1965 273

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bhwm1972

bhwm1972

1965 Dart GT 273
Joined
Apr 21, 2011
Messages
133
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Location
Palm Desert, Ca
I have a 1965 273 4-bbl. Im getting ready to rebuild it. Plans are I have a set of 2843675 heads with hardened seats. Its a low milage 273 and domed pistons and forged crank. I was thinking of reusing the pistons and the heads let me use the newer intakes. I have a LD4B intake and orig HO 273 AFB. 2nd choice is a Weiand Stealth and a TQ off a 1973 "340" auto. The cams I'm thinking of using E-4, Comp Cams 268 solid, or Comp Cams 272 soild. I have the Dart converted to Mopar Performance Elect with performance curve and a chrome box. Not using headers I have 1970 340 exhaust manifolds The charging system is a 1976 duel field alternator. The stall converter is 2500 and 3.91 gears with a 26" tall rear tire.

Any sugestions??

I wanted to keep it fairly orig looking in appearance
 
"302" casting heads. They have hard seats...and better chambers.

If you're looking for stock appearance, the LD4B won't cut it...maybe locate a '66-up cast (*6563) 273-4 intake...identical to early one..just diff. cast # and regular bolt hole arrangement...and use your '65 AFB. They will fit the 302 or 675 heads.
 
I erased my novel. I just noticed you are planning on #675 heads. I would have to look them up but I bet they have large open chambers. They are compression killers. (and performance killers too) The #302 heads that 65Val mentioned are a better choice. You can also use the 66-67 273 heads. They had the closed chamber with the heart shaped chamber. Use a intake designed for the 273/318 because the runners are similar size and shape. The E-4 is a good cam for a mild 273. The other two are more radical for the small cube 273 and should have headers, convertor, and rear gears to work properly. tmm
 
toolmanmike said:
I erased my novel. I just noticed you are planning on #675 heads. I would have to look them up but I bet they have large open chambers. They are compression killers. (and performance killers too) The #302 heads that 65Val mentioned are a better choice. You can also use the 66-67 273 heads. They had the closed chamber with the heart shaped chamber. Use a intake designed for the 273/318 because the runners are similar size and shape. The E-4 is a good cam for a mild 273. The other two are more radical for the small cube 273 and should have headers, convertor, and rear gears to work properly. tmm
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If he's going to run factory 66 heads and intake, might as well get the 65 items and be numbers matching. The only down side would be if he changes his mind about the intake.
 
65DartGTConv said:
If he's going to run factory 66 heads and intake, might as well get the 65 items and be numbers matching. The only down side would be if he changes his mind about the intake.
Click to expand...

Yep, Instead of upsetting the apple cart and changing everything why not just keep the original parts and improve them. You can't do too much to the 273 before you go too far overboard. tmm
 
bhwm1972 said:
I was thinking of reusing the piston
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Have you torn down the engine yet? Just curious if you know whether you can rebuild it without going to oversize pistons. If not the Egge domed pistons are an option. But beware, all things being equal, you will get about 1 point less compression with the Egge's. They have lower compression height and bigger valve reliefs. The frustrating thing is that Egge can't tell you the dome volume of their own pistons.

Here's my post with a detailed comparison of the Egge pistons to TRW pistons which are no longer made.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?p=1969625909#post1969625909
 
Seems like the only reason to build a 273 is to keep the car original. That's why I'm doing it. Otherwise build a 318. The money you save on parts will more the offset the cost of a rebuildable core. You'll have way more options for pistons and other parts and you'll end up with 45 more cubes.
 
65DartGTConv said:
If he's going to run factory 66 heads and intake, might as well get the 65 items and be numbers matching. The only down side would be if he changes his mind about the intake.
Click to expand...

He said he was going to run #675 heads, which are '68/'69 273/318 heads. They will have the more popular late intake bolt pattern and size.
 
65DartGTConv said:
Seems like the only reason to build a 273 is to keep the car original. That's why I'm doing it. Otherwise build a 318. The money you save on parts will more the offset the cost of a rebuildable core. You'll have way more options for pistons and other parts and you'll end up with 45 more cubes.
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...or why not a 360?...just as cheap, and you get 87 more cubes.
 
I suggest using a dual plane intake. I think the old factory 4 bbl manifold is a single plane.
 
it's hard to build compression with a 273, stay with closed chamber heads, building a 360 would be the smarter choice, if your not looking for huge gains in power the E-4 and LD4B should be the ticket, if its low mileage why rebuild ?
 
Dang. So I have the 675 heads on my 318 that are good and was going to port them. I just sold a set of '67 273 heads cheap. My build is similar to this one but its a 318..should I see about getting those heads back and transferring the valves and such over? What's the diff in compression? I've had a hard time finding that info so far...
 
mplex2000 said:
Dang. So I have the 675 heads on my 318 that are good and was going to port them. I just sold a set of '67 273 heads cheap. My build is similar to this one but its a 318..should I see about getting those heads back and transferring the valves and such over? What's the diff in compression? I've had a hard time finding that info so far...
Click to expand...

318 isn't as hard to get decent CR as a 273, Closed chamber heads will get you about .5 CR over 318 open chamber and 1 CR over 360 heads so if you zero deck your engine 273/318 closed chambers will get you around 10:1 with a 0.040" gasket/quench.
 
I'm pulling my heads today, so I'll see what's under there. This is a 68+ block, probably bone stock. Only has about 2k miles so I'm not touching the bottom end aside from swapping in a xe268 cam. I'll start a new thread once I do that so I don't totally hijack this thread (sorry OP!).
 
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