brian williams
Member
Hello, first post here, i'm from indianapolis, and i'm looking at buying a dart that a guy has for sale on craigslist. it's a 72 swinger, 318 automatic. it's in ok shape, has the usual surface rust on the lower 1/4 panels, and a bit in the trunk, etc. but it's not totally busted by any means. according to the guy selling it, it's a stock 318, and he put on headers, 3" exhaust straight pipes into dual flowmasters that are right underneath the back seats, and thats where the exhaust ends.
i started it up, and it started right up just fine, and sounded really, really good. very deep and throaty for what i expected from a 318, and almost sounded like it had a cam in it, because it had that really lobey kind of sound to it.
so then i drove it around a bit, and it drove excellent, except that when i would go wide open throttle on it, it would climb for a couple seconds, then cut out, and by cut out i mean like it would be practically dead silent for half a second and lose all power and all momentum, but then start climbing thru the rpms again just fine after that half second.
any ideas what that could be? i'm kind of new to mopar, and new to this engine, and was curious before i bought it if anybody had any ideas.
i used to have a 70 swinger 340, and had to sell it when our son was born, well he's 8years old now, and we want to get another swinger. theres a real good price tag on this car, the guy was originally selling it at $6000 and hes just a young kid, maybe 18 years old, and needs the money, and dropped his price to $3000 for me, BUT, i don't want to buy it and have the cutting out issue be something major.
what i think it could be, with my limited knowledge, is that it still has a stock 2bbl on it, and i wonder if after he added the headers, and bigger straight exhaust if at W.O.T. it's pushing too much air, and the stock 2bbl can't keep up, so it is cutting out, but i don't really have any idea.
thanks for the help, and regardless of if this is the car for us, or if another one comes along, we will be getting another A body, and hope to stick around these boards for all the usefull info, and great looking rides!
brian
i started it up, and it started right up just fine, and sounded really, really good. very deep and throaty for what i expected from a 318, and almost sounded like it had a cam in it, because it had that really lobey kind of sound to it.
so then i drove it around a bit, and it drove excellent, except that when i would go wide open throttle on it, it would climb for a couple seconds, then cut out, and by cut out i mean like it would be practically dead silent for half a second and lose all power and all momentum, but then start climbing thru the rpms again just fine after that half second.
any ideas what that could be? i'm kind of new to mopar, and new to this engine, and was curious before i bought it if anybody had any ideas.
i used to have a 70 swinger 340, and had to sell it when our son was born, well he's 8years old now, and we want to get another swinger. theres a real good price tag on this car, the guy was originally selling it at $6000 and hes just a young kid, maybe 18 years old, and needs the money, and dropped his price to $3000 for me, BUT, i don't want to buy it and have the cutting out issue be something major.
what i think it could be, with my limited knowledge, is that it still has a stock 2bbl on it, and i wonder if after he added the headers, and bigger straight exhaust if at W.O.T. it's pushing too much air, and the stock 2bbl can't keep up, so it is cutting out, but i don't really have any idea.
thanks for the help, and regardless of if this is the car for us, or if another one comes along, we will be getting another A body, and hope to stick around these boards for all the usefull info, and great looking rides!
brian
hope this helps
