Unconventional
Well-Known Member
Big blocks are cool, no doubt. A 390 or 410 small block doesn't tip your hand 
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16yrs old, first car advise?!
- Thread starter Larry Brown
- Start date
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As for the money thing. Cars aren't an investment look at new cars people buy $50,000 plus cars everyday an only in a couple of years worth a 3rd. At least your car will never go under a certain value $10,000 -20,000 for good A bodies. An over time slightly increase unlike newer cars.
If your were to lease a new car (throwing away money) it would cost 200-500 dollars a month so at least you get to put that money into car to make it more fun with a lot less loss over time.
If your were to lease a new car (throwing away money) it would cost 200-500 dollars a month so at least you get to put that money into car to make it more fun with a lot less loss over time.
As for power I don't see why every so anti big block but yes a good 360 is all you need.
My car has the 380 hp create which seems to dyno 400 hp plus and all it is basically a stock long block with cam 4bbl and headers pretty basic combo.
Trust makes more than enough power to get your duster moving.
My car has the 380 hp create which seems to dyno 400 hp plus and all it is basically a stock long block with cam 4bbl and headers pretty basic combo.
Trust makes more than enough power to get your duster moving.
Have realistic goals and accept the pitfalls (expenses) of them when dealing with Mopars. I got my 66 when I was 15 and mowed a lot of yards to be able to do anything to it and now I just turned 45 on the 16th, it's almost done enough to trust my youngest with it that's now 16.
Not sure about your driving abilities and such being 16, but learn the cars manners and characteristics because situations go bad FAST if your inexperienced....and you have a great start to a damn nice car!
Not sure about your driving abilities and such being 16, but learn the cars manners and characteristics because situations go bad FAST if your inexperienced....and you have a great start to a damn nice car!
Bigblockdart.com
furyus2
Well-Known Member
It was the last year for push button, and the last year for ball and trunion driveshaft. In 65, they still used the two cable transmission, they made some changes. They went with a slip yoke drive shaft system, and on column shift cars, they went with an adapter for the cable on the steering column in the engine compartment. Console cars still used the same console, and shifter as used in 64. These trans are of interest to guys that want to eliminate the ball and trunion driveshaft, but keep the stock shifting mechanism.
When the computers in everyone else's car fail, you'll be glad for your old Mopar no matter what you paid.
Sweet car by the way!
Jeff
Sweet car by the way!
Jeff
AJ/FormS
68 Formua-S fastback clone 367/A833/GVod/3.55s
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Sell the 383 stuff.
Then, get some 3.91s, an LSD, a 2800TC, a 4bbl, a freeflowing exhaust,and a rev-limiter or some 5500rpm valve springs. Then go have some fun; Zero to 40 mph at lightspeed,lol.
Some of my favorite memories are attached to such a combo.
Then, get some 3.91s, an LSD, a 2800TC, a 4bbl, a freeflowing exhaust,and a rev-limiter or some 5500rpm valve springs. Then go have some fun; Zero to 40 mph at lightspeed,lol.
Some of my favorite memories are attached to such a combo.
Yote
Well-Known Member
My best advice is be careful. You do not gain all the experience or knowledge you need in the first couple of years driving. When I was young, although I may have been a 'better ' driver ( reflexes, vision ,etc ) I did a lot of stupid things. ( lucky to be still alive). Now I am more careful, ( speed , recklessness) I don't think I am now a better driver, just more careful. Use your head, it is not there for an ornament. I am happy for you. I did not get my first car until I was 19.
Yote
Yote
99 out of 100 of us are way upside down value wise in our cars...don't sweat it.
Jeff
Jeff
dano
Evil Handy Man
I've got $13K just into paint and body and the trunk isn't even painted.
If I were you I'd enjoy what you have, take good care of it, and focus on the future of getting a good education that has a career future. Then do as you please as you learn life's lessons.
If I were you I'd enjoy what you have, take good care of it, and focus on the future of getting a good education that has a career future. Then do as you please as you learn life's lessons.
goldfish65
Well-Known Member
Welcome! This is the most helpful Mopar site out there. My advise is enjoy your Duster and like other said, be careful. When I was your age I was not careful and banged my car up. Luckily it was a Ford! Also don't let any of the members comments bother you. Many members here started out on the site as "young guns" just like yourself.
I don't know what's done to your 318 but 4bbl headers and xe262h comp cam is said to make 282 hp @5000 rpm add gears stall,maybe ported heads or EQ's can do a lot.
Top end makes power and bottom end (cid) picks the power band so you can add top end parts that will work with a 360/408 later on.
That's how I plan to do it.
Port my heads then maybe eddy heads then cam down the road and maybe a 408 bottom end not the hugest fan rather big block (love trick flow heads) but is a big cost to get to the same place.
Top end makes power and bottom end (cid) picks the power band so you can add top end parts that will work with a 360/408 later on.
That's how I plan to do it.
Port my heads then maybe eddy heads then cam down the road and maybe a 408 bottom end not the hugest fan rather big block (love trick flow heads) but is a big cost to get to the same place.
NO car is an investment. enjoy your car and learn as yo go. it is fun! ... and be careful, most of "older" people are very lucky to be alive!
Ain't that the truth, I was just kicking myself the other day about not keeping the 68 Barracuda I had.
Join forcbodiesonly. Put it up for sale there. Lots of 64 and below owners. For that matter, join forbbodiesonly as well.
The car look nice. A great first car. As for engine trany setups you can get close to the same HP numbers with a small block as a big block. Difference is which one is cooler. If you don't already have one I would suggest a "beater" car as NJ is not a friendly place to have a nice classic for daily driving.
72Valiant4Door
Trouble Maker
In order of actual importance as long as it runs and drives.
Brakes/ suspension/ electrical/ chassis.
THEN
Rear end, transmission, engine.
If you want to be cool and get laid. Exhaust and stereo is really all you need. You don't need to be the fastest and statistically you never will be.
Big block is more to deal with than it is worth, unless you are building a drag car. Once you chase speed, you will never stop until you or your car is broke. DO NOT SELL IT! You will not make your money back, and you will make a lot more in the future. Get a beater daily driver/ back up. Get lots of photos of the car and you. Do as much of the work yourself as you can.
Brakes/ suspension/ electrical/ chassis.
THEN
Rear end, transmission, engine.
If you want to be cool and get laid. Exhaust and stereo is really all you need. You don't need to be the fastest and statistically you never will be.
Big block is more to deal with than it is worth, unless you are building a drag car. Once you chase speed, you will never stop until you or your car is broke. DO NOT SELL IT! You will not make your money back, and you will make a lot more in the future. Get a beater daily driver/ back up. Get lots of photos of the car and you. Do as much of the work yourself as you can.
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Unconventional
Well-Known Member
"Big block is more to deal with than it is worth, unless you are building a drag car. Once you chase speed, you will never stop until you or your car is broke."
"Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" Told to me by a wise man. The one with timing tags and trophys from El Mirage Dry Lake. The one with the 3/8 x 3/8 flat head Ford with a six pack and the high dollar Eddy heads under the workbench. The same one that brought the SBF back from the company owned engine shop with the 11-1s and the mountainous Crower camshaft to put in the factory 4 speed 66 Ranchero. "There, knock yourself out" he said. The chase was on.
"Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?" Told to me by a wise man. The one with timing tags and trophys from El Mirage Dry Lake. The one with the 3/8 x 3/8 flat head Ford with a six pack and the high dollar Eddy heads under the workbench. The same one that brought the SBF back from the company owned engine shop with the 11-1s and the mountainous Crower camshaft to put in the factory 4 speed 66 Ranchero. "There, knock yourself out" he said. The chase was on.
AJ/FormS
68 Formua-S fastback clone 367/A833/GVod/3.55s
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2014
- Messages
- 25,845
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While it's true that you can get close to BB power with a SBM, you have to give up a lot of things to get it, the biggest of which is low speed torque, which of course many will say is power: rightly so, but at 2000 rpm the more torque the engine makes, the more power it is making; on account of they are intimately linked by the formula. And while giving up torque at low rpm for a dragracer is not an issue, it is a really big deal for a streeter, cuz probably more than 85% of the time, the engine will running in or thru that low-rpm band.
Consider that 3.55s are the go-to rear gear for a streeter. But in an effort to keep up with the BBs a 4.10 might be selected;and most often we are using the 2.45-1.45-1.00 trannys.
There are a number of problems with this set-up;
#1 is; if you have a cam that power-peaks at say 5500 (in an effort to keep up to the big boys), then, with this automatic, it will want to be shifted at 6500 to drop into second at 3800ish. So that's 1000rpm after the power peak to 1700 under the power peak. That is a 2700 rpm powerband requirement.
#2 is;The 4.10s are great for blasting out of the gate with a starter gear of
4.1x2.45=10. but the rest of the time,not so much, and especially horrible on the hiway.
#3 is; the total sogginess of the lower rpm band in getting to where the power is. A big TC is gonna be a requirement; Ok for a dragracer, not so much for a streeter.
#4 is; 4.10s will hit 49ish mph at 6500, and then comes the 59% gear split. .59 x 6500 =3800ish. So the little engine will have to pull itself back up outta that hole on its way to the speed limit, while the BBpowers on by...65mph in second is about 5000 rpm, which is well below the power peak.
So yeah you can make BB power numbers with the SBM, but is it worth it? And will it actually keep up to a BB?
For a streeter IMO the BB power number is not the be-all/end-all. There are just too many sacrifices for me. FOR ME.
I swapped out the 292/292/108 cam and gave up the 11.3 CR, almost as fast as possible.Awesome power at the top, but just not streetable enough for me, a DD/streeter, at the time.
The next cam was a 270/276/110 and I lowered the CR to 10.9. This was an awesome street cam. Mega torque in the lower rpms for a M/T equipped SBM. Mega torque at about 2000 to 4000 is what a streeter needs. Then match that torque to your driving style, with TM, Torque Multiplication. Of course it's easy to overpower a street chassis with too much torque, so the next cam was a 276/286/110 cam, which was a reasonable compromise, giving up some of that low-rpm tire-frying torque, in favor of a little more up top. Then re-gearing it to put the power back where I needed it to be.
See, a streeter has a very narrow window of operation, and we don't need to buck the wind at 100 to 120mph, cuz we never go there.Well almost never.
Power requirement increases as the sq of the speed. That means if you double the speed it takes 2^2 times as much power, or 4 times as much. By limiting ourselves to 60/65 we don't need mega power.
In the zero to 60 mph, traction is everything. Well traction and TM.But if your current combo spins the tires to 50 mph, you have already overpowered the chassis, and until you fix that, additional power is just bragging rights and shows how deep your pockets are.
I mean even a lowCr 318 stock long block with bolt-ons can spin tires most if not all the way thru first gear, with the right TM and a poor chassis.
Teeners are rated at what again? That's right, in 71 it was 230 hp/340 ftlbs
340 ftlbs might suck with 2.76s giving us just 340 x 2.76 x 2.45low=2299peak ft lbs out the axles, and this occuring at about 27 mph. With 4.10s this becomes 340x4.1x2.45=3415 ftlbs, and now at 18mph . This is about the same as a stock 440 with maybe 2.76/2.94s, and we all know what that will do to the tires. So; now you are getting somewhere. Traction and TM. Just my 2cents.
Consider that 3.55s are the go-to rear gear for a streeter. But in an effort to keep up with the BBs a 4.10 might be selected;and most often we are using the 2.45-1.45-1.00 trannys.
There are a number of problems with this set-up;
#1 is; if you have a cam that power-peaks at say 5500 (in an effort to keep up to the big boys), then, with this automatic, it will want to be shifted at 6500 to drop into second at 3800ish. So that's 1000rpm after the power peak to 1700 under the power peak. That is a 2700 rpm powerband requirement.
#2 is;The 4.10s are great for blasting out of the gate with a starter gear of
4.1x2.45=10. but the rest of the time,not so much, and especially horrible on the hiway.
#3 is; the total sogginess of the lower rpm band in getting to where the power is. A big TC is gonna be a requirement; Ok for a dragracer, not so much for a streeter.
#4 is; 4.10s will hit 49ish mph at 6500, and then comes the 59% gear split. .59 x 6500 =3800ish. So the little engine will have to pull itself back up outta that hole on its way to the speed limit, while the BBpowers on by...65mph in second is about 5000 rpm, which is well below the power peak.
So yeah you can make BB power numbers with the SBM, but is it worth it? And will it actually keep up to a BB?
For a streeter IMO the BB power number is not the be-all/end-all. There are just too many sacrifices for me. FOR ME.
I swapped out the 292/292/108 cam and gave up the 11.3 CR, almost as fast as possible.Awesome power at the top, but just not streetable enough for me, a DD/streeter, at the time.
The next cam was a 270/276/110 and I lowered the CR to 10.9. This was an awesome street cam. Mega torque in the lower rpms for a M/T equipped SBM. Mega torque at about 2000 to 4000 is what a streeter needs. Then match that torque to your driving style, with TM, Torque Multiplication. Of course it's easy to overpower a street chassis with too much torque, so the next cam was a 276/286/110 cam, which was a reasonable compromise, giving up some of that low-rpm tire-frying torque, in favor of a little more up top. Then re-gearing it to put the power back where I needed it to be.
See, a streeter has a very narrow window of operation, and we don't need to buck the wind at 100 to 120mph, cuz we never go there.Well almost never.
Power requirement increases as the sq of the speed. That means if you double the speed it takes 2^2 times as much power, or 4 times as much. By limiting ourselves to 60/65 we don't need mega power.
In the zero to 60 mph, traction is everything. Well traction and TM.But if your current combo spins the tires to 50 mph, you have already overpowered the chassis, and until you fix that, additional power is just bragging rights and shows how deep your pockets are.
I mean even a lowCr 318 stock long block with bolt-ons can spin tires most if not all the way thru first gear, with the right TM and a poor chassis.
Teeners are rated at what again? That's right, in 71 it was 230 hp/340 ftlbs
340 ftlbs might suck with 2.76s giving us just 340 x 2.76 x 2.45low=2299peak ft lbs out the axles, and this occuring at about 27 mph. With 4.10s this becomes 340x4.1x2.45=3415 ftlbs, and now at 18mph . This is about the same as a stock 440 with maybe 2.76/2.94s, and we all know what that will do to the tires. So; now you are getting somewhere. Traction and TM. Just my 2cents.
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If this is a budget build, stick with the 318 for now. Start with rear end and gears then headers and exhaust. Stock long block 318 with headers 4bbl and comps xe262h cam is said to make 282 hp good enough for a start. At this point probably build the tranny to handle the next stage in power with stall and shift kit. Now you can't get much more out of the 318 cause of heads so next step would be EQ's or edelbrock. Now you got all the go fast parts now it's time for the bottom end either 318/340/360 or there stroker versions.
Ben Drinkin
Hey bartender!
72Valiant4Door
Trouble Maker
Best advice is work on modern safety and driveability before power or speed.
Obvious hot rodding advice is rear end, then tranny then engine.
Obvious hot rodding advice is rear end, then tranny then engine.
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