Joe's 75 Duster

Hey everyone, I have a 1975 Plymouth "Gold" Duster. It has a /6 in it as of now. With the snakeskin vinyle top (actually i took it off a couple months ago, it was starting to peel) and the white/brown/orange plade interior. Ya she's a babe-magnet. There is quite a bit of interior "unattractiveness" going on. But one of these days she will get a make-over.

Well i've had my duster for about 2 years now, been making good progess this past summer, but had been really slow up untill then. I bought a 318 with a 727 trans for $300. I have recently just got my motor done, here are some of the mods:
bored .040 over
mopar purp camshaft 268 int./272 exh. .450 lift
edelbrock performer intake
holley 670 cfm

I start taking apart my transmission today and prepping it for the overhaul kit, shift kit and new torque converter.
I am also getting ready to buy an 8 3/4 rear end and am going to rebuild that and stick 3.55 gears in it.
And slowy but surely im working on the body, doing a little bit here and there when i get a chance.

I will get some pics of it on here sometime soon.

Should be a fun resto, Joe. Make sure you post lots of pix and give us the blow-by-blow.....enquiring minds want to know!

That's a nice looking project Joe. Just do one thing at a time and before you know it you'll have it done, although they're NEVER completely finished. :)

I dont have any recent pics of my car, and my digi camera is at school, ive been taking pics of my transmission project, and it should be done next week sometime, so i will take some shots of my car sometime next week.

looks good, cant wait to see more pics :headbang:

Here are the latest pics. They are of my new engine and my newly rebuilt tranny ( i havent painted my trans yet, but will be next payday). My motor is still without a bunch of parts (water pump, plugs and plug wires, ect...).

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p51a47db5ca77192cd421a64f8281a639/ecb1063d.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p39b954f278f3d9742fa0d428bc964d6a/ecb103c2.jpg


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/pab49951b8749bd9a535b73e60a9d22bb/ecb0f5f3.jpg
Before the rebuild

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p638b2c0d86a824aff8b0bbf2db58fa4b/ecb0ff00.jpg
After we got it out of the vat, its all clean now!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/pb5374b01783d6495acf2290f3923fcbb/ecb0f50e.jpg
All of the guts

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p677ab925a78ea13e5044b8aaa9786fe3/ecb0fc04.jpg
Partially together

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p420ecb9aef06ad1420d8974909ba147b/ecb0fabc.jpg
Almost there, had some problems with the parking gear.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/pe6c38ed0f55825b3964bce1414963fd5/ecb0f75f.jpg
Getting closer

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/pf6bdb23b89a5b2757c28ef87ea925b76/ecb0f31d.jpg
Got the valve body apart and getting ready for shift kit

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p8b9766f0c14875dc9685344536109059/ecb0f14a.jpg
Valve body back together with filter

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p64de966932416884146366a4ba475b40/ecb0f8d3.jpg
Got the pump back in

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid216/p9e103399ba0e2393150b347cfe216bef/ecb10213.jpg
Finally back together!

Now hopefully i rebuilt the tranny right and it wont explode when i fight it up for the first time. I am planning on buying a new torque converter, i think im going with an Edge street converter.

Looking good. Did the motor/trany come out of a truck ? The tranny looks like it has a long tail shaft on it wich will cause problems.

Ya it did come out of a truck, how will that affect anything? Will it just reduce power or something?

If its a truck tail shaft your going to need a real short drive shaft. I may be wrong though it may be a standard 727 car tail shaft. It just looks long to me.

what do the standard 727's measure to from the bell housing back to the end of the output shaft? And what do the truck 727's measure to?

holy crap joe....thats looking good.
your gettin' closer!!!

Even if the trans tail shft is longer, I dont think.....it will be a probelm other than having a shorter driveline done up.... I have a '74 truck 727 loadflight in my car and didnt seem to have any problems, other than having a new driveline built. I can measure mine out for ya and let ya know via e-mail.

Lookin Awesome!!!!

-RPM

i hope ur trany works out fine i have a 727 in my garage that id like to rebuild but i dont think im up to it yet thats a sweet lookin car though gotta love them mopars dont ya

RPM pointed out to me the other day that my oil pan wont work in my duster, the rear sump will be hitting some steering linkage. I know a guy who has an old 318, he said i could just have the oil pan, so hopefully it will be a center sump pan. Also, this same guy is giving me a 383, how awesome is that?

coool!


-RPM

Joe, you'll need a center sump oil pan from a 360, NOT a 318 or 340. The rear sealing surface area of the 360 is much larger than the 318.

a center sump from another 318 wont work on it? B/c i already got one all ready to put it on and it came off another 318.

you need the center sump 318 pan.....I think he thinks you have a 360.

My bad Joe - I thought you had a 360. Yes, the 318 center sump pan will work on your 318. :)

Just got my loan earlier this week, so hopefully things will move a little faster for the ole' duster. Went out today and bought a fuel and air filter, spark plugs and wires, fuel pump, valve cover gasket (the knuckle heads at the engine shop put the old valve covers on my heads when i had bought new ones) and a couple other little things. Once i bought all of that stuff i felt like i was opening presents on christmas morning, i never realized how fun it is to buy a whole bunch of parts to put on your hot rod, well this was the first time ive actually been able to do that. Im hoping to take delivery on my rear-end sometime next week and get that rebuilt and all of that good stuff. But we are on the home straight-away now!

Looking great!

Lookin' good, seems like you are moving along at breakneck speed there. When you get tired of the 318 you can start again with the free 383, some people have luck and some people I usually do but it is the wrong kind. Keep us posted when the 83/4 starts.

The shorter driveshaft issue is the angle of the U joints can be a little harder to get right because the driveshaft is shorter. Take your time and you'll get it. It's a pain....
Whats the dilly on the engine?
Intake, carb, cam etc....

Intake is an eddy performer
cam is a mopar perf purple shaft 268int/272exh
carb is a holley 670 street avenger square bore double pumper

the block is bored .040 over, the guts are mainly stock, we put flat-top pistons in. i just have the stock heads, my machinist grinded them down just a tad, nothing big.

keep going it will get there i'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel

Strong work on the engine and tranny. Goodluck with the rear. Should be fun.