who here has built a sleeper

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DARTLARRY

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Im in the process of building one now. I have a 360 mildly built with stock valve covers, big black breather on the valve covers, wire looms, stock two barrel air cleaner modified to fit a carter afb. the whole thing painted blue including the aluminum ld340 intake. This motor will look like a stock 318 when i raise the hood, with the exception of headers. Hooked to 2.5" exhaust with turn downs. (wish I could afford 340 manifolds). Its all going into a 1971 swinger with 34,000 miles on the body. It looks stock on the outside, it has dog dish hubcaps, all the trim just like grandma would drive. except for the 360, 727, and 8 3/4 wit 3:91 sure grip. thought it would be neat to cruise in this thing thumpin down main street. And no one would think that little old lady dart could make all that noise.Then pop the hood and they wouldnt beleive that stock motor sounded like that either. Maybe its just me, but I think it sounds cool
 
Adam is building the cars this way as of late.

I do it this way as a norm for the everyday rides. My Magnum is like that. Dead stock minus the tricks that require a keen eye to spot. Most do not notice the;

Incorrect air cleaner. A trap door cleaner from a '73 - 340 with a K&N inside.
Upgraded ignition. I used to hide the MSD box's under the battery tray.
MSD also makes black OE looking wires that have little resistance.
Viscous fan upgrade.
Other things like the milled/ported heads and mello sounding cam (Wider centerlines) will never be noticed.

I have a Holley Street Dom for my 400. I did this one in aluminum paint. Not a normal color for the sleeper, but I said what the heck. A change up, for a change.

Headers are the only give away for performance.
 
As to the 340 exhaust manifolds, I read somewhere some time ago that the manifolds from the mid 90s 360 trucks were as good as the early 340s. There are lots of them now in the junkyards at a lot less cost than the 340s. I have a set I am saving for one of my own projects and can furnish casting numbers if you want them. Jerry
 
this is what we're planning on my friends 66 dart.
he is going to end up with my 318 probably.
we are going to use an old air cleaner with 273 decals.
going to leave the last section of the tailpipe on.
wait :shock:...maybe i shouldn't reveal anything else...8-[
 
Heres The Scamp I built last year. Granny brown, bench seat and column shift, 500hp 340.

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http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a216/adamr78/Scamp/?start=all
 
I'm putting a 360 (340 cloan) motor in a 70 Dart,complete with 340 manifolds and red line dog dish's.The car will be pretty much stock,including the column shift and bench seat.It has dual exhaust,with a fresh 3.55 Sure-Grip ready to go in. The car is in the paint shop right now,chomping on the bit to get it back.8)

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Not a Mopar...

We had a Cadillac Seville back in the 80's with a 482 chevy and a ton of N2O. Car ran low 11's. Not bad for grannies car. It sounded a bit goofy for a Caddy, but, wasn't real radical.
 
Im doing my duster right now. Sleeper all the way! Nothing says sleeper like a bench seat & a column shift!!
 
Yep Adam, that throw blanket on the front bench DEFINITELY makes it look like a grandma sleeper. LOL :toothy10:
 
Not really planning on making a sleeper out of it, but I sold the ralleys off of my dart and had to put these on it to make it mobile. Here is a picture I took last night.
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I have had a few sleepers. Back in high school I had a 1970 440 Plymouth Fury 1 (ex-trooper). This thing would run. My buddy had a 1967 396 chevelle ss with a 396. We hooked these 2 up, on the first run, he beat me by a link. I just blew the tires off of it! next run, we went from a rolling start. I beat him by 2-cars! This car also had a top end speed that could hold its own.
My favorite sleeper was my 1987 5TH Avenue. I took a 1985 Trooper Gran Fury & parted it out. I used all the suspension, brakes, rear end, & 125 MPH certified speedo. I built a E58 360 spec. engine, complete with 8.5 comp., stock 340 cam, small valve J-heads, port-matched Edel. Performer intake, 340 T-Quad carb, 1 5/8 headers, no cats, 2 1/4 exhaust w/Dyno-max turbos, 999 t-flite with a 2.74 low gear, & a 8 1/4 rear end with a Suregrip & 2.94 ratio. I kept every option the car came with, gotta be comfy. This thing weighed 4100 lbs. It would run 14.80's all day long. It had a great top end due to the 2.94 gear & fuel milage wasn't to bad, 17 mpg. The only give away was the tach on the dash. One of the best stop light challenges that I had, involved a 1971 chevelle, complete with teenager & hood scoop. I smoked this kid. He was supposed to be the fastest car in school. It wasn't long before the kids started saying , stay away from that old guy driving the old brown Chrysler.
 
Don't know if this counts as a sleeper, but I'm working on a '66 V200 4 door that will wind up with an EFI 225 with 14 pounds of Rootes boost. Went so far as to find Belvedere hubcaps for the 14" wheel swap required for discs. Baby blue with all the trim and 215/70-14 whitewalls. Watch out for granny Hester.
Probably the weirdest thing I ever did was a couple of 289 Pintos. Started out with a 2 door sedan and went to a Cruising Wagon for traction.
 
well i guess everone has their own idea of a sleeper.


my dart was painted all stock like with rally wheels and under the hood it was all orange with a stock air cleaner and valve covers and headders but it was brite yellow so it kinda stood out. but at the same time it sure didn't look like a low 12 second car either.... i wouldn't call it a sleeper though. maybe unsuspecting ?

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then i had my valiant. that had to be a sleeper i guess. beat to hell paint. crappy interior black whels with poverty caps,black wall tires but a 440 under the hood.

i eventually too the traction bars off when i found the proper shock plates.

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had a demon too that if it wasn't bright yellow that i guess could have been a sleeper too.

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Adam, how can you hate cragars? Dislike, ok, but hate them?! When I see a set of cragars or keystones I can only think muscle. cragars would make a geo metro look good!
 
They just look cheap to me. I have seen a few cars that they look good on but usually I invision a car that was tossed together.
 
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