70 Duster 5.7 Hemi/46RH

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moparmaniacduster

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Hey all, been lurking on the boards for a bit, figured I'd post up what I've been working on for the past year. My wife and I had our first child this year (boy) so progress was put on hold for a while.

Just planning on a mild street/strip car. Not tubbing it, caging it, etc., just building something I can have fun with at the strip and still be able to cruise to work in it on the highway. Biggest driver for me is I want something I can take my son to car shows with in the future, as that's how the Mopar bug bit me when I was young. Hence the reason for no cage or going crazy. My father has a 70 Challenger 426 Hemi, and his other friends have Mopars as well so I grew up around them.

1970 Plymouth Duster (originally slant 6 car / 904).

2003 Ram 5.7 Hemi
- Planning on mild cam (comp cams 273H-14) with upgraded springs/pushrods
- Schumacher Headers
- Milodon 31000 oil pan
- Champion Radiator CC374 (26")
- Stock intake, heads, truck accessories, etc.

1992 Ramcharger 46RH
- Rebuild
- Probably 3500 stall

8.75 Rear End
- 489 case, 4.10s, sure-grip

Found two cars for $1800 locally, and started working with the one that I thought was in better shape. The gray one had completely rotted frame rails and needed quarters, floor, inner fenders just like the blue one which happened to have good frame rails (at least I thought). Ended up having to patch the drivers side front rail.

Working on uploading pictures...
 
Pictures...

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diymirage said:
looks like you got a plan there

nice
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Thanks! Trying to plan it out haha.

Considering I'm from the rust belt, of course a large part of this project has been replacing/fixing the rust and rotted out areas of the car. That's why most of the pictures involve that haha.

Rusted/rotted areas left to fix:
- Quarters, trunk gutter, and floor extensions
- Rockers
- Inner A pillar on passenger side
- Drivers side door jamb
- Patch two more small areas on the firewall (should have just replaced the whole firewall at this point haha...)

I've got the motor mocked up in the engine bay and transmission propped up by a jackstand. Driveline angle is currently at about 4º without cutting into the floor at all, although I removed the center section of the torsion bar crossmember (no pics yet). I will more than likely reinforce that area this coming weekend and start building a new crossmember/trans mount.

You can also see above, that it looks like the centerlink will get in the way of the oil pan on full right turn. That is with the stock 70 linkage. I'm going to get the 73+ linkage since I bought the Borgeson box with the larger sector shaft anyway. Hopefully without the big dip in the centerlink I'll have just a bit more clearance for the pan.
 
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Very nice.I will be watching this,I have a 73 Duster with /6 3 speed in floor that I plan on putting in 5.7 and dakota 5 speed.................................Keep up the good work and Ill be watching for troubles I might have.....................................................................Jeff
 
Looks nice. I have a 70 duster that I am slowly rebuilding as well. Mine will be a 340 4 speed car. Those kids will slow you down, but are worth every minute of it!! Wait until the second one comes along! I am finally getting back to working on mine again!!
 
Wow, nice work so far. I'm impressed with your workmanship, but curious why you guys don't buy some of the rust free cars available out here on the west coast and have them shipped back. Seems like it would be cheaper in the end. They are all over the place out here.

That beautiful new floor pan is going to need some cutting to fit that huge 46RH. Have you considered switching to a 200R4 instead? It bolts right up to the Gen3's, is smaller in size (so the floor remains stock), takes less power to spin and can be built to hold over 1000hp. Just something to think about.
 
moparmaniacduster said:
You can also see above, that it looks like the centerlink will get in the way of the oil pan on full right turn. That is with the stock 70 linkage. I'm going to get the 73+ linkage since I bought the Borgeson box with the larger sector shaft anyway. Hopefully without the big dip in the centerlink I'll have just a bit more clearance for the pan.
Click to expand...

That was my main concern about Milodon pan. Even though I have c-body, std. big block oil pan for those (as well as a-body) has a cutout for the idler arm in full right turn. I did not want to mess with steering link so I made my own pan - I combined hemi and big block oil pans, retaining the cutout. Now there is no interference, it holds 7.5 quarts (with oil filter) and it is not sticking out lower than stub-frame.
 
tiltsix said:
Very nice.I will be watching this,I have a 73 Duster with /6 3 speed in floor that I plan on putting in 5.7 and dakota 5 speed.................................Keep up the good work and Ill be watching for troubles I might have.....................................................................Jeff
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Thanks! Hopefully I won't have too many issues...

pauly said:
Looks nice. I have a 70 duster that I am slowly rebuilding as well. Mine will be a 340 4 speed car. Those kids will slow you down, but are worth every minute of it!! Wait until the second one comes along! I am finally getting back to working on mine again!!
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Having a kid is the best thing that's ever happened to me! I love the little guy. Can't help but smile every time we hang out.

jbc426 said:
Wow, nice work so far. I'm impressed with your workmanship, but curious why you guys don't buy some of the rust free cars available out here on the west coast and have them shipped back. Seems like it would be cheaper in the end. They are all over the place out here.

That beautiful new floor pan is going to need some cutting to fit that huge 46RH. Have you considered switching to a 200R4 instead? It bolts right up to the Gen3's, is smaller in size (so the floor remains stock), takes less power to spin and can be built to hold over 1000hp. Just something to think about.
Click to expand...

Yeah I probably should have done that at this point haha. Time is really the main driving factor in going to look at a car out west or something, and I don't think I could really commit to buying a car sight unseen.

So far no cutting needed and the driveline is at 4º down like I said in my previous post. Might need some minor hammering to clear some of the linkage, but I haven't looked too close yet.

383Scampman said:
Nice build , if you need a hand I'm right up the road in Tilton . Later, Tom
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Thanks Tom!

superfragl said:
That was my main concern about Milodon pan. Even though I have c-body, std. big block oil pan for those (as well as a-body) has a cutout for the idler arm in full right turn. I did not want to mess with steering link so I made my own pan - I combined hemi and big block oil pans, retaining the cutout. Now there is no interference, it holds 7.5 quarts (with oil filter) and it is not sticking out lower than stub-frame.
Click to expand...

Yup, we'll see how it works out with the 73 and up linkage. I know about the notch for the big block pans, had this exact issue with my uncles 70 440 Duster. Totally forgot about it until you commented in that other thread...
 
Got the driveline set at 3.5º down relative to the frame connectors I installed (as well as the flat part of the frame rail that connects to the torsion bar crossmember). 46RH needed minor hammering to the drivers side tunnel to clear a fitting that plugs some sort of port. Also started building the new transmission crossmember. The trans mount I'm using is a fairly common one, I think the application I found was for a 1990 Jeep grand wagoneer. The bolt spacing is slightly wider than the 2 available transmission bolts, so some slight modification was needed. I like this style mount that, as that's just what I'm used to from building Jeep XJs/MJs as well as 2nd gen Dodge trucks.

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what speedo are you using? That tailhousing has no speedo provision
 
actuallly thats for PCM controlled governor/OD/LU circuit, not speedo.
 
Unless I'm wrong, there is another 3 pin connector on the transmission itself (not overdrive tailhousing) for the OD and LU circuits. Middle pin is 12v, outer pins are GND for OD and LU. I'm guessing you mean that the PCM uses this output speed sensor to determine when to drive OD/LU solenoids, which makes sense, however how else would an early 90s 2WD vehicle with a 46RH get a speed reading? I didn't think they used tone rings on the rear axle at that point?

Regardless, if I can't get a speedo then I'll just use a GPS speedometer from Speedhut or something. I'm not entirely worried about it.
 
The 3 pin connector on the main case is for LU/OD controlled by the PCM. This year model is mechanical governor, so wouldn't apply here for PCM control. This trans came from a 4x4, you picked up a 2wd housing. So the speedo output is off of the tcase from the Ramcharger you got this from. Do you know what year this OD housing came from(2WD)?
There are specific year model 2wd cases that have both ports, for output speed and speedo. Very specific year models around 96-97 when Dodge transitioned to tone rings on the rear axle. The OD housing and output shaft are specific for a speedo driven unit.
 
I guess what I'm getting at is I don't think it matters if I have separate VSS/output speed ports since I'll be using Megasquirt to control the transmission? As long as there is a reluctor wheel inside the OD housing (which there is), and there's an electronic pickup which threads into that hole (which I believe there is), then I can program Tunerstudio to drive the OD/LU pins on the 3-pin connector, as well as find an electronic speedometer that works off the same sensor? Not doing anything with factory PCMs/harnesses.
 
FYI,if the 2wd housing is from a newer electronic gov trans, it wont work with the RH trans you have.
 
FredS said:
FYI,if the 2wd housing is from a newer electronic gov trans, it wont work with the RH trans you have.
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Is there an easy way to tell if it's from an RE and not an RH? I'm pretty much a newbie with these transmissions. I just bought the OD housing from a JY company that listed it for, I believe, a '92 pickup (can't remember if it was a Dakota or a Ram). I'll have to go back and find my receipt.

Thanks for your input.
 
pop the OD off of the 4x4 trans, you'll see the 2 mechanical gov tubes. Additionally, an RH 2WD housing will have only the speedo hole, not the small output speed sensor hole. 4x4s, wont have the speedo, as it is on the tcase.

The RH 2WD case looks like this
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FredS said:
pop the OD off of the 4x4 trans, you'll see the 2 mechanical gov tubes. Additionally, an RH 2WD housing will have only the speedo hole, not the small output speed sensor hole. 4x4s, wont have the speedo, as it is on the tcase.

The RH 2WD case looks like this
View attachment 1715006799
Click to expand...

Thank you for your input! Saved me from trying to run an RE housing on an RH. Couldn't find my receipt, and don't have an email from the company so I may have to eat the cost unfortunately. I bought it about a year ago.

Picture showing the RE overdrive internals. No governor...

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