Captainkirk's Duster project

Part II, Chapter 5

“New Beginnings”
Who knew? After all this time, The Duke pops up alive and well in my garage! Drowsy, grumpy, but alive and well, just the same. There was no longer a question now of what color to paint the car…. Now it HAD to be Winchester Metallic Grey. Chew on that one for a moment and you'’ll see why. I mean, Duke…..Winchester…..well, you get the idea. This was exciting. Now I had identity to work with; to model this “build” around. See, the original Duke was simply a “transplant”. A gunslinger with a heart transplant from a l’i'l red minx. This time it would be a ground-up creation. And the thought processes are truly delicious.
The first order of business was, of course, the very heart of the matter…...the motor, to be exact. I was starting fresh, so to speak. The block, pistons, crank and rods were back from Tony'’s. And this was a good place to start. I was beginning the build with a bare cast block with standard 4.04 bore, using the same TRW forged slugs as before. Tony had set me up with new Speed Pro rings, and balanced the forged crank, rods, and pistons along with the resurfaced flywheel and damper as an assembly. I thought this was as good a place to start as any. In February of '’07 I brought one of my heads to Tony for an evaluation of the previous port work and for him to determine the actual cc volume of the heads using the TRW's and adjust accordingly with head gasket thickness and additional cc'’ing, if necessary. After a few moments of consideration, I chose a color for the build. Let’s see…...Chevy Orange, Chrysler Orange, Ford Blue, Ford Red, Black, or Pontiac Blue. It was not a hard decision. I left with two cans of Pontiac Blue, the memories of the minx and The Duke fresh in my mind.
There were still many considerations yet to be made. Induction was one of them. I'’m still dying for a Chrysler Six Pack setup, but other parts and pieces come first. The next decision in line was the cam. Tony looked at my cam briefly, and agreed that it was in decent shape. But the problem was, the lifters weren'’t. Tony explained that mixing an older cam with new lifters could bring disastrous results, and also that the cam grinds today were much better suited toward a particular build, and that once we'’d dialed in the compression ratio, head work already done (and any we might do), along with the proposed induction system and ignition, that we could dial in a new cam selection much better suited to my particular build and chassis/drive train. I reluctantly agreed to shelf the old bumpstick upon which so many unbelievable memories rested, and forge onward. This was, after all, a new dawn, a new era, a new build…..and a New Duke.
While Tony was busy playing with the cylinder head, I turned my attention to the induction possibilities. Yes, a Six Pak would be the most awesome induction system I could perch atop this mountain. Without a doubt. But the costs are staggering for a builder on a budget. Yes, I could obtain a totally new system for about $1800.00. But $1800.00 will buy an awful lot of engine and body work, and I know it. So…, time to review the facts as they are.
The Holley 650 double pumper worked very well. I had it tuned down to a '‘T'’ for the system I was running. But those were different times, as they say. Different manifold, different cam, and possibly different headwork. I'’ve been told that the Torker 340 is a dinosaur from a era long gone by, and that I should strongly consider a dual plane manifold such as a Weiand Stealth or Edelbrock RPM Air Gap. For carbs, I have the Holley 650 DP, the original Carter ThermoQuad, and the Carter AVS off The Duke’'s original motor to choose from as well as any other multitude of new era carbs available, such as the Demon carbs, ProForm, Quick Fuel...……the list goes on. All I have to do now is choose! I must admit, I’'ve become rather intrigued with the look of the ThermoQuad recently. With it’s small, torquey primaries, and secondaries the size of a pie tin, I must admit my curiosity is running wild. And there'’s no saying I can'’t try ‘em all out and see which works the best, either! Man, this could be a whole lotta fun! In fact, I could experiment between carbs and manifolds if I wanted, with little more than a gasket change. This is getting to sound more delicious every second for a motorhead like me.