Horsepower = Plenty
Torque = Plenty
It’s coming along. The new 340 and 4 speed transmission all bolted up with the NHRA approved scatter shield. We even installed the Hurst shifter and linkage and it is all working well together.
We decided to remove the old original vacuum controled massive heater box and replace it with a aftermarket produce from Summit Racing. Here’s a picture of it mounted to the firewall. This will eliminate a little weight and should give us enough heatto defrost the windows and warm things up in the cabin.
Russ from RaceTech got our cage in. It’s custom and well done. Great job. now the car feels super safe. The buckets are out of it so we can paint the cage.
We have put the motor in and out about 5 times to get the fitment correct for the headers. It’s a puzzle to fit the headers that we just happened upon in the trunk of another car we bought. About a year ago we bought a 74 Dart with a 318 and a locked trunk with no key. When we got into the trunk we found the headers and a few other gem parts too. So.. We have no idea what type of headers we have. Maybe Keith Black? We did have to bend and hammer the headers somewhat to get the center link to clear at the idler arm, and the power steering coupler was rubbing too. We finally got the fit good. Its tight but it’s going to work. Factors that make it tuff to fit headers are lowering the car and having a power steering pump. We were able to use the factory starter and did not need to go with a mini starter. So far so good.
Now were fitting all the bits and pieces and will fire up next weekend. I’m glad this is a hobby at this point.
Duster headers. A body headers. Dart Demon Valiant Barracuda headers. Fitting headers in an A body.
This is the left (drivers) side mount. For non-spool type mounts (72 and earlier) you can easily fabricate a tab to the 318 mount as seen in the picture above. It works great and saves you from spending 165 bucks from Schumacher for the very common motor swap from 318 to 360.
This is the right side (passenger) mount. This one bolts up with no fabrication whatsoever. Works great too!
Mopar 318 to 360 motor swap non spool type motor mounts
Jay Moody of Jagged Edge does all our welding and fabrication. He is an amazing welder and fabricator! We’re lucky to have him work on our cars. If you need a great fabricator/welder or some metal art contact him at www.jaggedgepdx.com
Motor Stats: 1977 Chrysler 360 HP. Machined and Reassembled. .030 Pistons. 1972 340 Mainfold. Crane Cam 465 lift. Set up with headers. You can put in the right side header when dropping fhe motor in but the left side needs to have the center link go thru it so it’s easier to put that one in before dropping the motor.
We looked online and could not find a picture of a set-up like this so we thought it would be good to post it. This is a Dial Indicator set up on a Chrysler Mopar 8.75 (8 3/4) axle to set axle bearing preload. The axle the play is 10 to 15 thousands of an inch. Set the dial indicator up this way and wiggle the axle back and forth. It should not go less than 10 and not over 15. The picture shows something like 8 thousands which is not what you want. We had to loosen it from there until we got to about 12 thousands. The lock tab will only allow you to get one setting but you will get it somewhere in between there. For us it was 12 thousands. If you need a Dial Indicator Harbor Freight has them for $34.99 http://www.harborfreight.com/clamping-dial-indicator-93051.html
