I Don't Even Have The Car Yet.

In reply to Cooter :

My first car was a '64 Plymouth Savoy with a /6 in it, and while there's power to be had with one of those engines, I think today I would go looking for a late-80's pre-Magnum roller 318 (due to those heads not being so crack prone and the availability of lots of intake manifold options) and flesh it out with a Quadrajet and an NV3500 or A500 were I to have that car now. Would blame someone for sticking with the stock engine though.

Trolling CL, and stumbled upon these.

Did a little GoogleFu, and realized they are A-Body TTI for SBM (!)



Needless to say, I am quite chuffed.



(I believe they are the polished ceramic with the thermal barrier)



While these would be perfect for my '67 Valiant project, I am not yet sure I won't swap a 440 into it.   But I wasn't sure how well they would work in an M body.


Classracer.com's Super Stock subforum to the rescue!    (F, M and J are all the same engine compartment)




  So the die is cast.   The plan is to use the 360 out of my Jeep Scrambler, with the V8 K frame from my Gran Fury parts car.
 

I enjoyed this old mopar at a Michigan LeMons race. It was rocking a 360/NV4500 from a 90s ram. It scoots! 

Hopefully it's NV3500, as the NV4500 would be a horrible transmission for performance.

In reply to Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself :

If from a ram it's probably 4500, they do shift like trash but they don't Explode like a nv3500 which is a big plus.

Also this thread is gold. 

Mopar stuff? I'm in!!!

So as mentioned in the Bad Ideas Thread, 485Hp have entered the chat.



Plan A is for the Scat Pack 6.4 to go in the Diplomat.  Which means the TTi headers have to go somewhere.  Likely in the '67 Valiant, as it is the only A body I own right now.  Which means probably plopping the mild 380Hp 360 into the Valiant.which seems a bit of a shame with how the Valiant is set up- I really wanted to put a 440 into it.  But that would require me buying a set of TTi big block headers (I'm too cheap for that), finding some used fenderwell headers (I really don't want to cut the inner fenderwells out right now), or building my own headers (I likely won't live that long)

I will likely go with a Terminator X Max for the Hemi, and contact Russ at Sound German Automotive to control the 8HP70 trans.   Neither of these steps will be inexpensive, but there really aren't any good/cheap options here.  

Engine location, mounting, headers, driveshaft, fuel, and steering are all up in the air.   Subframe connectors, torque boxes, and seam welding were all on the docket to begin with, and remain. 

Rear end plans also have shifted now, and I am not sure which way I will go, as this engine will put out decent torque and the trans is geared low enough that I will likely want something numerically in the low 3s, so my planned junkyard 8.8 would need actual money thrown at it to live, I don't have any 8 3/4 Sure Grip center sections that aren't geared in the 4s, and the lowest gearing I could go with if I narrow a D60 with 8 3/4 ends and throw some axles in it is 3.54.   

9" may be my best choice (shudder)

Interesting developments!

I look forward to seeing what's necessary to pull this off.

RandolphCarter said:

 

I look forward to seeing what's necessary to pull this off.

Quite a bit of money, unfortunately.  And the Terminator X Max is on backorder.

But as I said in the other thread, it costs about the same to swap in an early 340Hp 5.7 as it does to swap in a 485Hp 6.4.    The 8HP70 trans will take some extra dough to control, but the Sound German setup wouldn't be any more money than building a mild 727 or 518 and once you get into supporting mods, it would likely be cheaper.   And that 8 speed is one of the keys to performance of the latest Hemis.    The low RpM drops between gears keeps you in the sweet spot of the powerband at all times.

 

In reply to Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself :

I love the 8 speed. Think it's an excellent way to go 

Came upon some 17" Aluminum Magnum 500 style wheels with nearly new tires just before the Grand Wagoneer trip, but with all that was going on to set that up, I didn't get around to sharing it here until now.

I was on the fence about these for the DiploScat, but the price was really good.  

Cue horrible, generic Photochop.

Gasp!  It looks like a Regal now!

Photodropping it makes it look a little better, but not any less like a Regal...

Tried bouncing the idea off of fellow wheel-ho Chandler, but you can imagine how that conversation went.

Seller knocked another $50 off of my offer, because I was a local MoPar guy, and he had recently moved here from Colorado.  (I'm much nicer in person than online, I guess)


I ordered a set of center caps for them, and will test fit the wheels and tires once the caps arrive.   Worst case scenario is if I don't like them on the DiploScat, they will look good on the Lumberon or something else on the Island of Misfit MoPars. 

Make sure you document the 8 speed controller install.

This project is great!

So, this was a development I never expected...

 

I had to stop by my storage lot just to make sure, as it is just a couple miles away. Even the interior color is the same as mine. 

Poor thing is hashed, however.  I'll pull some interior parts, and a few of the unobtainium pieces like the rear and side windows, but all the sheetmetal on this one it too far gone to bother with. 

The Curse of The FMJ Subframe. 

Been going back and forth about mounts, but this was too cheap to resist.






Hooker/Holley has no idea if they will fit an M-Body, as they don't really acknowledge the car's existence.    But the factory A/B/C/F/M/J spool mounts are all the same.    The Blackheart mounts move the engine forward for "less" interference with the firewall and trans tunnel. 



The Schumacher mounts put the G3 Hemi in the "stock" location to use the factory transmission mount for a 727 or a833, but that won't matter with the 8HP70 that I am using.  



They also are twice the price, and don't look especially robust.



 I'm not really worried about firewall clearance, but would prefer the drivetrain not to be any further forward than it currently is so that the F/R balance is closer.     Looking around, I found that the center sump pan that Holley offers will interfere with the back of the K member on an F body.   Which means it will also interfere on an M Body.  (If you can dodge a wrench...)



Fortunately, my car has a 6 cylinder K member, so I will have to relocate both of the engine mounts on it, anyway.   Which means I can mount the engine pretty much anywhere I need to, within reason.

Waiting with bated breath over here

In reply to chandler :

This one is still on a slow boil while I acquire parts/funds and figure out exactly how I want to make certain parts work together.   I still have a '67 Valiant to drag home after I add trailer wiring t the Dajiban project, and there are still a couple custom touches I want to finish on DogeVan before I consider it done.

File under "Blind Squirrel- Nut Acquisition"

I saw a pair of after market wide 15" MoPar Rallye wheels for sale for a pretty decent price on Marketplace, and by the time I was able to grab them that day, they were already sold.      It got me thinking, and I figured that an M Coupe would look pretty decent with big and littles on Rallyes as a Streetfighter.   It would also be a callback to my $750 "parts car" Challenger convertible I daily drove through the '80s.

Then I stumbled onto these hideous things.   Meh, the price was right, and I could easily strip and respray them the correct Argent. (Or at least "Dull Aluminum" which is what cheapskates like myself buy instead of $30 a can spray paint)






 

And yes, I think Rallyes could work out well on an M Body coupe...

But a funny thing happened.  I took the seller's word that the rear wheels were 8" wide, and didn't measure them when I bought them, as I didn't have a tape measure handy and it was raining.    Measured them later, and they were "only" 7" wide.   Not a big issue, as the wheels on the back of my old Challenger were actually 15x6.5, and those were running L60x15 Kellys.


But still, I wondered about something.    Went out last night and took a couple photos in the dark.

Can't read the part number on one of them, but struck paydirt on the other-



 

"2944390" is the factory part number used for the 15x7 rallyes on '70-71 Hemi, 440-6, and 340-6 powered cars, and in pretty high demand for people who need date coded, numbers matching wheels that have the numbers hidden under a trim ring when installed.   I need to figure out the date code, and see how much I can get for this wheel.   Hopefully enough to buy a pair of repop 15x8s.   If not, I will just run it with the others.