1974 Duster

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Joe Mc said:
Gary,

Man! Those are some sweet pictures!!! GREAT JOB!!! Hope that some day next year I can make the statement you made "Perhaps a road test tomorrow night!"

I'm heading off to Gettysburg for a Diesel truck event (a.k.a. Guy weekend:drinkers:) noonish Friday and probably won't be able to access a computer until I get home Sunday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that I'll have some solid floors soon.:toothy10:
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Have fun at Fall Brawl Joe. I'm not sure if i'll be ther or not.


John
 
Installed half of the 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust system, polished a Daytona Shelby stainless exhaust tip and installed, replaced the calipers and pads, adjusted the rear brakes, bled out the whole system with fresh Mopar brake fluid, replaced the rear u-joint (sloppy), replaced the dome lamp, installed the rest of the seat belts after cleaning.

Nice long road test tonight, the brakes still do a slight right-left jog when the brakes are applied but much less so than before..

I'll dig around more after the pads have bedded in a bit.

Might need a driveshaft, there is a dent in the middle and it vibrates slightly around 40 mph. I could balance it but I'm picky. Might have one in the shed, have to dig around a bit this weekend.

Anyone going to the Valley for the Mopar event next weekend? I'm planning on being there.
 
j-miller said:
Have fun at Fall Brawl Joe. I'm not sure if i'll be ther or not.


John
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Do you have a diesel too? Did you make it? I was there Sat & till about 1 on Sun, good turn out on Saturday, Sunday was not too bad either. One of the guys that went with us blew a head gasket Saturday, didn't even get on the dyno - just screwing around "testing out the new turbo" he recently installed. Oh well, he'll just have to get the head studded now :cheers:, I think he should go back to a waste-gated turbo . . .
 
Joe Mc said:
Do you have a diesel too? Did you make it? I was there Sat & till about 1 on Sun, good turn out on Saturday, Sunday was not too bad either. One of the guys that went with us blew a head gasket Saturday, didn't even get on the dyno - just screwing around "testing out the new turbo" he recently installed. Oh well, he'll just have to get the head studded now :cheers:, I think he should go back to a waste-gated turbo . . .
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Joe, I didn't go to Fall Brawl. Glad it was a good weekend for ya's. I got 3 Cummins trucks,2 3500's and a 1971 CN-800 with a V-8 Cummins. Also i've been a MDTDC member for a while.

John
 
j-miller said:
Joe, I didn't go to Fall Brawl. Glad it was a good weekend for ya's. I got 3 Cummins trucks,2 3500's and a 1971 CN-800 with a V-8 Cummins. Also i've been a MDTDC member for a while.

John
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John,

Maybe you can make the Spring Fling. I was an MDTDC member too, but there never seemed to be much new on the site so I didn't renew. Are you a TDR (Turbo Diesel Register) member? That has been a very valuable site to me and many.

The guy who build my DTT trans, Tim Barber of, TRE Diesel Performance VA Beach had his 3rd gen there and turned a 1049 HP and maxed the dynos TQ rating of 1200, he blew off a boost hose that took our some wiring for the non-essential 2nd CP-3 pump so he didn't hurt anything. I think he won the high HP award for the weekend but I haven't seen the reports on the TDR yet.

Opps, really killing this thread w/non-Abody stuff, but it's still MoPars - will stop now.
 
Joe Mc said:
John,

Maybe you can make the Spring Fling. I was an MDTDC member too, but there never seemed to be much new on the site so I didn't renew. Are you a TDR (Turbo Diesel Register) member? That has been a very valuable site to me and many.

The guy who build my DTT trans, Tim Barber of, TRE Diesel Performance VA Beach had his 3rd gen there and turned a 1049 HP and maxed the dynos TQ rating of 1200, he blew off a boost hose that took our some wiring for the non-essential 2nd CP-3 pump so he didn't hurt anything. I think he won the high HP award for the weekend but I haven't seen the reports on the TDR yet.

Opps, really killing this thread w/non-Abody stuff, but it's still MoPars - will stop now.
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I was TDR member for almost 13 year and will be dropping that membership and also the MDTDC which I too probably won't renew. Just losing interest with the trucks at the time and dedicating more time to my cars.
Sorry for hi-jacking the thread.


John
 
Anyway!!Gdohnavan are you putting any stripes,hood scoop,callouts on the car?Not that she doesn,t look fine this way.Have you considered??
 
pettybludart said:
Anyway!!Gdohnavan are you putting any stripes,hood scoop,callouts on the car?Not that she doesn,t look fine this way.Have you considered??
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No scoop but I am considering side stripes when the paint is fully cured.

Just a note- The front tires are 205-60-15's and the rears are 245-60-15's on 15 x 7 Summit rims.

I had planned on running 255's on the rear but everyone was out of stock.
 
I'm going to try and balance the driveshaft tonight, it's bent and vibrates bad at 75 mph. This weekend I'll root around and look for that replacement.
 
sublime green said:
Your really moving along fast, i cant wait till we get ours that color.
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Did some tuning tonight- The car has run "odd" since day one I picked it up with a very slight skip at idle and break up at WOT toward the top of the RPM range.

I pulled off the top of the carb and blew everything out, changed the vacuum lines, tossed out the AC Delco plugs for the proper RN12YC's, replaced the fuel filter and replaced the cap with a genuine Mopar cap from my stash.

While I had the cap off I noticed the following (see picture) a new rotor was popped in.

For good measure I installed a Mopar orange box ignition, the car screams now. Amazing it ran at all.

DSCN2629.jpg
 
Swapped out the driveshaft with one from out in the barn, buttery smooth now.
 
Replaced a defective backup light switch, cracked washer nozzle tee (thank God for Ebay, $4) and new parking lamp pigtale. Cleaned up the trunk area and installed the jack and spare tire along with the carpet pieces.

Car is getting to be rather pleasent to drive now that the tune up is done and the driveshaft has been replaced.
 
Anyone ever use carpet padding as sound deadener in a trunk?
 
gdonovan said:
Anyone ever use carpet padding as sound deadener in a trunk?
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Never used carpet padding as sound deadener? It might work, but would probably be a sponge for moisture = dreaded rust. I've heard some folks using the roller applied truck bed liner stuff, they say it deadens sound and also protects the heck out of the panels.

Did the other car (one I was interested in the floors on) ever go, or do you still have it?:?:
 
Joe Mc said:
Did the other car (one I was interested in the floors on) ever go, or do you still have it?:?:
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Supposed to leave Friday night.

Installed the windshield trim (after polishing) and the drivers rain gutter trim tonight, looking good!
 
gdonovan said:
Supposed to leave Friday night.

Installed the windshield trim (after polishing) and the drivers rain gutter trim tonight, looking good!
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Thanks for letting me know.

Were you able to get new window trim and rain gutters, or were they from donor car? Mine are spent and/or lost . . .
 
Were the original pieces off my car, just needed cleaning.
 
Have steel plates on the car!

I think I'm going to install a 5.2 magnum engine with a 44RE this winter, EFI and overdrive would be sweet.
 
sublime green said:
Ya, that would be cool, hope you do that.
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I have a chassis to take everything from with low miles and I really like fuel injection.

Going from a 150 hp carbed 318 to 230 hp EFI will be entertaining, and that's a low hp number considering the Magnum engine won't have cats anymore and some other tweaks ;-)
 
I need to do the numbers this weeked between freshening up the current 318/904 combo vs selling the chassis with the 5.2/44RE.

I'm thinking the cost of a rebuilt kit, cam, intake, carb kit (I have a few carbs about) etc. is going to outweigh what I can get for the chassis for sale. The only issue I have with the Magnum drivetrain is figuring out how to drive the speedo. The 44RE has no speed drive! Otherwise I would graft the 9.25 into the Duster and install the Durango cluster into the Duster dash which would be pretty cool. If I did that I could even install the Durango's RWD ABS.

If I could find a way to drive the original Duster speedo I think that would be the way to go.
 
Looks like classic manifolds will not work with the magnum engines due to port mismatch, questions-

1) does anyone make a-body magnum headers?

2) are all magnum manifolds the same configuration? jeep vs truck/durango.
 
Picked up a Magnum 360 from a 1996 Van this weekend.

The Dart Sport is gone, it is in western PA now!
 
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