1972 Dart Swinger slant six to 340 upgrade

[Jason1972]

About eight years ago as a teenager I was driving down a road in Mud Lake Idaho when I came across this gem rusting out in a field. At the time I had no concept of value for cars and saved up to buy this swinger from an old farmer for 2,000$. the car barely started, lights didn't work, brakes were shot, there were chunks of metal missing from the car in all directions, steering was all over the place... but I was immediately in love. I named the car Jess.

Throughout the years I had this car as my daily driver. It would break down constantly and it was always a pain to stay ahead of the game with 40 year old parts wearing out. It wasn't until about two years ago when I received a promotion at work that I was able to finally go to work with the extra money coming in.

Luckily I met a local guy named "Tiny" who has been custom building mopars and other hotrods his entire life. Tiny has a photographic memory and could take apart any mopar over the phone bolt by bolt if he needed to. He told me he had a 340 that had roughly 20,000 original miles on it and its been sitting under the hood of a Jaguar since about 1973 when he was going to build some crazy machine but never got around to finishing it.

So him and I set out to create what he likes to call a "Gentleman's Hotrod". something I could drive everyday but when needed I can still humble the little rice rockets from stoplight to stoplight.

 

[Jason1972]

Here is the Ol Block as we started to get to work tearing it down and cleaning it up.

 

[Jason1972]

Upgrades so far:
rebuilt front suspension
installed wilwood disc brakes for front
rebuilt 8 3/4 rear end with 2.96 gears
rebuilt 10'' brakes for rear.
engine bore to 4.070
Keith Black Hypereutectic pistons with total seal gapless rings

 

[Jason1972]

Went for a drive up the Canyon

 

[GEO]

Looks good

 

[crj1968]

Very nice ! thanks for sharing the pics!

 

[70Barcuda]

Very cool, nice work.

 

[Jason1972]

Finished up the rebuild on the A833 4 speed. Since the transmission itself barely had any usage everything looked pretty perfect on the inside. Just had to get some new thrust washers and a new reverse light switch. While we were at it we got the new front and rear swaybars from Hotchkis. Pretty eager to install them. just a few more bits here and there and we will be ready to install the engine, transmission and new rear differential as well.

 

[Jason1972]

Time to put the dart in a car cover while we get everything else ready for the engine conversion. Winter is coming

 

[jomoper]

Great job keep the updates coming !

 

[BB4-speed]

Really nice project!

 

[Jason1972]

New McLeod racing clutch, McLeod internally balanced steel flywheel, Edelbrock high volume mechanical fuel pump and High volume oil pump. Not a whole lot more is needed until the dart gets an entirely new powertrain.

 

[Jason1972]

Got the "Z" heads cleaned up. Melted down one of the old pistons to fill the exhaust cross over (heat riser). Heads are ready to go see Laroy Engines in Idaho for some porting, new brass guides and hardened seats.

 

[76orangewagon]

That's a unique way to block off the heat cross over, but buying a set of Felpro intake gaskets with the blocked cross over is much easier and a less permanent solution.

 

[Jason1972]

That's a unique way to block off the heat cross over, but buying a set of Felpro intake gaskets with the blocked cross over is much easier and a less permanent solution.

a gasket would be much easier and definitely less permanent. However, if you do it that way you are left with a unused passage in the head that will cause turbulence and effect the flow of the exhaust leaving that cylinder on each head. To maximize flow we melt the piston into the heat cross over and pour it about to flush on the valve end. By doing this you are able to take a die grinder and match the tunnel shape to the other cylinders so they have even flow.

 

[76orangewagon]

a gasket would be much easier and definitely less permanent. However, if you do it that way you are left with a unused passage in the head that will cause turbulence and effect the flow of the exhaust leaving that cylinder on each head. To maximize flow we melt the piston into the heat cross over and pour it about to flush on the valve end. By doing this you are able to take a die grinder and match the tunnel shape to the other cylinders so they have even flow.

Cool, thanks for that info, you learn something new everyday.

 

[chryslerfat]

Looks good and love the trailer you brought the engine home with.

 

[Jason1972]

Cool, thanks for that info, you learn something new everyday.

The gentleman i'm rebuilding this engine with is full of little tips like to squeeze every horse you can get out of a small block while still making it appear to be stock from the outside. Its been a lot of fun learning all of his tricks! i cannot wait to get this car together.

 

[Jason1972]

Started pulling off all the chrome trim on the car. Pulled the bumper off to paint it black. Great view of the new Hotchkis front sway bar. This car handles so much tighter now. Stripped the bellhousing down to bare metal and painted it Hemi orange to match the engine. I have a new garage now so I am able to clean up a lot of the parts.

 

[Jason1972]

Trying to achieve a positive caster for better stability at high speeds. Could not get what we wanted from the factory strut rods so I went out and found a rusty old pair of strut rods from an old dart in a junk yard. Cut them in half and cleaned them up. Bought some 5/8 thread tie rod sleeves from Hotchkis and threaded the strut rods to fit the sleeves. we now have adjustable strut rods that we can shorted to get that positive caster we are after. A little more work and a lot more money saved.

 

[Jason1972]

Got the heads back from La Roy Engines in Challis Id. Those guys are gods at porting heads. They also installed hardened seats and new brass valve guides. Installed the Ferrea Valves and got to work on painting the block "Hemi" orange.

 

[Jason1972]

Installed homemade adjustable strut rods and 1.03" torsion bars. finished painting the block. We are on the homestretch.

 

[Jason1972]

Today I disassembled a $5 distributor that I found in a junk yard. I cleaned it up and reassembled. Chrysler's factory distributor is very dependable

 

[360DartGT66]

Great stuff!

 

[mopar383]

Very cool !!