My 72 Dart Swinger

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72BlueSwinger

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Alright, I've been reading this forum for a couple of weeks and recently joined it. I am now the proud (sentimental) owner of a 1972 Dart swinger. It was my late stepfather's project. He had been working on it for about 4 years or so. Around January 29th 2008 he was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer and passed away on March 3, 2008. I asked for this project for a several reasons. The first was because we both love mopars and I probably understood that as well as anyone around him. Secondly, it was what I would probably best remember him by. Thirdly, I didn't want to see it junked, of course, and fourthly, I don't know of anyone else in the family who would've appreciated it as much. So there are my reasons.

I promised pictures as soon as I could get some, and here they are. Its a 1972 Dart Swinger 318, 904 T-Flite. I am going to be having a LOT of questions starting this week, today in fact, so any help will be greatly appreciated. Just check the various forums for my new threads. BTW I'll also be selling some decent parts off a 74 Dart SE 4 door.

March 2008 + Dart 043.jpg
 
I've been pretty busy the last two months or so. Helping my mom and little brother clean up the farm, hauling off junk iron, finishing up some remodeling jobs my stepdad started but never got to finish. Anyway, I've been working on the dart in my spare time, which isn't much. I swapped to an 8.25 rear end, with a $10 junkyard driveshaft that's the perfect length :D It has all new brake lines all the way around. The frontend now has disc brakes from the '74 4 door dart. New plug wires, new ballast resistor and electronic ignition module. New battery cables. New electric fuel pump with relay and wiring kit. Finally tonight after getting everything sorted out, we got her running for the first time in about 4 years. No smoke. No nasty noises. It was parked because of a cracked block, so now it has a fresh 318 and 904 with a Hurst Pro-matic 2 floor shifter to boot.. It sports some sort of factory exhaust manifolds, cause my stepdad just couldn't get the manual steering headers to fit the power steering car.. hmmm... Its just too bad the ghetto mufflers on it make it sound like crap. Time to find some Flowmasters or Spintechs.

Now for part two of this update.. I noticed good oil pressure while we were cranking the engine, getting things sorted out.. but once we got her running on her own, I noticed the pressure went up to about 80 on one of those manual auto zone cheapo wet guages.. If I remember correctly, every old dodge I've seen - most of em 318s - ran about 40 lbs of oil pressure at the most.. So either I have a high flow pump, some oil passages blocked, or perhaps the oil is just waaay too thick and needs changing, which I'll probably do tomorrow. If any of you have any ideas, I'd appreciate some input.

PS... I'll be in the market for some gears and an LSD soon. Tomorrow she comes out of the garage.. OH YEAH!
 
Glad you were able to make some progress.
Not sure about the oil pressure situation but looks like your on the right track to sorting it out.
Always room for another 72' :cheers:
 
Nice project, same color as my 72
If it's a high volume pump like mine it will have high pressure, mine has 40@ idle and 65-70 running. Do you need some headers for it? Have new hedmans never installed. PM if interested.
Bruce
 
Depending on what pump went in, that may be correct. It should drop down to about 40 at hot idle. The oil you're using will make little difference in the pressure, especially if you're thinking it will make 40 psi difference.

Don't forget. ZINC and MAGNESIUM have been removed from conventional oils and will cause catastrophic cam failures if you run them. Use a full synthetic. Mobil 1, RedLine, Amsoil, (maybe) Royal Purple, OR you can use Rotella.....yeah, what is used in Diesel trucks.
 
Well from what I can read, Mopars are good anywhere between about 30 and 80 lbs of pressure, and once old blue warmed up, her pressure dropped down to about 60. She needs an oil change though, cause it looks and smells funny, but that will come sometime this week. I got her ride height adjusted temporarily today, along with the alignment. It will hold me till I get it to a shop for some pro work. I also washed 4+ years of bird crap and farm grime off of it with some soap, water, and elbow grease.. But the MOST fun I had today was leaving a 20 ft long black patch in the parking lot next to my garage. Now, I just need to get the rest of the air out of the brake lines, put the decent tires on... a little exhaust work.... the turn signals working right.....new windshield wipers... fix the windshield washer spray... .... .... now where was I again?? hmm....
 
Alright, so now I have managed to get all the brake lights working, all the turn signal lights work except the drivers side, which don't blink, but they do come on. I got the good set of Hoosier Radial GTs put on it, which look very nice... The Hurst Promatic 2 shifter is going to get lost as soon as I can find a decent replacement, I can't adjust it so it will hit d1. It will get the rest, but the shift pattern on it just isn't right for the 904. So now its ready for an alignment and the exhaust work, hopefully this week. By the way.. I was blowing the cigarette lighter and dome lamp fuse, and me and a buddy traced it down to a time delay relay, once we removed that, no blown fuses. I checked the wiring after that, and there doesn't seem to be any shorts. The time delay relay is supposed to delay the ignition lamp (key light - so you can see where to put it in the dark). Hopefully soon I'll be modifying the fenders to accept the screw down type turn signals, from a 74, cause my 72s are shot. Even with the highway gears in it, it pulls pretty hard. I also found out that neither the column mount tach or the speedo work... That's a problem for sure. Can you say speeding ticket?
 
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