70 Dart 4-door RestoMod/Sleeper

[moparberk]

Greetings All!
Long time viewer, only recently started to participate in the forums!
Earlier this year I inherited two Mopar A bodies, causing, just about, an all out obsession with everything a-body. Here are the cars the day i pulled them.

69 Barracuda Convertible

70 Dart "More"Door

This thread is going to be about the building of the Dart into a RestoMod/Sleeper, and the Barracuda will be done at a later date.

After removing the Dart from my grandfathers lot, I was excited to find that it ran when it was parked in that spot 17 years prior, and knowing the reliability of the 318 it had under the hood, with a little elbow grease, some cleaning and swapping fluids and tires, she was running and driving again.

Shortly after getting it running, and starting to drive the old dart on an almost daily basis, I began the hunt for the drive-train that would take the place of the worn 318 and the tiny little 7 1/4 under the rear end. With an incredible amount of luck, the kind that usually is not common for me (lol), I came up with an 8 3/4 suregrip, that Iwill get pictures of later this week, and a 440/727 that ran when pulled.

Well I have done quite a bit of work so far, but this is the end of the pictures that I have ready to go, so I will update soon! hope you all enjoy! and love to get some tips/feedback!

 

[65 Dartman]

A Mordor sleeper - I like!

 

[Baptist_Ben]

This has potential to be a serious sleeper haha

 

[Dartnut]

I can't wait to see more upgrades and please post lots of pictures!
Love the 4 doors BTW!

 

[Red's '72 Dart]

I like it. Will be watching!

 

[moparmat2000]

440 4 door dart. Now thats a cool sleeper.

 

[moparberk]

Update #1-
finally got the motor in the shop and have slowly began to break down the motor for inspection

taking things apart slowly and placing hardware in ziplock bags labled with coresponding parts, im starting to develop quite the pile of parts

finally got it stripped down to see the valves and things look pretty promising, valve lash is not bad at all, valves are carboned up, pushrods are straight, and as you turn it by hand, you can hear the sweet hissing sound of compression.

while taking it apart, i discovered this beauty!

and lastly, new motor mounts are in!

thats it for this update! more comming soon! thank you for the support!

 

[moparmat2000]

That engine is super clean inside. That was a good score. Whats with the block heater? Leave it attached. Tell people its a plug in hybrid lol

 

[moparberk]

haha! that would be awesome! really leave people cofused if that is hanging out of the front and im refusing to pop the hood!

 

[dartfreak75]

This is gonna be good!! I'm following a big block more door what's not to love!!

 

[74Dart318]

Very cool, joining the crowd to watch this come together

 

[Walker434]

I'll be watching. Love it!

 

[75slant6]

This thing looks like it’s gonna be cool!

 

[moparberk]

Wow! thank you for all the support guys! I'm really enjoying this build! going to apologize in advance for the very shoty pictures this update. I didn't look at the pictures until now, and realize that some of them turned out to be kind of funky lighting... but what do you expect i guess lol trying to take pictures of the internals of an engine with my phone and my flashlight!

UPDATE 2:

Finally got the block stripped down and have accumulated quite the pile of parts!

To my amazement, and the amazement of the couple of buddies that have stopped by to see the motor, the cylinders are damn near flawless! The pictures here don't come close to doing this justice, there is hardly a scratch in these cylinders. Either this block is really low mileage, or somebody has been through this thing before.

I have decided that at least for the time being, I will be leaving the bottom half of this motor alone other than a thorough cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. The heads will need the most cleaning up anyways, and some new valve springs wouldn't be a bad idea. Upon inspection, found that this thing has 452 heads on it, which should do the trick.

now that the heads are off and ready to go to the machine shop, I decided it was time for a little fresh paint to make this old 440 look new again.

I have decided on a gloss black engine enamel from duplicolor for the block and most of the smooth surfaces. I promise it came out even even though it doesn't look like it in this lighting lol.

And being that I work at a shop that specializes in exhaust work, I happened to have an extra can of black BBQ Grill paint to paint the exhaust manifolds and some of the rougher surfaced parts, it will make for a 2 tone black paint job throughout the engine compartment, and on the very rare occasion that I do decide to pop the hood, will hopefully leave people in awe!

Thank you again for the support! feel free to share any advice, tips, tricks, or just plain old opinions! love to hear everyone's thoughts! Parts have been ordered, so MANY more photos coming soon!

 

[moparberk]

hey guys! spent last night trying to figure out exactly what all i have here, and i have reached a point where im going to have to ask for help from the more knowledgeable guys! from what i have found out, the block was cast in 75, but was placed in a 78 motor home, and from my understanding, which is pretty limited here, the motorhome engines came with kind of a wimpy cam, and low compression pistons. well this is where things start to get wierd. the exhaust manifolds are HP b-body manifolds, and the pistons from what i understand are not the low compression ones based off of how high they come at TDC, and had aluminium valve covers. either this was a projuect that was never finished or someone had a screaming wini camper. anyone have any insight here? block casting number is 4006630-440-7.

 

[Dartnut]

hey guys! spent last night trying to figure out exactly what all i have here, and i have reached a point where im going to have to ask for help from the more knowledgeable guys! from what i have found out, the block was cast in 75, but was placed in a 78 motor home, and from my understanding, which is pretty limited here, the motorhome engines came with kind of a wimpy cam, and low compression pistons. well this is where things start to get wierd. the exhaust manifolds are HP b-body manifolds, and the pistons from what i understand are not the low compression ones based off of how high they come at TDC, and had aluminium valve covers. either this was a projuect that was never finished or someone had a screaming wini camper. anyone have any insight here? block casting number is 4006630-440-7.

It sounds to me that the engine was a transplant and had some work done to it internally.
Looks like you got lucky!

 

[TXDart]

Piston look like flat tops in pictures,how far in the hole are tbey?
Look like rebuilt motor.

 

[moparberk]

pistons are definately flat tops, and after spraying them with a little decarb, theres a nice little 40 printed on each one.. and a 041 stamped on the bottom of the connecting rods, confirming it as being a rebuild at .040 over. so thankfully the cylinders are so clean lol.. someone saved me the work! new pictures coming this weekend!! parts in this thursday!

 

[moparberk]

hey all! sorry for the very long delay! had a hell of a time the last few months! working as a mechanic full time and going to school for a degree in computer science! its like I barely have any time to do anything else these days! well I have had the motor finished for at least 2 months now.. just scored a 699 oil pan and will be doing the swap either this weekend or next! will be uploading a MASSIVE amount of pictures soon, and once again I apologize for lack of updates. Really excited to get this thing running soon!