Red Headed Stepchild-75 Swinger LSX Swap

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Well she made it back on the ground at an acceptable height and actually rolled out of the garage for about 5 minutes. Still have some serious negative camber to correct but she is at least back on the ground.
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Going to try and get her back up in the air tonight and adjust the UCA on both sides to get rid of some of the camber issue. But I also have to adjust the steering rod on the drivers side(even though its set exactly like the old one) so I can correct the drivers side all together. Just trying to make it easier on the alignment guys when they get it.
 
Well the weather cleared up just long enough for me to make it to Berry Tire in Libertyville, and get her dialed in. I had them set the suspension up for the "sport" settings that hotchkis recommended instead of the competition settings seeing as this thing isn't really competition ready just yet. Drive so much better than before with this new suspension installed. No more turning like a boat in water, now she just goes left and right like she's supposed to and is a lot more solid than before. Love the new setup, and I still have to add the rear sway bar still.





 
Well it has been a long while since I've updated this due to my move to Washington, DC area. But I am now settled and setup so the Dart will be getting some more love. Today I picked up a set of Weld Prostars(yes I have the center caps), and they cleaned up pretty good with some mothers polish and the mothers powerball. Soon hopefully a freshly rebuilt 318 and a 8 1/4 rear end. I know its not a 8 3/4 but its better than the 7 1/4 I have now and it will handle the 318 just fine, and allow me to finally install my rear sway bar.
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I can say I definitely picked the right wheels for my car, however, I need a little taller tire up front. before and after shots. The rear just about all the tire it can handle without rubbing, but damn if it don't look good.
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Yea I agree it looks great, Rear tire wheel combo is perfect and I agree with you front tires could be a bit tall, but the stance looks real good.
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I just got the 8 and 1/4 rear last night for it, but I've got my eye on some new tires already. I missed out on a rebuilt 318 a few days ago so I'm still deciding on the engine situation.
 
No big updates right now other than meeting with the place to help me rebuild my rear, and switching it over to discs in the process. I've decided to go the road less traveled and stick with the slant 6, and throw some boost at it. Looking forward to the next few stages. At minimum the rear end and brake setup will be done this winter and then maybe the build turbo side of things during tax season.
 
Good and bad news. Bad news is the rear end wont work out for me because had some unseen damage to it that will prevent me from using it. Good news is I just picked up a Phista style turbo setup for the slant 6 and that will be here next week, and ill be swinging by Billy Wests Mopar Garage and Junkyard(the one from the 2015 hotrod article) this Saturday while I'm down in NC to see if I cant find some more goodies for the Dart as well as some pieces for other local guys. Ill keep you guys posted as to the progress this winter.
 
Well I got some things in the mail last week. The turbo and Jpipe setup were off of David Curtis's build(Serj on here). Just put the Dart away for the winter and did a compression test and the motor reads 150 +/-10 across all 6 cylinders but needs to have the head reworked, valve cover gasket replaced, oil pan gasket replaced before I move forward with this boosted setup. But I'm getting pretty anxious to start and slowly compiling the parts needed to do so. Havent decided if I'm going to use this turbo or not as I haven't been able to get much info on it, or find a flow sheet.

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Well I know its been a while but there are a few updates on my Swinger. I sold the turbo setup and decided not to go that route anymore, I put little taller tire up front which made me much happier with the overall look/drive. I still may bring the front end down just a smidge too, haven't completely made up my mind.
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And after much deliberation, and going back and forth on the powerplant for the Dart, I came across a 2005 Chrysler 300C today for $1100 full running and driving car with 120k on it, and decided to buy it and move forward with the hemi swap.
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Given that i'm getting married this year the hemi swap will take its time while funds are diverted towards the wedding/honeymoon. But looking forward to making this transition and starting the build asap.
 
Much better looking front tire, it now fills the wheel well nicer.

That 300 looks nice enough to drive around, you got a good deal on it!
 
Hey YoungDart75, nice car. With all the mods you did to the suspension you should use the search forums button and type in, pump it down. It is a simple mod you do to the power steering pump ( looks like you have a saginaw ) to make it firmer, as mopar pumps can have a light road feel. It is easy and I promise you will feel the difference even with all the mods you did.

Jeff
 
Wow isnt $1100 crazy cheap is it totally rusted or something? What transmission is in it? Nice work overall!
 
The Swinger looks great man, I'm partial to that color. Best of luck with your marriage the hemi swap...
 
The 300C is actually in immaculate condition. It was listed as a flood vehicle but the water line as under the bottom of the door and never even made it into the car. It looks very well taken care of and seems the previous owner had pulled a few fuses before the insurance adjuster got there so they could get a new car. I checked oil and everything seemed clean and no signs of water in the motor, after that I replaced the fuel pump and starter fuses, I jumped it and it fired right up. Idled fine and drove around fine for about an hour and half. Half tempted to clean it up and resell because I could triple my money or even quadruple it in this case, and just buy another car with a good motor where the rest of the car is in worse shape.

Jeefnmo, depending on how the swap goes I may end up swapping to a power unit anyway.
 
I've been researching it all and have a decent list of what to get and where to get it. But if anyone else has more information to share by all means share it.
 
Holy cow how time flys. Nothing too new with the Dart lately other than doing some cleaning underneath and researching engine swaps more. I ended up selling that Chrysler 300 for $3000(tripling my money) and putting the money away to try and find another, or go the LS swap route due to the amount of cost savings over a Gen III hemi swap. Building my shopping list as we speak. Look for some big changes starting this Fall/winter after my wedding and honeymoon in Ireland is done.
 
Well I took the Dart for one last drive with my kids yesterday and made my decision on motor choice, LS swap it is. Regardless of how you feel about it please don't just fill the thread with KEEP it MOPAR or stick with this or that. My car, my money, my build.

Motor and harness and mounts will be ready to go come August. I found a set of forward facing headers this weekend and picked them up to help with clearance issues and adding the turbo too. Going to be going with a junkyard pulled 6.0, refresh some of the hardware/gaskets throughout, most likely a decent Heads/cam/intake/ throttle body on it, some big injectors and a turbo it the vicinity of a billet 7875 at around 10-15 psi. I'm also still holding out for the idea of keeping it n/a and having around a 450-500hp setup so I can actually do some road courses with it and not have the turbo lag to deal with. I'm going to try and keep the stock /6 kmember first before I spend the extra money on a QA1. Should make for a fun car in the end knowing enough people running almost identical setups, and what they are making as far as power/passes go.
Let the games begin.

Part #1 Forward facing Manifolds.
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Well shopping list has begun for the LS Swap. This is the direction I'm leaning towards for fuel setup on the swap. From first glance it looks like a solid tank and fuel pump setup, I would most likely go with their Walbro 400 in take setup to make sure I never run out of fuel on my car. Feel free to chime in if anyone has any experience with them. I'm still doing a little research into the company and talking to people who have use their products. Right now it'd be $590 for their whole setup including pump, straps, tank and sending unit. Other than this id need lines, fpr, filter, and some decently sized injectors to finish it off.

1970-76 Dodge Dart / Plymouth Duster Fuel Injection Gas Tank

This is the cam kit I'm looking to throw into the swap as well after talking to someone running a LS turbo swap in his 69 Valiant.
LJMS LS CAM KIT

Doing a lot of research into the oil pan situation being that I'm trying to keep the Slant 6 kmember so I will most likely wait until I have the motor pretty much in place and take measurements before purchasing, especially since they run 200-600 a piece depending on who it comes from.

For motor mounts I think i've settled on the Trans Dapt "Hot Rod" universal setup since we can cut to the height we need and weld in from there.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...xhrP7trP3VjRgLirOlmWp0mSFKj6UmdYaAjhsEALw_wcB
 
After digging a little more I'm considering a swap over from the /6 kmember to the v8 kmember and using the 73-76 spool type Gen III hemi mounts from Schumacher that LS1 ACE's LSX Valiant build thread proved already worked with very light modification.
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I've also stumbled across a Ford 8.8 limited slip 3.73 rear end with disc brakes that I'm hopefully going to pickup when I get back off of travel for work for $100, as well as a built turbo 400 for about $800 and the spacer kit to adapt it to a LS1 for $59.97 off summit. I have a line on a well running 2008 Truck 5.3 as well, just waiting to hear back compression test results before purchasing. Things are moving along quite well even with me being out of state right now for work. cant wait to get rolling on this.
 
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If the truck you are looking at with the 5.3 is a 2WD automatic, maybe consider using that transmission also. OD would be nice with the 3.73 gears. You also might be able to do some simple mods to the /6 k member to make it work. Look around in Alex5280's build thread about how to do it. I'm pretty sure it was him that converted a /6 k frame to a small block spec with minimal hassle. I'm in the middle of putting a 5.7 Hemi in a 70 Duster with a 74 V8 spool mount k frame. I'm using a car motor, and TTI told me right up front that the headers wouldn't fit that setup and still have the AC compressor in the stock location. I re-engineered the drivers side mount, and it fits now! Point being....with a little patience and head scratching, you can make about anything work. Have fun with your swap, and good luck. :)
 
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