My latest project: 1970 Dodge Dart 512 C.I. Bracket Racer

Some of you may remember that I used to have a 1972 Dodge Dart which I drag raced.

Well, I got the itch to get back into racing Our new house is only 3 miles from the Speedworld racetrack and I can faintly hear them running the cars from our house. It was just too much for me to bare I haven't been doing much in the way of local fourwheeling, so I thought drag racing would give me something to do on the weekends.

A couple weeks ago I bought a 1970 Dodge Dart off of E-bay. The car was located in New Jersey, a mere 2500 miles from home I decided this was the right car for me mainly because I really needed to get out of the house on my own for a couple weeks and this was just the excuse I needed

The car is going to be stripped and repainted. It will get new quarter panels, at least one rocker, one floorpan, new door hinges, fiberglass hood, bumpers, and most likely trunk lid as well.

The new color will most likely be orange, but it just may end up being red, like my old one. Plans for it include a 650HP, 512 CI, big block Mopar and an automatic transmission. I'm just not sure if it will be from BB or SB or whether or not it will even be a Mopar I plan on ditching the torsion bar front suspension for an aftermarket K member which gives you rack and pinion steering, upgraded brakes, and the choice of coilover shocks or airbag suspension.

The rear end in the car right now is a trussed Mopar 8 3/4", with a three link suspension and coilovers.

 

[rookieshooter]

Well one thing for sure, you won't have to worry about the block being cold for the initial fire up with the heat that you have out there.
I know the legend "Bill Grumpy Jenkins" used to hook up a hot water hose from his hot water heater to the engine to bring it close to operating temps before firing up for the first time.
Makes a lot of since have the metal all ready expanded for things to seat in faster.

Good luck

 

[Rick]

Tried something different when I put it back together. I bought ARP header studs and they worked great! I can use 4 out of 6 studs on the driver side, but only 1 on the passenger side. Even with just the single stud I can now hang the gasket off of it, line up the header and bolt the whole thing in from there. Trying to hold the header while lining up bolts was terrible and took for ever. This probably cut the time in half.

As long as the honey do list isn't too long tomorrow, I should be able to finish it off

 

[Freshmeat]

Rick, I gotta say, man... holy cow. I'm a big fan of factory original restorations, but I also have great respect for someone who's going to do a factory restoration-quality job for a race car. That is an amazing build, to say the least. I've never been a Mopar fan, but that's excellent work... and it took you HOW LONG?? I didn't even have the patience to read through the whole thread, let alone take that many years to build something out of it.

Congratulations on such a great job; hopefully the car gives you many years of flawless service.

 

[Rick]

Ready to light her up... again I could have done it already, but it's just too damn hot to work on it with the garage door open. 113 degrees today

 

[rookieshooter]

Is today the day..............And the World is waiting?

 

[Cobraguy]

Ready to light her up... again I could have done it already, but it's just too damn hot to work on it with the garage door open. 113 degrees today

Oh boy howdy...and the humidity has been horrible as well. I can't wait for Monsoon to end this year. Been the longest season I've seen. Not a lot of rain, but a ton of humidity. Stay cool Rick...that engine will be there when you're ready.

 

[Rick]

Couldn't wait and I got lucky. A storm blew through yesterday afternoon and dropped the temp 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. I fired her up before the rain hit

 

[Scott B.]

Couldn't wait and I got lucky. A storm blew through yesterday afternoon and dropped the temp 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. I fired her up before the rain hit

And ?????

 

[BrooklynBay]

Could you make a new video with the quiet engine?

 

[olskool reddevil]

 

[Rick]

Could you make a new video with the quiet engine?

Not sure what you mean by quiet... It's anything but

I made a video this morning. It's uploading to YouTube right now... 305mb will take awhile.

Sounds great! No problems with the oil draining back now. I pulled a valve cover and by the time I got it off, the vast majority of oil had already drained, and there were just a few drips that came over the valve cover rail. I'm glad I caught the problem. Now it's time to get this sucker buttoned up and off to the track!!

I'm thinking about taking it to the track Saturday night for the Nostalgia Drags. I won't be able to run it yet, but I can drive it in the pits and do a bit of tuning without having to worry about pissing off any neighbors.

 

[Rick]

 

[zukman]

YES such a sweet sound!!!!!!!!!!!! Special Flag ideas are running through my head!

AND...... I so want to see it GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[olskool reddevil]

SSHHEWWW sounds wicked! seems to run a tad rough vacumn leak?JK
congrats lets see time slips

 

[Rick]

Hmm, now you've got me interested. What kind of flag do you have in mind??

 

[rookieshooter]

Sounds great! Love that loping sound at idle with all that split over lap built into the cam.
At what RPM does the cam really start producing all those locked up ponies?
Or the power range?

Need a Ring tone like that.

 

[zukman]

I was thinking red flag with the White Mopar "M"
Kinda n your face yet still understated! lol

 

[Rick]

At what RPM does the cam really start producing all those locked up ponies?
Or the power range?

The power band is 5000-7000 in a 440CI motor. With the 512 it should move that curve down a bit lower. The bigger motor makes it's power at lower RPMs. Should work out just right!

 

[Rick]

First still shots outside of the garage

 

[BigRondo]

Rick, that is one sweet mother jumper!!!!