RustyRatRod's Guide To Hot Rod Bliss

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69MOPE said:
What are your thoughts on forced induction of a stock engine? Great driveability and all the performance needed, when you need it.
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Adding pressure to an engine is a very effective way to add power. The draw back to this is the cost of new components and a timing retard device. While some people will just point to a local junk yard and say grab that turbo for $75 and add a MSD retarding box, not all of use are OK with a used part. No matter how many times YOU have done it.

The added expense of plumbing a turbo and if the pressure is high enough, a intercooler becomes a bit complicated for some and a pain to puzzle piece the piping in.

A bolt on super charger is pricey but easy. And many will pay for the ease of installation.
All of those that want to quibble over each parts bennifit can find the thread on it and re-start it back up.
 
Forced induction is a great boost for a stock engine. Pun intended. But, if you get close to 10PSI, that's generally when you need forged pistons.
 
It's amazing what 5-7 psi will do to a stock engine.
Sprinkle bolt on parts and a good cam, WOW!
Port the heads? HOLD ON!
 
Lots of ways to save weight too. Here is just 2 The early master cylinders are cast iron, late model ones are aluminum, just match em up correctly piston diameter wise, and weather or not they are for a disc/drum , or disc/disc application.

The costs of aluminum rads have come way down too. I guess the marketplace is starting to be flooded with em.

Most folks try to compare the sizing on these to typical copper/brass radiators. So know what your looking at what size you need for your app.

Rusty, I agree with your approach, but in some cases theres people who start like i did, with a slant 6 roller and little else, and have had to piece together what they are building especially if converting to a V8.

Obviously the best choice is to start with a V8 car, and the most solid example to make things easier on you.
 
Converting from a 6 to an 8 is a bit of an expensive route that you want to do and accept the added costs. Rusty's comments are for "In general" approach.
It's almost mind blowing you mention it.

Your example of engine swapping doesn't apply. Rusty is not addressing every approach. Just the basic idea and parts. When you bring up engine swapping, it just seems like your trying to be cute and throw a wrench in the works on purpose.

The cheapest way is ether a donor car for peanuts or a swap kit. And then Attend to all the issues reguarding the swap that a donor car would have had. This topic is well covered over and over and over again for /6 to small and big blocks, small blocks to big blocks.
 
Good read. Its funny you wrote this now. Wish you had years ago. I'm not really a purist but my cars have been basically bone stock. I watch my buddies do a build and spend thousands on aftermarket and race stuff and convertors for their cars and they have nothing but problems and they're always messing with them. U get in my car and start it up and drive off. They tell me I need to hop up my engines. My standard response is, "I don't like underhood chrome and Chrysler spent millions and millions on R&D and you think I need to hop it up?"
 
a lot of guys ( any of us), could make a copy of RRR initial post and tape it to the garage wall, and refer to it when tempted to spend a bunch of $$$ we don't have, trying to get a few more HP, because of some ad or someone's read on the net????
for those of us that don't have a large car account ( or don't want to spend endless $$ ), studying what the factory did the make a well mannered street hotrod makes the most sense. ( checkout some old issues of MA for some of that tech???), and i'm talking about us guys that mainly want a dependable driver, with fun power, , that might make an occasional trip down the drag strip.
 
I need to start at the beginning and read through. There's a lot of truth here and great info for a young gun or newbie getting started. I see so many over building, over camming, going the wrong direction with parts, and wasting money and time.
 
I have a question about the hotrod bliss.

I have been stranded many times with different Mopars that had stock ignition/charging setups, and I have had Mopars that I never had to touch (reliable).

I am under the belief that the Chinese built aftermarket ECU's, Voltage Regulators, alternators, and probably more parts fail, and fail much more frequently. I find this seems to be true in regards to alternators with my old 1991 civc as well.

Breaking down in this heat is not hotrod bliss. The Thursday before the fourth, I slowed down and went to down shift into first, but shifted into 3rd in my Road Runner, while giving it gas-big back fire, and it coasted to rest with no spark & something wrong with the fuel delivery...

I would be interested in MSD if it eliminated troubleshooting four prong ballast resistors, etc. & provided trouble-free service.
 
Pulling off all the Mopar ignition parts and replacing them with MSD parts was the best thing I ever did for my '69 340. No more burnt out ballast resistors, coils, and ECUs! The problem with "stock" parts is that most of them are junk now, made in India, China, Pakistan, etc...
 
The Direct Connection engine book is also a way to increase performance on the cheap. The DC boys went to great lengths to weed out what worked and what didn't work. The chevy and Ford guy's in the 60's and 70's did not have a book like that to go to. Need to go 13's in the quarter and your car was so many pounds? Small or big block went through what was needed to do get there. most important was what was NOT needed. very handy book.
 
Greymouser, I normally run a aftermarket ignition over the stock or MP stuff because of that amount of crap parts to replace it with and that ever so annoying pop surprise ballast resister gone bad. While a small box of spare parts is easy to Cary and hide somewhere, I do not think I should have to do such a thing.

The OE style ignition is operational in the car and ready at a moments notice when the after market system fails. And often, it has been called into duty. Such is my luck with the MSD ignitions.

I told this to my son in law. We started up the Duster with the orange box (my only reliable Orange box) and then installed his MSD digital. Should the digital fail, three a stand by to stand in. I'll get home.

Oh, I did forget to mention that I do like the advertised bennifits of a multi spark ignition.
They pay the most and best bennifits on a Hwy. driven car. IMO, there a nice add on to help get max mileage. There best, I have found when your gear ratio is numerically low and the engine is spinning a low rpm on the Hwy., the multi spark ignition gives the best results for mileage.
 
One of the very big reasons I stayed with the MoPar camp is the Direct Connection books. In reading it, it does say in it that with all the research they did going into the book in order to show you how to do it for what you want to get done would cost you millions of dollars. This book is "A Million dollar book."

After going through the book and seeing the "Speed Tips" section, I was saying to myself, "This is Crazy!" Since they just gave away all the speed secrets everyone else in the world was hiding from everyone else.

Going fast became a no brainer.
No more mystery of what works.
Handing out defeats became easier. (Though there's always someone faster)
Nothing like a night of handing out a good pasting of your enemies.

I just think it is a crying shame the "Speed Tips" is no longer in the catolog. But the "Engines book(s)" carry them.
 
R3 and Rob...
This thread was like an ice-cold glass of water on a scorching-hot day! Somebody talkin' and making sense....finally!
I really laughed when I came to the part about the HP cams, TQ and stock manifolds. I mean, how true....fretting over 50#? Really?
The '70s are over....get over them.
Spending thousands to gain 3/10ths of a second is fairly stupid unless you are making money off those tenths. And it's nice to have your car start below 40 degrees F sometimes....
Thanks, you guys for a lethal dose of common sense!
 
rumblefish360 said:
Greymouser, I normally run a aftermarket ignition over the stock or MP stuff because of that amount of crap parts to replace it with and that ever so annoying pop surprise ballast resister gone bad. While a small box of spare parts is easy to Cary and hide somewhere, I do not think I should have to do such a thing.
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lmao, Rob. I still have a collection of single and dual ballast resisters in my tool box.
 
spl440 said:
The Direct Connection engine book is also a way to increase performance on the cheap. The DC boys went to great lengths to weed out what worked and what didn't work. The chevy and Ford guy's in the 60's and 70's did not have a book like that to go to. Need to go 13's in the quarter and your car was so many pounds? Small or big block went through what was needed to do get there. most important was what was NOT needed. very handy book.
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Yes, and I still refer to the engine and chassis books. although they are a little worn now.
 
There are always NOS Standard Ignition Mopar boxes on Ebay. They were all made in the US. Also other options like the 4secondsflat site. He sells good stuff, yet all I have ever seen about is people bitching about his prices. Therein lies the problem. People want it cheap. I do agree and share the same concern about import electronics. It's a shame that our society demands everything now and as cheap as possible. No one has done it but us.
 
toolmanmike said:
I need to start at the beginning and read through. There's a lot of truth here and great info for a young gun or newbie getting started. I see so many over building, over camming, going the wrong direction with parts, and wasting money and time.
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Many are unhappy with the end product when this happens.
....how many For Sale adds have you read that had a long list of aftermarket parts and upgrades
ending with "less than XX miles since "resto"
 
Great common sense thread - cheap headers, slightly larger cam, and 600cfm carb and nothing else.
:sleepy2:
 
RustyRatRod said:
There are always NOS Standard Ignition Mopar boxes on Ebay. They were all made in the US. Also other options like the 4secondsflat site. He sells good stuff, yet all I have ever seen about is people bitching about his prices. Therein lies the problem. People want it cheap. I do agree and share the same concern about import electronics. It's a shame that our society demands everything now and as cheap as possible. No one has done it but us.
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On my 71 Swinger, I use a stock MoPar electronic ignition that I pulled from a 1976 Dodge /6 cylinder van. I paid the guy $30.00 for it, and it's been working fine since 1986.
I replace the reluctor and the mag Pick up coil, rotor and cap, everything else is vintage 1976. Works great.
 
... Can someone cook up a bullet proof small block using economical parts that
will start and idle easily,pull HARD to 5000 rpm with lots of bottom end and get decent mileage.
"a good starting point"
 
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