The Dodge Challenger Message Board

i'm david from belgium and 'm restoring my challenger '74 rallye, i also would like to make him a bit quicker ...what should be the first things to change? the exhaust is ready for the junkyard so was thinking about some headers+a new exhaust, and mayby a bigger carb? is it has the 727 transmission and has the original power pack (I gues 245hp) my goal is making a good accelerator would something like 300/350 hp be enough to kill a honda or something like that at the stoplights???

any kind of help is very welcome!!!

Headers and a good exhaust will make a little difference and are a good starting point for performance.

A bigger carb might make a small difference at high rpm but most likely will either make no difference at all or it could even reduce performance by making the throttle response poor.

How good is your engine now? Are the pistons a good fit in the cylinders and making good pressure? Burning any oil?
It is no good fitting performace parts to a worn engine.

There are two good ways to go about this.

The first is to decide how much power you want and design a 'package' around that. Bear in mind that the more power you have, the more undriveable the car will be on the street.

Another good way to go about this is to decide how much you want to spend and work around that budget.
It is no good us telling you to fit Edelbrock heads and high compression pistons if your budget is only $500

If you want to make real power you can find it this way.

How much power you make is decided by how much fuel and air mixture you burn.
How much mixture your engine can take in is decided by the cylinder heads and the camshaft. These two are the bits that make the power.

The intake and carb are then selected to match those other parts. Your gears in the axle have to match the power band of the engine too. Your transmission may need to be re-built with performance in mind and you will also need a higher stall torque converter that matches the engine output.

So the more power you want to make the more it effects the rest of the car.

But 350hp is not a huge amount to ask of your engine and could be done with mostly stock parts.

thanx for the quick reply dave!
my budget about is someting like 2500-3500$
and the 350hp... it's just a number that sounds good to me, but the car doen't have to be a dragster... i want him just a bit faster
the engine is never restored (i gues) and is in very good condition pressure test was OK... no damage to valves/pistons or something...
the engine and the transmission will be remove from the car because of the paintjob... so that's why i'm collecting info for the engine/transmission...strike while the iron is hot!!!

I will have a think about a possible combination of parts for you but it might be a few days now because I will be the worse for drink tomorrow night. Hans is very handy on the Desktop Dyno. You there Hans?

I feel rough. Been on the red wine.

In a nutshell I would use ported iron heads if you want it to look more stock but use Edelbrock alloy heads if you want more power. But they are slightly more expensive and you will have to raise the compression with new pistons to work with the alloy heads.

Edelbrock 750cfm carb on their air gap manifold.

Headers and good exhaust system as mentioned.

Hughes Engines HEH2832AL camshaft.

TCI Streetfighter torque converter.

3.55 or 3.91 gears in your axle.

That should make your car faster than 99.5% of cars on the road!

But then again the cost of a re-build on your block and balancing will come to the limit of your budget in itself!

So a cheaper start will be to clean up and smooth the ports on the stock heads. Use the same exhaust and carb/intake as above. But use Hughes HEH1928AL cam.

This way you can use the stock pistons, converter, and rear gears and still make around 350hp.

ok i've found the carb. (4BBL-750cfm)for 288$
and the air gap manifold for 226$ ,
the headers i've found = Hooker copmetition 3" with and 1-3/4" primaires(don't know what that means ) for 318$ (=totaly 832$)

but i can't find the hughes cam... so i dont know a price... where should i buy those things anywhere? all my body parts came from yearone... the price for the carb/manifold/headers are also from yearone...

what do you think?

oh and btw : does the original aircleaner/holder match with the carb? cause i want to keep the "originallook"

OK here is something I would do with your budget in mind.

- 360ci you have
- Eddy performer RPM complete heads $1300
- Eddy air gap intake manifold $233
- Speed Demon 750dp carb $440
- MP purple hydraulic cam 292* with .509" lift $170
- Existing rocker assembly
- HV oil pump $50
- Existing oil pan
- Hedman 1.5/8" primaries headers $115
- Eddy adj. timing chain set $55
- Gasket set $75 ?

- 727 tranny
- B&M rebuild kit $217
- High stall converter B&M holeshot $280

- 391 gears in the back $210 I believe
- Installation kit $90 I believe

Use 28" tall tires and make sure you have a sure-grip unit as you will need it! If you don't have a suregrip, get a complete used 3.91 suregrip center section.

Makes a total of around $ 3235, right in the middle of the budget. You could even save some money by buying a eddy hydraulic cam (about the same specs as the above MP cam) and the B&M converter from me.

Let me put this in the desktop... wait a minute... it sais it should make about 395hp@6000rpm and 380ft/lbs@5000rpm. Not to bad for a streetcombo. There you go running 13.s on the strip.

Hope this helps something.

Try dialing in those two Hughes cams (www.hughesengines.com) on your desktop dyno that I suggested Hans. In particular the bigger one. What horsepower do you get then? Maybe 40hp more than the MP cam for the same price I guess? I don't have time to dial it in on the desktop dyno. I am in the middle of decorating the dining room for Christmas dinner. If I don't get a move on, dinner will smell of wet paint!

And won't he need higher compression pistons to use with those Edelbrock heads? Or do they have smaller chambers?

Don't get engine parts from places like Year One Dodgefreak. They are too expensive. Only use them if you need good restoration stuff.

Summit Racing are a fairly cheap source for engine/trans parts.