69 Dart

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junior636

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
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Location
Grand Rapids, MI
I purchased this car back in 2009 from my brother. Car has been in the family since the late 80's when my dad purchased it as his street/strip car. He had a fully restored 72 challenger 340 4 speed and this car was always pretty much just a race car. It was a nice enough car to cruise around but it was pretty worn out when I got and it got worse as I dug into it. Some people were upset that I cut up an original 340 4 speed car but it was already cut and hacked long before even my dad owned it. I could never get the car finished and had traded it off, after 5 years of not owning it, the guy i traded to sold it back to me and I am just about done with it and it will be firing up here very soon for the first time in 15 years.... Should be cool to bring my son to the track with me just like I used to go to the track with my dad with this same car! It had a 360 with nitrous when I got it. Lots of pictures to look through but i mini tubbed the car and built an 8.50 cage in it. Put ladder bar rear suspension in, gerst front end. It has a built Ford 8.8, 12" wheel with 325-50-15s, I replaced the inner fenders in the engine bay as they were cut out for frame rails headers. I had originally planned on this thing being much faster so it's a little over built for the 512 big block it has now. I've pretty much had the car down to a shell and replaced every nut and bolt in the car. I can't believe I'm actually going to drive this thing this year. Here's a before and after shot from before I traded it off. I'll add a bunch more pictures after this.

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Lots of years of switching between motor combos and building my own front suspension. Lots of wasted time. Once i got it back I've used everything i possibly could just to try and get it going again. No more being distracted, I'm not rich and can't afford to go fast lol.
 
512 (440) with trick flow 240 heads and intake, scat forged rotating assembly, hydraulic roller howards cam, 727 with reverse pattern manual valve body, billet drum, bolt in sprag and some other good stuff (I'm not a trans guy) 501 performance custom convertor. Should run pretty good, probably be in the 10's somewhere i think. Cars all steel other than the hood.
 
Awesome build!! I have a ton of questions if you don't mind.

1. What are the cam specs?
2. How big is that fuel cell?
3. Do you have anymore photos of the electric stuff? Is it an aftermarket fuse panel?
4. How'd you mount the plate that the electrical is mounted on? Bolts through the firewall? Do you have any photos of that?
5. What size wheels and front tires? Love the wheels btw.
 

Awesome build!! I have a ton of questions if you don't mind.

1. What are the cam specs?
2. How big is that fuel cell?
3. Do you have anymore photos of the electric stuff? Is it an aftermarket fuse panel?
4. How'd you mount the plate that the electrical is mounted on? Bolts through the firewall? Do you have any photos of that?
5. What size wheels and front tires? Love the wheels btw.
Figures, first question is one I can't answer lol. So this engine came back to me with the car and he had it built right when we had traded. He couldn't find the specs for the cam, all he could remember was that he went one size "smaller" than what was sold with the trick flow package. I'm really bad about tearing things apart and going down a rabbit hole of trying to make them better so I didn't even look to see what it was. I'm only focused on getting it going lol.

20 gallon fuel cell

I just finished wiring the whole car, honestly I got a little lazy towards the end. But I can take pics something if you want see? Wiring isn't my strong suite. It is just a generic painless kit.

I used 1/4-20 stainless screws and there's spacers between the firewall and the panel.

The front tires are 25x4.5-15. I'd like to get some 165 80 15 for it, i don't love the et street front runners.
 
did it almost get a turbo'd gen 3 hemi then?
neil.
Yes it was pretty much done other than wiring. We had a bought a new house that was and still is a fixer upper. I was overwhelmed at the time and sold off all the drive train and traded the roller for a car that ran. I love turbo stuff but after trying to build a few of them, I've given up on ever having one. I had no idea how to wire up a fuel injected, turbo car. I'm sure i could figure it out but with house projects, a side business, full time job and small kids, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to car projects these days. I paid for my wife and kids to go to a water park for 3 days so I could focus on getting this one wired up lol.
 
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Lots of little things I'd like to change but again, I'm trying not to get side tracked. I'd like to change the Guage set up, i didn't do that and I don't like the white face gauges. I'd like to put a hemi scoop hood back on it. Has all brand new interior, was tough getting the bench seat to fit in between the rocker bars in the cage. I had to "persuade" the seat frame a little and move the hinge point on the seat.

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Yes it was pretty much done other than wiring. We had a bought a new house that was and still is a fixer upper. I was overwhelmed at the time and sold off all the drive train and traded the roller for a car that ran. I love turbo stuff but after trying to build a few of them, I've given up on ever having one. I had no idea how to wire up a fuel injected, turbo car. I'm sure i could figure it out but with house projects, a side business, full time job and small kids, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to car projects these days. I paid for my wife and kids to go to a water park for 3 days so I could focus on getting this one wired up lol.
have you not considered a blow thru carb setup? apart from the lack of wiring you also don't normally need an intercooler so much simpler. or..... one of those 4 barrel throttle body type aftermarket self learning efi setups to again be blow thru?
neil.
 
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