Canyon Carver project?
First off, welcome! :welcome:
As for the rest of your project, you should decide if you want to have a canyon carver or a strip car, because if you're going to do one of those things well, you probably won't do the other one so well. What's fastest on the strip is not fastest in the corners, what's fastest in the corners will not be fastest at the strip. Two different suspension set ups.
Now,
#1. "fast" and "25mpg" aren't very compatible. Not unless you're talking a gen III hemi swap with fuel injection, and you're not doing that for $4k. With a mild 318 you can get around the 20mpg mark if you tune accordingly, but that won't be all that "fast". But even a well tuned 318 is going to have a hard time getting 25 mpg, and that's freeway, not city driving.
#2. If you can get your A-body to 2.5" off the pavement without sitting on the bumpstops, all I can say is bravo. Because that's gonna take some work (or some REALLY short tires). The way these cars are built, if you run a good set of headers you can be pretty low and still have the lowest part of the car be the header flanges with around 3.75" of clearance. With a set of Doug's D453 headers on my car, that's what I've got. And to get to this stance, there's some pretty significant suspension work that had to happen.
#3. A manual swap is going to cost you thousands all by itself. Even doing it on the cheap, it'll easily cost $2k. By the time you round up pedals, a bellhousing, a workable 833, shift linkage, clutch linkage, flywheel, clutch, shifter, 4 speed floor hump, etc you'll have a hard time being under that. Meanwhile, if you want your car to handle well, you have a few grand in suspension upgrades you'll need to take care of.
As for the suspension upgrades, this works as a pretty good start...
1.03 (or bigger) torsion bars ------------------------$250-$355
Tubular UCAs (PST, FFI, etc)------------------------$350
Adjustable strut rods (PST SR 14385)---------------$279
Solid tie rod sleeves (PST SAS 440S)----------------$49
LCA boxing plate (PST LCAPLTMOP621)-------------$14.50
Greasable LCA pins (FFI w bushings)----------------$135
Helwig tubular front sway bar 1 1/8 #55905 (73+ K)--$175
Solid rear 3/4 #6907--------------------------------$237
Mopar oval track springs
Zero arch- P4529414---------------------------------------------$232
1" arch- P4529415
Energy suspension 1" shackle bushings 2-2117G----$9
Bilstein RCD shocks(RCD-70-56663)------------------$410
Grand total on that is about $2,300, that's got a little extra built in depending on where you shop and what you buy. That does do all of the suspension, but obviously still doesn't include the brakes, wheels or tires you'll need to put it to the ground. All of it you'll need, unless your definition of "canyon carver" is a lot different than mine. I would also suggest some chassis stiffening- subframe connectors, torque boxes, some kind of inner fender/shock tower bracing, etc.
My car started off as a '74 Duster, you can see it's transformation from a /6, auto on the column grandma car into the 340, 4 speed Demon clone in the picture above in my build thread My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head
First off, welcome! :welcome:
As for the rest of your project, you should decide if you want to have a canyon carver or a strip car, because if you're going to do one of those things well, you probably won't do the other one so well. What's fastest on the strip is not fastest in the corners, what's fastest in the corners will not be fastest at the strip. Two different suspension set ups.
Now,
#1. "fast" and "25mpg" aren't very compatible. Not unless you're talking a gen III hemi swap with fuel injection, and you're not doing that for $4k. With a mild 318 you can get around the 20mpg mark if you tune accordingly, but that won't be all that "fast". But even a well tuned 318 is going to have a hard time getting 25 mpg, and that's freeway, not city driving.
#2. If you can get your A-body to 2.5" off the pavement without sitting on the bumpstops, all I can say is bravo. Because that's gonna take some work (or some REALLY short tires). The way these cars are built, if you run a good set of headers you can be pretty low and still have the lowest part of the car be the header flanges with around 3.75" of clearance. With a set of Doug's D453 headers on my car, that's what I've got. And to get to this stance, there's some pretty significant suspension work that had to happen.
#3. A manual swap is going to cost you thousands all by itself. Even doing it on the cheap, it'll easily cost $2k. By the time you round up pedals, a bellhousing, a workable 833, shift linkage, clutch linkage, flywheel, clutch, shifter, 4 speed floor hump, etc you'll have a hard time being under that. Meanwhile, if you want your car to handle well, you have a few grand in suspension upgrades you'll need to take care of.
As for the suspension upgrades, this works as a pretty good start...
1.03 (or bigger) torsion bars ------------------------$250-$355
Tubular UCAs (PST, FFI, etc)------------------------$350
Adjustable strut rods (PST SR 14385)---------------$279
Solid tie rod sleeves (PST SAS 440S)----------------$49
LCA boxing plate (PST LCAPLTMOP621)-------------$14.50
Greasable LCA pins (FFI w bushings)----------------$135
Helwig tubular front sway bar 1 1/8 #55905 (73+ K)--$175
Solid rear 3/4 #6907--------------------------------$237
Mopar oval track springs
Zero arch- P4529414---------------------------------------------$232
1" arch- P4529415
Energy suspension 1" shackle bushings 2-2117G----$9
Bilstein RCD shocks(RCD-70-56663)------------------$410
Grand total on that is about $2,300, that's got a little extra built in depending on where you shop and what you buy. That does do all of the suspension, but obviously still doesn't include the brakes, wheels or tires you'll need to put it to the ground. All of it you'll need, unless your definition of "canyon carver" is a lot different than mine. I would also suggest some chassis stiffening- subframe connectors, torque boxes, some kind of inner fender/shock tower bracing, etc.
My car started off as a '74 Duster, you can see it's transformation from a /6, auto on the column grandma car into the 340, 4 speed Demon clone in the picture above in my build thread My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head
