'71 Dart 6.4L swap progress being made!

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Good to see your making progress. My swap on the other hand has kinda gone down a rabbit hole lol. It's the perverbial one step forward and 2-5 steps back. I had to walk away from it for about a month and let my head clear. First attempt at start up netted me some Gold Box damage which had to be repaired and was my fault. So with the issue corrected I was able to get a good start on the engine with no Gold Box issues. I had to do some tuning on the fuel table and noticed a puff of what I thought was steam while I was looking at my laptop. Well, long story short, the alternator wire shorted and melted all the casing and wire loom. The steam I saw was actually brake fluid burning from the wire laying over on the firewall brake line and torching a hole in it. It's always fun to step out and have a fire going in the engine compartment. See where the 1 forward and 2-5 backwards is going? Of course to replace the brake line the intake had to come off, the engine wiring harness had to be pulled back into the car to remove and reinstall a new brake line. I have all of that corrected so with any luck, next week I can start working on the tune and maybe get to the point of a test drive. I have other things going on that need my attention or I'd be back finishing up repairs. These cars are named DEMON for a reason...

And while I'm thinking about it, the master cylinder (cheap chinese crap) decided to quit working and the piston was actually working it's way out into the inside of the firewall. There was no snap ring groove machined into the mc. The replacement looks more like an original casting and has that snap ring. The mc had to come off anyways so that was my moment of, it had to come off anyways so I can replace it so that's not a wasted effort.
 
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Wow!!! My wiring guy has been busy! The engine harness is complete and set up in the bay. He was able to use an existing hole in the firewall to sneak it all directly behind the engine.

The AC box is in place and mounted. He also got it wired to the controls and the control box.

I also got a video of the LED tail light panels (DigiTails) in operation.

Good stuff!!!

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Let's see the tail light video! I have the same setup for mine but haven't got them installed yet. It's looking good!
 
After testing, we found that the sequential mode (at least for the Dart) really doesn’t stand out from a visibility standpoint. But, the “normal” mode is bright as hell. So, safety wins versus cool. I still get the benefit of Instant on versus standard incandescent bulbs.
 
The work keeps on moving! Moving the “steal me” junction to the interior really cleaned up the look of the engine bay. I’ll still have to get an intake worked out, and it may be something as simple as the delta flow universal kit. I want to build a shield to keep the cold air cold.

I picked up on a deal for a steel hood already in flat black and sporting a six pack hood scoop. That MAY be what I end up putting on the car vs the flat hood. I’ll still need to cut a hole to make the scoop functional.

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YEAH!!! Wiring guy says we're a week from finished. I did a walkthrough of the final decisions needed and got a demo of some of the neat features he added! I will have adjustable throttle input at the turn of a dial, which will be great for when I'm running my street radials.

It's almost a bummer to hide all the beautiful wiring he did, but it should be good for another 50 years of driving!

I swapped the headlights from the ones in the pictures with the Holley Retrobrites, and it returned the look back to what it needed to be. Hopefully next post will be a video of firing the engine in the car in a few weeks.
 
More photos!

The pro dash is only temporarily placed. I’m looking at some mounting options. It’s a challenge when the steering column is pot metal (not magnetic) and there’s a hump for the gear selector indicator.

But I will get it figured out!

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Those Holley headlights look SO much better in the car than the TruckLites. Functionally similar in performance, substantially different in looks (stock vs RestoMod.)
 
Oh tell me about it lol. I think the worst part for me is arthritis in my lower back. It really slows me down on projects in the garage. I'll check out those kick panels. That's a better option than cutting holes in original ones.
 
So I have determined that I had the completely wrong application for my speed sensor off of the 727. I was using a part off of a Wagoneer which had the 7/8 input and the 5/8 output. The problem was that it didn’t output a true square wave and required a converter. But the converter couldn’t keep up!

Now on to plan b - AutoMeter 5291 AutoMeter Programmable Electronic Speedometer Senders | Summit Racing

And a new speedometer cable to replace the incorrect one.

I could use the GPS module for the Holley Terminator, but I’d really prefer to have a speedo that won’t blink out in a tunnel!
 
GoldSwinger71 said:
So I have determined that I had the completely wrong application for my speed sensor off of the 727. I was using a part off of a Wagoneer which had the 7/8 input and the 5/8 output. The problem was that it didn’t output a true square wave and required a converter. But the converter couldn’t keep up!

Now on to plan b - AutoMeter 5291 AutoMeter Programmable Electronic Speedometer Senders | Summit Racing

And a new speedometer cable to replace the incorrect one.

I could use the GPS module for the Holley Terminator, but I’d really prefer to have a speedo that won’t blink out in a tunnel!
Click to expand...

What converter did you use?

Never been a fan of GPS speedometers. Wasn't comfortable with losing the speed readout in a tunnel (as you said) or the mountains. I know they are an easy fix and for 99% of the probably work great, but just not an option I am comfortable with.

Add that I want to run cruise control and I am betting it will need a signal different than GPS and/or cut out when the GPS signal drops.
 
WORD OF CAUTION - If you are using the Classic Auto Air (or any system that uses an electronic blocking valve to the heater core rather than a blend door) - You will need to install additional T's on the coolant line to the heater core path for a return to the engine when the heater is off, otherwise you will only have coolant flowing on one side of the engine. Another shop buddy was working on an E body and wondering why only one side of the engine was heating up. The coolant had no return unless the heater was switched on.

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That could have been bad. At least the lesson was learned without destruction (and not on my car / engine.)
 
DionR said:
What converter did you use?

Never been a fan of GPS speedometers. Wasn't comfortable with losing the speed readout in a tunnel (as you said) or the mountains. I know they are an easy fix and for 99% of the probably work great, but just not an option I am comfortable with.

Add that I want to run cruise control and I am betting it will need a signal different than GPS and/or cut out when the GPS signal drops.
Click to expand...
I’m not entirely sure what chip was used. I believe it’s a Schmitt trigger circuit. My wiring guy knows someone who custom makes them on a mini PCB. The problem is that with the magnetic induction sensor, the pulses are too close together and do not rise and fall enough to differentiate the pulses.

So for this application the sensor is no good. It needed the Hall effect sensor which has a specific on/off pulse to be natively supported by the Holley Terminator X.

Oh well, another thing to remember for the final full write up of the build.
 
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