Mason Coughlin
Active Member
Hello all, my name is Mason and I picked up my Swinger this summer as a trade for my 1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that I had. The Wagoneer was a fun truck, but it was a rusty mess since the day I got it. Tons of work, some Ford 1 ton axles, 37's and a Chevy 5.3 later and I had a pretty neat rig that was still a rust bucket. That's where the Swinger comes in.
When I got the car, I thought it was in a lot better shape than it really was, but you can only see so much in a parking lot. Car looked solid aside from a little rocker rust, some wavey quarters and a little rust I could see on the drivers trunk extension. It started life as a typical Grandma grocery getter (say that 10 times fast). 225 slant 6, 904 Torqueflite, 7.25 rear end, white with A.C., and power steering. When I got the car, the guy before him had built it in 2006-2007 with a 318/904, 8.25, painted it Sublime, threw an SSBC brake kit on the front, added some Autometer gauges and bucket seats.
I really liked the car, so I made the trade having never been a Mopar fan. I grew up to a Dad with square body Chevys and Big Blocks, a 2005 Pontiac GTO, Venture minivans... etc. If it wasn't GM, I was interested. All through high school I wanted to build this 1966 GTO (true GOAT too, not a clone) that was tucked in the woods down the street from my house. Fast forward 8 years and the GTO is still in the same spot in the woods and I own a Mopar. Who woulda thunk? I really started to love the long straight lines of the Swinger though and realized I wanted to keep the car. I had promised myself that I wouldn't get into any crazy project with this one, but it looks like I lied to myself.
Late August 2017 while playing on wet roads after a light rain and a quick run through the gears, the engine had made a trip to 7,000 RPM and the valve springs were NOT happy about it. The 318 lived to see another day, but I could tell the car was down on power. A quick pull if the spark plugs and a bore scope reviled a broken ring land on cylinder #8 after the exhaust valve had kissed the piston. A friend of mine and I removed the cylinder head and found the damage that we saw through the bore scope was much worst, but not just from me. The engine was build with .060 ON hyperutectic pistons, Comp 268 cam, 360 cylinder heads, Doug's long tubes and an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb. The problem though became the engine build itself.
We noticed a ton of slop in the bores. After a check with a bore mic, the cylinders were found to be very slightly out of round and bored .070", not .060. This resulted in a ton of piston rock. When the engine was tore down I found 4 broken rings and the skirts on all the pistons were in very rough shape.
This is when I realized that I was going to be putting an engine in the car because this block was already to it's max. My first thought was a Gen 3 Hemi. Makes sense right? I had LS swapped the Jeep, my brothers Datsun truck and my friends RX-7, but the Mopar thing was growing on me. I loved the thought of fuel injection, quieter, more powerful engines that lasted much longer, and something different than just throwing my existing carb and headers on a 360 Magnum and still not been happy. But then I saw how expensive it was to do the modern Hemi swap. Now don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem spending money where money needs to be spent, but $2,200 for a computer and harness? The LS stuff was just done with modding the factory harness and flashing the computer with HP Tuners and we were in business. I was pretty disappointed that the standalone ECU was so much money. The headers are also huge money too, and I really wanted overdrive. I wanted to keep the car automatic and Chrysler has never built a quality overdrive automatic that is readily available in way Upstate NY.
If you get offended by LS Swaps, you might want to stop reading now...
When I got the car, I thought it was in a lot better shape than it really was, but you can only see so much in a parking lot. Car looked solid aside from a little rocker rust, some wavey quarters and a little rust I could see on the drivers trunk extension. It started life as a typical Grandma grocery getter (say that 10 times fast). 225 slant 6, 904 Torqueflite, 7.25 rear end, white with A.C., and power steering. When I got the car, the guy before him had built it in 2006-2007 with a 318/904, 8.25, painted it Sublime, threw an SSBC brake kit on the front, added some Autometer gauges and bucket seats.
I really liked the car, so I made the trade having never been a Mopar fan. I grew up to a Dad with square body Chevys and Big Blocks, a 2005 Pontiac GTO, Venture minivans... etc. If it wasn't GM, I was interested. All through high school I wanted to build this 1966 GTO (true GOAT too, not a clone) that was tucked in the woods down the street from my house. Fast forward 8 years and the GTO is still in the same spot in the woods and I own a Mopar. Who woulda thunk? I really started to love the long straight lines of the Swinger though and realized I wanted to keep the car. I had promised myself that I wouldn't get into any crazy project with this one, but it looks like I lied to myself.
Late August 2017 while playing on wet roads after a light rain and a quick run through the gears, the engine had made a trip to 7,000 RPM and the valve springs were NOT happy about it. The 318 lived to see another day, but I could tell the car was down on power. A quick pull if the spark plugs and a bore scope reviled a broken ring land on cylinder #8 after the exhaust valve had kissed the piston. A friend of mine and I removed the cylinder head and found the damage that we saw through the bore scope was much worst, but not just from me. The engine was build with .060 ON hyperutectic pistons, Comp 268 cam, 360 cylinder heads, Doug's long tubes and an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb. The problem though became the engine build itself.
We noticed a ton of slop in the bores. After a check with a bore mic, the cylinders were found to be very slightly out of round and bored .070", not .060. This resulted in a ton of piston rock. When the engine was tore down I found 4 broken rings and the skirts on all the pistons were in very rough shape.
This is when I realized that I was going to be putting an engine in the car because this block was already to it's max. My first thought was a Gen 3 Hemi. Makes sense right? I had LS swapped the Jeep, my brothers Datsun truck and my friends RX-7, but the Mopar thing was growing on me. I loved the thought of fuel injection, quieter, more powerful engines that lasted much longer, and something different than just throwing my existing carb and headers on a 360 Magnum and still not been happy. But then I saw how expensive it was to do the modern Hemi swap. Now don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem spending money where money needs to be spent, but $2,200 for a computer and harness? The LS stuff was just done with modding the factory harness and flashing the computer with HP Tuners and we were in business. I was pretty disappointed that the standalone ECU was so much money. The headers are also huge money too, and I really wanted overdrive. I wanted to keep the car automatic and Chrysler has never built a quality overdrive automatic that is readily available in way Upstate NY.
If you get offended by LS Swaps, you might want to stop reading now...
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