1974 Dodge Dart Diesel

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Joined
Jan 24, 2017
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Location
Ferndale Washington
New to the forum but I have been wanting to get the knowledge out about my dart. I had seen past posts questioning the diesel dart's legitimacy as to being a dealer installation. My dart is a 1974 4 door dart custom with the SD33 straight six naturally aspirated diesel hooked up to the 727 torqueflite tranny. I bought for my first car for $500 and I have driven it ever since. My dad knew the original owner who had given us all of the info on it and a couple of years ago I found the newspaper ad for it proving it to be a dealer special sold in Seattle. Here is a pic of the dart as well as the ad

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there's a weird black thing growing out of the fender/door gap there... :D - neat car - very unusual and I suspect rare too! oh, and :welcome:
 
this is awesome . I understand a sd33 is a Nissan 3.3l Marine engine that comes n.a. and turbo . Is this correct ? More info , please . I would like to see the coupler for the torqueflite . Where can I get one ?
 
Learn something every day!! sub!
 
that era was special for the OPEC oil embargo. The Arabs were punishing the US for supporting Israel, so they were restricting oil to the West. So we had gasoline shortages. We had all kinds of economy fads going on. I remember seeing Mopar had an option on their cars, whereby if you stepped too hard on the gas pedal, the engine vacuum would drop, and it would trigger the left fender-mounted turn signal to flicker, reminding you to not be "fuelish". LOL.
 
this is awesome . I understand a sd33 is a Nissan 3.3l Marine engine that comes n.a. and turbo . Is this correct ? More info , please . I would like to see the coupler for the torqueflite . Where can I get one ?
Yes that is correct, and here is a pic of the adapter plate for the bell housing, this was actually from last year, the flex plate had blown up and not being able to find the correct one, I ended up welding it back together. As to where to find an adapter plate, I wish I knew, I purchased 2 extra engines for it for parts and would love to put them to use in something

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this is awesome . I understand a sd33 is a Nissan 3.3l Marine engine that comes n.a. and turbo . Is this correct ? More info , please . I would like to see the coupler for the torqueflite . Where can I get one ?
International Harverster used the sd33 coupled to a 727 in Scouts in 1980 (don't quote me on the year). Rusted, beat up diesel Scouts can be found fairly cheap. I'm sure a decent transmission guy could swap the tailshaft and related internals to go 2wd..
 
Here are some more pics. The carpet was beginning to fall apart so, living on a farm, I actually bed-lined the floor to make dealing with mud and hay easier. I know avid dart and car enthusiasts in general probably don't appreciate that but it works well. I also straight piped it and dumped it out the side for better flow and sound, it honestly sounds so mean going down the road but it is gutless for sure.

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International Harverster used the sd33 coupled to a 727 in Scouts in 1980 (don't quote me on the year). Rusted, beat up diesel Scouts can be found fairly cheap. I'm sure a decent transmission guy could swap the tailshaft and related internals to go 2wd..
The diesel scouts were hooked to four speeds not automatics though, so finding one is incredibly difficult, I've only found two autos hooked to the sd33
 
I also straight piped it and dumped it out the side for better flow and sound, it honestly sounds so mean going down the road but it is gutless for sure.
Sounds like it needs a turbo........
 
I also straight piped it and dumped it out the side for better flow and sound, it honestly sounds so mean going down the road but it is gutless for sure.
Sounds like it needs a turbo........
Yes there are times I would love to, the only reason I haven't is because I wanted to keep it original, but it would definitely be nice to cook down the road a lil faster and easier
 
is that a search lit on there?

wonder what the original owner did for a living
 
is that a search lit on there?

wonder what the original owner did for a living
I guess originally it was used as a mail delivery car, and after that it sat. When I got it, it had a plate over the hole to seal it, so I found the spot light and installed it because i figured at one point it had had one
 
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