BOLT ON 160 HP
TO ANY 5.7L HEMI WITH THIS TORQSTORM BLOWER!
SWAP MEET STEALS!
19
MOPARS FROM THE NATS UNDER $20K!
STREET LEGAL & STRIP LETHAL! 1975 PLYMOUTH DUSTER RUNS 10s ON PUMP GAS!
MEET THE FIRST-EVER HOMEBUILT HELLCAT SWAP!
1970 DODGE CHALLENGER RT/SE
DODGE DEMON HOW TO SCORE & REBUILD VINTAGE 392 HEMI REBUILD: WHEELIE SIMULATOR: GET A TASTE OF THE REAL THING! A DANA 60 REAR FOR FREE! 436 HP WITH EASY UPGRADES!
INDIVIDUAL RUNNER INTAKE TECH: ADD 29 HP & LOSE NOTHING ELSE!
CONTENTS
VOLUME 31 ✪ NUMBER 2 ✪ FEBRUARY 2018
.COM
TECH
66
12
RESTO CORNER WITH AMD: E-BODY BACK-HALF RUST & COLLISION REPAIR
Maintaining panel alignment when repairing rust is tough enough but what if there is also old damage?
18
READY THAT REAREND!
Refurbish a vintage B-Body Dana 60 for big Hemi power on the cheap.
26
52
72 12
18
34
38
44
WHALE OF A HEMI
We dig into the engine that started it all —the iconic first-gen 392 Hemi—and hop it up into the 21st century.
34 IT’S A RUNNER! This Speedmaster IR intake not only has looks that kill, it added nearly 30 hp to a mildly warmed-over 5.7L Hemi.
38
THE ULTIMATE BOLT-ON
Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to beat a blower for a solid horsepower gain. TorqStorm proves it again with an extra 161 hp on a 5.7L Hemi.
44
SHOW ME THE LIGHTS
Some Mopars can benefit from better side-marker light positioning. Here’s how and why you’ll want to do it.
FEATURES 60 IT JUST GETS BETTER! This Hellcat-powered ’70 Challenger RT/SE could be the ultimate melding of classic styling, modern performance, and comfort.
66
THE REAL DEAL
George Kavounis’s ’75 Plymouth Duster runs 10s and cruises the streets with ease.
SPECIAL FEATURE
60 ON THE COVER We first met Larry Rose and his Hellcat-powered ’70 Dodge Challenger at the Mopar Nats, where it put down 617 hp to the rear wheels at the Mopar Muscle Dyno Showdown sponsored by Petty’s Garage. The scene was a beehive of activity, and, quite frankly, we had no idea what lurked beneath Larry’s hood until it was on the dyno rollers. As we pored over the car, it became readily apparent that this Challenger was something really special—even more so as Larry had done all the work himself. The yearlong conversion wasn’t easy, but you’d never know by how seamlessly all the Hellcat’s components were integrated. Photo by John Machaqueiro MOPAR MUSCLE (ISSN 1056-2966) February 2018; Volume 31, Number 2. Published monthly by TEN: The Enthusiast Network, LLC, 261 Madison Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016-2303. Copyright 2017 by TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. and U.S. Possessions $29.97 for 12 issues. Canadian orders add $12.00 per year and international orders add $24.00 per year (for surface mail postage). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to Mopar Muscle, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Contributions should be sent to Mopar Muscle Magazine, 1821 E. Dyer Rd., Ste. #150, Santa Ana, CA 92705. Manuscripts must meet the criteria of the Writer’s Guidelines. For a copy, send an SASE to Mopar Muscle Magazine,1821 E. Dyer Rd., Ste. #150, Santa Ana, CA 92705.
72
DEMON WHEELIE!
Dodge takes muscle car promotion to new heights with their Dodge Demon drag race simulator.
EVENTS 52 STEALS ON WHEELS Vintage Mopars are a hot commodity, but don’t think being down on bucks puts you out of the game!
DEPARTMENT 6 BANGIN GEARS
BANGIN GEARS JOHNNY HUNKINS, EDITOR
BEATING THE ODDS on our cover isn’t supposed to exist. The fact that it does goes to show you the lengths a man will go to in order to satisfy a burning desire. Larry Rose, the owner of the ’70 Dodge Challenger RT/SE on the cover, has cracked the code, so to speak, on what I believe will become one of the most iconic powerplants ever devised. Strictly speaking, it’s not the nuts and bolts of the 6.2L Hellcat Hemi that presents the biggest hurdle, but the quagmire of plumbing, wiring, and programming. Success with a Hellcat swap depends on having your head wrapped around every aspect of the Hellcat’s many systems. And Larry does. Of all the Detroit manufacturers, Dodge is far and away the most protective of its proprietary engine management. The complexity of heat exchangers, transfer pumps, plumbing, and thermal management notwithstanding, it is the ECM and the confounding code contained within that is the single most daunting blockade to the hot rodder. For their part, Dodge has made things significantly easier with the release of their 5.7L and 6.4L Hemi crate motor packages, which happened at the 2016 SEMA show. These can be optioned out to include everything you need, including the harness, computer, and drive-by-wire throttle, but it is the Hellcat Hemi (with its advertised 707 hp) that everybody is rightfully clamoring for. Larry Rose decided not to wait. He located a Hellcat driveline from a totaled vehicle through Cleveland Power & Performance (www.clevelandpap.com) in Columbia Station, Ohio. This poses a very interesting question: Are there enough Hellcat owners out there who have run out of talent that there’s already plenty to be had? As cars get faster, smarter, and more powerful, it seems their owners have not, giving rise to a cottage industry. To that point, Cleveland is doing a brisk business in buying and parting out everything from Hellcats, Scat Packs, and Vipers, to Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs, and Cadillacs.
The car
To call it a crate engine doesn’t do it justice. This pallet of parts from Cleveland Power & Performance is everything you need to transplant a Hellcat Hemi into anything. There’s an engine in there somewhere, along with heat exchangers, computers, plumbing, pumps, gas tank, harnesses, steering column, transmission, pedals, shifter, and much more. Larry Rose used a pile of parts just like this to build the Hellcat-powered ’70 Challenger on this month’s cover.
Cleveland’s cost for a complete Hellcat driveline (engine, heat exchangers, coolant lines, harnesses, computers, pumps, throttle control, shifter, instrument cluster/center stack, steering column, keyfobs, fuel tank, transmission) might sound high at $30K, but when you take a look at what’s included (essentially ALL the technology from a Hellcat Charger or Challenger), it’s a very good deal. This may explain why until this month (see the ad on page 75!), Mopar hadn’t offered a Hellcat crate engine. The fact that the Hellcat’s engine management is so deeply integrated with the rest of the car means that for Mopar to offer it as a crate engine, they either have had to do it exactly the same way Cleveland does (include everything), or simplify it with a new ECM and harness. Until product details on the Mopar Hellcat crate engine are released at SEMA, we can only theorize. The first option of a technology pallet similar to Cleveland’s is that it’s very hard to compete at a price consistent with an insurance write-off bought at an auction ($30K, including trans, fuel system, console, column, pedals, etc.). Option number two—engineering a simplified Hellcat crate—is a far more viable option. Mopar will have to sell hundreds of them (which
“As cars get faster, smarter, and more powerful, it seems their owners have not, giving rise to a cottage industry.”
is actually a lot), and at the rate Hellcats are stacking up in salvage yards, it’s going to be interesting to see where the price of the new Hellcat crate lands. As a comparison, all the stuff you need to install the 485hp 392 Scat Pack crate motor package—including front accessory drive system, harness, and throttle pedal assembly—costs $10,544 (from Summit). For reference sake, the 650hp Chevrolet Performance LT4 crate engine at 650 hp is the closest thing to Hellcat territory, and runs about $16,395 (from Summit) including the computer, wiring harness, and throttle pedal. From this, we think a brand-new 707hp Hellcat crate engine will be in the sweet spot if they can keep it under $20K with everything. Guys like new stuff from the factory, and many of them are willing to pay more than the LT4, especially if it’s the biggest dog on the block. None of this, however, takes away from what Larry Rose has accomplished. Just because Hellcat Hemis are now on the market doesn’t mean the swap is easy. It means the swap is no longer in the realm of “impossible.” This is a technological challenge to do right. In terms of difficulty, it’s not unlike building an experimental aircraft. Very few large companies (such as Diversified Creations in Brighton, Michigan) can even pull off a Hellcat Hemi swap, let alone a single man like Larry Rose. The fact that Larry was able to do it successfully and make it look so effortless and beautiful is a testament to his ability. Bravo, Larry!
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Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, Gold Coast
12/4/17
Engine Masters, Episode 29
12/5/17
SKUSA SuperNationals, Las Vegas
12/6/17
FIM Freestyle MX World Championship, Sofia, Bulgaria
12/6/17
GP Confidential, Post Abu Dhabi + Post Season
12/6/17
Modified, Episode 7
12/7/17
Put Up or Shut Up, Episode 6
12/9/17
Intercontinental Challenge Series, Sepang (Live)
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12/13/17 Head 2 Head, Episode 97 12/13/17 Ultimate Adventure Week 12/14/17 Roadkill Garage, Episode 25 12/14/17 Ultimate Adventure Week 12/15/17 Ultimate Adventure Week Schedule Key: Racing Original Programming MotorTrendOnDemand.com * The program information provided is subject to change.
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MASTHEAD Mopar Muscle Magazine www.moparmuscle.com
EDITORIAL Network Content Director Douglas R. Glad Editor Johnny Hunkins Managing Editor Laura Peltakian Contributing Editors Christopher Campbell, Mark Ehlen, Dan Foley, Geoff Gates, Richard Holdener, Brian Lohnes, John Machaquiero, Steve Magnante
ART DIRECTION & DESIGN Design Director Markas Platt Art Director David Wardrop
MUSCLE CAR GROUP ON THE WEB www.carcraft.com www.moparmusclemagazine.com www.musclecarreview.com
ADVERTISING INFORMATION Please call MOPAR MUSCLE Advertising Department, (949) 705-3179. Related publications: Automobile, Car Craft, Chevy High Performance, Circle Track, Classic Trucks, Diesel Power, Dirt Sports & Off-Road, 8-Lug HD Truck, European Car, 4-Wheel & Off-Road, Four Wheeler, Hot Rod, Hot Rod Deluxe, Jp, Lowrider, Mopar Muscle, Motor Trend, Muscle Car Review, Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, Mustang Monthly, Recoil, Street Rodder, Super Chevy, Super Street, Truck Trend, and Vette.
SUBSCRIBER SERVICES For subscription assistance or address changes, email moparmuscle@emailcustomerservice.com, call 800/777-2668, 386/447-6385 (International), or write to Mopar Muscle, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Please include name, address, and phone number on any inquiries. Occasionally, our subscriber list is made available to reputable firms offering goods and services that we believe would be of interest to our readers. If you prefer to be excluded, please send your current address label and a note requesting to be excluded from these promotions to TEN: The Enthusiast Network, LLC, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245, Attn: Privacy Coordinator. Canada Post: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to IMEX Global Solutions, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Back Issues: To order back issues, visit TENbackissues.com. Reprints: For high-quality custom reprints and eprints, please contact The YGS Group at 800-290-5460 or TENreprints@theygsgroup.com MOPAR MUSCLE is licensed to use MOPAR, a trademark of FCA US LLC, in the title of the magazine MOPAR MUSCLE. No other connection with FCA US LLC is expressed or implied. The editorial opinions are those of the publisher and do not necessarily represent the views of FCA US LLC. Any submissions or contributions from readers shall be subject to and governed by TEN: The Enthusiast Network’s User Content Submission Terms and Conditions, which are posted at http://www.enthusiastnetwork.com/ submissions/
Copyright 2017 by TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED • PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
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You’re not just building a car - you’re building memories with the ones you love. During the YEARONE Christmas Sale, you can save 20% or more on the parts you need to build those memories. Visit YEARONE.com and enter code HSM17 for huge savings on applicable items. For details please call 1-800-932-7663 | Sale Ends December 31, 2017
1-800-932-7663 Restoration & Performance Parts for GM, Ford & Chrysler Muscle Cars Chrysler Catalog Mopar A/B/E-Body (1966-74) (ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE)
© 2018 YEARONE
MM018
1970 Plymouth Barracuda Light-Up Wall Shelf • Cast resin with tempered glass shelf • 191/2" wide x 7" high x 51/2"" deep • More shelves at SummitGifts.com
SBL-7580-104 $109.99 each
Mopar Omega Logo Zip-Up Hoodie • Cotton/polyester blend
• Logo embroidered on front and back • Imported
The All-American Muscle Car: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Detroit’s Greatest Performance Cars • 192 pages of firsthand history • 232 color/black and white photos
MBK-780760353356 $22.99 each
1:18 Scale Die-Cast Mr. Norm’s AWB Dodge Sedan • Plumbed and wired • Race-ready interior with roll cage • Detailed undercarriage
SAH-1806503 $149.99 each
Front
Dodge Polara Max Wedge T-Shirt • 100% cotton; imported
Dodge Challenger SRT Demon Logo T-Shirt • Cotton/polyester blend; imported
1:18 Scale Die-Cast 1966 Dodge Charger • Opening doors and hood • Detailed engine and interior • Poseable steering
OKT-92638-BLACK $49.99 each
Pit Stop Mechanic Bench Playset • 64 pieces: hand tools, two take-apart
race cars, ramp, mat, and more • For ages 3 and up
DCE-48860 from $44.99 each
DCE-48219 from $19.99 each
DTS-DEMONFRRWB from $21.99 ea.
WNT-78276 $79.99 each
Duster 340 LED Marquee Sign
Drag Racing Alarm Clock
Mopar Thermometer
Bear “Alinement” Metal Sign
• LED rope glows like neon • Includes 18" Mini-USB cord • 16" wide x 10" high x 13/4" deep
(4 AA batteries not included)
SDF-158870 $24.99 each
• Authentic staging
lights and dragster sounds • Temperature and humidity gauges • Includes 3 AA batteries
FDS-DRC15RB $29.99 each
• Made of 29-gauge tin • Mopar blue finish
with Omega logo • 5" wide x 17" tall
WTM-AMS001 $19.99 each
• Reproduced to exact specifications • 18-gauge steel, baked enamel • 26" tall
GXP-SR-2 $59.99 each
EVERYTHING YOU NEED ED TO LIVE THE HOTROD LIFESTYLE.
Personalized Signs!
Add a custom look to your home, shop, office or garage with a personalized sign!
Visit
SummitGifts.com
to see all of the signs and sizes available. Please allow 2-3 weeks for personalization.
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WHP-14160 W WHP
Holiday Gifts for Gearheads of All Ages
Mopar Hemi Neon Clock • Neon ring and quartz movement • Chrome plastic case • 15" diameter
1:18 Scale Die-Cast Dick Landy Super Stock 1970 Dodge Charger R/T • Opening trunk and doors • Chrome accents; poseable Cragar wheels • Hemi 426 under working hood
NNI-8MPHEM $79.99 each
RLA-AW238 $89.99 each
Mopar Bar Stool
Mopar Logo History Pit Shirt
• 4" thick, 14" durable vinyl cushion • Chrome-plated legs with foot rest • 30" tall
1:18 Scale Acme Die-Cast Dan Gurney 1970 Plymouth Trans Am Barracuda • Race-prepped V8 engine • Fully caged interior with race seat • Opening hood, doors, and trunk
AMM-A1806101 $134.99 each
• Moisture-wicking polyester • Wear the evolution of the Mopar logo • Imported
• Cotton/polyester blend; imported
DTS-SCATPACK from $21.99 each
Mopar Powered Since 1937 Steel Sign
1930s Vintage Gas Pump Drink Dispenser
Garage Toolbox Refrigerator
• Holds 32 oz. of your favorite beverage • Chrome plated steel base • Stands 19" tall
GSS-1958 $29.99 each
• Three sliding drawers hold your tools • 1.8 cubic feet of fridge space • Heavy duty locking swivel casters
KOO-KTCF50 $399.99 each SPECIAL HANDLING SURCHARGES APPLY
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NNI-5HELLC $349.99 each
• 8-watt LED lights
Dodge Scat Pack Bumblebee T-Shirt
DCE-48823 from $44.99 each
ORB-90166046 $14.99 each
• Hand-bent glass tubing • With 6' power cord • 24" Diameter
Novelty LED Traffic Signal
PLA-004784R01 $59.99 each
• Made of 28-gauge steel • Die-cut with embossed graphics • 12" Diameter
SRT Hellcat Neon Light
•
Int’l: 1.330.630.0230
SCode: 1802SZ • Prices subject to change without notice. Please check SummitRacing.com for current pricing. Typographical, description, or photography errors are subject to correction. © 2017 AUTOSALES, INC.
illuminate 8" lenses • Mounting brackets and
10' power cord • 10" wide x 30" high x 4" deep
LTG-HPY200-T3-AC $399.99 each
Retro Kettle Popcorn Maker • 2 oz. self-stirring stainless steel kettle • 40" power cord and measuring cups • 111/2" wide x 201/2" high x 101/2" deep
ENG-RKP630 $109.99 each
TECH
BY MARK EHLEN • PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
E-BODY BACKHALF RUST & COLLISION REPAIR
MAINTAINING PANEL ALIGNMENT WHEN REPAIRING RUST IS TOUGH ENOUGH BUT WHAT IF THERE IS ALSO OLD DAMAGE? HERE’S HOW TO MAKE IT RIGHT AGAIN.
serious builder knows that a solid, straight, level foundation is absolutely necessary before any structure is built. Skip this step and it doesn’t matter how beautiful the finish materials are, eventually there will be serious problems. By the same token, any serious car builder knows that one can put the best equipment in the hands of a master painter spraying the finest materials but if the finished bodywork is substandard, the whole effort will be wasted. Well, there’s one more foundational level below the bodywork, and that is the sheetmetal itself. If everything doesn’t fit as designed then the most beautiful paint ever will not hide the fact that it just doesn’t look right. We’ve stated over and over the importance of maintaining proper reference
Any
12
moparmuscle.com
points when replacing all the various sheetmetal parts. The reason is simple: Everything is interconnected and any one part out of place can cause a cascading effect through the rest of the related parts. If this basic principle isn’t observed, it can be extremely time consuming and costly to correct by the time it becomes obvious. Muscle Car Restorations of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, goes to great length to see that the surrounding parts and other reference points are not able to move out of place while the repair is being done. They even have each body checked on a frame rack to insure that it’s straight before they start. But what if the car has been in an accident at some point? Once the shell of this ’71 ’Cuda was stripped off the bodywork, it became obvious that it had once endured
a rather crude restoration, and it was clear that it was suffering the effects of a period collision repair. The right rear corner had been pushed forward enough to affect the package shelf and the sail panel. This meant that MCR could not trust the positioning of any of the parts that make up the back half of the car. Having no truly reliable reference point means that MCR will have to build this one essentially from scratch. Fortunately, they have a lot of experience with these cars so they know how they are supposed to fit together. Even with their experience though, simply eyeballing it is out of the question. The answer is creating unique artificial reference points so that accurate measurements can be taken to ensure that everything is straight, level, and square. Here’s how they do it!
TECH | E-BODY BACK-HALF RUST & COLLISION REPAIR
It may not look like it’s been hit, but remember that collision repair, especially back in the day, is only concerned with getting close enough so no one will notice. MCR sent this one to the frame rack so they know that at least the framerails are in the right locations. They’ll use them as part of their foundation to build on.
Since nothing can be trusted, all the bad parts are removed at the same time just to make it easier to move around the car. Notice the support braces that keep the known good parts in their proper place and the jig posts that were set in place using the original frame rails that will positively locate the new rails.
The new framerails (AMD PN 895-1570-R&L, $379.99 each) are located by the jig posts and a pair of rocker-panels-to-frame brackets that were able to be saved. Everything is clamped or sheetmetal screwed in place until exact fit can be verified.
This pair of original brackets not only provides a locating point, they also help to secure the rail as other parts are fitted.
14
moparmuscle.com
Once the framerails are in place, the rear crossmember (AMD PN 870-1570, $219.99) can be positioned.
The trunk floor sections (AMD PN 800-1571, $379.99) can be placed next. Fortunately, the wheel tubs can be used to reference the floor sections but they are also checked against the rear crossmember.
Since the inner wheeltubs were able to be saved along with these internal brackets, the package shelf (AMD PN 640-1570, $399.99) turns out to be pretty much a simple drop in.
The top part of the quarter was left in place to help position the rear window valance (AMD PN 960-1571-TS, $279.99) even though it can’t be completely trusted. Exact fit will be confirmed once the trunk lid is in place.
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TECH | E-BODY BACK-HALF RUST & COLLISION REPAIR
The quarters (AMD PN 895-1570-R&L, $599.99 each) can now be rough positioned on the car.
The rear floor section is a fairly easy fit to the framerails and also helps to position the trunk floor.
The horizontal beam of the laser is used to determine if the height on both sides of the tailpanel is the same. This also ensures that the quarters are level with each other.
The final check for the trunk floor and the framerails before welding them in place is to confirm that everything is level. The rest of the quarters are also removed in preparation to installing the trunk gutter set.
Because the doors are known to be correct, they can be used to reference the leading edge of the quarter. This positions the quarter fore and aft and sets the height of the forward end. Left and right quarter positioning is a simple matter of measuring from the vertical laser line to the inside edge of the quarter.
The trunk gutters (AMD PN 825-1570-S, $139.99) and tailpanel (AMD PN 900-1570, $449.99) must be assembled as a unit. The fit between the gutters and the tailpanel and window valance is fairly obvious. The main issue is keeping everything centered left to right.
If there is a secret to keeping everything straight and even: it’s the use of a selfleveling laser that projects a vertical and a horizontal line onto the back end of the car. The laser must be perfectly aligned with the longitudinal axis of the car.
16
moparmuscle.com
The final check is to bolt on the original decklid and check all the gaps and seams. Since none of these parts are welded yet, minor adjustments can be made fairly easily until everything is perfect. The bumper will also be bolted on to ensure that there are no issues with the gaps around it.
SOURCES AUTO METAL DIRECT 866- 591-8309 AUTOMETALDIRECT.COM MUSCLE CAR RESTORATIONS 715-834-2223 MUSCLECARRESTORATIONS.COM
Stand on the Gas.
Trick Flow upped the ante for big block Mopar performance with the PowerPort® 270 cylinder heads. Based on the popular PowerPort 240 heads, these heads feature raised 270cc Max Wedge-style intake runners that provide a straighter path to the valve for improved airflow. Other features like A356-T61 aluminum castings, CNC Competition Ported runners and chambers, 2.190"/1.760" stainless valves, beefed-up rocker shaft bosses, PAC Racing Pacaloy™ valve springs, ductile iron valve seats, and bronze alloy valve guides come standard. PowerPort 270 heads work with all factory-style big block Mopar pistons, rocker arms, headers, and Max Wedge intakes. Trick Flow also offers single-plane intake manifolds, valvetrain components, and gaskets for big block Mopar so be sure and check those out too. Trick Flow engine parts—when only the best will do! Dyno Results
Airflow Results
PowerPort 270
PowerPort 270
Test Engine: 10.15:1 compression Mopar 505 c.i.d. with Trick Flow PowerPort® 270 cylinder heads (TFS-61617802-C01), Trick Flow Track Max® hydraulic roller camshaft (TFS-61602003), Trick Flow retro-fit hydraulic roller lifters (TFS-21400011), Harland Sharp 1.6 ratio shaft mount roller rocker arms (CSP-S70016KE), port matched Trick Flow Track Heat® intake manifold (TFS-61600113), Trick Flow by Quck Fuel Technology Track Heat Pro 950 cfm carburetor (TFS-20950R), Trick Flow billet aluminum carburetor spacer (TFS-2141501B), 93 octane pump gas, Hooker headers with 2" primaries, 31⁄2" dual exhaust with Flowmaster mufflers.
1802MPTF
Lift Value
Intake Flow CFM
Exhaust Flow CFM
.100"
72
58
.200"
154
130
.300"
230
186
.400"
288
222
.500"
322
243
.600"
343
253
352
262
.700"
Tests conducted at 28" of water (pressure). Bore size: 4.350"; exhaust with 2" pipe.
Some parts are not legal for use in California or other states with similar laws/regulations. Please check your state and/or local laws/regulations.
TECH
BY DAN FOLEY • PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
READY THAT REAREND! HERE’S HOW TO REFURBISH A VINTAGE B-BODY DANA 60 FOR BIG HEMI POWER ON THE CHEAP.
we get technical, let’s talk a little about rearends. Yes, the one residing out back, underneath your old Mopar, which handles suspension duties and transfers the power delivered to the rear tires through its differential and axles. The more power the rearend receives, the stronger it needs to be. That’s just the reason the beefy Dana 60 unit became standard equipment with four-speed–equipped Street Hemis and 440s from 1966 through 1972. The ’64’65 Race Hemi B-Body cars destroyed enough 8 3/4 axles and differential units that it forced racers of the time to move up to the tougher Dana 60 from the oneton trucks. We must note the 440, 4406, and Hemi TorqueFlite cars with the factory Super Track Pack option received the 4.10-ratio Dana 60. And let’s not forget the A12 package cars of ’69 1/2 equipped with either the 727 T-flite or 18-spline A-833 four-speed! During that era, there was a multitude of passenger car rear axle assemblies (7 1/4-, 8 1/4-, 8 3/4-, 9 1/4-, and
Before
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9 3/4-inch ring gear-equipped Dana 60), depending on the powerplant. Behind the slant six- and 273-powered A-Body cars was the wimpy 7 1/4-inch rear. In ’68 when the 340 LA powerhouse was introduced, the now sought-after A-Body 8 3/4 was used until ’72 when it was replaced with the 8 1/4-inch rear axle. The 8 1/4 was behind many of the slant six, 273, and 318 B-Body cars from ’68 through
the ’70s. The last year for the beloved 8 3/4 unit was 1974. With its drop-out centersection, the 8 3/4 has been a perennial favorite due to its durability and easy gear swaps. It was tough enough to handle a small-block or B-engine with a four-speed, along with the TorqueFlite-equipped 440 and Hemi cars in stock form with street tires. But add some power and slicks, then go drag racing, and something could
Over 10 years ago, a friend sold us his rusted ’67 Charger 318. Quite a bargain at $1,500 considering its transplanted ’68 GTX 440, four-speed, 3.54-ratio, Dana 60 drivetrain. Money from parting the car paid for the unmolested Dana 60 and the parts for its freshening and refinishing.
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TECH | READY THAT REAREND! break (like the stock axle shaft seen later in this story). The aftermarket came to the rescue of the 8 3/4 with stronger axleshafts, differentials, yokes, a solid sleeve to replace the crush sleeve, and brace kits to strengthen its housing. Still, the granddaddy of strength during the classic muscle car era was the Dana 60 rearend. We are very fortunate the old Chrysler engineers saw fit to equip the most powerful production Mopars of the era with the Dana 60. GM and Ford never offered a rearend as rough and tough in strength. In fact, the famed GM 12-bolt and Ford 9-inch in stock form weren’t even as strong as the Chrysler 8 3/4. Since the ’70s, we’ve seen many of our Brand X buddies change over to the “brute of butts,” the almighty Dana 60, for its strength superiority. About 10 years ago, we scored our subject donor B-Body Dana 60 from a friend, who sold us his rusted-away ’67 Charger for $1,500. Quite a bargain when you consider the Charger was equipped with a ’68 GTX 440/four-speed drivetrain. After parting-out the Charger, we made enough money to pay for the worth of the Dana 60, along with the rehab we’re performing here. Now it’s time to say bye-bye to the 8 3/4 with its 741 casting, Sure Grip differential, and 3.23 gear ratio that resided under our ’65 Coronet since day one. The 741-casting centersection with its smaller diameter pinion gear shaft would have been destroyed from the shock of our first holeshot with a Street Hemi pounding 825 hp to it. Swap meet and online B- and E-Body Dana 60s come up for sale, but asking prices are close to the price of a brandnew, bolt-in S60 from Strange Engineering. Additionally, the Dana 60 (S60) from
Strange comes equipped with their beefy 35-spline alloy axles and carrier that can handle over 1,000 hp. A vintage Dana 60 like ours with its stock 23-spline axles and clutch-type Sure-Grip is limited to roughly 700 hp of sticky tire, strip action. Project Cool Blue, with its 825 hp, 528cube Street Hemi, will be street driven with street tires, so it’ll be safe for now. Once our ’65 Hemi Coronet is well sorted and broken-in, and before it’s subjected to a strip test, we’ll need to upgrade to Strange’s 35-spline alloy axles and S-Trac differential to avoid damage to this creampuff rear axle. After inspection of our unmolested B-Body Dana 60, we were quite happy to find the 50-year-old rear didn’t show any excessive wear or damage. Only the age-hardened, leaky seals showed they needed replacing. Gear mesh pattern, backlash, and the differential checked out great, plus we knew the history of this quiet rear. Without worries of needing a full rebuild, just a few upgrades and an external refinish would get our rear road ready. When ditching drums and moving up to rear disc brakes, there’s almost always the need to use the green rollertype axle bearings. For us it will be necessary for our next installation story on the Wilwood 12.19-inch Dynalite rear disc brake kit. We’ll also replace the stock 7290 pinion yoke with a Strange 1350-series billet steel yoke for connection to a custom-built, super-duty driveshaft with 1350 U-joints. The finishing touch will be a beautiful Strange aluminum rearend cover for a better seal than the leak-prone stock stamped-steel piece. We called Summit Racing for the parts needed for our rear end refresh. To remove the old tapered bearings and press-on the new green axle bearings,
When looking at any used Dana 60, be sure to remove the rear cover for inspection before purchase. Even though this rear was unused for 20 years and we drove the Charger before it was parked, we wanted to be sure there weren’t any unseen issues. Fortunately, we didn’t find any chunks of debris in the housing or in the gear oil.
The gear pattern on our Dana 60’s 9 3/4inch ring gear looked perfect. All the teeth on the ring-and-pinion gear passed our visual inspection, not showing a single scratch and without any chips. Looking at the differential, its cross-shafts and spider gears appeared to be in excellent shape and were not excessively loose or worn.
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1960-76
A, B & E-BODY PARTS & ACCESSORIES
TECH | READY THAT REAREND! we visited our friends at IDM Speed and Machine for a professional installation. Installing axle bearings is a job most of us are not equipped to do. Just like rebuilding and setting up a differential, or ring-and-pinion gearset, you need the right tools and experience. There are different routes to take in preparing your rearend for years of trouble-free service. You can choose to buy a new rearend or strengthen your old unit with stronger components. Just be sure your rear is built to handle the horsepower it will be transferring to the rear tires. The 11-inch rear drum brakes will be put aside into our stash. Notice the axle bearing grease leakage inside the drum brake backing plate. The green bearings are pre-greased and contain it with their own inner and outer seals to prevent grease leakage.
The ring gear on our ’68 vintage B-Body Dana 60 showed a date-code stamping of 3-4-68. The gear ratio stamping showed 46-13 for 46 teeth on the ring and 13 teeth on the pinion gear making this a 3.54 ratio rearend. The clutchtype, Sure-Grip differential revealed a date-code stamping of 4-15-68.
Its easiest to go through the access hole with a 9/16-inch socket and extension to loosen the five nuts for removal of the axleshaft and bearings. We called Summit Racing to order new green axle bearings with the snap ring (MSR9400M, Summit price $64.97) needed for our future upgrade to the Wilwood 12.19-inch Dynalite rear disc brakes. 22
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The stock 30-spline axle from the 8 3/4 in my ’67 R/T (top) twisted and snapped while testing slicks nearly 20 years ago. The 23-spline axle from our ’68-vintage Dana 60 is 1/4-inch thicker in the spline area. The beefier Dana 60 axles and diff can handle up to 200 more horsepower than the 8 3/4, but not more than about 650 hp with slicks at the strip.
It’s apparent the Dana 60’s cast steel differential housing is thicker, stiffer, and stronger than the stamped steel of the 8 3/4. That’s why the brace kit for the 8 3/4 is a popular addition that stiffens its housing to reduce gear deflection, helping extend its ring-and-pinion gear life.
We block-sanded the entire rearend so the pitting and the lines from a previous paint brush job wouldn’t be as obvious. Sanding started with 80-grit, then 120-, 220-, and finally 320-grit sandpaper for a smooth surface and good paint adhesion. Durable ceramic-fortified chassis black paint was applied to protect our rear for years.
Our friends at IDM Speed and Machine helped us remove the old bearings and press on the new green bearings. The stubborn bearing retainer collar wouldn’t press off, so we carefully cut the collar to within an 1/8 inch of the shaft as to not damage it.
Chiseling the slot we cut in the retainer collar helped split it and loosen it from the shaft. The same can be done to the inner race of the bearing. Be careful the chisel does not strike and damage the shaft, rendering it useless. With the collar removed, the bearing was easily pressed off.
We didn’t install the retainer plate before pressing on the green bearing. The future Wilwood rear disc brake kit comes with a U-shaped retainer plate. Before pressing, be sure the bearing’s snap ring is facing outward. The retainer collar is facing inward. The collar and green bearing were pressed on together as seen here.
Here’s an 8 3/4 (left) and our Dana 60 axleshaft. Both use the same size axle bearings. The 8 3/4 axle has its stock tapered bearings and retainer plate. The green bearings show the O-ring inward and snap ring outward. The retainer plate was cut U-shaped before pressing on the bearing so we didn’t need to cut it off for the future disc brake installation.
For now without backing plates, we lightly tightened two nuts for each retainer plate as to not bend the snap rings. The disc brake backing plates have special receiver grooves for the snap rings to securely hold the axleshaft and bearings in place. For now, we’ll just mount the 15x7 cop car wheels to easily move the rear around the garage.
TECH | READY THAT REAREND!
Our unmolested Dana 60 needed its original left-threaded wheel studs to be replaced with new right-threaded studs (MSR-8040, Summit price, $17.25, 10 studs). The new studs were pulled in place by tightening a lug nut with two old Cragar wheel washers. The washer hole diameter has to be larger than the stud’s shoulder to avoid damaging it.
We chose this thick cast-aluminum Strange differential cover (STR-D3517, Summit price, $76.97) to provide a leak-free seal over a leak-prone stock stamped-steel cover. We also noticed Summit offers this new Lube Locker diff gasket (LLR-D060, Summit price, $21.95). This silicone aluminum core gasket has no need for messy RTV for a great seal.
To remove the original 7290 pinion yoke, we employed our 40-year-old Snap On harmonic balancer puller. It’s the right way to remove a yoke rather than beating on it with a hammer or pry bar. A seal picker removed the original pinion seal in a jiffy.
Before installing the pinion seal (YMS9316, Summit price, $23.68) we cleaned out the area where it resides. A thin coat of RTV was applied to the outside diameter of the seal. We lightly tapped in the seal by going side to side, up and down, little by little, to evenly seat it in place. The 2x4 piece of wood helped prevent bending or denting the seal.
This super-strong Strange 29-spline 1350 series pinion yoke (STR-U1598, Summit price, 143.97) is made in the USA with 4140 chrome-moly steel. It will endure the brunt of the abuse in the drivetrain. The pinion nut received the factory recommended 240 lb-ft of torque.
We decided to use Strange heavy-duty 1350 series U-joint girdles (STRU1610HD, Summit price, $87.97) over plain U-bolt straps. They are only recommended for Strange pinion yokes for a perfect fit so the needle bearings aren’t crushed if over-torqued. These girdles provide full 360-degree support of the U-joint bearing cap for greater strength.
Our old Sure-Grip differential will certainly enjoy some fresh Lucas synthetic 75W-90 gear oil (LUC-10047-1, Summit price, $9.97 quart). This synthetic gear oil has an additive package designed to hold up to high temperatures and is great for limited-slip differentials like ours.
SOURCES IDM SPEED AND MACHINE 609-978-6411
Here’s looking at a 1971 B-Body Dana 60 from behind. The gas tank hides most of the diff’s cover so nobody will see the large S on ours, only the three lower bolts as seen here. Plus they won’t know that inside our Coronet’s original gas tank is an Aeromotive Stealth fuel pump rated for 1,000 hp. We’re trying to maintain that stock-looking profile. 24
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STRANGE ENGINEERING 847-663-1701 WWW.STRANGEENGINEERING.NET SUMMIT RACING 800-230-3030 WWW.SUMMITRACING.COM
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“... we think a DUI Ignition makes a lot of sense, whether you’re building a hot street car with a breathed-on LUNPUL VY HU /7 ^LLRLUK YHJLY [OH[ ULLKZ [V Ă„ YL V HUK Y\U JVUZPZ[LU[S` WHZZ HM[LY WHZZ š -Mopar Muscle “Furious Firepower!â€? pg. 22, Nov. ‘15 Send $4.00 for complete Catalog and Prices. 2699 Barris Drive - Dept. MPRM Memphis, TN 38132 Phone: 901-396-5782 Fax: 901-396-5783 www.PerformanceDistributors.com/dodgedistributors.htm
WHALE OF A HEMI WE DIG INTO THE ENGINE THAT STARTED IT ALL—THE ICONIC FIRST-GEN 392 HEMI—AND HOP IT UP INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.
BY STEVE MAGNANTE
✪ PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
to imagine nearly 70 years have passed since Chrysler first introduced the wonders of the highly efficient hemispherical combustion chamber to American motorists—and hot rodders. Back in 1951 when those first 331 Fire Power–equipped Saratogas, New Yorkers, and Imperials introduced owners to the thrill of stop-light dominance, the concept of smoking the rear tires away from an intersection wasn’t yet “a thing.” Sure, kids in their hot rods awoke slumbering suburbanites in the wee hours as their chopped-down, flathead-powered Deuce roadsters spun rubber after midnight, but it was the 331 Hemi that brought the gobs of torque necessary to boil the rear tires at
It’s hard
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will from a dead stop in a bone-stock, fullsized Chrysler passenger car. While part of the recipe for rubber incineration was Chrysler’s ’51 replacement of the slippery Fluid Drive coupling with a fourelement torque converter, the 180hp, 312 lb-ft 331ci Fire Power Hemi was at the core of the revolution. So here we are now, some 66 years after Chrysler’s hemispherical makeover and once again, Hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard (to borrow from Bruce Springsteen’s iconic hit song “Born to Run”). Amazing but true, since 2003, Hemi power has elevated Chrysler from the doldrums as the maker of front-driveonly transportation modules and the cab-forward LH era to creators of the world’s first muscle car capable of cranking a 9.60
After a 0.040 overbore, align honing, and deck squaring, the block is ready for assembly. Unlike the Gen II and Gen III Hemi blocks, the Gen I lacks the deep skirt oil pan rail that makes cross-bolted main caps possible. It’s still plenty stout for 600 hp and then some.
After reducing the main and rod journals by 0.010 to reverse wear, R.A.D. sets the factory stock forged steel crank in place. At 68 pounds, the 392 crank is one pound lighter than a Gen II 426 Street Hemi forging (69 pounds) and 12.4 pounds heavier than a forged steel 340 small-block crank (55.6 pounds). All Gen I Hemi cranks feature non-threaded eightbolt output flanges. Remember this when attaching flywheels and flexplates.
and pulling a wheelie! Yep, we’re talking about the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. These are good times indeed but let’s not lose sight of the fact it wouldn’t be happening if not for the exploits of the first-generation Hemis of 1951-1958. While the modern 5.7L, 6.1L, 6.2 Hellcat/ Demon, and 6.4L Gen III and classic Gen II 426 Street and Race Hemis get all the glory today, we can’t forget the one that started it all: the mighty Chrysler Fire Power. Bolstered by the similar (but not identical) 1952 DeSoto Fire Dome and 1953 Dodge Red Ram, hemispheres have struck fear into the competition ever since. In this story we’ll explore the construction of a ’57-vintage 392 Hemi and test it with intake and exhaust goodies to see how they complement the inherent ability of Chrysler’s legendary “whale motor” to deliver the happy combination of prodigious low-end torque and upper-rpm horsepower. We tagged along as Donnie Wood and his crew at R.A.D. Auto Machine refurbished a 392 Fire Power with mild street and strip cruising in mind. Traditional dual-quad induction was compared to a modern high-rise single quad from Hot Heads, and the stock
Though girdles and upgraded forged steel main caps are available for the early Hemi, this mild-mannered street/strip mill gets by safely with the stock cast-iron main caps. The 392 main journal diameters measure 2.6875 inches. (The 331ci and 354ci sizes are 2.500 inches.) Cranks and blocks for 392s are a breed apart. The cap fasteners go to 90 ft-lb.
KB Silv-O-Lite hypereutectic pistons deliver a pump-gasfriendly 9.5:1 compression ratio. The mild compression ratio negates the need for heavy high-dome pistons to fill the Hemi’s 103cc chambers.
Though the stock 6.950-inch rods are retained, the beams were polished to remove forging marks and potential stress risers. The floating piston pins are retained by spiral locks.
cast-iron log-type exhaust manifolds were compared to Hot Heads’ tube steel block huggers. The results are impressive and prove that Hemis—vintage and new alike—offer unsurpassed breathing potential and eyeball appeal like no other V-8 engine ever made! MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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TECH | WHALE OF A HEMI
High-quality ARP rod bolts are tightened to 52 ft-lb. In this naturally aspirated 6,500-rpm application, the refurbished stock bottom end is perfectly adequate, though up-sized forged and billet items are readily available.
R.A.D. found this vintage two-piece FGT front cover and housing to shield the Cloyes True Roller timing set (PN 9-1103). The removable cover is set up for a Hilborn-type cam-driven fuel pump and is probably from a marine application. Here, it adds eyeball appeal and function.
The Gen I Hemi oil pump may resemble the LA unit (273, 318, 340, and 360) but has different mounting bolt locations and is not interchangeable. Though Milodon, Hot Heads, and others offer race-capable pumps, a basic new NOS item was obtained for this boulevard bruiser. The stock pickup tube and screen match the stock passenger car sourced center-sump oil pan.
Numerous sources exist for hydraulic (and solid) lifters. Ours are from Isky. A liberal coat of assembly lube and Joe Gibbs Racing anti-scuff moly lube are applied during installation.
Early Hemi cams are currently available from mild to wild, but you need rare factory or costly aftermarket adjustable rocker arms to run solid lifters. Since our Hemi has the common one-piece (non-adjustable) rocker arms, we went for a hydraulic, flat-tappet cam. It’s an Isky Mega 280 with 0.485-inch lift.
Best composite head gaskets (PN 585) are part of the recipe that yields a 9.5:1 compression ratio. Once squeezed, they’re 0.040-inch thick. The open-tappet chamber will be sealed by the stock stamped tin valley cover after it gets a thorough clean out. Oil fill and crankcase ventilation are handled by an opening in the cover.
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Though 392 heads are excellent, the 331 head is known to have a slightly better port floor contour. Thus, a set of ’55-vintage 331 Hemi heads (casting number 1556157-1) have been selected. The 2.00-/1.750-inch valve’s head diameters remain stock. The 103cc combustion chambers remain stock though the ports have been polished, and bowl relief work was performed.
For kicks, we compared the 331 head (top) to a ’64-vintage 426 Race Hemi head. The major differences are (331 versus 426): 64.4 versus 58.2 pounds bare weight, 103cc versus 172cc chamber volume, 2.00-/1.75-inch versus 2.25-/1.94-inch valves, and 4.5625-inch versus 4.800-inch bore spacing. The included valve angle is the same at 58 degrees.
Like Gen II and Gen III Hemis, the Gen I heads are interchangeable sideto-side, but must have caps placed over unused water passage outlets at the firewall end. Note the shiny surfaces of the ported and polished intake ports. The exhaust ports are just as nice. We didn’t flow test the heads but suspect the effort improved flow by about 10 percent.
To keep pace with the Isky cam and assure 6,500-rpm stability, Hot Heads dual valvesprings (PN 40062) are used with stock retainers and locks. Spring force is 135 pounds closed and 325 pounds at 0.500-inch lift with a 1.700inch installed height.
It may not be as simple as a small-block Chevy’s stud-mounted, ball-pivot, stamped steel rocker arm setup, but the Hemi’s trademark double rocker shaft architecture is the only way to connect the wildly divergent valve tip angles to the camshaft. The rocker shaft stand fasteners do double duty as head bolts and tighten to 85 ft-lb in two steps.
Though stock one-piece pushrods are acceptable at this level of performance, to enable fine-tuning of lifter pre-load with the hydraulic camshaft Hot Heads 3/8-inch diameter chrome-moly adjustable push rods (PN 21086) are used. Proper setting is a half turn beyond zero plunger lash. Adjustable rocker arms were installed in ’55-’58 Chrysler 300 “letter cars” but cost over $2,000 when found today. Aftermarket rockers are no less expensive.
R.A.D. gets set to install the vintage M/T finned aluminum rocker covers. When the Whale motor ruled the world, these beauties were the ultimate Hemi fashion statement on everything from small town hot rods to Don Garlits’ Swamp Rat rail dragster.
Though similar in appearance to Gen II 426 Hemis, Gen I Chrysler Hemi spark plug tubes (6.100 inches long) are 0.250 shorter and are formed for different top seals. Most aftermarket wires sets (aside from length concerns) are interchangeable. Autolite #65 spark plugs are used. The ’03-up Gen III Hemi eliminated the separate spark plug tubes for integrally cast tunnels.
When Chrysler grew the ’51-’56 331ci and 354ci into the ’57-’58 392ci, the deck height was increased from 10.32 to 10.865 inches. Further complicating things, our shorter 331 heads render the stock thermostat housing (foreground) too short. Hot Heads solved the problem with this adjustable braided hose kit (PN 21404). Note the stock oil fill neck, mandatory with our non-vented M/T rocker covers.
The Weiand dual-plane 8-bbl intake manifold (PN 7263) has been a go-to street and strip unit for decades and is still available. How will it stack up against Hot Heads’ high-rise, dualplane offering (PN 50000)?
Because our Frankenstein block and head combo yields a non-stock span between intake flanges, Weiand adapter flanges (PN 8203) are needed for both manifolds.
The early Hemi’s close relationship to the Mopar 273 - 360 small-block family allows sharing of distributors with only minor tweaking. A boxstock PerTronix Flame-Thrower billet unit (PN D141700) needs only a special Hot Heads intermediate drive shaft/gear assembly and alignment collar (in hand) to complete the ignition. Timing is set at 32 degrees BTDC, all in by 3,000 rpm. All factory distributors employed dual points, even the base two-barrel job! MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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TECH | WHALE OF A HEMI
With a box-stock Quick Fuel 750cfm doublepumper atop the Hot Heads high-rise and cast-iron exhaust manifolds, the Fire Power made 408 hp at 5,500 rpm and 463.6 lb-ft at 3,300 rpm. Considering the mild cam, singledigit compression ratio, and restrictive exhaust tract, it’s a strong showing. Now let’s swap to headers …
Our tests will pit the stock center-dump exhaust manifolds (in hand) against Hot Heads’ steel tube block-huggers with 1 7/8-inch primary tubes. Hot Heads also offers a clone of the large-diameter Chrysler 300 iron manifold (PN 60018) as well as a selection of full-length tuned headers for the Gen I Hemi.
The results are impressive and prove that Hemis—vintage and new alike— offer unsurpassed breathing potential and eyeball appeal like no other V-8 engine ever made! SOURCES ARP 800-826-3045 • WWW.ARP-BOLTS.COM Not surprisingly, the reduction in exhaust backpressure cranked things up to 431 hp at 5,500 rpm and 489.2 lb-ft at 3,700 rpm. Those are gains of 23 hp and 25.6-lb-ft. But what happens when we swap the modern single-quad with an old-school dual-quad setup?
BEST GASKET 888-333-2378 • WWW.BESTGASKET.COM EDELBROCK 310-781-2222 • WWW.EDELBROCK.COM HOT HEADS 336-352-4866 • WWW.HOTHEMIHEADS.COM ISKY RACING CAMS 310-217-9232 • WWW.ISKYCAMS.COM PERTRONIX 909-599-5955 • WWW.PERTRONIX.COM QUICK FUEL TECHNOLOGY/HOLLEY 866-464-6553 • WWW.HOLLEY.COM RAD AUTO MACHINE 413-583-4414 • WWW.RADAUTOMACHINE.COM WEIAND 866-464-6553 • WWW.HOLLEY.COM
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With two box-stock 500cfm Edelbrock Performers (PN 1405) on the vintage Weiand casting, eye appeal goes through the roof. Contact between the carb’s linkage plates and manifold fasteners forced some trimming. Inch-tall carb spacers would also work but we wanted to keep it simple. The Hot Heads headers remained in place.
FAST FACTS
1957 CHRYSLER FIRE POWER HEMI
SPECS BORE: 4.040-inch STROKE: 3.900-inch displacement 398 ci COMPRESSION RATIO: 9.5:1 CAMSHAFT: Isky 280 Mega hydraulic, flat-tappet VALVE LIFT: 0.485-/0.485-inch DURATION: 232/232 degrees at 0.050-inch lift LOBE SEPARATION ANGLE: 108 degrees ROCKER ARMS: stock steel, shaft-mounted, nonadjustable type LIFTERS: Hot Heads 0.904-inch hydraulic flat-tappet PUSHRODS: Hot Heads 5/16-inch diameter adjustable tip PISTON RINGS: Speed Pro 24122, gapped at 0.018, 0.020 (top and second) PISTON: KB Silv-O-Lite hypereutectic cast aluminum, 0.040-inch oversize (PN 24536-040) BLOCK: stock iron, bored 0.040-inch over to 4.040, block ID stamping CE5713234 CRANKSHAFT: stock forging, with main and rod journals cut 0.010 inch RODS: stock forged, 6.950-inch with polished beams and ARP fasteners MAIN JOURNAL DIAMETER: 2.6775 inch (0.010 under) ROD JOURNAL DIAMETER: 2.3640 inch (0.010 under) BEARINGS: Federal-Mogul (0.010 under) CYLINDER HEAD: ’55-vintage iron castings from 331ci Hemi, ported and polished, casting number 1556157-1 CHAMBER VOLUME: 103cc INTAKE VALVE DIAMETER: 2.00-inch (stock) EXHAUST VALVE DIAMETER: 1.750-inch (stock) VALVESPRINGS: Hot Heads double, 1.550-inch installed height, 135 pounds closed seat, 325 pounds at 0.500 lift SPRING RETAINERS: stock pressed steel HEAD GASKET: Best composite, PN 585, 0.040 crushed
thickness
INTAKE MANIFOLD: Weiand (PN 50010) 2x4 versus Hot Heads (PN 50020) Hi-Rise single four-barrel CARBURETOR: dual 500cfm Edelbrock Performers versus Quick Fuel 750cfm double-pumper HEADER: stock center-outlet cast-iron manifolds versus Hot Heads block-hugger headers (PN 60010) IGNITION: PerTronix Flame-Thrower billet aluminum (PN D141700) DAMPER: Power Bond, indexed (PN PB1115ST) WATER PUMP: Moroso electric dyno pump
Bigger carbs should equal bigger power numbers, right? Not always. With 436.5 hp at 5,700 rpm, a mere 6.5 hp was added over the single quad. What’s more shocking is the impact on torque, which fell 10 percent (48.8 lb-ft) from 489.2 to 440.4 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm. Bob Walker’s design team really did their homework when they developed the Hot Heads high-rise single-quad dual-plane unit!
OIL PAN: stock center-sump passenger car, 5 quarts OIL PUMP: NOS with stock pickup and screen FUEL: Sunoco 92-octane unleaded TIMING ADVANCE: 32 degrees
MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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TECH
IT’S A
RUNNER! THIS SPEEDMASTER IR INTAKE NOT ONLY HAS LOOKS THAT KILL, IT ADDED NEARLY 30 HP TO A MILDLY WARMED-OVER 5.7L HEMI.
BY RICHARD HOLDENER
✪ PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
truth is, in terms of popularity, the modern Dodge Hemi takes a back seat to GM’s LS motor. If the Chevy is indeed the prom king, think of the Hemi as the guy in a leather jacket and tattoos who just crashed the party. Every bit as fit, the Hemi is just slightly less polished and proper, and real Dodge boys (and girls) would have it no other way. Yep, the Hemi is the bad boy of the bunch, and for good reason. Sporting the most recognizable name in the automotive industry, the modern Hemi had some big shoes to fill. The previous
The sad
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generations racked up countless wins in almost every form of motorsports, the most famous being those Top Fuel rocket ships. Even in stock trim, the 426 Hemis were serious contenders, ranking at or near the top of the performance heap during the original muscle car era. One needs to look no further than the auction sites at the current pricing of Hemi-powered ’Cudas to see how much value enthusiasts place on the power of the pachyderm. Lucky for modern Hemi owners, Dodge engineers haven’t been asleep at the wheel for the last four decades. The modern motor is arguably even better than the
original, eclipsing not only the power production of the larger 426, but offering vastly improved fuel economy and overall driveability. Compared to the current crop of modern rivals, the 6.4L (392) Hemi offers increased displacement and rated power output over both the 5.0L Ford and the 6.2L Chevy. The take away for this trip down memory lane is that the new Hemi is awesome, and deserves every accolade thrown its way. That said, even a good thing can be made better, especially if we are starting with a more pedestrian 5.7L instead of the 6.1L or 6.4L variety. The downdraft intake tested here will perform every bit as well (actually better) on the larger, more powerful combination, but this test clearly illustrates that every Hemi responds very well to the right induction system. To illustrate the gains offered by the right induction system, we set up a simple test using a modified 5.7L Hemi crate motor. The 5.7L crate motor from Mopar Performance was augmented with ported heads, a .547-/.550-inch lift hydraulic roller cam and stronger beehive valvesprings. The crate motor was originally equipped with a single-plane intake and four-hole (4150) throttle body. Designed as a retrofit combination for early muscle cars, trucks, or street rods, the 5.7L offered more than adequate performance, especially in modified trim. Run on the dyno with a Holley HP management system and Hooker headers, the 5.7-liter produced 483 hp at 7,000 rpm and 403 lb-ft of torque at 5,600 rpm. As expected of the single-plane design, the power production occurred higher in the rev range. The aggressive cam timing and ported heads obviously helped this situation along, but what this combination really needed was enhanced torque production. If we could get said torque without sacrificing top-end power production, so much the better. Our quest for power led us to the individual-runner downdraft induction system offered by Speedmaster. The system came complete minus the actual ECU and harness, but we used the same Holley management system to control the timing and fuel curves. Where the single-plane induction system from Mopar Performance relied on the four holes in the 4150 throttle body, the downdraft system offered no less than eight 2.25-inch diameter runners. In terms
Who wouldn’t want to replace the plastic factory induction system on their Hemi with this impressive performer from Speedmaster?
To maximize airflow, the Speedmaster’s downdraft system features full-radiused air horns. Each horn has the job of filling a single cylinder.
To dial in the air/fuel and idle speed, each runner features a bypass adjustment screw.
Our 5.7L Hemi crate motor from Mopar Performance was augmented with a set of ported heads.
The trick induction system also featured easy-to-install, billet-aluminum fuel rails designed for use with -AN fuel fittings. The heads were also treated to a set of high-performance beehive springs. These improve valvetrain stability at higher lift due to less mass and more force.
To ensure an accurate vacuum signal, the Speedmaster eight-stack also provides vacuum ports for each bank of cylinders.
The fuel rail was also designed to accept this adjustable fuel pressure regulator to dial in the static fuel pressure.
of sheer airflow, the eight-stack more than doubled the flow potential of the 4150 throttle body, but the power gains were not simply from extra airflow. The big torque gains that occurred through the entire rev range came from a change in runner length. The short runners offered by the single-plane were optimized for power production at a much higher rev range than the downdraft. As such, the Speedmaster system was able to greatly enhance torque production through the entire tested rev range. Had we run the motor to 8,500 rpm, the single-plane may have gained ground, but up to 7,000 rpm, the optimized length offered by the downdraft system really shined. Installation of the system was simple, as it bolted right in place. There was a slight mismatch between the opening of the runners and ported 5.7L cylinder heads, but obviously not enough to cause a loss in
power. The system did feature provisions to equalize the all-important MAP sensor reading, as it was possible to combine the signal from every port. The center-pull linkage was easy to hook up and equalized side-toside throttle opening. We’d like to see the TPS setup to accept the more common GM sensor, but once installed, we decided Hemi enthusiasts would likely be making their purchasing decision on looks alone. Few things rival the appearance of a Hemi with stack injection. After quickly dialing in the WOT fuel curves (plan on spending some time on cruise and driveability), we were rewarded with a jump in peak power to 512 hp, but more importantly, torque production was up to 452 lb-ft at 5,100 rpm. We liked the extra 29 hp, but we loved the extra 49 lb-ft of torque even more. Torque was up through the entire rev range, showing that this Hemi downdraft system from Speedmaster looked and cooked!
No Hemi upgrade would be complete without a performance camshaft. Prior to testing, the crate motor received this hydraulic roller cam with .547/.550 inch of lift, a 224/228-degree duration split, and 114-degree LSA.
Since high rpm was in the cards, we upgraded the stock damper with this Super Damper from ATI. MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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TECH | IT’S A RUNNER!
Ensuring a hot spark for our intake test was a set of MSD coil packs. Feeding the single-plane intake was this four-hole, 4150-style throttle body. Think of this as a carburetor that delivers only air without the fuel. It flows more than a comparable carburetor, since fuel does not displace any of the potential airflow.
The one change we made to the Speedmaster downdraft IR system was to add a set of ACCEL 61-lb/hr injectors.
We decided the polished eight-stack induction system deserved a little more bling. To add the necessary spice, we installed billet-aluminum valve covers from Moroso.
Exhaust chores were handled by a set of Hooker 1 7/8-inch, long-tube headers designed for a Magnum application.
Equipped with the single-plane intake and 4150 throttle body, the modified 5.7L Hemi produced 483 hp at 7,000 rpm and 403 lb-ft of torque at 5,600 rpm.
After installation of the Speedmaster eight-stack system, the power output jumped to 512 hp at 6,600 rpm and 452 lb-ft of torque at 5,100 rpm. Not just more power, but more power everywhere!
The 5.7L Mopar crate motor was supplied with this single-plane intake. Single-plane intakes were designed to enhance power production higher in the rev range.
SOURCES ATI PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS 877-298-5039 • WWW.ATIRACING.COM HOLLEY/HOOKER/ACCEL 270-782-2900 • WWW.HOLLEY.COM MOPAR PERFORMANCE WWW.MOPARPERFORMANCE.COM MOROSO • WWW.MOROSO.COM MSD • 915-855-7123 WWW.MSDPERFORMANCE.COM SPEEDMASTER • 909-605-1123 WWW.SPEEDMASTER79.COM 36
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MP SINGLE PLANE VS. SPEEDMASTER DOWNDRAFT IR It is likely the Speedmaster downdraft system sold itself even before you saw these dyno results, but the extra power is certainly some enticing icing on the performance cake. Equipped with the single-plane intake and four-hole throttle body from Mopar Performance, the modified 5.7L was no slouch, producing 483 hp at 7,000 rpm and 403 lb-ft of torque at 5,600 rpm. After installation of the individual-runner, downdraft system, the power numbers jumped to 512 hp at 6,600 rpm and a (relatively) massive 452 lb-ft of torque at 5,100 rpm. The combination of runner length and flow provided a sizable jump in not just peak power, but power production through the entire curve. This is the kind of dyno sheet you’d be proud to show your fellow fanatics at the local Cars & Coffee gathering.
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TECH LS6. Later Hemis handily out-flow the rectangle-port LS3-style offerings from GM and the latest 6.4L (Apache) heads even best the much-vaunted raised-port LS7 heads. Toss in the extra displacement offered by the current 6.4L variants, to say nothing of the supercharged Hellcat and Demon versions, and it’s easy to see that Hemi performance is alive and well thanks to the Dodge dudes. Though a stock Hemi is plenty powerful, what helps make a Hemi so popular with Hemi owners is the way it responds to performance upgrades. After all, man does not live by stock performance alone! What happens when you pull up to the light next to a supercharged Shelby or ZL-1 Camaro? As good as a stock Hemi Charger, Challenger, 300C, or Magnum is, battling with boost is a pretty tall order. Sure, a Hemi will respond to the usual modifications like ported heads and a cam, but what a Hemi owner really needs out on the mean streets is the ultimate bolt-on. Of course, we’re talking about boost baby! To illustrate what happens when you transform an everyday Hemi into a blown
THE ULTIMATE BOLT-ON DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR, IT’S HARD TO BEAT A BLOWER FOR A SOLID HORSEPOWER GAIN. TORQSTORM PROVES IT AGAIN WITH AN EXTRA 161 HP ON A 5.7L HEMI. BY RICHARD HOLDENER
✪ PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
take a look at the list of the things the Gen III Hemi has going for it. Right off the bat, we have to give the nod to the name itself, as the word Hemi is far and away the most recognizable designation in the performance industry. More than just a name, the latest Hemi has the
Let’s 38
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performance to back it up. Thanks to a combination of modern technology and cavernous cylinder heads (especially in the latest versions), the Gen III is a serious power house. In terms of outright flow, the early Hemis (like our test motor) topped all the cathedral-port offerings from GM, including the performance-oriented
bad ass, we took TorqStorm up on their offer to test one of their centrifugal supercharger kits. While TorqStorm offers Hemi kits for specific late-model Mopar applications, we installed this system on a 5.7L crate motor supplied by Mopar Performance. Positive pressure supplied by the TorqStorm supercharger will benefit any Hemi application (from 5.7L to 6.4L, and strokers too); we just happened to have this test mule sitting around begging for boost! As indicated, the test motor was an early 5.7L, but the crate motor was no longer in as-delivered trim. Long ago, the Hemi had been upgraded with a healthy hydraulic-roller cam profile and a set of ported stock heads from Total Engine Airflow. While the factory Hemi motors rely on some type of long-runner EFI manifold, the crate motor features a short-runner single-plane intake. Though this manifold
Fuel was supplied to the 5.7L through a set of 60-lb/hr injectors. A boost-referenced regulator and Aeromotive fuel pump ensured adequate fuel supply to the injectors.
The Mopar Performance 5.7L crate motor featured ported stock heads and a beehive valve spring upgrade to take full advantage of the extra lift and duration offered by the performance camshaft.
All of the air supplied to the motor must also find a way out, so we installed a set of Hooker 1 7/8-inch long-tube headers (for a Magnum application).
Where the factory Ram truck, LX platform, and SRT8 applications all rely on some type of long-runner EFI intake, the crate motor was equipped with a shortrunner single-plane manifold.
Feeding the MP single-plane intake was a 4150 throttle body. The four-hole throttle body supplied the necessary airflow to our Hemi.
Knowing that the fuel and timing curves were critical to the success of a supercharged motor, we dialed in our Hemi using a Holley HP management system configured with dual wide-band O2 sensors.
could also be run with simple carburetion, it was supplied in port-injected form with a 4150 four-hole throttle body providing the necessary airflow. In essence, the TorqStorm blower kit (MSRP $2,800 for billet aluminum finish) was configured to blow through a carburetor mounted in the traditional location, but instead of carburetion, boost was supplied to the 4150 throttle body. The easy-to-install TorqStorm kit included the centrifugal supercharger rated to support over 700 hp. Also included in the kit were the necessary mounting brackets, tensioner, and crank pulley assembly. Since the factory Hemi damper was a press fit with no keyway to stop the damper from spinning on the crank, the TorqStorm kit included the
necessary pin kit to positively connect the two. Finishing touches included a carb hat, blow-off valve, and the necessary clamps, hoses, and drivebelt. Before adding boost to the 5.7L, we had to run the Hemi in normally aspirated trim to establish a baseline. This would allow us to isolate the power gains offered by the supercharger. The modified Hemi was installed on the dyno and configured with a Meziere electric water pump, 1 7/8-inch Hooker long-tube headers, and a Holley HP management system. Run in normally aspirated trim, the modified 5.7L produced 514 hp at 7,000 rpm and 423 lb-ft of torque at 5,900 rpm. The TorqStorm supercharger was then installed with the supplied 3.25-inch
blower and 8.0-inch crank pulleys. This combination produced a peak of 10 psi. Dialed in with the Holley HP ECU, the supercharged Hemi produced 675 hp and 585 lb-ft of torque. This represented gains of 161 hp and 162 lb-ft of torque. We suspect there was even more power left in the combination, but it is hard to argue with a 5.7L that belts out 675 hp. Think about what this combo would be like in an A-Body Dart, B-Body Charger, or E-Body Challenger! Remember, TorqStorm offers a full line of kits for popular Mopar applications, including small- and big-blocks, late Hemis, and even dedicated kits for Ram trucks, Durangos, and Dakotas. I guess boost really is the ultimate bolt-on! MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
39
TECH | THE ULTIMATE BOLT-ON
After securing the crank hub and pulley, we installed the mounting blower bracket using the supplied hardware. Installation on the Hemi was simple and straightforward.
Run on the dyno in normally aspirated trim with the single-plane intake and 4150 throttle body, the modified 5.7L Hemi produced 514 hp at 7,000 rpm and 423 lb-ft of torque at 5,900 rpm.
To eliminate the chance of the press-fit damper from spinning on the crank when subjected to the belt loads of the supercharger, TorqStorm supplied a custom pinned crank hub.
Installation of the crank hub required drilling a receiver hole in the crank snout for the pin. The kit included the necessary drill index and bit to facilitate installation of the hub.
With the hub bolted in place, we installed the 8.0-inch, 8-rib crank pulley. 40
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Since our crate motor lacked the power steering pump typical of an in-car installation, we whipped up these steel spacers to properly locate the blower mount to the cylinder head.
With the mount in place, we were free to install the TorqStorm supercharger, spring-loaded tensioner, and 8-rib blower belt. Note that all seven of the blower mounting bolts have not yet been installed.
The kit was supplied with a 3.25-inch blower pulley. When combined with the 8.0-inch crank pulley on our Hemi, the result was a peak boost of 10.0 psi.
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TECH | THE ULTIMATE BOLT-ON
To eliminate unwanted heat buildup and the pressure spikes that can occur under high-rpm, lift-throttle conditions, the TorqStorm kit included this blow-off valve.
According to TorqStorm, the size and impeller design of their centrifugal supercharger would support over 700 hp.
Though designed for a carbureted application, we employed this carb hat on our 4150 throttle body.
Run on the dyno with the TorqStorm supercharger, the modified 5.7L Hemi produced 675 hp at 6,300 rpm and 585 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 rpm, all at a peak boost of 10.0 psi.
SOURCES ARP 800 826-3045 WWW.ARP-BOLTS.COM HOLLEY/HOOKER 270-782-2900 WWW.HOLLEY.COM MOPAR PERFORMANCE WWW.MOPAR.COM MSD 915-855-7123 WWW.MSDPERFORMANCE.COM TORQSTORM 616-706-5580 WWW.TORQSTORM.COM
As you can see from the results, the power output of the modified 5.7L Hemi improved substantially once we applied boost from the TorqStorm supercharger. Run in normally aspirated trim, the 5.7L produced 514 hp and 423 lb-ft of torque. After installation of the ultimate bolt-on, the peak numbers jumped to 675 hp and 585 lb-ft of torque. Nice job, TorqStorm! 42
moparmuscle.com
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TECH
BY JOHNNY HUNKINS • PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEOFF GATES
SHOW ME THE LIGHTS SOME MOPARS CAN BENEFIT FROM BETTER SIDE-MARKER LIGHT POSITIONING. HERE’S HOW AND WHY YOU’LL WANT TO DO IT.
Nobody
can deny that the decade of the 1960s was a watershed era for automotive styling, but it was also a tumultuous time for regulators, safety advocate groups, engineers, and the newly formed EPA. Every year it seemed, there were new requirements for safety and emissions, a gift that keeps on giving to this day. One can argue that regulations add cost and complexity to vehicles, but it also forever changed the way cars look and function. For 1968, federal regulators imposed the requirement for side-marker lights—ambercolored ones for the front and red ones for the rear. All vehicle manufacturers complied with the rule, but it was Chrysler that
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created the most liberal—and austere— interpretation of the fledgling side-marker mandate. For 1968, Chrysler adopted a circular marker light that was as small as possible. Stylists didn’t want large marker lights that interrupted sleek lines and marvelous curves, so the small “porthole” markers were used across all models of the Dodge and Plymouth lineups. (Chrysler models were the exception.) When the 1968 models came out, other manufacturers chose to go with bigger lamps. For this reason, the ’68 Plymouth and Dodge models were some of the most graceful on the road, but they also drew unwanted attention from safety regulators and lawyers. Not wanting to provoke sanctions or lawsuits, Chrysler quietly changed
over to larger rectangular marker light for 1969. This made all ’68 Dodge and Plymouth models special in that they share this unique, one-year-only styling feature. In the end, no safety issues were ever associated with the “porthole” marker lights, but no OE manufacturer—even Chryco—ever made them that small again. For this reason, customizers often reach for ’68 Mopar sidemarker lights when building something special—even non-Mopars. Their simple, elegant design can always be counted on to accentuate the lines of any car, regardless of make, model, or year. That said, OE stylists who penned the 1968-model cars had never before worked with side-marker lights. Their position, size, and overall integration was open to a wide range of interpretation. In some cars such as the 1968 Dodge Charger, stylists got it deadon gorgeous. In other cars, such as our ’68 Plymouth Valiant, they look more like random Cheerios glued to the side of the car. Fortunately, there’s nothing that prevents us from rectifying the situation, and it’s one of the first things Alloy Motors in Oakland, California, elected to do on our Valiant. Alloy Motors’ Geoff Gates is not your ordinary hot rod builder. As a Mopar geek and trained artist, Gates also has a knack for tweaking and perfecting Chryco designs into their sweet spot—A-Bodies in particular. He identified early on that the body-side molding on our Valiant 100 model had an unfortunate tangent intersection with the door handle and gas cap. Similarly, the front and rear marker lights were on different sides of the body crease—the front ones below and the rear ones above. During the design phase of our project, Gates worked with sketch artist Alberto Hernandez Mendoza to develop a series of concept drawings to see what our Valiant would look like if the side molding was addressed and the marker lights were placed evenly on the body waistline. In the final Alloy rendering, we see that the marker lights are now level on the waistline, and the body-side molding has been lowered to bisect the door handle. In the new design, the marker lights and molding are more integrated into the styling, and even aficionados will have a hard time spotting the changes once completed. Gates, the iconoclast, states: “We’re doing it to mess with purists at car shows! The idea really is just a small design change to cause some head scratching. It’ll be fun to see that guy walk up at a show, and he can’t quite put his finger on what’s different. We also will put both the front and the rear marker lights on the same plane across the body line.” Fortunately, Classic Industries reproduces and sells ’68 Dodge/Plymouth side-marker lights, along with virtually every marker light for every make of classic muscle car. As you
Here’s our ’68 Plymouth Valiant 100 before modification. Note the front and rear side-marker lamps are on different planes (the front one is below the sheetmetal fold and the rear one above it). Also note how the side molding grazes the top of the door handle and gas cap. It made us wonder if Plymouth stylists on this model even talked or shared drawings.
Our Valiant concept rendering by artist Alberto Hernandez Mendoza fixes these styling errors and gives the car a unique but subtle vibe. If you hadn’t seen the “before” image, do you think you would notice the change in side-marker lights or side molding?
search through the 400-plus results that pop up on the Classic Industries website under the query for “side-marker lights,” six Mopar-specific 1968 part numbers can be found (see chart below). The three important things to remember are: 1). Amber lights always go in the front and red ones in the rear. 2). Depending on where you are installing them, they will either be on a flat surface or a curved surface. Check this and decide your final position before ordering. 3). Classic Industries also offers offshore versions in the curved style only. You may or may not be a stickler for country of origin, so we’ve included that info in our chart. Watch as Geoff Gates shows how Alloy Motors prepares and executes the sidemarker light relocation on our ’68 Plymouth Valiant. This is an operation Alloy Motors performs regularly on customer cars using professional equipment including a CNC plasma cutter, but with the proper tools, space, and skill level, there’s no reason you couldn’t do it yourself at home.
After Alloy Motors took the fender off, they assembled some typical tools on a welding table. You’ll see some black spray paint, a heel dolly, tape, some scrap 18-gauge sheetmetal, a body hammer, grinders, hole cutter, snips, files, an air saw, drill, welding equipment, and one of our new marker lights.
Geoff Gates says it’s always fun to see what drops out of fenders when removed. This yard sale included a spark plug, some metal plates, and compost.
1968 CHRYSLER SIDE MARKER LIGHT VARIATIONS MD2055B MD2055A MD2054B MD2054A
A- AND B-BODY; CURVED, REAR (RED), USA MADE 1968 DART, CHARGER; CURVED, REAR (RED) 1968 DART, CHARGER; CURVED, FRONT (AMBER), USA MADE 1968 DART, CHARGER; CURVED, FRONT (AMBER)
$55.99 EACH $39.99 EACH $55.99 EACH $39.99 EACH
MD2053 MD2052
1968 A- & B-BODY; FLAT, REAR (RED), USA MADE 1968 A- & B-BODY; FLAT, FRONT (AMBER), USA MADE
$55.99 EACH $55.99 EACH
MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
45
TECH | SHOW ME THE LIGHTS First, we need to measure a spot for the new marker. On this fender, we’re moving it up to the body line crease, but need it far enough back from the headlight bucket so it doesn’t interfere. Eight inches from the front edge was perfect. We’ll need to move the emblem later, but we’ll wait to get a visual placement on that later.
Even though hole saws have pilots, Geoff always likes to drill a small pilot first to ensure the cutter doesn’t walk. We’re right on the crease, so this keeps everything centered well.
The tool on the right is the one we are using—it’s called a hole cutter. The hole saw on the left could work, but they walk and wobble. A hole cutter is solid carbide, and will make a much cleaner hole in sheetmetal, especially on a body line like we are doing. A basic set of these is not super expensive, and you’ll use them more than you think.
Cut your hole using the slow speed on your drill. Keep the drill level and let the cutter do the work. The 1 3/8-inch hole cutter is the perfect size for circular ’68 Dodge and Plymouth marker lights.
You can see how clean the hole cutter makes the hole here; it didn’t even scratch the paint outside the hole. The hole it makes barely needs to be de-burred.
The locating tab isn’t very big, but it’s important to keep the corners on the light square with the body line, and keep the whole thing from moving around.
Let’s get that original pitted ugly thing out of the way now. This marker light is meant to go on a flat surface, and was used in A- and B-Bodies for 1968.
MODERN MOPAR POWER STEERING Here are the new Classic Industries marker lights. We’re using PN MD2054B for the front (amber), and MD2055B for the rear (red). These are ’68 curved side markers meant to go on the contoured beltline of a ’68 B-Body such as a Charger.
1962–1972 MOPAR Available for most applications • Bolt in Installation • No Cutting and No Welding Required • Quick 14:1 Ratio with Firm Modern Feel • 20 Pounds Lighter than Stock Power Box • Smallest Power Box Available • Extra Clearance for Motor Swaps / Exhaust Size Comparison Stock Power (left) vs. Borgeson Power Box
You can see the difference in the original ’68 flat-plane light (right) and the ’68 curved light. Also note how dull and pitted the old one is—and how beat up Geoff’s hands are!
Part # 800126 MSRP $629.00
SI
Geoff drops the new Classic Industries marker light into the 1 3/8-inch hole to mark the location of the slot that locates the light and keeps it from spinning around when the nut is tightened.
N C E 1914
Visit us at...www.borgeson.com Borgeson Universal Co. 9 Krieger Drive Travelers Rest, SC 29690 860•482•8283
TECH | SHOW ME THE LIGHTS Geoff makes a few small cuts with the air saw, nibbling the sheetmetal to make the slot. You could do this with a flat file— it just takes a bit more time. Now Geoff cleans up the slot with a flat file. It doesn’t take much—just a few controlled swipes with a sharp file. Use your finger to help guide the file and do short strokes.
It’s a perfect fit when the new marker is dropped in the hole with the locator slot cut in. The peaks on the light match the body line and the light sits nice and flush.
Now on to the hard part! We need to patch this old hole with some sheetmetal and welding. Alloy Motors has done this mod a few times, and they happen to have a CNC plasma table, so they have some blank filler pieces cut to the right size laying around.
Since not everyone has a CNC plasma table lying around, Geoff shows us how to do the same thing with some scrap steel, spray paint, and tin snips. 48
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Just hold the scrap behind the patch you need to make, and give it a few squirts of spray paint.
Now cut out the shape with some common tin snips. Don’t try to go all the way around; cut portions off and work back to your spray-paint shape.
It’s a pretty quick process of cutting and trimming. A little bit of tune up with a sander or grinder and the patch is good to go.
Before we weld the patch in, dress the hole to remove all the paint from the edge. We want clean metal to weld to, so an angle grinder with a 2-inch 80-grit disc works well here.
Always dress the back as well if you can. Old undercoat catches fire easily, and stuff on the back can contaminate your weld on the front.
Some guys use magnets to hold patches in, but Geoff likes to use painter’s tape to do the job until he gets a few tack welds on it from the front. Here he’s tapping the patch from the back after taping it on to the get the fit right.
TECH | SHOW ME THE LIGHTS
Once the fender is turned over, the fit looks great. Notice how there’s very little gap to weld, with a nice flush fit.
Geoff likes to TIG weld most sheetmetal because the weld is a bit softer, and easier to work with a grinder, hammer, or dolly later on. Either way, the process is the same; make small tacks at first and work slowly so you don’t warp the metal.
Between tack welds, Geoff uses a hammer and dolly to straighten out any warping as he goes.
Lay the dolly on the back and use light hammer taps to bring everything back to shape and keep the patch flush. Tip: Hammering slightly off the dolly has the effect of shrinking metal while hammering directly on the dolly stretches it.
After you build your tack welds with repeated tapping and welding, grind the welds close to the surface. Here Geoff uses a 3M flap disc to get it all cleaned up.
After a finish sanding with a 3M 80-grit disc, you can’t even tell the old hole was there. The process for the quarterpanels is the same except you won’t be able to remove your work piece from the vehicle.
SOURCES ALLOY MOTORS 510-207-1613 WWW.ALLOYMOTORS.COM CLASSIC INDUSTRIES 800-854-1280 WWW.CLASSICINDUSTRIES.COM
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³ NUMBER 2: Get exactly what you want, but save money and settle for someone else’s problemchild project. The world is full of Mopar migraines, as witnessed by the endless piles of carnage we see at swap meets around the country. For every finished project we see, there are four incomplete nightmare vehicles looking to sink their teeth into your wallet. Proceed with caution. There’s a reason why we feature so many stories on bodywork, rust repair, and paint. Arm yourself with enough skills, workspace, time, and tools, and dive right in. Otherwise, proceed to number 3. ³ NUMBER 3: Keep your mind
STEALS ON WHEELS VINTAGE MOPARS ARE A HOT COMMODITY, BUT DON’T THINK BEING DOWN ON BUCKS PUTS YOU OUT OF THE GAME!
BY JOHNNY HUNKINS
✪ PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MACHAQUIERO
verybody has that one buddy who was smart and bought a bunch of muscle cars in the ’80s. You might even be one of those guys, in which case we salute you for having such incredible foresight. Sigh. Unfortunately, you’re in the minority and the rest of us have to pay full retail. And the high prices you find in guides such as Kelley Blue Book, NADA, and Hemmings assume you can find the kind of car you want even if you can afford it. Good luck. You’ll have about as much success finding what you want at “book” value as we’d have locking a chimp in a room with engine parts and telling him to build a Hemi. What most people outside don’t understand about Mopar gearheads is that buying Mopars is not a mere obsession, it is a requirement of life. (Significant others, take note!) Rolling in an old Mope is a bodily function like breathing, drinking, sleeping, and eating. Like a strong
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static electric charge building in a thunderhead, the Mopar man will seek ground when the charge reaches a high enough potential. That Mopar attraction will happen just as sure as the sun rises, and there are several routes the afflicted can take to put her or himself behind the driver seat of a classic Mopar, depending on the severity of the attraction, the skillset of the patient, and ability to disgorge sufficiently large quantities of disposable cash.
³ NUMBER 1: Buy what you want, and pay top dollar. If this is your easiest, most direct cure, pat yourself on the back. You have developed the requisite skills in life to bankroll your addiction. (Praise the Lord and pass the collection plate!) You get bonus points if you’ve been lucky enough to also find a codependent spouse who shares your innermost Mopar desires. Or maybe they don’t share your enthusiasm but you’ve become adept at obfuscating the true cost of things. Your secret—and your 401(k)—is safe with us!
open to many alternatives and seize the opportunity when it comes around. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.” Translated into Moparspeak, it means, “if you buy a creampuff survivor four-door Plymouth wagon with a Poly 318 for five grand instead of a used-up ex-race car Max Wedge Belvedere for 10 times as much, you might like it even better.” Most people don’t realize Waldo was such an astute Mopar guy, but great minds think alike. To that point, your author and photog John Machaqueiro took the opportunity to scope out the Mopar car corral at the 2017 Mopar Nationals at National Trail Raceway this past August. Everybody knows The Nats is on every true-blue Mopar guy’s bucket list; it draws Mopar zombies from all corners of the universe and many of them bring classic Chryslers to sell. Going in, we half expected it to be a blood bath of over-inflated prices. Yep, as always there were those crackpipe examples that reinforced our low-life status, but we were surprised by the number of affordable Mopars in the pen. Just maybe, we thought, there was hope for mankind! We’re always looking for new, exciting ways to spend your Mopar money, and this time we posed the question: If someone were at the show this year and had somewhere south of $20K cash in their pocket and wanted something (reliable!) to drive home in, what could they get? What could they get two of? Three of? Hell, fill the whole backyard with running, driving Mopes? To our delight, we discovered there was enough running Chryco iron for sale at the Nats to pretty much get us ejected from every Homeowners’ Association in the land. Let’s dive in! ³
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TECH | STEALS ON WHEELS
1964 DODGE 440 HARDTOP ASKING PRICE: $18,500 Once upon a time, a car like this could be found most anywhere for chump change, but those days are gone. This ’64 Dodge hardtop had its original paint and Poly 318 V-8, which combined with its immaculate original interior, original dealerinstalled air conditioning, and trunk full of original owner documents (including the window sticker!) made it a steal at an asking price of $18,500. This sport roof hardtop B-Body car checks all the right boxes, and except for the less desirable Poly 318 could’ve commanded far more. We felt this Dodge was the best deal on a running, driving car at the Nats, but three days into the show, it had yet to sell.
1973 PLYMOUTH SATELLITE WAGON ASKING PRICE: $3,800 Hey, the Brady Bunch called, and they want their station wagon back! This thrifty 318 automatic car had a very straight body and even the fake wood appliqué on its flanks still looked fine. Wagons like this typically were well cared for over the years, seldom seeing the abuse heaped upon them by their muscle car siblings. With cookie-cutter SUVs the norm for family transportation, a classic wagon like this not only makes sense for fun family outings, but will spin heads ’round wherever it goes. This one was a steal at an asking price of $3,800.
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1988 DODGE DIPLOMAT ASKING PRICE: $3,000 When GM and Ford soldiered on with rear-wheeldrive performance cars in the 1980s, Chrysler had long since moved to front-wheel drive for anything with a performance flavor. That doesn’t mean they were out of the game though. Chrysler’s Kenosha plant kept cranking out four-door RWD cars for families and police departments. Powered by 318 and 360ci small-blocks, these can be made with little effort into serious performers. The sleeper look and room for many makes them even better. This Dodge Diplomat had a 360 Magnum small-block and could be scored for less than $3,000.
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TECH | STEALS ON WHEELS
1969 PLYMOUTH FURY CONVERTIBLE ASKING PRICE: $13,500 This 440-powered sun machine would make for the perfect vacation getaway, whether it’s for the Hot Rod Power Tour long haul or cruising Brice Road during the Mopar Nats. C-Bodies like this Fury aren’t considered performers, their sheer size being the issue here, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. This one looked to be in excellent condition, its perfect interior and straight body ready to hit the turnpike at the drop of a hat. Among the goodies you get for $13,500: a fresh restoration and new interior done in 2012, new alternator, carb, shocks, power steering pump, a transmission overhaul, and a decent collection of extra parts.
1973 PLYMOUTH SATELLITE ASKING PRICE: $12,900 The low mileage (43K) and pristine interior of this ’73 Plymouth Satellite make it a very attractive buy at $12,900, in spite of being a ’73 model. The later “egg-crate” grille Satellites (and Road Runners) are less desirable than their goggle-grilled, fuselage-fendered ’71-’72 precursors, but for many (such as your author) the later ’73-’74 look just as sexy, and can be made into bitchin street machines. We’d probably ditch the 318 under the hood currently, but it would certainly be serviceable for a non-performance application.
1967 CHRYSLER IMPERIAL ASKING PRICE: $10,000
1972 PLYMOUTH DUSTER ASKING PRICE: $12,500 A-Bodies—and Dusters, in particular—make for nice street machines. Their light weight and many engine options means it’s easy to make them go fast. The ’70-’72 models tend to be the most sought after, making them more expensive, and this one was priced accordingly. Later ’73-up Dusters and their Dodge counterparts, the Dart Sport, can be had for less, but this clean ’72 Duster had a rebuilt 360 smallblock, 8 3/4-inch rear, new front disc brakes, and a QA1 K-member for a very reasonable $12,500 asking price. The paint and bodywork looked serviceable too. 56
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Once again, we found ourselves caught in the sticky web of another pristine C-Body, this time a four-door 1967 Chrysler Imperial. A perfect interior and smooth original sheetmetal did a wonderful job of disguising its 85K miles. We have no doubt this would swallow up hundreds of miles of interstate like the Amtrak Sunset Limited, issuing nary a rattle or squeak while doing it. This delicious example of American excess could’ve been scored for a mere $10K, and most likely for thousands less.
1987 PLYMOUTH GRAN FURY ASKING PRICE: $1,200 Like the ’88 Dodge Diplomat we saw earlier, this ’87 Plymouth Gran Fury also made its bones as solid, luxurious family transportation. The “for sale” sign didn’t say whether it was a 318 or a 360 car, and the owner wasn’t around for us to ask, but it did say it was equipped with an Edelbrock intake and a Mopar high-performance distributor, all for the lowly sum of $1,200. At that price, the owner was practically giving it away for lunch money—an awesome buy, considering it only needed a scuff-and-shoot paintjob.
1978 DODGE MAGNUM ASKING PRICE: $10,000 It never ceases to amaze us how nicely preserved some cars are. This happens frequently with cars off the performance radar, which didn’t see a lot of hard use on the track or the stoplight drags. Personal luxury coupes like this ’78 Magnum marked the end of an era where Detroit was running away from heavy luxurious personal coupes, and many of them had the heavy-duty suspension, rear, and brakes, but not the powerful engine. This one hardly looked worse for the wear with its perfect interior and sleek newer paint. The asking price of $10K looked soft and this could’ve gone home for as little as $6K or $7K.
1967 PLYMOUTH BARRACUDA ASKING PRICE: $5,900 If you prefer something a little more inside the boundaries of traditional muscle car performance, a vintage ’67 Plymouth Barracuda may be your kind of car. Beware though, at the lowly price of $5,900 this classic A-Body has lots of visible rust and more than a few deviations from stock. We were surprised to see a big-block stuffed under the hood along with fenderwell headers. The modified inner-fender sheetmetal means you won’t be returning it from its race car roots any time soon. No reasonable amount of effort or money can return it to stock, so this is destined to be a scrappy play toy for some lucky dude.
1966 DODGE DART CONVERTIBLE ASKING PRICE: $7,500 This really sweet, really straight ’66 Dart convertible is a good example of finding value outside of the traditional muscle car oeurve. Yes, it’s a slant six, but a car like this isn’t about thunder and fury, it’s about kicking back with the top down and having a relaxing Sunday cruise. The sell sheet on this car lists an engine rebuild in 2013, body and paint in 2014, new convertible top in 2014, and a new interior that same year. If you don’t mind something off the beaten path, this will get your Mopar jones jump-started for not much cash. MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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TECH | STEALS ON WHEELS
1978 CHRYSLER CORDOBA ASKING PRICE: $12,000
1973 DODGE DART SPORT ASKING PRICE: $18,000
Of all the cars in this story, this ’78 Cordoba was perhaps the most meticulously maintained and/or restored. All snide jokes about Ricardo Montalban aside, this car had amazing paint and what looked like a curated interior. The thing, however, that sent us over the top was how perfect the engine compartment looked. We’re not sure if it’s a 318 or a 360, but the dual-plane Edelbrock intake, finned Mopar Performance valve covers, and ceramic-coated headers added performance to the overall immaculate presentation. The price had already been marked down once, so there was probably more wiggle room to be had on this.
With an asking price of $18K, this not-especially-desirable ’73 Dodge Dart Sport looks to be priced high, but when you take a look at the built-up Magnum 360 under the hood, the overall condition, and the race-ready interior, this is actually a pretty good bargain if you can negotiate the asking price down a bit. The rollbar hints at—or strongly suggests—that this is a low 11-second bracket racer. With just a little bit of attention, it could be brought back to the mean streets to beat up on Camaros and Mustangs.
1969 DODGE D100 PICKUP ASKING PRICE: $14,900 More and more, trucks are looking like a great alternative to muscle cars due to their relative affordability. In a world where Hemi ’Cudas regularly crest the million-dollar mark, a pristine, low-miles (22K) Dodge truck with an asking price of $14,900 looks pretty darned good. It’s no restoration either; the survivor patina is the real thing and it even comes with a period-correct camper top. This one was powered by a 225 Slant Six and shifted through an automatic three-speed trans. Solid and rust-free throughout! 58
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1965 PLYMOUTH VALIANT CONVERTIBLE ASKING PRICE: $15,995 After we got over the chrome-plated steel wheels (easily replaced), we warmed up to this 1965 Valiant convertible, which the owner claimed to have recently lavished $10K on. Some of the pricier updates included power disc brakes, Vintage Air, fuel tank and sending unit, (non-stock) power front seats, upholstery, weatherstripping, and convertible top with new hydraulics. A California car with a 273ci small-block and just 51K miles on the clock, we liked it enough to include it in our story, with the caveat that the price is still about five grand too high.
1973 PLYMOUTH SATELLITE SEDAN ASKING PRICE: $5,500 Every cop movie and TV show in the early ’70s featured Plymouth Satellite sedans like this ’73 model, and if you yearn for the old days you’ll go nuts for this one. We were impressed with how sanitary this one was, right down to its patina paint and cop car steel wheels. The owner’s sign says everything works on this 318 automatic car, which has a freshened motor, new tires, new aluminum radiator, and new dual exhaust. We were really digging the sweet interior and could see turning this thing into a more-door sleeper.
1967 PLYMOUTH BELVEDERE WAGON ASKING PRICE: $6,000 When it comes to alternative muscle, a wagon like this ’67 Belvedere—built right smack dab in the middle of the muscle car era—is becoming the cool thing to have. We don’t know much about it other than it’s an automatic 383 car, but the vintage interior was intact and looking good. The price had already been marked down from $6,500, so we guess the seller would entertain even lower cash offers. Straight and rust-free as far as we could tell, this wagon has lots of fun times still left in it.
1973 PLYMOUTH DUSTER ASKING PRICE: $9,500 It may be just our imagination, but we’re pretty sure ’73 Dusters outnumbered ’69 Camaros by a long shot. This Slant-Six ’73 Duster was priced a tad high at $9,500 due to some rust we spotted, but it did have some nice five-spoke wheels and the owner was pleasant and seemed open to negotiation. This one is ready to drive, and like our own ’73 Duster project, can easily swallow a small-block built on a budget with no problem. The interior was sweet, and with a little haggling this Duster will be a nice score for somebody.
1973 DODGE CHARGER SE ASKING PRICE: $12,500 By 1973, the muscle car era was over. The design studios and engineering labs were padlocked, and the accountants were firmly in charge. But before the good guys left, they fired one last salvo, packing some of the best-looking cars ever to be penned with the best chassis and suspension stuff, along with the best engines they could muster, given the new rules. The ’73 Dodge Charger was one of those parting gifts, and this one has been reborn with a much healthier 440 with single-plane Weiand intake and a 509 purple ’shaft. We dig the po-po wheels, power-bulge hood, spoilers, Flowmaster exhaust, and perfecto interior. Evan at full asking price, this is a sweet deal. MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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BY CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL
✪ PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MACHAQUIERO
f you think back to your high school days, there’s likely at least one car you used to see on a regular basis that was sitting neglected in someone’s yard or under tree. You probably daydreamed about that car and wondered why on earth anyone would be so callous to treat it like that. You certainly wouldn’t. You would get it back on the road to its former glory. For Larry Rose, this ’70 Challenger RT/SE was that car. As a young man, he kept his eye on it as it sat neglected in a yard. He saw it every time he drove out to his grandma’s house in Georgetown, Illinois, and he would just shake his head and then spend most of the rest of the drive thinking about it. In most cases, stories like this usually
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include a few attempts at inquiring about the car, always to be turned away with declarations that it’s not for sale. Larry’s story went much better though. He kept an eye on the Challenger, and in 1989, he got wind that the car was for sale for $3,500. The bad news was that a light pole had fallen across the hood and gone through the windshield. Still, Larry knew that was the car, so at the age of 17, the Challenger became the first one he ever bought. Being a high school kid, money was tight, so Larry replaced the windshield and worked the fender back out as best as he could. He spent some time getting it reliable and driveable again, and the 383 Magnum, four-speed,
Dana-rearend–equipped coupe was his ride for the last two years of high school. As you would expect, there were many nights spent cruising the local hot spots to see and be seen. On one of those trips, Larry even managed to catch the attention of a good-looking girl who he took to prom. He didn’t know it then, but she would eventually be his wife. Some say the cool car had a little something to do with that. Around 1990, Larry saved up enough from his job working at a pallet company after school to have a local shop swap on a fender, repair the hood, and spray on a new coat of Lime Green paint. Shortly thereafter, though, Larry went away to college and the Challenger went into storage
for a few years. School comes first, but once he had time to devote to it again, the Challenger was back on the road and at the dragstrip. It was still running the stock drivetrain, and rowing gears down the track was fun, but to get more consistency Larry swapped in an automatic. Then to get more speed, he added a nitrous system. The Challenger remained in this form for the next few years and was a force to be reckoned with. The RT/SE moved back and forth from the front to the back burner through the late ’90s and early 2000s as life changed and other projects came and went, but around 2005, Larry started thinking about making some really big changes. The burgeoning Pro Touring movement was
bringing on a surge of innovation in new products to make classic cars more powerful, better handling, and more fun. For all of its history so far, the Challenger had pretty much just been a straight-line car, but Larry was warming up to the idea of getting more well rounded. While the 383 had been a great engine and taken a beating over the years, it was time for a freshening, so Larry took the opportunity to upgrade to a 440 6-pack. The automatic came out and a stick went back in, but instead of a four-speed, the Challenger got one more cruising leg from a five-speed swap. The really interesting stuff happened underneath the skin though. Rather than rebuild or upgrade the original suspension, Larry opted for a
full Reilly Motorsports package with the AlterKtion system up front and the StreetLynx in the rear. To say this transformed the Challenger would be an understatement. It was like a whole new animal, and Larry fell in love with it all over again and started driving it a lot more. There are things you learn about a car the more you drive it, especially when you’ve become accustomed to the nice things modern cars offer. For example, while a 6-pack looks oh-so-cool when you pop the hood, keeping it perfectly tuned in all conditions can be a bit of a chore. Plus, it’s not exactly easy on fuel. Since Larry was enjoying driving the Challenger more and planning to attend the 2012 Hot Rod Power Tour, he started looking at MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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IT JUST GETS BETTER fuel-injection options and settled on a FAST EZ-EFI system. Notwithstanding, even with the more precise fuel and ignition control, Larry discovered the often lower-quality fuel available in rural areas caused a lot of spark knock, requiring him to stop and manually adjust the timing. Larry and his wife, Kara, were sold on the Power Tour, so Larry decided that the next evolution of the Challenger needed to be in the direction of easy long-distance touring. He wasn’t willing to give up on performance however, not by a long shot. Thanks to the modular design of the AlterKtion K-member, Larry knew he could easily swap to a different engine family, including a Gen III Hemi. After some planning sessions, Larry placed a call to Cleveland Power and Performance to get one of their running pallets with an ’08 6.1L Hemi and complete wiring harness. While he was at it, he figured it was a great time to add a Magnuson supercharger. To preempt grenading the five-speed, Larry ordered a Tremec six-speed to handle the grunt. Larry and Kara attended more Power Tours with the Challenger in this configuration, and Larry discovered how much fun a boosted Gen III can be on the dragstrip. We guess you could say that was his gateway to latemodel drivetrain performance. That brings us to 2016. While all of those upgrades were cool, we know what you really want to know: How hard could a Hellcat swap be? If the Challenger already had a blown Gen III in it, how hard could it be, right? Wrong. The answer is really hard and plenty expensive. Even more so because of Larry’s choice of transmission. While sitting in traffic on the 2016 Power Tour and getting a severe left leg workout, Larry looked over at Kara and stated, “We should just buy a new Hellcat with an automatic trans.” Kara shot that down stating that they really didn’t need another car. “Fair enough,” Larry thought, so he countered with, “Well, what about a Hellcat engine upgrade instead?” That sounded fine to Kara, so at literally the next gas stop, Larry called up Cleveland Power & Performance and asked to be placed on the waiting list for the next available running pallet with the eight-speed automatic. The next week, they called Larry back and said they had one ready to ship out, if he was sure he wanted it. Larry assured them he was, and the Hellcat pallet arrived at his shop literally ready to run. For a couple of months, Larry would crank it up on the pallet just to show it off to friends, but when it came time to actually put it in the Challenger, the headaches began, particularly pertaining to the TorqueFlite 8HP90. 62
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“How hard could a Hellcat swap be? …The answer is really hard, and plenty expensive.”
A donor Hellcat’s shifter, uConnect touchscreen, push-button start, pedals (including electronic throttle control), and even the seats were seamlessly integrated into the classic Challenger’s interior.
Before the stick shift brigade gets their pitchforks, if you haven’t driven one, you’ve got no argument to stand on. The 8HP90 is a marvel, and to be perfectly honest, it’s the best transmission option for the Hellcat and easily among the best performance-oriented, non-dual clutch selfshifting transmissions on the market. Sure, there was a point in time where a manual transmission was the only way to go, but those days are gone. Starting with the roots, the 8HP90 debuted in the BMW 760Li behind a V-12 engine, so it was engineered for precision behind power. Weighing less than 10 pounds more than the five-speed automatic it replaces, the eight forward gears work to keep the Hellcat engine in its most efficient rpm range with tight ratios of 4.71,
3.14, 2.10, 1.67, 1.29, 1.00, 0.84, and 0.67:1, with a 3.30:1 Reverse. Thanks to that 4.71 First gear, the Hellcat uses a tiny 2.62:1 rear axle ratio, yet delivers a 12.34:1 torque multiplication factor in First gear. For perspective, to achieve the same value with a ’70 street-spec Hemi Challenger, the standard 2.45 First gear would require huge 4.88 gears. Eye opening, huh? And while six-speed drivers may enjoy the connected feeling they get from the stick shift and clutch pedal, there’s no beating the 160-millisecond shifts in Track mode. And that, friends, is why Larry decided to enter untested waters and keep it for the swap. We say “untested,” because the 8HP90 isn’t a currently supported swap. Yes, there are at least two swaps we know of
While not all factory parameters are functioning, Larry did retain the touchscreen LCD from the Hellcat, allowing selection of performance modes.
It’s not only one of the first fully operational Hellcat swaps, it’s one of the cleanest. Despite 45 years of difference, Larry Rose managed to make the swap look factory. Larry did retain A/C, but noted that the variable displacement compressor requires some rewiring to be compatible with the Vintage Air system in the Challenger.
The three-piece Boze Alloy satin-black wheels look great and allowed Larry to spec them exactly to the offsets he needed to run massive tires front and rear. Similar in appearance to the Hellcat’s tuner wheel, they fit the theme perfectly. MOPAR MUSCLE FEBRUARY 2018
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FAST FACTS
1970 DODGE CHALLENGER RT/SE CAR OWNER: Larry Rose • Newburgh, IN
ENGINE TYPE: Gen-III Hemi Hellcat BLOCK: Hellcat, cast iron ROTATING ASSEMBLY: 6.2L Hellcat CYLINDER HEADS: Hellcat/Apache cast aluminum CAMSHAFT: factory Hellcat .561-/.551-inch lift, 278/304 degrees duration VALVETRAIN: Hellcat 1.65:1 ratio stainless steel
rocker arms
INDUCTION: Hellcat 2.4L twin-screw IHI supercharger EXHAUST: TTI headers with MagnaFlow pipes and mufflers
running around with one, Roadkill’s General Mayhem and the Gas Monkey Garage ’67 Dodge Dart “Shartcat,” but that doesn’t mean the info is accessible out there for everyone. Also, it’s a different case if you don’t want to hack your car up as much as they did. So with no harness or ECU available other than the stock parts, trying to integrate 2015 systems with 1970, plus a few aftermarket systems, opens up a world of complications. As far as we know, Larry’s is one of the few Hellcat swaps currently driveable, and he’s still about 95 percent of the way to having it all figured out. The only current nagging concern is the ECU defaulting to limp mode after 130 mph. Larry speculates it could be a VSS issue related to the 3.54 gears in the Dana 60 causing the ECU to believe the vehicle’s absolute speed is too high, which, if determined to be the case, creates another issue since no one produces a 2.62 gearset for a Dana 60. That’s also why you see the stunted power numbers in the Fast Facts, since the Challenger cannot hit full rpm on the dyno. Still, in current form, Larry reports the Challenger is totally driveable and road-trip reliable. If you’re looking for the easier route, Larry advises using a GM 4L60 series with a standalone controller. On the topic of “not supported,” the Hellcat Hemi technically isn’t either, because even though it’s a Gen III Hemi, it’s most definitely not the same level of install. Even though Larry had already installed a 6.1, the Hellcat was not a direct drop-in. For one, because of the lines routed from the rear of the supercharger, the engine had to be moved forward ¾ inch. Then there’s the six heat exchangers and all the requisite plumbing. For example, to cool the intake air and maximize density, a 250-watt thermostatically controlled electric pump moves 45 liters of coolant per minute through two intercoolers built into the flanks of the supercharger and two radiators positioned at the front of the car. You can’t just shove them any old place they fit; they need strong airflow and Hellcat-equipped 64
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cars are designed with this in mind. In fact, when Larry spoke to Chrysler engineers at a show once, they said one of the biggest issues he would likely face would be getting enough airflow to the coolers to keep the Hellcat out of limp mode. Working within the envelope the ’70 offers, Larry’s solution was to position the coolers within the fenders for the best airflow and add slim auxiliary fans. While he has not attempted open-track use, this solution has been effective for regular street use and Power Tour. Wiring is its own adventure with a swap like this. The complex multi-tiered electrical system in the production car features multiple computers that all retrieve data from each other. The challenge is figuring what you can eliminate and what you can’t. For example, disconnect the wheel-speed sensors and you’ll trigger a code and disable the traction control, stability control, and speedo, but the car would still be driveable. On the other hand, the car would not crank at all if the ABS module were unplugged. That’s why Larry’s Challenger has the Hellcat ABS module mounted and plugged in, even though it’s not actually doing anything. As for the rest of the wiring, Larry reached out to numerous resources to confirm what was critical to operation. If the Challenger had a modern dash swap, it would be lit up like a Christmas tree with warning lights from triggered codes, but none are mission critical. Despite the fact that it’s already a driver and has taken home the Mopar Muscle Editor’s Choice award at the 2017 Mopar Nats, the saga of the ’70 Hellcat is actually an ongoing one as Larry irons out the technical details to get his RT/SE as turnkey as a brand-new Challenger. The plan is to have all the details ironed out so that he can offer the swap to customers of his shop, Larry’s Automotive in Newburgh, Indiana, with minimal hassle and using only the necessary components. Plus, if you haven’t noticed by now, Larry loves to upgrade and change this car, so
IGNITION: stock Hellcat coil-on-plug COOLING: custom/Hellcat OILING: Hellcat wet-sump with factory piston oil squirters OUTPUT: 680 hp, 585 lb-ft of torque BUILT BY: Chrysler/FCA, Saltillo Engine plant (Arizpe, Coahuila, Mexico)
DRIVETRAIN TRANSMISSION: Hellcat eight-speed 8HP90 TorqueFlite, factory shifter. DRIVESHAFT: custom from the Driveshaft Shop REAREND: Dana 60 with 3.54 gears
CHASSIS FRONT SUSPENSION: Reilly Motorsports AlterKation with adjustable dual-action coilovers, rackand-pinion conversion REAR SUSPENSION: Reilly Motorsports Street-Lynx four-link with adjustable dual-action coilovers STEERING: Reilly Motorsports power rack-and-pinion BRAKES: Wilwood 14-inch rotors and six-piston calipers up front; Wilwood 14-inch rotors and four-piston in the rear, Wilwood master cylinder, Hydratech hydroboost
WHEELS WHEELS: 18x10 and 19x11 Boze Alloy TIRES: 305/35R18 Michelin Pilot (front) and 345/30R19 Nitto NT05R drag radials (rear)
this is hardly the last iteration. If you want to see more technical build details and follow the progress, check out his Instagram @70Hellcat because even though the Challenger will be making 707-plus horsepower once the bugs are smashed, Larry hinted to us that he’s already pondering what he may do next to make it even faster.
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BY BRIAN LOHNES PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN MACHAQUIERO
e’ve all been there. You spot a nice-looking car at a cruise night and decide to dive in for a deeper look. As you are looking at the car you strike up a conversation and ask the guy if he has ever raced the car and if he has, what it runs. Then the dreaded response comes back. “It’ll run 10s in the quarter!” The safest response in this situation is to nod your head and move along, otherwise it’s just going to get weirder. We’ll never understand why people take this line of thinking, and the good news is that there are some people out there whose word you can trust and the owner of this 1975 Plymouth Duster, George Kavounis, is one of them. When he tells you that the big-block—powered A-Body runs 10s, you can believe him! The Chrysler A-Body platform was one of the company’s most successful, and in some respects, longest lasting. The cars were also very diverse in terms of image and performance. From the high-winding, high-performance small-block cars of the early ’70s to the economy-themed models of the later part of the decade, the A-Body entries were certainly an effort to appeal to the different interests and needs of customers at the time. For guys like George Kavounis, they are more than that because they represent a vessel to invest time, effort, and finances into personalizing and modifying. Back in 1970, George had the Mopar bug bad and with the help of his dad, bought a ’70 Plum Crazy Duster with a 340. Being into horsepower and drag racing, George built the car into a Super Stock/I Automatic runner and had great fun with the car until 1975 when he sold it. “I had been into Mopars all through my childhood,” George said. “My dad was a Chrysler guy and while he never had muscle cars, I took to them. I would read every magazine I could find and when the ’68 Hemi Darts and Barracudas came out I was just head-over-heels for them. I bought the Duster and drove it on the street while racing it until I got out of high school and with a friend set the car up to go Super Stock racing. We did that for two years until the index we were racing on got bombed pretty hard by John Lingenfelter, and then I sold the car.” Just because he was out of the race car game didn’t mean his love for cars or Mopars had gone away. The first time he laid eyes on the ’75 you see here, it brought him right back to the days of excitement and fun he had with his ’70, and it had the same tough look to boot. “I met Allen Hall at a cruise night and we just started talking and became friends,” George said. “I would see him at the track and I worked with him on the car. I liked the car because I have always been a Mopar guy and Allen’s car was really well kept. When Allen’s health started to get a bit rocky he
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Here’s a great look at the Duster going to work off the starting line. Note the weight transfer onto the sticky Mickey Thompson rear tires and the fact that this thing is a hair away from yanking those front tires. The car works.
moved to Florida. Before he left I told him that if he ever wanted to sell, I had to be the first call.” Amazingly, after not hearing from Allen for two years, the phone rang. “He told me that this was my call and my shot to buy the car,” George said. “I asked for a couple of days to get the money together and he said OK. I bought the car, and he delivered it to me.” When George got the car, it was a dedicated race car, and he wanted to put the thing back on the street. “I knew that there were some things I needed to do in order to get the car back to a point where I could drive it on the road,” George said. “When I got it, the car ran on race gas only. I took off the steel heads, changed the intake and carb, and generally went through the engine to make it a really healthy but driveable piece.” A 446ci RB engine that makes torque like a tug boat and still has manners good enough that it does not need race gas to survive is the end result. Using a 1976
A couple of buckets, a nicely padded dash, and a killer Winters shifter make this the office that Geoge Kavonis attacks the dragstrip from. Functional and tasteful, we’re fans of its business-like environment.
What really spins our crank about this particular ’75 Plymouth Duster is the stance. Ladder-bar cars can have that old-school, high-riding rake but this one doesn’t, and it works great off the line. The wheeltubs allow the car to sit down and take the 4x4 look out of the equation.
model year 440ci block as the foundation, C&C Motorsports took it from there. The build plan involved a stock crank and stock rods with a .030-overbore to make sure everything was round and true. TRW forged pistons were used to get the compression ratio to a healthy 11.0:1, and the camshaft was sourced from Ray Barton who followed up with a mild, street-friendly .590-inch lift, 284/296 duration (at .050) bumpstick. The theme of simplicity continues to the upper end of the engine with a set of Hensley Racing ported and polished Edlebrock Performer cylinder heads. Those heads use a 2.14-inch intake valve and a 1.81-inch exhaust. An Edelbrock Victor intake manifold sits atop those heads and a 1,000cfm double-pumper Quick Fuel 4150 carb feeds the whole beast. With an engine built to make loads of torque and lots of usable power, the rest of the drivetrain has to match it to make the car both happy on the street and a stormer on the strip. The transmission is an ATI Performance-built 727 equipped with a manual valvebody and fronted by an 8-inch diameter torque converter with a stall speed of 3,500 rpm. The converter makes or breaks this combo on the street, and with a 3,500 stall speed, it is loose enough to keep the engine happy but not crazy for street operation. Rearend gears are 4.57 ratio Mosers and while you are probably thinking that
In today’s world it seems like everyone wants to overcomplicate things and that’s why this 446ci big-block is a breath of fresh air. With 11.0:1 compression, a Bartonspec’d camshaft that does not kill springs, and torque for days, it rockets the Duster to 10-second elapsed times with ease. Winning!
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FAST FACTS
THE REAL DEAL
1975 PLYMOUTH DUSTER CAR OWNER: George Kavounis • Centreville, VA
ENGINE TYPE: Chrysler RB-series big-block wedge V-8 BORE X STROKE: 4.35 (bore) x 3.75 (stroke), 446ci BLOCK: 1976 Chrysler iron factory ROTATING ASSEMBLY: stock factory forged crank, TRW forged pistons, stock connecting rods COMPRESSION RATIO: 11.0:1 CYLINDER HEADS: Edelbrock Performer cylinder heads ported and polished by Hensley CAMSHAFT: .590-inch lift, 284/286 degrees duration at 0.050 VALVETRAIN: 2.14-/1.81-inch valves, Cloyed double-roller timing chain, Crane 1.6-ratio roller rockers, Crane pushrods, Crane valvesprings good to .750-inch lift. INDUCTION: Edelbrock Victor intake manifold, Quick Fuel 4150 series 1,000cfm carb FUEL SYSTEM: trunk-mounted fuel cell, Holley electric fuel pump EXHAUST: CPPA headers with 3.5-inch exhaust to the rear axle IGNITION: MSD crank trigger, MSD 7AL ignition box, timing locked at 30 degrees OILING SYSTEM: Milodon 7-quart oil pan with Milodon wet-sump oil pump COOLING: BeCool aluminum radiator with twin Spal electric fans, CSR electric water pump FUEL: Holley black electric fuel pump ENGINE BUILT BY: C&C (Manassas, VA) BEST E.T.: 10.73 at 124 mph WEIGHT: 3,750 pounds
DRIVETRAIN Non-car people have no idea what this is but we consider it the Mona Lisa of high performance. A mighty Dana 60, ladder bars, a Moser spool, and 4.57 gearset along with those AFCO coilovers and steam roller Hoosiers mean business and quick 60-foot times.
TRANSMISSION: ’71 vintage RB-spec 727 manual valvebody built by ATI Performance, 8-inch torque converter with 3,500-stall speed DRIVESHAFT: fabricated by National Drivetrain REAREND: Dana 60 with Moser spool and 4.57
those cannot be street driven for any time, remember that this car wears a rear tire that is 31 inches tall. When George said he built the car to drive it (obviously not cross-country but on the street) he meant it. “I cannot stand to see the car sit. I love driving it. I will get it out all through the year. For instance, if there is a warm day in the winter, and I can take the car around town, to the hardware store or whatever, I’ll do it. I will take the car on decent trips to cruise nights and events. I don’t like to buzz the motor too badly so if I am on the highway I stick to the right lane and let traffic by me. I really love driving the car.” We love this guy! The stance of this car is pretty great. There are lots of times where cars using a ladder-bar–style rear suspension sit higher than normal to clear larger rear tires, but in the case of George’s Duster, that’s not a problem. Tucking just a touch of front tire and a healthy chunk of the tall and fat rears, it maintains a level appearance until 70
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George hammers the gas on the starting line and those big tires bite the track. You can see how well the suspension works in the launch photos where the front of the car is heading up and the rear tires are wrapped up and working hard! Perhaps the best part of this whole story is the fact that George has spent a load of time working on the car with his sons Nick and Drew. That’s the good stuff. This car that brought Allen so much pleasure when he owned it has landed into the hands of a man who loved it as much as the previous owner did, and has even been able to transfer that experience and passion to his kids. Like we said, this car and George Kavounis are the real deal!
gears
CHASSIS FRONT SUSPENSION: aftermarket upper and lower
control arms, torsions bars, 90/10 drag shocks, sway bar delete REAR SUSPENSION: ladder bars with AFCO coilover
shocks
STEERING: rebuilt stock BRAKES: stock disc/drum combo CHASSIS: frame connectors and NHRA-legal rollcage installed by owner
PAINT & INTERIOR COLOR: 1983 Chrysler Aqua Pearl paint with silver
pearl bottom strip
PAINTER: Papo’s body shop (Annedale, VA) INTERIOR: JAZ bucket seats, dashpad done by Ernie’s Upholstery (Manassas, VA), Auto Meter gauges, Grant steering wheel, custom carpet
WHEELS & TIRES WHEELS: 15x4 Bogart (front), 15x14 (rear) TIRES: 26x7.5x15 Mickey Thompson (front), 31x16.5x15 Hoosier (rear)
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DODGE TAKES MUSCLE CAR PROMOTION TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH THEIR DODGE DEMON DRAG RACE SIMULATOR.
DEMON ! E I L E E H W BY STEVE MAGNANTE PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
f all the amazing things the ’18 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon can do, the wildest is its ability to pull a wheelie. You’ve read all about it and have probably even seen the boast in Dodge factory advertising. And it’s no hollow boast; the Guinness Book of World Records sent an observer to witness the spectacle of what happens when 840 hp is coupled to a prepared dragstrip surface via Demon’s strip-optimized suspension and sticky P315/40R18 Nitto drag radials. The front tires defy gravity for a few feet before settling down and roaring down the track in 9.6 seconds. To help spread the news and fan the flames of interest so to speak, Dodge devised the Demon Drag Strip Simulator. In the history of high-performance vehicle marketing, there’s never been anything like it. Essentially, Dodge took two fully operable Challengers, gutted the stock suspensions and drivelines, and transformed them into E-ticket-caliber Demon ride simulators. Dubbed the Dodge SRT Demon Drag Strip Simulator, this traveling road show sets up in the manufacturer midway at major NHRA drag races, leading Mopar enthusiast shows, and top-caliber new car shows like the New York Auto Show, where it made its debut in April of 2017. Unlike the Dodge Thrill Ride, which is a high-speed ride-along promotion in actual Hellcats, the Drag Strip Simulator is a static display—but it is hardly immobile. From the outside, the factory fresh TorRed and Billet Silver Metallic Demons look like they just rolled off the Brampton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line. Inside, they’re also fully finished and look stock complete with paddle-shifters, center console, and the cool rear seat-delete configuration (a rear bench is optional to make Demon a true five-seater).
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dragstrip Poised just before a run, drivers see a huge tmas tree graphic through the windshield. The Chris r count-down) is real and cycles a Sportsman (three ambe a valid driver ’s ss posse must s driver gh Thou nce. seque for life-long license, kids are welcomed to ride shotgun memories.
But lifting the hood reveals an empty void. The expected 840 hp 6.2L Demon Hemi is replaced by a mass of wires and rectangular steel tubing. And behind the fat-and-skinny Demon Holeshot rims, fast-acting electric rams support vehicle weight and bring it all to life when the light flashes green. Without a doubt, the Dodge Demon Drag Strip Simulator is the first of its kind, a take-it-to-the-people action ride that’s spreading Dodge Demon fever everywhere it goes. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain for an exclusive look at how it all works.
This instruction board guides drivers through the process. Just like the real Demon, the simulators use the righthand paddle shifter on the steering wheel to activate and launch the transbrake. Participants get to make three runs and can get back in line if they want to go again. Best of all, it’s totally free of charge.
The big LCD screen displays a real time on-track view for the driver. Dodge could have left it at this and had a successful display, but no. Each car is equipped with fast-action electronic struts at each corner that simulate body movements during an actual drag race … including the Demon’s penchant for wheelies! This is the kind of automotive promotion people talk about for decades after is happens.
It takes a team of 10 people to transport and activate the simulator exhibit at each show. Here, computer specialist Howard Lin sets the front tire on one of the four glide pads that support the cars in action. Your author accompanies the simulator at major NHRA shows, and took this picture during setup for the 2017 Mopar Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, Colorado.
Each trio of races takes about five minutes. By the end of a typical 8- to 10-hour day, each simulator makes nearly 250 “runs.” Surround sound speakers play real-time engine sounds that were generated by actual Demon test cars. From the transbrake ignition stutter to the supercharger whine on the top end, the entire tent is filled with the music of two Demons at play.
DEMON WHEELIE!
At rest, the body sits at normal ride height while the Christmas tree counts down. Here, the driver ’s right foot is buried into the thin Demonspec carpet and the right-hand shift paddle is pulled back and held there. Remember, the Demon comes from the factory with a transbrake!
Between the cupped black tire holder and aluminum tarmac plate are these dry Teflon-like surfaces. Very slippery, they let the tires slip around for the utmost sensory effect for occupants. Without them, the jumping, bouncing cars would quickly crawl out of position.
Supporting each tire on a glide pad allows the active suspension to move freely through pre-selected roll, pitch, and heave modes. Without them, friction between the tire treads and the ground surface would bind suspension movement and inhibit free movement.
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On green, when the right-hand paddle is released, the front struts deliver up to 14 inches of suspension rise and the rear end squats. The effect feels exactly like a wheelie from the driver seat. Once launched, tapping the paddle when the tach shows 6,200 rpm delivers instant upshifts. Steering inputs must be subtle or the car can swerve. When it does, the active suspension shimmies, shakes, tilts, and careens just like a real car.
Starting life as a very early production 2015 Challenger R/T (VIN 2C3CDZC95FH500034) with a 5.7 Hemi, the Metallic Billet Silver demonstrator has been gutted and given Demon body mods. The steel braces reinforce the empty engine bay. The large diameter metal coil springs don’t support the car, rather they counter act the rapid movements of the electrically activated struts.
The custom front suspension employs extra-long control arms to allow over a foot of wheel drop during simulated wheel stands. For all you LC Challenger trivia freaks (like your author), the red Demon demonstrator (in background) is also an early 2015 unit and bears VIN 2C3CDZDJ4FH500180. The J engine code (in the eighth position) marks it as a 6.4L Hemi-powered donor. “J” was also used to denote the 426 Street Hemi in the ’67-’69 era!
Out back, the entire rear suspensi on is replaced by a similar pivoted arrangement, though with an emphasis on squat characteristics. This accu rately simulates the effect of weight tran sfer on a hard launch.
This spotless Freightliner is fully self-contained and hauls the Demon Drag Strip Simulator from coast to coast. Inside, it takes both Demon “play cars” plus as many as three more new Dodge display cars for show use. There’s no doubt the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon Drag Strip Demonstrator will be remembered for decades to come. Thank you, Dodge, for making life so fun again!
HEMI ENGINE. SUPERCHARGED. 707 HP. ENOUGH SAID. ®
THE “HELLCRATE” HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN UNLEASHED.
Now any pre-1976 classic can have this 6.2L Supercharged Crate HEMI® Engine: 707 hp and 650 lb-ft. Thanks to our Crate HEMI® Engine Kit, installation is a simple “plug and play” process. Visit cratehemi.com to learn about Crate HEMI® Engines and accessories.
©2017 FCA US LLC. All Rights Reserved. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Mopar, SRT and HEMI are registered trademarks of FCA US LLC. FIAT is a registered trademark of FCA Group Marketing S.p.A., used under license by FCA US LLC.
The look of a guy who was gifted a nice warm sweater.
The look of a guy who was gifted PST parts for his muscle car.
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