73' 340/904 duster racestoration

[DartorDemon]

I took some better pictures of my new duster. I picked it up for $4500. It was originally a 318/auto, but at some point it supposedly had a 340 swapped in it.

I say racestoration, because my plan is to build an original looking weekend race car. I might change the wheels, i might not, but its gonna retain a street car look( w/drag radials + wheels for the truck)





seats: must have been recovered/redone

and the supposed 340

[sublime green]

Very nice. That is very close to what one of our dusters looked like off the factory floor. You got a good deal too.

[bremereric]

You got a good deal, keep it the way it is...get the engine bay the same color as the body and you will have a very nice car...

[DartorDemon]

Originally Posted by bremereric

You got a good deal, keep it the way it is...get the engine bay the same color as the body and you will have a very nice car...

thanks

maybe some day, but for now the black engine bay is fine with me. I wanna start with the things the improve comfort/drivability/power(in no real order).

[DartorDemon]

So i have an update, i have been having some bog issues and really havent spent the time to give this car the proper once over.

I'll start with the important part, i had adjusted my accelerator pump with no real luck and came home to re-adjust the linkage. Only to find this:



Luckly Kragen stocks edelbrock parts and i was able to get a new one. First time i've ever taken apart any part of a carburator, and it was quick/easy:


I then went for a little test drive. Its a night and day difference in throttle response.

Then i got my engine block numbers. Turns out that i have a mid-late 70s 360. Perfect excuse for a 360 magnum swap.


Lastly, found that my car was definitely someone's half-assed restoration project:
Junkyard rear end from a 74' dart:


Next week will be a trip to the dragstrip to get a baseline 1/4 time.

[Not A Duster]

Nothing wrong with a mid/late 70s 360 - matter of fact with some basic head work and other mods it's probably cheaper/easier to build power from it than a 340 due to the lack of the "halo" effect that still surrounds 340s and their parts.

[OneOfMany]

WOW! For 4500 there a lot of nice stuff stuffed inside a nice body.. that was a smoking deal. I love the color - looks like the gunmetal silver with a hint of green.

Grant

[mopardude318]

Nice score man! keep up the progress!!

[DartorDemon]

So as i said last week i was gonna take this car to the track to get a baseline and now i know that i have my work cut out for me.

First off is that i bought a tachometer for the car, but unfortunately didnt have time to install it before going to the track. I went for a small inexpensive sunpro tach. I've never been big on the monster tach style tachometers. Hopefully i'll have a chance to install it and take pictures tomorrow.


Onto my day at the race track. After a few headaches surrounding my battery tie downs i was on my way. Which brings me to my next issue, mpg. I calculated that my duster was getting about 9-10mpg. No bueno for the times it ran. I'm thinking i need to look into either a manual 5/6spd conversion or an OD tranny conversion And EFI of some sort.

My first 4 passes were the same. 16.9 at 86mph, then on my last run it managed a 16.7 at 86mph.(got off the line slightly better) Each pass i had to leave off of idle/low rpms and it would still burnout through most of 1st gear. I expected this since my tires are 225/x/R14

I have one picture that i'll put up sometime tomorrow.

Lastly is more of a question to people reading this. Tomorrow i'm gonna check my compression and see if the engine is holding acceptable compression. If it is, im wondering what would be a good budget upgrade for my mid/late 70s 360? I was thinking of trying to find some magnum heads at a u-pull-it, get a nice intake manifold and a cam. At the very least i'd like to see if i could get this engine to make enough power so the car turns 13s(assuming its in good shape)

[72DUSTER-CO.]

Nice looking Duster!..man you got that for a steal! ..like the console!

[Not A Duster]

As far as working over your 360 is concerned, yes the heads would be a good place to start - magnums are nice, but keep in mind that they limit your intake options should you be planning to do this with swapmeet/ebay parts, and the factory intake you show in your pictures certainly won't work. There are plenty of other iron head options that will yield improvement - including doing some work to the heads on currently on the engine.

I would start by doing something to free up exhaust flow. Headers specifically, and perhaps bigger pipes if the car has tiny duals in place - don't go crazy with pipe diameter tho - oversize pipes will actually hurt performance. Determine your goals for the car and have the exhaust done accordingly. A competent exhaust shop (not a chain store) will help you choose the right pipe size, headers and even mufflers for your targets. Also be careful when purchasing "performance" mufflers. The interior drone inside the car when being driven on the street or to/from the track will make you nuts. Keep in mind that you can always "uncork" the headers at the track, tune for the strip and then close the exhaust up again for the strip.

As far as camshafts are concerned, if your short-block is in good shape, and you plan to keep it as such, compression limits how radical you want to go. Factory spec 340 cam or something like the comp magnum musclecar cams are as wild as I would go - but it's best to contact the cam manufacturer and tell them as much as you can about your combination, then go with their recomendation. Comp is very good for this. While you are swapping the cam, make sure that you replace the timing set with the 340 double roller chain and gears at the least.

Another simple factory thing that will gain some power & reliability would be the addition of the 340 windage tray. It's available from Mopar Performance and is pretty easy to install.....when the engine is out of the car.

Lots of other simple things you can do without having to build a "monster" motor to gain improvements at the track, like losing the rubber -isolated leaf springs, etc...

[DartorDemon]

Here is a real small update, finally got around to adding the tachometer. I almost have it wired, just ran into one snag that i'm trying to sort out



Mind the zip ties, i'm gonna get hose clamps next week when i have time.

[Burntorange70]

Looking good.

[DartorDemon]

Forgot to upload this pic from when i took the car to the track for a baseline.



I would've taken more pictures, but it was a lame a night for racing. Most of the cars racing were imports and they werent even good imports. loud and slow S-boxes.

[sublime green]

Looks good. Some white letters on them tires sure would make it pop. Still looks good.

[DartorDemon]

It would, but that wheel and tire setup is temporary. There is no grip even with a worn out 360. I'm thinking 15 inch rallye's or magnum 500s(if i can find them in 16s for a reasonable price)

[Prine]

Not bad at all...you got a good deal., no doubt about that.

I am subscribing!!

[DartorDemon]

Small update today. Last week i went to do a compression test and found that every spark plug looked pretty bad, so this week i changed them out and took a picture of the plugs.

Also i'm fairly sure that this car has highway gears. I got on the highway with the tachometer and found that at 85mph, the car turns just under 3000 rpm.

Pics of the old plugs:

[Prine]

Hey those arent Champion RN12YC's!!!!

I hate autolites...I bet it runs better!!!

Those closed up gap's and carbon packed/glazed plugs were probably holding you back 30whp!!!

[DartorDemon]

Originally Posted by Prine

Hey those arent Champion RN12YC's!!!!

I hate autolites...I bet it runs better!!!

Those closed up gap's and carbon packed/glazed plugs were probably holding you back 30whp!!!

Then you're gonna love what went back in...autolites!, yeah i went cheap on it. I've had good luck with autolites and i'll change to something better when i'm making the power to need it.

One thing is for sure, it held back my mpg's by a whole lot. i took it around town after i did the swap and it made a big difference as i didnt burn through 1/4 of tank from driving a few miles around town.

As for power, well i did the "scientific" test of nailing the gas from a dead stop. And it did a much larger one tire fire.

However, its still having a hard start up problem. I'll probably change the fuel filter next. If the previous owner neglected the simple spark plugs, i'm sure he has never changed the fuel filter.

After that i wanna try to copy this person's grill. I think it gives the duster a much meaner appearance:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/...1&d=1269109969

[casey70dartreed]

I'm sure you have highway gears too...Should be faster than your posted quarter mile times...My 4-BBL Slant six goes 17:50s at 79 MPH with 2.76 highway gears (for comparison)...Adding a set of 3.23 or 3.55 gears would surely do wonders!

Solid car btw!

[DartorDemon]

Originally Posted by casey70dartreed

I'm sure you have highway gears too...Should be faster than your posted quarter mile times...My 4-BBL Slant six goes 17:50s at 79 MPH with 2.76 highway gears (for comparison)...Adding a set of 3.23 or 3.55 gears would surely do wonders!

Solid car btw!

Thanks.

I'll be changing to a better set of gears and some form of an LSD/locker.

[DartorDemon]

Another Small update.

I ran into an issue recently, automatics are just plain boring to drive. My daily driver is a stick and that alone adds a fun factor that the duster just hasnt been able to meet. Before i bought this duster i had planned on the car being a column shift and that i would swap to a ratchet floor shifter, but my car has that nice console. Oddly enough, i found what might be a solution on accident.

Duncan engineering's Shift-R-Gate. According to the website, it gives the standard console the same functions as a slap-stick console.

http://www.duncan-motor-sports.com/2.html

Why not for $30?

And hopefully next thursday i'll be heading to the junkyard to pick up some 3.55s w/ LSD from an early grand cherokee.

[DartorDemon]

well, very small update. The duster doesnt run. Its been having hard start issues and today it finally quit.(of course after i put gas in it so i could drive it all weekend)

I'm betting its my dist. cap & rotor. I tried to get it to start several times and i can smell that it's getting fuel. Also as seen in earlier posts, the spark plugs were severely neglected.

[Dead End Kid]

I know you didn't ask for any input, but does it have any spark, or will it try to start? Be sure to check the ballast resistor.....