Prep for V8 swap

[project74]

Well, am almost ready to rebuild the front susp. on the dart. It still has the stock /6. Now I don't want to be totally rebuilding the whole front end again when the day finally arrives to yank the 6. Other than heavier torsion bars, are there any other components I could change now to save myself the hassle later? Probably going to go the small block route when the means are there.

 

[fantom]

I think it depends on what you want to do with the car. I think if you want better handling put a thicker bar, but if you want to still be able to take it to the track on the weekends, I think that the bars on your /6 might be alright! Im still kind of new so maybe someone else can chip in!!!

 

[Rolling_Thunder]

/6 bars will give better weight transfer... but for street use i would put in the larger bars...

 

[dgc333]

I put big block A-body bars in my Barracuda when i rebuilt the front end and did the disk brake swap. I have absoultly no complaints about those bars and the \6. The car handles much better, bottoms out less and there was no noticable degadation in the ride. If you are taking the front end apart to rebuild I would go with the big block bars. FWIW, I also have the heavey duty 6 leaf rear springs in my car.

I also used polygraphite bushing in the upper control arms and strut rods. I was told to not use them on the lower control arms because the wear out to fast. The upper control arm bushings have been fine but the strut rods bushing creak and grown all the time. I purposely purchased the polygrahite to elminate that but it stil happens, I can squirt oil on them and it will quite down for a week or so but comes back.

I am starting the 360 swap into my car this weekend and I will be swapping in a small block spool mount cross member, I am going to swap back to rubber bushings on the strut rods.

 

[bradssdemon]

I would check the center link. I believe that this was different from the /6 to the V8 cars

 

[dgc333]

I had heard that but the center link in my 73 Dart V8 parts car is the same as the center link in my 68 Barracuda \6 car. I was told the \6 cars had straight center links where the v8's had one with a 1-2" drop in it. In my case they both have the drop in the center.