3.5 swap?

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You're right the interior looks fantastic for a 40+ year old car. Door panels look really good, the only thing you have to worry about is if you sit on the seat a lot will it crack? I got a set of used seats that were pretty mint, once my 225 Lbs sat on them a few times they began to crack simply from being dried out.

The nice thing, you probably won't have to replace the rear seat, since it will see so little use. Unless you and your significant other climb back there to break it in. Dash is the roughest part, but even that's a lot better than most cars of the same vintage.

You've got yourself a nice survivor. I think your idea of a nice little V-6 is looking better and better, you'll end up with a real nice peppy driver.

Regards,

Joe Dokes
 
Well Joe I was thinking since I won't be driving this car for likely a month or two, maybe I'll buy some high quality leather conditioner or something of the like. Try ad get some moisture back into the material so hopefully cracking won't happen.

Tossed my 06 charger rear setup under my 68 today half for storage half for checking the fit. I think I can get away with cutting out about 2" a side to make the rear fit perfectly in the car. I'll take pictures this weekend. The biggest thig I noticed today is that the pinion is offset quite a bit on the diff in the lx cars, will have to check how much different it is then the factory dart diff.

I believe I will just put the charger brakes and irs in the dart not sure on a master cylinder yet. The car needs a new one anyways and some new brake lines. brake lines are easy enough I have the brake lines from the charger calipers from the frame to the calipers. Since my parts and my car are about an hour apart I'll start setting things up for a mock up in my 68 and see how things look
 
Good luck cutting the IRS down. It's hard to tell from the pics but it looks like sectioning the subframe may be your best bet. Thus keeping all the stock arms and geometry. Obviously, you'll need to shorten the half shafts.

Take lots of pics, I am putting a 6.1L Hemi into my '67 Dart, I had been planning to use either an 8 3/4 or a Ford 8.8. Either way, I'm going to have at least 1000.00 in the rear. If I could simply section a rear out of a Charger I'd gain disc brakes and something unusual.

Hmmmm,

got me thinkin', always dangerous.

Regards,

Joe Dokes
 
I'll take some pictures tonight I think. I'll try and pull the rear suspension out of my 68 and mock the rear up in there I have a 17" steel wheel from a charger to help mock up.
 
So I've had alot of time to mull this car over while gathering parts and pieces. And I've been thinking alot about the engine fitting into the engine compartment. The 3.5 just like the lx 5.7/6.1 is a front sump engine and unlike the 5.7 there really isn't any aftermarket support. I could modify the oil pan but it's aluminum and I'm not able to do that kind of welding.

I have a rack from a lx charger that I would really like to use in my dart so this way modifying my k member I can build some mounts for the steering gear.

Anyways I was just thinking about cutting the center out of a kmember I have around here and building a tube section to clear the oil pan of the 3.5(and maybe a 6.1 someday down the road :D)

so basically the stock k member:
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and my idea:
KMEMBER.jpg

So the blue is spindles, green is tie rods, red is the steering rack, and the black is the area that would be modified.
 
Get to cuttin' and weldin'!!
 
b5demon said:
Yes plenty I am a tech at a dodge dealer we are currently doing the fourth one now and the cylinder heads are on back order so it is deffinately an issue
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Well I have a 2011 Caravan as a company car. It has the 3.6 and when I start it sometimes you can hear the lifters chattering for a couple of seconds. The van only has 18,000 miles on it, I hope it's not a related problem to what you're talking about. I guess I shouldn't worry about it because it is a company car and I'll only have it a couple of years. Anyway I do love the vehicle and the power is AWESOME!
 
If that brace is drawn close to scale, I think it will be too weak. I like the plan though. It will be cool if you pull it al together.
 
StrokerScamp said:
If that brace is drawn close to scale, I think it will be too weak. I like the plan though. It will be cool if you pull it al together.
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Definitely not to scale just off the top of my head kinda thing. What do you suggest?
 
4dr4ever said:
Definitely not to scale just off the top of my head kinda thing. What do you suggest?
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I would have to know the size and shape of anything that was gonna hang in that area first. I think it's a cool idea...and the right size stock would be strong enough the way you have it laid out. Maybe look at the charger under chassis as a guide to go by.....hell, you might even could frankenstein the two together....IF they are made that way. But I am unfamiliar with them.
 
Also a dodge tech, would not touch the new 3.6, atleast not for now. making the cat and manifold all part of the head doesn't sit well. I wonder what's making those valves so hot ! Thinking about doing a '70 dart with a 3.8L setup out of a Wrangler for the wife ! Although could probably just do a 5.7 for not much more ! ..
 
StrokerScamp said:
I would have to know the size and shape of anything that was gonna hang in that area first. I think it's a cool idea...and the right size stock would be strong enough the way you have it laid out. Maybe look at the charger under chassis as a guide to go by.....hell, you might even could frankenstein the two together....IF they are made that way. But I am unfamiliar with them.
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b42bdd87.jpg

Crappy picture but that's the crossmember out of a lx car. The steering rack sits in the back of the crossmember. One could Frankenstein the two together I guess
 
Dont know! What do you have? I think its a hub, so what was done to it?
 
Well since my car is getting an fmj disc spindle swap I started with a set of spindles and rotors. as you can see from the picture the rotor is well used and I found out that it was actually warped which made for difficulty machining it.
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So I chucked it in my friends lathe, covered the ways and ground the disc portion off
d9054fce.jpg


So Machined it to accept the charger wheel speed sensors off the fronts. and turned it into a hub. So I uses the factory charger wheel studs and sensors. uses the factory fmj wheel bearings. and has the 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern.

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and as you can see in these last 3 pictures I have placed the factory charger 12.5" disc brake on the hub and will be building a mount to use the factory charger brake caliper.
a0c1bdb0.jpg

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That is friggin' bitchin'!!!!!! I want to see more. I dig the idea of using factory stuff by using some thought and getting to it. Again, very nice!!
 
5.7 hemi said:
That is friggin' bitchin'!!!!!! I want to see more. I dig the idea of using factory stuff by using some thought and getting to it. Again, very nice!!
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thanks man, this is been one of the things keeping me up at night and I really like how it should work. AND If I can get this to work I will do up a detailed list of what I did and how it can be emulated to anyones classic mopar. If it will work the way I want.(this exact plan can be duplicated to a 8 3/4 rear axle by simply adding the same speed sensor to your axles with a speed sensor locked inside the drum. But for my car I'm going to be running the irs out of a charger.
 
I am surprised with you running the IRS that you didn't decide just to modify the front k-frame from the Charger and run the stock front suspension. (not that it would have been easier)

Either way, looking good, hope it works when you are all finished up.
 
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