jbc426
Well-Known Member
The Background:
The 1968 Barracuda I picked up about 10 years ago started out with a poorly tuned, rebuilt slant 6 with maybe 85k miles on it. It was a nice, rust free California car that spent most of it's life in a garage when not being driven. It had freshly rebuilt 9 inch drum brakes on it. but the darn thing seemed like it just didn't want to stop. I almost wrecked the car three times in the first three weeks I had it.
Anyway, the modifications began there. 11 3/4 unicast police taxi rotors in front and Dr Diff's econo-rear disc kit with 2004 Mustang Cobra GT calipers transformed my braking. it was like night and day. If memory serves I used a steel 15/16th master cylinder with no power assist. It still feel like it has power brakes though, the balance is near perfect and I also upgraded the rear end to get the big bolt pattern and 8 3/4 with 3.23's sure grip.
The car flexed pretty bad. I had the undercarriage and engine professionally steam cleaned and it looked like it had been made the year before. It was amazingly clean and unaffected by the climate.
I welded in a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening Kit, made my own Monte Carlo bar for the front end, put a pair off passenger side 1968 Super stock springs in with one inch lowering blocks and some small block torsion bars, I added front and rear sway bars and a Firm Fell #2 power steering box and then put the biggest 15 inch black rims with dog dishes on it that would fit without rubbing anywhere. I
t was like a completely different car, it handled incredibly well, was predictable to drive and after a rebuild, bigger valves, some head work, Dutra Duals, a Super-six intake, 350 Holley and re-curved distributor by the slant 6 guru Doug Dutra, it ran pretty well.
A few years went by, and one day I put the motor up for sale on Craig's list on a whim. I really just knew I was a V8 man driving a slant six.
I bought a junkyard 5.9 Magnum out of a 2001 Durango that was supposed to only have 98k on it. Once I got it home, I cleaned it up and called Hughes and got a bigger cam, 1100 valve spring, rod bearings, timing set and put all new seals in it. I could already tell this thing had more like 1098k miles on it, but the cylinders looked good still with nice cross-hatch marks still clearly visible. I never pulled the heads, put in a fresh set of rings or did a hone job thinking the motor was good enough to last a few years until I could build a new one. Later, I found out it it did last and runs great, but it only has 90 psi cranking compression in the #2 cylinder, 145 psi to 155psi in the others. The chance I took to save a few bucks had come back and bit me.
A few cans of hemi orange, a modified beer keg intake, summit headers and dual exhaust(great deal/value by the way), a freshly rebuilt 727 with a shift kit and a 2200 stall torque converter, new driveshaft and a custom stock looking 4 core 22 inch radiator from US Radiator. Schumacher motor mounts allowed me to get the motor in the car on the stock slant 6 k-member.
I kept the EFI, put in 4-hole 24 lbs Ford injectors and bought the Hotrod Wiring harness From HotwireAuto. I used the computer from a 1998 3/4 ton truck with a 5-speed from Solo Electric in Florida and had Sean "HemiFever" send me some tunes and a SCT Tuner.
After figuring out the ground was open on the heater element for the O2 sensor, I got the car up and running great. It had been going into limp home mode after 45 seconds when the warm-up mode switched to closed loop. I learned a lot about fuel injection in about a month's time during the build. Before starting this winter project, I had no idea what or how it worked really.
Once I got the car running, I could see blue smoke coming from the passenger side on deceleration or hard acceleration. It used about a quart of oil a week. Now it's up to two quarts a week. It's days are numbered, and even though I just put in a fresh 489 case Dr Diff built 3.91 gear Truetrac chunk in preparation for a four speed automatic overdrive conversion, I got beat by some bone stock import the other day. I know lots of them are faster than I will be even with the new drivetrain, but I hate getting beat.
The Upgrade:
I sourced a nice 5.9 block on ebay and had it delivered for free from Colorado via truck for $300. It was a really nice core. I couldn't find a local motor here to save my life. I ordered up a SCAT cast crank stroker kit with the Keith Black Hypereutectic Pistons, all the engine parts and some CNC Super Prepped Edelbrock heads from Hughes Engines and had them spend some additional time porting blending in the pockets etc, and then had them surface cut to up the compression back up to 10.2 to 1. I also upgraded to a Airgap intake with deep porting, 30 lbs injectors and their Big Gulp throttle body.
Sean will send me some new tunes once I'm about up and running.
The cam I selected is ground on a 110 degree lobe centerline, has .544" lift intake, .568" exhaust with 1.6's, and has .228 Intake & 236 duration at .050.
The short block is finally assembled, the cam degreed, and everything but the correct oil pump bolts are installed, I still have a lot of work to do to get it, the automatic overdrive and the Vintage Air A/C upgrade in the car. The overdrive install thread is already started over in the drivetrain section. I'm hoping this will be a minimally invasive torsion bar crossmember surgery installation, but their are lot of skeptics out there. If it is minimally invasive, it will be a different approach than the traditional plate adapter set-up that has been used by many. it should be getting interesting real soon.
This cast crank low rpm little motor should be a strong running, well-mannered, injected street motor with great torque. I have little idea what type of power it will put out. I've been told anywhere from 425 to just over 500 hp. Does anyone have one of those engine calculators or a reasonable guess using this cam and these decent flowing heads?
View attachment Mr Slant Six (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3276 (Large).jpg
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View attachment 5.9 x 68 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3280 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3718 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3782 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3779 (Large).jpg
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The 1968 Barracuda I picked up about 10 years ago started out with a poorly tuned, rebuilt slant 6 with maybe 85k miles on it. It was a nice, rust free California car that spent most of it's life in a garage when not being driven. It had freshly rebuilt 9 inch drum brakes on it. but the darn thing seemed like it just didn't want to stop. I almost wrecked the car three times in the first three weeks I had it.
Anyway, the modifications began there. 11 3/4 unicast police taxi rotors in front and Dr Diff's econo-rear disc kit with 2004 Mustang Cobra GT calipers transformed my braking. it was like night and day. If memory serves I used a steel 15/16th master cylinder with no power assist. It still feel like it has power brakes though, the balance is near perfect and I also upgraded the rear end to get the big bolt pattern and 8 3/4 with 3.23's sure grip.
The car flexed pretty bad. I had the undercarriage and engine professionally steam cleaned and it looked like it had been made the year before. It was amazingly clean and unaffected by the climate.
I welded in a complete US Cartool Chassis Stiffening Kit, made my own Monte Carlo bar for the front end, put a pair off passenger side 1968 Super stock springs in with one inch lowering blocks and some small block torsion bars, I added front and rear sway bars and a Firm Fell #2 power steering box and then put the biggest 15 inch black rims with dog dishes on it that would fit without rubbing anywhere. I
t was like a completely different car, it handled incredibly well, was predictable to drive and after a rebuild, bigger valves, some head work, Dutra Duals, a Super-six intake, 350 Holley and re-curved distributor by the slant 6 guru Doug Dutra, it ran pretty well.
A few years went by, and one day I put the motor up for sale on Craig's list on a whim. I really just knew I was a V8 man driving a slant six.
I bought a junkyard 5.9 Magnum out of a 2001 Durango that was supposed to only have 98k on it. Once I got it home, I cleaned it up and called Hughes and got a bigger cam, 1100 valve spring, rod bearings, timing set and put all new seals in it. I could already tell this thing had more like 1098k miles on it, but the cylinders looked good still with nice cross-hatch marks still clearly visible. I never pulled the heads, put in a fresh set of rings or did a hone job thinking the motor was good enough to last a few years until I could build a new one. Later, I found out it it did last and runs great, but it only has 90 psi cranking compression in the #2 cylinder, 145 psi to 155psi in the others. The chance I took to save a few bucks had come back and bit me.
A few cans of hemi orange, a modified beer keg intake, summit headers and dual exhaust(great deal/value by the way), a freshly rebuilt 727 with a shift kit and a 2200 stall torque converter, new driveshaft and a custom stock looking 4 core 22 inch radiator from US Radiator. Schumacher motor mounts allowed me to get the motor in the car on the stock slant 6 k-member.
I kept the EFI, put in 4-hole 24 lbs Ford injectors and bought the Hotrod Wiring harness From HotwireAuto. I used the computer from a 1998 3/4 ton truck with a 5-speed from Solo Electric in Florida and had Sean "HemiFever" send me some tunes and a SCT Tuner.
After figuring out the ground was open on the heater element for the O2 sensor, I got the car up and running great. It had been going into limp home mode after 45 seconds when the warm-up mode switched to closed loop. I learned a lot about fuel injection in about a month's time during the build. Before starting this winter project, I had no idea what or how it worked really.
Once I got the car running, I could see blue smoke coming from the passenger side on deceleration or hard acceleration. It used about a quart of oil a week. Now it's up to two quarts a week. It's days are numbered, and even though I just put in a fresh 489 case Dr Diff built 3.91 gear Truetrac chunk in preparation for a four speed automatic overdrive conversion, I got beat by some bone stock import the other day. I know lots of them are faster than I will be even with the new drivetrain, but I hate getting beat.
The Upgrade:
I sourced a nice 5.9 block on ebay and had it delivered for free from Colorado via truck for $300. It was a really nice core. I couldn't find a local motor here to save my life. I ordered up a SCAT cast crank stroker kit with the Keith Black Hypereutectic Pistons, all the engine parts and some CNC Super Prepped Edelbrock heads from Hughes Engines and had them spend some additional time porting blending in the pockets etc, and then had them surface cut to up the compression back up to 10.2 to 1. I also upgraded to a Airgap intake with deep porting, 30 lbs injectors and their Big Gulp throttle body.
Sean will send me some new tunes once I'm about up and running.
The cam I selected is ground on a 110 degree lobe centerline, has .544" lift intake, .568" exhaust with 1.6's, and has .228 Intake & 236 duration at .050.
The short block is finally assembled, the cam degreed, and everything but the correct oil pump bolts are installed, I still have a lot of work to do to get it, the automatic overdrive and the Vintage Air A/C upgrade in the car. The overdrive install thread is already started over in the drivetrain section. I'm hoping this will be a minimally invasive torsion bar crossmember surgery installation, but their are lot of skeptics out there. If it is minimally invasive, it will be a different approach than the traditional plate adapter set-up that has been used by many. it should be getting interesting real soon.
This cast crank low rpm little motor should be a strong running, well-mannered, injected street motor with great torque. I have little idea what type of power it will put out. I've been told anywhere from 425 to just over 500 hp. Does anyone have one of those engine calculators or a reasonable guess using this cam and these decent flowing heads?
View attachment Mr Slant Six (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3276 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3052 (Large).jpg
View attachment 5.9 x 68 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3280 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3718 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3782 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3779 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3781 (Large).jpg
View attachment IMG_3716 (Large).jpg
