This is how the car looked before sending it to AMD for quarter panels and rear valance replacement.