1969 Barracuda 340 Formula S Restoration

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I'm very interested in the Sniper setup as well! I will be following your progress closely. Here's the intake I'm considering as I have it on a shelf in the garage. Really good performance with a 750 holly on the 340 I was using. I think the Sniper setup would adapt well and give me plenty of hood to air cleaner clearance as well.

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A half inch spacer with the larger hole size would make the throttle plates clear the stock manifold. I did that back in the day to run a larger carb.
 
AAndrews said:
Looks exactly like the harness I purchased. Look at the red and Black wires on the bottom with the brass connectors. I re-did those by soldering and using double wall heat shrink. Just didn't feel confident enough that they wouldn't pull out when reinstalling the harness with all the movement it takes to put everything back in place.
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Surprise - they were already soldered by M&H!!
 
AAndrews said:
I'm very interested in the Sniper setup as well! I will be following your progress closely. Here's the intake I'm considering as I have it on a shelf in the garage. Really good performance with a 750 holly on the 340 I was using. I think the Sniper setup would adapt well and give me plenty of hood to air cleaner clearance as well.
Click to expand...
The LD340 is a very good manifold to use. The centre divider is cut down which seems to be better for the Sniper. I'll have to keep my eye open for one of these.

Adding a spacer on my stock manifold would work, but my hood clearance is very tight because I've got the stock hood insulation pad.
 
RealWing said:
Surprise - they were already soldered by M&H!![/QU

Ya, the terminal is soldered but, when the heat of the soldering iron was applied, I think it shrank the insulation. That's why the wire is exposed at the end of the terminal. I cut the wiring back about an inch from the terminal , ran a piece of heatshrink over the wire, resoldered it and then covered it with the double wall heatshrink. Worked great and I don't have to worry about it shorting against anything. Also gives great support where the wire and terminal are connected.
BTW, I also put heatshrink over the outside of each of the connectors underneath all those ganged-up terminals. When you put the white plastic cover back on the fuse box, you have to compress everything to get it to fit. This just added a little insurance against shorts.
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qkcuda said:
A half inch spacer with the larger hole size would make the throttle plates clear the stock manifold. I did that back in the day to run a larger carb.
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Hey qkcuda, Realwing beat me to it! Hood clearance becomes a problem with a spacer although the Mancini drop base should fix that problem.
 
RealWing said:
I've been considering adding TBI fuel injection for better driveability and was leaning towards the Holley Sniper after doing some research. However, I wasn't sure how it would fit on a 340. As luck would have it, a local machinist mentioned he had recently purchased one but had not installed it yet!!! I got it to do some checks.
The stock air cleaner base fits with lots of clearance
The throttle linkage always seems to be a problem when interfacing with a Mopar. The position of the throttle stud is critical to both the throttle and tranny linkage. After doing a bunch of measurements, it is clear that the linkage arm will need modification. (I could not find a Mopar adapter for the Sniper) The existing hole in the throttle bracket (see arrow in photo) is not far enough from the shaft CL and thus does not have enough throw from closed to WOT. Probably will need a homemade bracket.
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Hey Realwing, do you have a pic of the sensors that go into the exhaust? I'm curious as how to install them.

Thanks.
 
All my packages of parts got delivered OK to the US - EXCEPT for my steering wheel!! It has apparently been stuck in a mail sorting centre in Chicago (USORDA) since March 17th. Seems like packages can get trapped here for weeks due to high volumes and slow processing. Just hope no one took a fancy to my steering wheel!!
 
Got my seatbelts back from Bill Edwards after restoration - complete with date coded labels.
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Got a repro rear decklid trim panel from AMD. Looks very good, except the shade of the red seems a little too dark

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RealWing said:
Got a repro rear decklid trim panel from AMD. Looks very good, except the shade of the red seems a little too dark

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Just my opinion:

I have one hanging on the wall of my garage that looks just like yours.. I'm willing to bet that the original one is just faded out with years of washing/waxing/ ultraviolet exposure etc.... Wait until you put it on with the taillights and you will see that the panel flows much better with the darker color.

It is 50 years old after all!!

Seatbelts look factory original!! Great work!!
 
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AAndrews said:
Just my opinion:

I have one hanging on the wall of my garage that looks just like yours.. I'm willing to bet that the original one is just faded out with years of washing/waxing/ ultraviolet exposure etc.... Wait until you put it on with the taillights and you will see that the panel flows much better with the darker color.

It is 50 years old after all!!

Seatbelts look factory original!! Great work!!
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Probably right about being faded!!!
 
I pulled the alternator off the engine to check it before taking it to Dixie Restorations. Found it is completely the wrong one!!! It is a 1966 alternator 2098830 which is a standard 35 amp.
I instead need a 46 amp 2098850 (preferably date coded in the latter half of 1968). If anyone has one, I'm interested!!!
Jim
 
Stripped the engine this week. It is a numbers matching engine. It was last overhauled in 2009, so this was just a refresh. Only problem found was 2 cam lifters were not rotating and had a groove worn in them. Not concerned because I was going to change the cam anyway. It was a MP purple shaft and didnt have as much low end as I wanted for a street cruiser. Probably will get a Hughes cam.
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The correct factory finish is a dark black/brown zinc finish. You could try to duplicate by painting it with a Zinc Phosphate and then lightly fogging with a dark brown paint. I did this on my convertible and it turned out pretty good. Experiment on a piece of metal first.
 
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After I got the engine stripped, I cc'd the heads etc to get the compression ratio. Turned out to be only 8.7:1 so with the purple shaft Mopar cam that explains why it didn't have much low end torque. I've corresponded with Hughes about one of their cams. They recommended a SEH2832AL-10 assuming I could get the CR up to 9.5. I ran this through my software engine "dyno" (Engine Analyzer from Performance Trends) and it seemed too radical for what I was after. (I'm looking primarily for a good street cruiser running stock CI exhaust manifolds, 3.23 gears and stock TC)
I ran these through my dyno. Hughes recommended abt 9.25 CR for these.
SEH2428AL-11
SEH2226AL-10
SEH2024AL-11
Haven't made a final decision yet but the 2226AL sounds about right
Use: Hot street, works well with performance heads and high flow throttle body/carb, upgraded injectors
Idle: Noticeable
Vacuum: Fairly High
Converter: Stock to mild stall
Rear gear: 3.00 to 3.55
Benefits: Good idle, resto/cruiser, hot daily driver

With different head gasket thicknesses (Cometic) and by using a nail head intake valve (as opposed to the dished tulip intakes now in the engine) I can get CR's between 8.7 and 9.7
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That should be plenty of cam Jim. I used a 222/234 Crane in my stock 400 and it was a nice street cam. You could probably go down one step to the SEH2024AL-11 and still be happy.
 
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