Over 10 years ago when I first began my Duster project I scored a rebuilt 74 dated 318 with a stock bottom, stock heads with a 1.88&1.6 valve job. The lifters and rockers are stock Chrysler parts. Camshaft is unknown however the lift measures just shy of .480 This motor was intended for another persons project. The guy who was supposed to use it wound up having marriage problems and had to sell the car and engine. It was never fired.
Someone bought the project car but wanted a big block so he had a speed shop build an engine and that speed shop pulled
The 318 and listed it for sale. I wore the guy down and bought it for $300.00!
My Duster project was super low budget so when it was time to drop in the motor, in it went. It runs nice and makes nice power and is fun to drive.
Recently the car developed a stumble that was never there when accelerating from a stop so I figured it was time to get the car in the hands of classic car shop to try to shake out the last few bugs.
I am running an Edelbrock Performer intake with an Edelbrock 1406 carb. Ignition is an MSD AL6 box and a Chrysler electronic ignition distributor reproduction that I bought from Classic Industries.
Exhaust is 340 factory manifolds with 2-1/2” dual pipes with an H pipe and Borla proXS mufflers.
Transmission is a stock 904 with a Transgo Shift Kit. 8-1/4 suregrip rear with 3.55 gears.
I saw others on the forum talking about slop in the repop distributors from Classic Industries, so I bought a nice billet electronic ignition distributor from Summit Racing. I also got the MSD matching coil for my MSD box and had the mechanic swap those in.
He said the car had way too much timing and he was worried that with that much timing the motor could destroy a bearing. so he set it up with only using the mechanical advance with 14*’initial and 36* total.
The car runs great and is very well behaved with no stumbles, however the car used to be able to torch the tires from a stop and give a strong chirp as it shifted into 2nd. Well that’s gone now.
The converter in the car is a stock Chrysler “high stall” unit.
The mechanic thinks I need a higher stall converter and that’s all well and fine but we don’t really know all the details of the cam. The guy who sold me the motor told me back then that he thinks the cam is a reproduction of what Chrysler was putting in the 70 340 cars with an automatic.
Short of dismantling the motor to determine what cam I have, are there any gurus that can help me navigate the unknown and regain my ability to destroy my tires?
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