Zen
and the Art of Mopar Maintenance
1973 Barracuda - 440 'Cuda Conversion Project
The Project
1973 Plymouth Barracuda
Hi, my name's Mike and I love Mopars. I think my love for Mopars started when my dad brought home a gorgeous blue 1968 Plymouth Satellite with a white vinyl interior. It looked almost identical to this one below. He was a VP of Marketing and Sales for my uncle's aircraft parts company and they would periodically buy him a company car. (Think about it. How cool is that?! Imagine -- your boss buys you a Mopar muscle car?!)
In high school, I was lucky enough to own a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T and a 1970 Dodge Challenger. The R/T looked a lot like the one pictured below and was the first car I ever owned.
Sadly, I owned my '67 R/T for only three days when it made a sudden and unwelcome contact with a fire hydrant during a drag race against my friend John Anderson's hot yellow 1970 Chevelle. What else are you supposed to do when a lady makes a left turn in front of you? Yeah, I know, all you bowtie boys are laughing. But it scared the crap outta me. Undaunted, I continued to work hard at the pizza parlor to make enough money to buy a used '70 Challenger -- for $500!
And here's a picture of my 1970 Challenger in the summer of 1978 in all its glory, chrome sidepipes and all. It was white with a blue vinyl top, a 318 and Slapstick A/T. It also had an Edelbrock aluminum high rise manifold, a 3:55 rear end and racing wheels. Loved it.
Here's also a picture of my high school sweetheart, Beverly.
My friend Ron across the street helped me work on the Challenger. We rebuilt a Holley 780 4 bbl double pumper to go with the Edelbrock manifold and installed Hi-Jacker air shocks (didn't everybody have those back then?). Ron had a beautiful blue Pantera with a 351 Cleveland that was the most awesome sports car around. He would do 195 mph at Riverside Raceway in the Pantera and nobody could touch that car.
Since then, I've had the pleasure and good fortune of owning a blue 1969 Corvette, a black 1994 BMW 540i and a 1995 Corvette. I now have an Oxford Green BMW 740i and a Dodge Durango 4x4 with a 360 v8. One day last year, my friend Bob was telling me about his beautifully restored '67 Camaro with a 383-stroker motor and $6,000 paint job. And I got to thinking. Why not build a muscle car? Hell, I work hard enough and, compared to BMW's, they're cheap! So I initially started thinking about doing a '69 Z-28 since parts and options are plentiful. But in the process of looking, my old love of Mopars came roaring back. We went to the January 2002 Pomona auto swap to go check out '69 Camaros -- and although there was some gorgeous stuff, all I could look at were the Cudas, Challengers and Road Runners.
The Project Begins
I found myself searching around in the Collector Car Trader every day, looking for a good Cuda to start with. Initially, I wanted a big block '70 or '71 to just be a project car. But then I came across Larry and Heidi Dohse's 1973 Barracuda. (See pictures.) The Dohse's had bought the car for Heidi in 1991 from an attorney who represented the estate of the previous obviously deceased owner. That owner had been a car collector and he hadn't registered the Barracuda since 1979. So from 1979-1991, the car hadn't been driven at all. It had less than 70,000 original miles on it and was avocado green with a 318 and a vinyl top (yuck), with virtually no rust.
Well, Larry had big plans for this plain-Jane Barracuda. First, he went to Pick-Your-Part and bought a '67 440 block that had been in a Chrysler Imperial or New Yorker. Larry and his pal had been building engines for a few years and Larry had previously run a Belvedere race car with a 426 Wedge. Larry rebuilt the 440 with a high volume oil pump, cast pistons, Melling cam, Holley Street Dominator intake manifold and Street Demon 750 cfm 4-bbl. The stock exhaust manifold was connected to the existing Barracuda exhaust system. The car got a brand new interior and fresh brakes. It also received a 1967 Charger's '742 8-3/4 Sure-Grip 3.55 rear-end, and the Dana Power-Lok clutch pack was freshly rebuilt. Larry stripped off the vinyl roof and took the car to Fontana Auto Body for paint and body work. Heidi chose Black Rose Metallic, a purplish burgundy 92-94 Corvette color, for the new paint job. Initially, they weren't too happy with the paint job, however, and Heidi had to raise some Cain with the shop until they did it right. And boy did they do it right. The car is straight and the paint is deep with very little visible "orange peel." They also added polished Centerline Auto-Drag wheels, which were obtained through Larry's close friend Jerry at Tucker Tire in Covina. The Barracuda was well on its way to becoming a high-performance Cuda.
From 1991-2002, the car was only driven 3,000 miles. So by the time I came along on February 10, 2002, much of the car was already restored. It clearly needed some front end work, but how bad it was I couldn't tell. The test ride went well, so I bought it the next day. On the way home, however, the front end was really shaking around right turns and the drive train clanked loudly in reverse. Clearly, there was work to do.
Now, my friend Mark has built a beautiful 1948 Anglia hot rod that used to belong to his son, Ken. This thing puts out 550 hp and is on the bottle. (It now sports a dual tunnel ram with twin Edelbrock 500 cfm carbs plus NOS.) This car is an enviable example of what time, money and love can do. Most of the custom work had been done by Tri-C Engineering in Valencia, CA, although Jim Grubbs built the engine. So my plan was to bring my Cuda as quickly as possible to Tri-C to continue the restoration and conversion from plain-Jane into 'Cuda and, most importantly, to get the front and back suspension rebuilt to ensure safe operation of the vehicle. Rick Cresse, the owner of Tri-C, met me early one Saturday morning and, after inspection of the car, we ultimately agreed to the following work:
A few months later after this was all done (and my wallet was much lighter), I installed a Sony CD player with Kenwood 300 watt speakers in the rear. And I installed a gorgeous Mopar Tuff Wheel that I picked up on e-Bay. Ultimately, I picked up another Mopar Tuff Wheel and had it recovered with black leather by American Stitches in Texas. They did a terrific job and the wheel is absolutely gorgeous.
Phase II
The 'Cuda went back to Tri-C Engineering in July 2003. We pulled the 440 and the 727.
A. Total Precision Engines Rebuilds the 440
The 440 went to Pete Christianson at Total Precision Engines in Valencia, California for a complete rebuild. I wanted the engine balanced and blueprinted and Pete was happy to oblige. I also chose to go with the Edelbrock Power Package because I wanted the benefit if Edelbrock's complete engineered solution for a high torque street engine. So Pete did the following work (pictures will be posted soon).
*
bored block .040 over
* spun and balanced the steel crank
* shaved connecting rods
* installed .040 over Keith Black hypereutectic pistons
* installed Competition Cams shaft rocker arms
* installed aluminum Edelbrock Performer RPM heads (complete set of 82 cc closed
chamber heads with valves and springs)
* installed Edelbrock Performer RPM cam
* installed Edelbrock timing chain kit
* installed Edelbrock waterpump
* installed new Melling high capacity oil pump
* installed Edelbrock Performer RPM high rise aluminum intake manifold
*installed Edelbrock 800 cfm four barrel carb for greater reliability, easier
starts and better tuneability than the Speed Demon 750 cfm carb
Before Pete got ahold of it, the 440 had not been making sufficient torque. The timing always seemed too retarded and raising it just caused bad pinging. Once we tore down the engine, it was obvious why. First of all, the pistons that Larry had installed were a whopping .0120 below zero deck height with gave us compression of about 8.75:1. Second, the heads were the 1962-64 cast iron 440 heads with small exhaust valves. With this combination, there was no way that the Holley Street Dominator low rise single plane intake manifold would provide for maximum performance at high RPM because the engine had insufficient quench and was gasping with restricted exhaust. No freakin' wonder that the installation of my TTI 1-7/8" headers hadn't made much difference.
With the new Keith Black hypereutectic pistons, Pete was able to get to .0030 below zero deck height for much better quench. The engine's compression is now raised to 9:75:1 and it shouldn't ping using premium pump gas because the engine temperature should be reduced with the aluminum heads as opposed to cast iron heads.
Based upon Edelbrock's posted calculations, the 440 is now estimated to make at least 485 hp and 515 lb./ft of torque.
Here's what Mopar Muscle Magazine (July 2002) had to say about the Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold vs. the Holley Street Dominator. The engine used in the dyno test was a 440 bored .060" over, with Arias-forged 12.5:1 domed pistons, Eagle H-beams, factory-forged crank, Milodon oiling system. Heads were production 915 castings and the ports were seriously reworked with a max effort (no welding or epoxy) porting job and fitted with custom Manley 2.25-inch intake valves and 1.81-inch exhausts. Working the valves was a full Competition Cams' cam-and-valvetrain package including a custom Comp roller with their NC4149 intake lobe and High Tech .420-inch exhaust lobe. It worked out to 260/258 at .050-inch and over .650-inch lift with Comps 1.6:1 aluminum roller rockers. A Milodon gear drive turned the cam. Carb was a 950 cfm Race Demon 4 bbl.
My engine is much less exotic than this. Also, MMM's dyno testing involved use of 2" TTI headers as opposed to my 1-7/8" TTI headers. They noted that because of the way the Mopar Muscle test 440 was set up, single plane manifolds had the advantage in their comparison. It would be interesting to see what the results of this intake manifold shoot-out would have been on a stock 440 with open chambered '906 heads and a stock cam.
Edelbrock Performer RPM #7193
"The Performer RPM two-planes have been among the most successful Edelbrock intakes of all time. The RPM was the power champ of the two-plane intakes by a solid margin, making the most horsepower and torque, with the averages up substantially as well. In a street application where performance is the goal, the RPM is hard to top. It's taller than the stock intake, a consideration in some applications, and gives away its intent with a discernably non-stock appearance.
The Intake: Edelbrock #7193
Type: Aluminum Two-Plane Four-Barrel
Rated rpm Range: 1,500-6,500
Max hp: 610.2@6,100 rpm
Max Torque: 590.2@4,000 rpm
Avg. hp 4,000-6,600 rpm: 555.9 hp
Avg. Tq 4,100-6,600 rpm: 555.4 lb-ft"Holley Street Dominator
"The Holley Street Dominator has been around for decades. A personal favorite, this intake has long been regarded as one of the best all-around single-plane intakes for the 440, even endorsed as such by Chrysler's old Direct Connection program. Ridiculously rated to only 4,800 rpm, the Street Dominator pulls well into the 6,000s. The Holley manifolds of the era were the first designs to employ widely swept runners for a straighter approach into the cylinder head port -- a form common in modern intakes. Low profile by today's standards, this manifold doesn't look like much, but consistently delivers results. Although we didn't realize it until after the dyno pulls, this intake had been mildly modified in teh past. The runners had been port-matched, and the carb-pad to plenum transition was slightly altered to more closely match a spread-bore Thermoquad. In fact, the Street Dominator runners are cast close to the port size anyway and we were running a square bore Demon, but stock is stock and cut is not. We like the Holley Street Dominator and figured it would be at its limits on this 600-plus-hp test engine. The Street Dominator had the biggest average numbers, and was very close to the top manifold in peak horsepower. Any way you slice it, the Street Dominator from Holley is a very functional piece.
The Intake: Holley 300-14
Type: Aluminum Single-Plane Four-Barrel
Rated rpm Range: Idle-4,800 rpm
Max hp: 636.0@6,200 rpm
Max Torque: 598.2@5,000 rpm
Avg. hp 4,000-6,600 rpm: 572.5 hp
Avg. Tq 4,000-6,600 rpm: 571.1 lb-ft"
So my thinking was this: build a high torque street motor relying on Edelbrock's proven engineeering solution that would hit peak torque at 4,000 rpm and hopefully provide reliability for years to come.
B. Tri-C Engineering Phase II Installation
1. 'Cuda Gets a 5-Speed Transmission.
Frustrated with turning 3800 rpm with my 3 speed 727 just to keep up with traffic on the freeway, I decided to take the leap and buy the complete Keisler Automotive Engineering Tremec 5-speed manual transmission and conversion kit from auto to manual. I got the 485 hp option because I wanted 32% overdrive in 5th gear which I think will give me about 2400 rpm at 82 mph. Much better for freeway driving. This whole kit cost a whopping $5,000 and includes pistol grip shifter, manual trans tunnel or "hump," bellhousing, 550 lb/ft torque clutch, hydraulic kit, pedal kit, new chromoly drive shaft and all the other stuff you can see listed on their site.
Now, I have to warn you, while Shafi Keisler seems like a real responsible guy who really knows his stuff and by all accounts has engineered a great 5 speed solution for us Mopar nuts, I have one serious complaint so far. He told me on the phone that everything should be shipped to me within 3 weeks of placing my order. This was so untrue. I placed my order on July 1st and it's now September 20th and we still don't have all the parts. Apparently, Keisler ran into problems with their bellhousing, hydraulics and pedal kit suppliers. If he would have told me it could take three months to get the parts in, I would have waited for all parts to arrive before taking the Cuda in to Tri-C where it would sit taking up their shop space while they're so busy with other clients' stuff. Thank God Rick Cresse at Tri-C is the most patient good-hearted soul on the planet for storing my 'Cuda there on the rack all this damn time. The other thing that really pisses me off is that Shafi said I could have my order "expedited" if I paid another $100. So I did. And guess what? I'm still waiting 3 months for the damn parts to get in. Okay, enough ragging. I'm grateful that Shafi and his crew are even offering this engineering solution at all, given the appalling lack of aftermarket support for Mopars versus what the bowtie boys get. But, man, they have to do a better job of setting realistic customer expectations.
Anyway, the only stuff we're now apparently waiting for is the pedal kit. We should be able to mate the engine and trans this week and prime and fire the engine for the first time. I'm going to try to shoot some video of this epic event and, if possible, will post an mpeg video of it on this site so you can share in our excitement.
2. More Parts
The other stuff I'm having Tri-C handle is the installation of a nicely prepped and repainted vintage 'Cuda rallye hood. Rod Alexander and Dan did all the sheetmetal prep and paint on the hood restoration and it's gorgeous. We even powdercoated the rallye hood inserts. 'Cuda 440 emblems from Year One will adorn the hood and a nice 'Cuda emblem will be added to the tail panel.
I'm also having them install my HAL 12-way adjustable rear shocks to give me a mellower ride when doing freeway driving. Or I can adjust the dampening for a stiffer ride if I decide to take the 'Cuda down to Irwindale Speedway or Willow Springs to see how she'll do on the track.
What's Up for Phase III?
If I ever complete Phase II, I anticipate that Phase III will include a front disc brake upgrade kit. Baer Brake Systems is said to be preparing a kit with 11" rotors for E-bodies. I'll also definitely add air conditioning, probably courtesy of Vintage Air, just because cruising around in Los Angeles during the summer time in 105 degree heat is just no bloody fun even in a muscle car as gorgeous as my 'Cuda. And I might install electric windows and door locks just for grins.
There's also a possibility I will change out the seats and install something more adjustable. Procar by Scat makes some interesting seats that I have yet to check out. But they're supposed to have all the brackets and everything to fit E-bodies. Check out Procar Scat seats here.
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