'74 Duster build

[Mopar-Man]

The /6 six with a quarter million miles on it got pulled out and dumped outside next to the shop. What a greasy, nasty mess it was. 2 days later some guy in a white D100 van pulled up and yelled, "Hey! Y'all wanna set that 6?" So he hauled it off for $200. FREE DUSTER now since that what I paid for the car!

I brought both cars to my "buddy's" chassis shop and told him to put engine and trans into other car. He was a Chevy guy but figured he could handle it. I told him to use a motorplate and cut up the K-member. This was LONG before we had tubular K-members. I left him alone for a month or so then when I went to go check on the car... (pics to follow hope you are sitting down)

See that '71 in the background? That was my racecar that had no title. So I decided to pull the drivetrain from it and put it in the '74. But not the rearend, because it was a B-body 8 3/4 with 4.30 gears and a spool. So I sold that car as a roller for... $500! It had a 6 point cage, Competition Engineering back-half, bars from firewall to front frame rails, Aluminum tubs, brand new ET front runners and brand new 13x13.5 ET slicks. Oh well... I just gave things away back then. I gave away a 340 too a couple years later with ported J heads.

 

[Mopar-Man]

So that was how the car sat with 295/50/15 on 15x10 Welds. Should have left it alone! What a great daily driver. Had it up to 115mph one night when I told my buddy the /6 was too weak to even break a hundred and he said 'Wanna bet! Floor it right now." He was right lol.

 

[Mopar-Man]

This is the engine that was getting swapped into it. BUT I let it sit with open headers (and an open exhaust valve!) and water ate one of the bores and the seat out of the head . The bearings in this thing were PERFECT as it only has 50 passes on it and no street miles. Oh well. So since it was already bored .030 we did .055, had Ohio Crankshaft offset ground the crank to a 3.90 stroke and stuffed some BBC H beam 7.10 rods in it for around 470ci. I used Icon forged flat top pistons with file fit thin ring pack.

 

[Mopar-Man]

So it went into the shop and man it got hacked up! Out came the /6 k-frame, the front rails were chopped off at the firewall, inner fenders lost vertical portions and rad support lower gone.

 

[Mopar-Man]

Then rails were fabricated close to engine so headers could mount outside of frame and still run a decent sized front tire.

 

[Mopar-Man]

We went with tubular upper control arms with zerk fittings.

 

[Mopar-Man]

Now here is where everything got shitty for me. I paid the guy nearly $4000 for this job. 1/3 up front, 1/3 after 90 days and then... it sat at his shop for 3 and a half YEARS!!! He had 2/3 of the money and lost all motivation to finish the job.
This is what happens when you let "friends" work on your vehicle. When it went into the shop, it had a 3 month old paint job. When it came out, it had a ding or scratch on EVERY panel. We are no longer friends to say the least. I finally gave him an ultimatum knowing it would cost a long friendship, and it did. He said the car was done. I paid the balance. When we went to unload it from the trailer it rolled down the street because it had no brakes. He had cut the brake lines at the master cylinder and rolled them up! The motor was in the car and every bolt was loose. I found the starter in the trunk. When I went to bolt it up I realized the reason why - the frame rail was so tight to the motor there was no room! The flexplate was missing off the crank and never found it. At least I got almost all my parts back and the work he DID do looked pretty good. The headers he made are a work of art and perfectly symmetrical. Sign moving right along now...

 

[Mopar-Man]

So I had a friend come over and he figured we could notch the frame and reinforce it and the starter would have plenty of room. That worked out fine. Had to pull the motor to do it and decided to freshen it up while it was out even though it only had 50 passes on it it had been sitting for many years! My gut was something bad was wrong inside of it.

 

[Mopar-Man]

So, with the motor out and on a stand I could cleanup the engine compartment, especially that nasty firewall! I did not listen to my gut instinct, and instead of tearing the motor down to check everything, I cleaned it and painted it.

 

[Mopar-Man]

Next I sanded the chrome off my 80's Direct Connection valvecovers and painted them Hammertone silver. I don't know where the finished pictures went. But I did the intake as well and it looked great. That paint is VERY durable.

 

[Mopar-Man]

Oh, I found some of the Torker intake. Ended up selling it on Ebay.

 

[Mopar-Man]

So here I am with this pretty motor. Really proud of myself and talking to my MoPar buddy Brian. He comes over to take a look and says, "We have to at least pull a head off of it. I have a bad feeling. Look, do it for my peace of mind. I will pay for the head gaskets if we find nothing wrong!" So I fired up the compressor and handed him the impact gun. Our first clue was the crunchy sound it made when we had to pry the head off the deck. Once the head came off it was a horror show!

This is what happens when you don't listen and don't back the rocker shafts off! Dammit man. One cylinder on each side with an open exhaust valve and open headers looked like this. The other 6 were fine! The car was parked on concrete outside, with a hood and a car cover. Doesn't matter and this lesson cost me a lot of money.