'71 Dart 6.4L swap progress being made!

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Dartsun said:
Have you took her for a spin yet?
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I've taken it out for some limited miles - I still need to have my tuner go through the ECU since the "temporary tune" was with stubs off of the headers, and not the full exhaust. She's definitely running toasty at highway speeds, so it'll be "cruisin' speed" for now. That's scheduled for the 13th, and then I'll be able to really uncork the performance.

In the limited shots I've done - it's EXTREMELY fast. 5-70 (it stumbles if I give too much gas from launch) is near instant! I'll try and catch some video - The biggest thing I love so far is that with the TTI Exhaust it SOUNDS like an old-school muscle car, and not like a Charger / Challenger Scat Pack.
 
OH BOY! That tune was WAAAY off. I was pinging under medium load - I think the boys were using best-case gas assumptions, but that's OK - 30 minutes in the car with live tuning, and before you know it, it's dialed in! They had to take 10 degrees of advance out of the timing curve.

My tuner got a nice update for lean cruising, and go fast mode for hard on the throttle. The car is running significantly better, it's now 195F or less at highway (70+) speeds.

Put it all together, was driving home, and a nice gentleman told me "Nice car, but you got no tail lights!" So I dug into that - the switch was disconnected since I picked up the car... tested it - switch is BROKEN. Thanks for letting me know, other shop! Ordered a few switch options and I'll be jumping under the column tonight to get that resolved.

Now we're back to the "finishing stuff" - which takes 3-4 weeks to get it buttoned up, only to have it ready for Winter Storage. Whatever. It's in the garage. It's real. And the 2024 season is gonna be fantastic!!!

I'll try to get some video today or tomorrow.
 
I got her out for a show today. Nothing but positive reactions, most common comment was “how the hell did you fit it in there?”

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Sitrep-

1300 miles so far, some oddities (thermostat failed shut, that was a quick reaction time test) now running with no thermostat. She really really doesn’t like anything less than 93, so fuel additives it is from now on.

The QA1 folks are interested in featuring the car, so that’ll be fun!

I’ll have to get an official gas mileage but I think I’m getting about 14MPG? Smiles per mile are more important.

I’ll be at Mopars in the Park 2024 , a year behind schedule, but it’s a milestone I wanted to keep.

I still need to fit the AC, but that’s probably an end of season thing for me.

Found some interference between the exhaust and the rear axle brake distribution block. Since it’s a solid chunk of metal, it won. :)

Also scraping a bit on the rear shock, which makes me mad since she was brand new. But everything is custom so time to break out the Tonya Harding to fix that.

I also had to do some metal removal on the inner fender lips on the rear. I was able to do that cleanly without removing trim.

At this point we’re all about “bugs and minor issues,” but it means I get to drive her often.

Once my tuning guy finishes up with her tomorrow, the final puzzle pieces should be in place for tire roasting fun (currently stumbles off idle to accelerating.)

I’ve seen a few FABO folks out on the road and looking forward to meeting more in person. I’ve made a few new friends along the way and been able to pass along some technical knowledge to a “new batch” of Mopar owners.

My dream has materialized in Gold and Black. Life is good!

Have a great day, y’all

-Daniel

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