5.9 FI Magnum swap in 73 swinger

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i didnt know you could get a typhoon in red....


and teh motor looks good. looking forward to seeing you swap it. i have current dreams of building another 70, only a twister, with all the modern goodies as my new daily.....
 
Very interested in this as my 318's gonna need to go soon enough. What's your plan with mating it to your 904? I know you have to hog out one hole on the flex plate but I can't seem to source the correct one.
 
There isn't a specific hole, 3 holes line up. Put bolts in them, mark the 4th that doesn't line up and file it.
 
i didnt know you could get a typhoon in red....

Yep! Love that thing, thinking of getting one of my own or a syclone one of these days.
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1993 Typhoon


  • Black w/ Black (1,008 Total)
  • Black w/ Gray (98 Total)
  • Frost White w/ White (532 Total***)
  • Frost White w/ Gray (115 Total)
  • Apple Red w/ Apple Red (77 Total)
  • Apple Red w/ Gray (101 Total)
  • Forest Green Metallic w/ Gray (210 Total)
  • Garnet Red w/ Gray (24 Total)
  • Royal Blue Metallic w/ Gray (35 Total***)
here here it is at a local cruise in with my 74 Sport, he also owns the vette. jerk. lol

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Very interested in this as my 318's gonna need to go soon enough. What's your plan with mating it to your 904? I know you have to hog out one hole on the flex plate but I can't seem to source the correct one.

There isn't a specific hole, 3 holes line up. Put bolts in them, mark the 4th that doesn't line up and file it.

Magnumdust hit the nail on the head, there isn't a certain hole to hog out, basically what i am going to do is bolt 3 of the the torque converter bolts to the flywheel while it is suspended by my engine hoist. i will mark the 4th that does not line up, also mark the tc and then hog the hole out so i can get the 4th bolt in.
 
There are no good options for a flywheel with the notches for the crank sensor. You have to use a 143T flywheel from a Dakota or Ram, which forces you to use a bigger bellhousing and pushed the starter out leaving even less room for exhaust. I've even toyed with sandwiching a Dakota flexplate in between the crank and the flywheel, but it's too tall withought carving something out which probably means the flywheel would interfer with the sensor and make it impossible to run anyways. And the Dakota/Ram bellhousing doesn't accept an A833, if you wanted to stay with one.

Fzmax on here got Modern Driveline to build him a custom flywheel for a Dakota T56 swap because Quicktime doesn't do a 143T bellhousing. I'm pretty sure he got it all to work, but I don't believe it's a cheap option (if they would even make more, that is).

The last option is to take a 143T flywheel and machine it down to fit a 130T ring, but when Fzmax tried that the machine shop told him they couldn't find a good enough flywheel to make it work (don't ask me exactly why, don't remember). I know of one guy that did it, he even said he was going to get more made. That was 2 or more years ago and I still haven't heard from him on a price.

It's been done, but it's work.

Really the best option I can see is to plan to swap an R154 or MA6 into the car and use the Dakota bell and heavy flywheel. You have to cut the snot out of your car (no worse than a T56/TKO swap, but...) which means it isn't as easy as just bolting in EFI.

Or build your own pick-up off the crank pulley. That would solve it.

Specific to my build, I've got the numbers matching shortblock in my '74 Duster 360 4 speed car. It was balance with the flywheel that is in there now, and to swap to a Dakota flywheel would require the motor to come apart, or a different motor to go in. And even if I accept that the motor has to come apart to re-balance it so I can use the big 143T flywheel, I have to then cut the floor to fit a different transmission. Truth is, I really want a 5 speed and have an R154, but I struggle with cutting up a relatively rare car to put it in, and even if I did I don't really want to run a bigger flywheel and have to fight my starter.

One guy relocated the starter pocket on his Dakota/Ram bell so he could run a 130T flywheel on his R154 swap, but then you are back to not having an available flywheel with the notches.

I've spent years fighting this, and all I find are roadblocks. It's not impossible, but it's nothing like the easy with which you can run an auto using the Magnum EFI setup.

DIONR.

you could possibly take the magnum flexplate and lay it over your LA flywheel line it up with the crank bolt pattern.and mark the places for the sensor notches. then grind them and file them out. like "moparfreak69" did. only he did this with a flywheel from a 3.9. then notch your LA bell housing for the sensor. this way you could use your flywheel and your bell housing. and no tunnel work!



quote from "moparfreak69"
I then found a picture of a correct v-8 tone ring and made myself a little chart for where the new gaps belong. There needs to be 8 single slots which correspond with each cylinder reaching TDC. I just took the ring and layed it down on a bench at work that is covered in aluminum. I took a scribe and marked the inside diameter of the ring on the table, then marked the center with an X and scribed the lines to about an inch outside of my inside diameter scribe mark. This gave me 4 positions for the slots, all that was left was 4 more that fell in the middle of those 4. I just took a square and marked off a 45 angle between each line which gave me all 8 spots. Transfered those to the filled tone ring after lining up the single slot to a position (needed to cut out 7 slots each 45 degrees from each other). I made the cuts with a metal band saw at the shop and cleaned everything up with a file. Using the photo as a template I found that 2 flywheel bolt holes are immediately in line with each other as well as 2 of the slots.
 

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Ignore my original post.

Rapid, I understand what you are saying, but the stock flywheel just doesn't allow for that. You would have to carve a bunch of material out of it to even get the sensor to fit between the block and the flywheel. I can send you a picture if you want, but this has gone far enough in this thread.

Only good option is a custom front mount pickup IMO.
 
No hard feelings or issues, but I'm going to drop this in respect for the OP. I was just making a comment, didn't mean to get so deep into the manual issues of the swap.

Looking forward to watching this come together.
 
No hard feelings or issues, but I'm going to drop this in respect for the OP. I was just making a comment, didn't mean to get so deep into the manual issues of the swap.

Looking forward to watching this come together.

Hey no worries, I think it was actually cool that this situation popped up in this thread in case someone needs to reference it in a swap later on down the road.
 
Dropped the front suspensions and torsion bars. Replacing my K-Frame and passenger LCA due to a past wreck before the new motor goes in. Pulling the trans this weekend!
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Awesome swap, I have a 5.9 in my 73 and it runs great, I'm not using any of the FI or Serpentine because I didn't want to relocate my battery, and I didn't want to mess with FI fuel pressures just yet. Are you putting in the A/C and serp power steering? Did you get the RamVan power steering pump mount or are you using the Dakota/Truck piece? Very curious to see how that fits, lots of Oics please.

DionR/others who want to do a magnum/manual swap -
If y'all wanna use the stock ECM and a manual tranny, why not get one of the 32 tooth crank trigger rings and cut off all but eight of the teeth (pretty sure the gates on the magnum flexplate/flywheel are evenly spaced), then relocate the sensor up to the crank pulley. You'd have to do a very minor bit of wire harness fu to move it to the front but it'd be identical signal, you wouldn't have to do any flywheel fu or bellhousing mangling. The signal that the magnum uses is 8 teeth on the crank, and a two-position cam sensor. All you need is 8 evenly spaced pulses at crank RPM (and probably some predetermined triggering angle for cylinder one). Or, since you would then have a 32 tooth trigger wheel, you could ditch the Mopar ECM And do a Megasquirt/EDIS. More options with less modifications.
 
Heres mine put thousands of miles on it since installed in 05-06. 5.9 now has 52 mm throttle body .480 lift roller cam and 1.6 rockers hopped up mopar perf ecm.
 

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Not trying to discount your work its great. I had a similar issue where I bumped a passenger LCA and had to replace maybe 5mph or less on curb. I replaced and later had the K member give me trouble. I would have that K checked and reweld the crappy factory ones. Mine was fine at first but then it got real bad cost me some money later. Watching your build :happy1:
 
DionR/others who want to do a magnum/manual swap -
If y'all wanna use the stock ECM and a manual tranny, why not get one of the 32 tooth crank trigger rings and cut off all but eight of the teeth (pretty sure the gates on the magnum flexplate/flywheel are evenly spaced), then relocate the sensor up to the crank pulley.

That might work, I was thinking of something similar. Only hang up might be that the stock sensor sees (I think) a drop in the sensor at each spot, rather than a spike. The OEM flexplate has eight little windows, rather than teeth.

I've been thinking to just cut eight equally spaced holes into the OEM crank pulley and use a more compact pickup.
 
Not trying to discount your work its great. I had a similar issue where I bumped a passenger LCA and had to replace maybe 5mph or less on curb. I replaced and later had the K member give me trouble. I would have that K checked and reweld the crappy factory ones. Mine was fine at first but then it got real bad cost me some money later. Watching your build :happy1:
yeah I'm replacing the K Member. Allready pulled the old one out and compared the new vs. old. The new one has much better welds, and is arrow straight, the old one is tweaked, out of shape and the strut on the same side as the bad LCA has been welded back toghether. I'm going to feel much more confident now by replacing the K Member. I think the Long Tubes are going to fit now also! So.. Score!
 
That sounds like it might be a good solution! Would you mount the crank sensor above the pulley?

Something like that. I wanted something well contained so I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out a way to mount a wheel to the front of the cam and then use a Gen3 Hemi pickup or something similar mounted to the timing chain cover. It was exotic, complex and getting expensive (and I hadn't even bought anything), so I gave that idea up. So, haven't mocked anything up to see where it would fit, but figured I would keep it high and tight to protect it.

I do have to give credit for the idea to Ehrenburg, though. He suggested it many moons ago when I was asking about the dual pickup that is referenced in the 380 hp SMPI crate motor kit in the MP catalog. BTW, that never existed, so the MP kit is really just for automatics. Even the factory doesn't have a solution for the manual trans in an early car.
 
Something like that. I wanted something well contained so I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out a way to mount a wheel to the front of the cam and then use a Gen3 Hemi pickup or something similar mounted to the timing chain cover. It was exotic, complex and getting expensive (and I hadn't even bought anything), so I gave that idea up. So, haven't mocked anything up to see where it would fit, but figured I would keep it high and tight to protect it.

I do have to give credit for the idea to Ehrenburg, though. He suggested it many moons ago when I was asking about the dual pickup that is referenced in the 380 hp SMPI crate motor kit in the MP catalog. BTW, that never existed, so the MP kit is really just for automatics. Even the factory doesn't have a solution for the manual trans in an early car.

Cool, well keep us posted if you figure something out! I doubt it would be the same issue, but something to throw a stick at. GM's LT1 (had one and worked on a bunch of theses) when the Water Pump Failed, and leaked out the weep hole, it usually took out the optical crank sensor, that'd be my only concern.
 
yeah I'm replacing the K Member. Allready pulled the old one out and compared the new vs. old. The new one has much better welds, and is arrow straight, the old one is tweaked, out of shape and the strut on the same side as the bad LCA has been welded back toghether. I'm going to feel much more confident now by replacing the K Member. I think the Long Tubes are going to fit now also! So.. Score!


Like Momma always says....Better safe than sorry :cheers: Great build or did I say that?
 
Like Momma always says....Better safe than sorry :cheers: Great build or did I say that?
Thanks man! This is my weekend off, i hope to get a lot done!

Thank god for the internet!!! Both side LCA's, fresh painted with good bushings and bump stops on their way for $50 bucks! Can't beat that!
 
Some more pics!

Got the new K-frame in yesterday so now I'm just waiting on the LCA's to come in so I can re-assemble the front suspension. The motor is now completely painted including accessories. But as you can see, thanks to not paying attention, i dropped the power steering pump and busted the plastic pulley. The auto parts stores keep them in stock so sounds like this may be a common issue.

I also removed the old oil pan and pickup and installed the 360 car pan and pickup. I used the 4 piece gasket set, and all seemed to go fairly well, I did use a lil RTV in the corners where all the gaskets meet up. For $50 bucks that pan is a really nice piece.

Today, when i warms up a lil, I'll be pulling out the trans and seeing if all the factory kick down/throttle pressure linkage is going to bolt up and possibly modifying the flex plate to line up to the 904 converter. I'll keep ya'll posted!

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