1964 Dodge Dart 270 Slant Six Restoration
It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this.
A couple months ago I sprung a pretty big oil leak. Losing about a quart every 2 weeks. Not fun.
A guy I know has a shop here in Atlanta and only works on classics, so I decided to take it to him to get a rebuild and get the wiring redone with a Ron Francis kit.
He’s never worked on a /6 before so he was very excited to read up on it and build one. We got the engine out no issue, checked casting numbers, and discovered it was not a 225 as I had thought, but a 170. He took it to the machine shop, and lo and behold it had already been bored .060 over, and the pistons had been knurled. So we started talking about other options. Find another slant? Maybe go ahead and do a 318? But no, I love the Slant 6 and figured that’s the way to go. We found a guy in Georgia with a 225 in a 69 Dart selling the engine for $170. He went and got it and brought it back, stripped it, and took it to the shop. The engine hadn’t been bored or anything like that. Bone stock 225. But it was in fact made in ‘77, not 69, like the Dart it was pulled from. So probably from an Aspen.
The engine has been bored .030 over, swapped to mechanical lifters from hydraulic, and a new cam has been installed. Engine’s painted bright Chrysler red and it’ll look amazing in the car.
Only issue now is mismatch on the nub at the back of the engine that lines up with the torque converter. It’s smaller than the hole in the torque converter is, and the flex plate didn’t match up. So we’re trying to resolve that.
The new wiring (not what you see in that pic) looks good and functions well (without having driven the car yet). All the gauges work unlike before, swapped over to LED’s in the gauge cluster and Pushbutton mechanism, tail lights, etc. haven’t done an LED headlight conversion yet.
I plan on putting a 4 barrel Holley on it and running headers back to 2 or 2 1/2” single exhaust. Considering cherry bomb glass packs for that period correct hot rod sound.
other news, with the front carpet out I got a good look at how bad the front floor pans are. I knew they needed work but it looks like a bit more than I was expecting lol.
so if anyone knows a quality source for floor pans let me know. Interior is next on my list. Got all the sound deadening ready once I’ve got floorpans in, ACC carpet will be going in as well, and new speakers, sub, etc for a good sound system. Plan on getting my original radio rebuilt with modern components.
After that, on to the suspension. I’ve got new tubular upper control arms and bilstein shocks ordered, and will be ordering 6-leaf rear springs from springs n things soon. Want it all handling a smidge better before I put new tires on.
all said, this car is getting a lot more expensive than I ever expected when I picked it up almost 2 years ago for $3,800. Probably have 5 times that in the car now, but I love this little dart.
It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this.
A couple months ago I sprung a pretty big oil leak. Losing about a quart every 2 weeks. Not fun.
A guy I know has a shop here in Atlanta and only works on classics, so I decided to take it to him to get a rebuild and get the wiring redone with a Ron Francis kit.
He’s never worked on a /6 before so he was very excited to read up on it and build one. We got the engine out no issue, checked casting numbers, and discovered it was not a 225 as I had thought, but a 170. He took it to the machine shop, and lo and behold it had already been bored .060 over, and the pistons had been knurled. So we started talking about other options. Find another slant? Maybe go ahead and do a 318? But no, I love the Slant 6 and figured that’s the way to go. We found a guy in Georgia with a 225 in a 69 Dart selling the engine for $170. He went and got it and brought it back, stripped it, and took it to the shop. The engine hadn’t been bored or anything like that. Bone stock 225. But it was in fact made in ‘77, not 69, like the Dart it was pulled from. So probably from an Aspen.
The engine has been bored .030 over, swapped to mechanical lifters from hydraulic, and a new cam has been installed. Engine’s painted bright Chrysler red and it’ll look amazing in the car.
Only issue now is mismatch on the nub at the back of the engine that lines up with the torque converter. It’s smaller than the hole in the torque converter is, and the flex plate didn’t match up. So we’re trying to resolve that.
The new wiring (not what you see in that pic) looks good and functions well (without having driven the car yet). All the gauges work unlike before, swapped over to LED’s in the gauge cluster and Pushbutton mechanism, tail lights, etc. haven’t done an LED headlight conversion yet.
I plan on putting a 4 barrel Holley on it and running headers back to 2 or 2 1/2” single exhaust. Considering cherry bomb glass packs for that period correct hot rod sound.
other news, with the front carpet out I got a good look at how bad the front floor pans are. I knew they needed work but it looks like a bit more than I was expecting lol.
After that, on to the suspension. I’ve got new tubular upper control arms and bilstein shocks ordered, and will be ordering 6-leaf rear springs from springs n things soon. Want it all handling a smidge better before I put new tires on.
all said, this car is getting a lot more expensive than I ever expected when I picked it up almost 2 years ago for $3,800. Probably have 5 times that in the car now, but I love this little dart.
