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Landy Duster

Landy Duster

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Messages
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Location
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I’m a long time fan of everything Mopar, my first car was a 72 Dart Swinger, FE5 red, white top, black interior (very similar to be Dart on the cover of the factory brochure), 318, 904. I fixed it all up and drove it thru high school, unfortunately rust had its way with it and it and eventually I junked it. But I did buy another A body, a 73 Duster that was factory gold with a 318 3 speed and immediately converted it to a 340, 727 8-3/4, 3.91. I still have this, but with a big block in it. Never liked the BB, do some time it will have to come out. Then my wife bought me another 72 Dart that is completely rust free from Portland, ,OR, no engine or trans, so I put in a 318, 904 out of a rusty 4 door and had some fun with it. Then a once in a lifetime opportunity came up and I went for it! The 73 Duster that was given to Dick Landy for the Hot Rod magazine came up for sale on Racingjunk. So I bought it from the guy that bought it from Landy and brought it home from Las Vegas. The hopped up 360 had a valve retainer break, but it didn’t break enough to drop a valve, so we changed the valve springs and put new retainers and keepers on and thoroughly checked over the rest of the engine. I ended up running a very low 11 second 1/4 mile at my home track. Problem is this is a 13.4:1 compression.600 lift sold lifter 4500 stall, 4.56 gear setup. You really cannot drive this on the street, so I pulled out the 360 and put in a 318 Magnum with FI and GT45 turbo and 3.23 gears, hoping to make this a street car. After lots of fabrication, wiring and learning I’m finally getting close to my goal: 10 second street car! Now there has been zero cutting on the Duster, I wish the PO had felt that way, mini tubbing, fuel cell, roll cage, cutting up part of the front of the car, but he didn’t, but I’m still not going to cut it up anymore.

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Some other pictures, the Duster has been to Roadkill Nights twice and will hopefully be back in 2020.

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Ok you are an official Mopar supporter extraordinaire! I bet you have Summit on speed dial. Thanks for the pics and a little piece of Mopar history.
 
When the Duster was a race car, it weighed 3040 with me in it. After the turbo Magnum install, passenger seat, the rewire, pulled out the fuel cell for a stock tank, switch to Cal-Tracs we’re at 3280 with me, race jacket, helmet and full tank of E85.

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Bet the combo weighs more after Thanksgiving. What kind of power output are you getting with the turbo?
 
69conv said:
Ok you are an official Mopar supporter extraordinaire! I bet you have Summit on speed dial. Thanks for the pics and a little piece of Mopar history.
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I’ve left late in the day and driven to Summit, arriving just before closing to get parts so I would have them the next day. This build has been almost 4 years in the making. The 150k 318 Mag is stock (not rebuilt) except for the cam, timing chain, injectors and valve springs. Everyone said I couldn’t put more than 8 psi on stock pistons, but in October I hit the 318 with 20 psi.

It runs a Megasquirt 1 for fuel only with a locked distributor.

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69conv said:
Nice.
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And that’s up against the 7k rev limiter. I’m pulling the pill out of the MSD 6AL and raising the fuel cut to 7500.

Probably going to have to do something else with the 4500 stall converter, but that’s for my trans guy to figure out.
 
If you're not careful you'll be dipping into the 10's. When does your cam start to nose over?
 
69conv said:
If you're not careful you'll be dipping into the 10's. When does your cam start to nose over?
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That’s the plan, if you look at the weight and mph, I should have ran a 10 already, but the track was horrible and I spun badly at the hit thru the 300 foot mark. The cam is supposed to be done at 5600, but with boost it has not nosed over yet, but the turbo is about done.
 
The good news is you can use the winter for some tweeks, you're just about there. Was the spinning tires track related or is there room for suspension improvements?
 
69conv said:
The good news is you can use the winter for some tweeks, you're just about there. Was the spinning tires track related or is there room for suspension improvements?
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It was the track, everyone was spinning that was on drag radials.
 
Landy Duster said:
Thanks! I have a few thousand pictures of my Blue Duster. These are from a few months ago when I broke the output shaft in the A999.
*************+

We ended up finding out that the output shaft broke due to a defect in the shaft, fortunately A&A Trans had a few reconditioned shafts in stock, so I ended up buying two. Just in case.
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Wow. Doesn't look like it romped around the tunnel tho.
 
Complete vehicle specifications:
73 Space Duster
All steel except for lift off hood and fiberglass front bumper 3280 pounds
manual Wilwood 4 wheel disc brakes
manual steering
stock width A-body 8-3/4, 35 spline Strange axles and spool Stock 3.23 gears 489 case
Cal-Trac split mono leaf springs and traction bars
mini tubed with 315-60-15 Mickey ET Streets rear Mickey LT fronts on Weld Super Lites
Optima red top battery in the trunk
welded in tubing for frame connectors
chromemoly cage
QA1 tubular k member
QA1 tubular lower control arms
Stock upper control arms
Stock dash, stock column
Jaz drivers seat
factory passenger bucket seat
5 point drives harness
4 point passenger harness
no rear seat (yet)
ECP 26” radiator AL with 2 1” rows
B&M trans cooler
Cyclone 16” electric fan
318 Magnum stock not rebuilt 150k engine, stock cracked iron heads
Comp shelf cam 20-746-9 hydraulic roller
Hughes 1110 valve springs
double roller timing chain
factory tensioner
Cometic head gaskets
ARP head studs
stock serpentine drive with tensioner relocated to drivers side head
kegger intake with 1/4” plate welded to bottom, EGR divider removed plate made for idle air solenoid mounted to EGR pad
Ferd IAS
lean burn distributor for locked timing
MSD 6-AL for spark with Mallory coil
stock Magnum alternator and AC compressor
Turbo Spark solid state adjustable voltage regulator
VS Racing GT45 turbo
Magnum drivers side exhaust manifold on passenger side, Magnum passenger header on drivers side forward facing
2-1/8” exhaust to T4 turbo flange
3-1/2” to 3” down pipe
Innovative O2 gage and controller
Auto meter gages including boost gage
Siemens 80 lb-hr injectors
AEM 400 LMH external fuel pump
stock tank with 1/2” pick up & 3/8 return
3/8 hard lines supply and return lines
factory rails throttle body and regulator
roll control
A999 with TA trans brake valve body
4500 rpm TA converter
B&M Quarter Stick
multiple time magazine car
most recent was Mopar Action December 2013
 
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69conv said:
Wow. Doesn't look like it romped around the tunnel tho.
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Broke off inside the trans, it was just like you pulled the drive shaft. You could actually feel it twist off and it wasn’t violent I just backed off the throttle. This was off the foot brake, I didn’t want to shock the tires with the trans brake.
 
I think the word racing is swahili for breaking stuff. Glad it wasn't any worse.
 
69conv said:
I think the word racing is swahili for breaking stuff. Glad it wasn't any worse.
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Yes, the drive shaft loop would have contained it, but it just twisted off. That night the track was set on kill, I had one 60 foot time of 1.67, where on the in my last session I couldn’t get out of the 1.8’s.
 
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