The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I just found a couple of unusual photos I forgot I had. What is very unusual about them is that I am in them! Not being the shy type I thought I would let everyone else see them too!

Linda was doing the driving (and the pushing!) the day these were taken. I was helping her on the start line. Well one of us has to do the thinking?

VERY cool photo of my car with Linda at the wheel. Taken by Dave Dick.

This is a 1024x768 image so you can use it as a desktop wall paper if you want to. Click on the image to get the full size version.

I have made a short video clip with my little digital camera.

I am not sure how well this comes across because I think I might have had my finger over the microphone?

It it is intended to let you see the outer carbs that squirt (unlike a normal six pack) and to hear the exhaust noise at idle with my home made pipes.

http://challenger.mpoli.fi/hauki-on-kala/ourchally.wmv

I cannot resist posting this video clip of me driving Tim.

I compressed it a lot so the audio is poor but if you turn the sound up you can still hear Tim crying.....

Dave and Tim go for a drive.

What happened next.

http://www.challenger440.pwp.blueyonder ... action.wmv

OK folks. Next plan for over the winter.

Because two rocker adjusters came loose while I was racing I damaged the two rockers as well as a pushrod and lifter.

After a long think I have decided to change from a hydraulic cam to a solid cam.

This hydraulic cam (HE-3844-BL) has been great. I have no complaints.

The only thing is some of the power is wasted because I do not (intentionally!) rev over 6500rpm.

So really I could do with making the same power a bit lower in the rpm range. The range that matters the most when racing is 4500-6500rpm (if 6.5K is the limit) because that is the range used between gears on a 727.

A swap to a Hughes Engines solid (HTL-3742-BS) of about the same size should increase torque at lower rpms and reduce it only above the rpms I use anyway. This should result in more power from idle to 6500rpm and less power after 6500rpm which matters not.

The two drawings I made below show the differences I am expecting. The solid line is the solid cam.

For the last few weeks I have been stripping the old girl bare.

Working on the car now and again too!

After 15 years of standing outside in all weathers under various Covercraft covers myself and the cars other owner Linda have decided that it is time to give the Challenger a new coat of paint.

A few rust bubbles have come up here and there and there are lots of scratches and chips. The front fenders have never been aligned to my staisfaction either.

Having found someone to takle the work the plan is to trailer the car to the bodyshop this Saturday. It will not be a complete re-spray. I am not getting the interior or the underside painted. Just the bits you see.

I will be posting a few photos here over the next three months showing how things are coming along.

To start with here are a few photos of what I have been doing these last few weeks.

have a look at this article putting a roof on a Charger;

http://moparmusclemagazine.com/howto/25738/


http://www.dap.com/retail/retail_detail ... dhdrid=351

http://www.dap.com/msdsindex.cfm

Well my baby has gone to get fixed up. I miss her already!

A more serious problem has come up.

I noticed that there seemed to be excessive crankshaft end play. When i measured it i found 62 thou of play. Absolute max should be 10 thou.

Turns out that the thrust surface on the #3 main cap has worn right off and damaged the crank.

The rest of the crank is OK so I am hopeing the damage can be welded up and repaired. I cannot afford a new crank or even for it to be re-ballanced.

Unless I can find one on ebay for a very good price..........

Main suspect for causing the damage is the torque converter. So that will have to be replaced as well. This could be me out for the season before we even start. I just don't have any more money.

Meanwhile in deepest Yorkshire.....

Getting there slowly but very surely. It already looks a lot straighter than it did.

And here is the new crank at long last! Everything is checking out fine so far. Everything is straight and 10 thou under just as advertised. I have just ordered the bearings and a new harmonic balancer for it.

Next step will be to get the whole thing balanced but I need to save the money for that.

Unless any of you guys want to buy a 1998 Neon by any chance?

Can't help you out with a converter too Dave, don't have any spares left unfortunately. Had sold them all to get some money for my project too. And now I have almost finished the Hemi project there's another one coming out... A 72 340 Duster is coming on my way as a project car. Real projecr car as it needs everything...hope to get it running (nothing more then that) next year so my wife goes out racing too

Anyway, starts to look good Dave, will be a fantastic challenger AGAIN after it's done. Any improvements planned for trhe 440?

Thanks Hans. I hope I will see your car in action one day.

Improvements to my 440? Not really. Just that solid cam and a better exhaust system. Going to try solid mounts on the engine too.

Just got a new SFI approved damper for the crank too. The old one looks kind of silly when stood next to it.

Also in the post were the new bearings so I could make a few more checks on the crank.

Getting closer......

I can't thank Matty enough for the work he has put in on this car in his spare time. The car was a lot more rusty and damaged under the filler than either of us thought.

Car is now painted and back home.

Well things are not progressing very quickly.

I am having to save a bit of money each month before buying something I need. Also I am finding more problems and more bits that need work as I go.

One minor problem was some contamination that caused a few "holes" or "fish eyes" in the top of one fender. It was not a huge problem but I think i might get that one fender re-painted otherwise it will annoy me every time I see it.

Then I found my painter had not actually removed the front fenders when doing the bodywork. I could have sworn I asked him to and I could have sworn he said he would?
But anyway. Communication breakdown. It means I am now doing bodywork to the tops of the inner fenders and the outer portions of the bulkhead.

The engine is still not together yet either.

First of all I broke a piston ring.
Then I just found one of my new lifters is damaged.

It will all come good in the end. But the end keeps getting further away.

The engine is almost finished. Just waiting for the polished stainless bolts to arrive so I can bolt it all together correctly.

Dave, I take it that you are using standard-weight connecting rods rather than the heavier MOPAR Six-pack ones since your balancer is symetrical. Am I correct? Nice to see so much progress - I'm hoping for your speedy return to the strip!

Actually Jack I am using the six pack rods because that is what was in the engine originally. In fact they are the only major part of the engine still original.

However I did have it internally ballanced which means adding weight to the crank throws.

Had to do a bit of welding on the inner fender brace and the rear bottom edge of the inner fender to the chassis rail.

It is a funny thing but this area is often not welded by the factory or, as in my case, it is welded on one side of the car and not the other.

So are you just setting this up for strip use? Do you drive it on the street? I know its fast for sure, does your laws prohibit "loud" exhaust system? Over here in Ind. at least there is a law that states any passenger car can be "taken off the road" if the exhaust is excessive and the arresting officer has all the discretion! Ignorant, huh. What kind of Master you putting on, race single or dual pot, power ect..sorry for all the questions is there a "spec" page? I really like your car and I thought I read where another member ststed you were possibly coming over here for the MoPar Nats? That would be great. Oh I do need to get some stronger eyewear mine eyes are failing me mate, must be old age?

It is built more for going around corners mate. Not drag racing. It would go a few 10ths faster with a different front end set-up.
It goes as fast as I want it to. I just try to make it as good a driver as possible while still being fast. Any faster times that come along as I mess with it are just icing on the cake.

I doubt I will ever make the Nats over there. I can't justify the money unless my wife came too and that is not going to happen!

I installed one of these "BeCool" ally radiators a few years ago. It was one of these "bolt-in direct replacement" jobs that cost a fortune. But hey! Being bolt-in saves a lot of hassle right?

Wrong. The damn thing mounted so high the hood would not shut. So I lowered it 2-inches by cutting the brackets welded to the sides.

Now during this rebuild I have dropped the radiator another 1.5-inches because there was a large gap at the bottom of the radiator and the very top of the radiator was behind the radiator frame. And as that is the hottest bit of te radiator i thought it might be better to get it in the airstream.

I still have enough gap at the bottom for oil lines that will go to a combi engine and trans oil cooler mounted out front.

So having done that I thought I may as well paint the front of the thing black so it does not show through the grille.

You can't use normal paint on radiators. You have to use correct automotive radiator paint. This stuff transfers and radiates heat out of the ally.

I have left the engine side plain ally though. Because it looks better that way.

Dave, is that pic a current one with the Be-cool,( be cool man it fits everything but a MoPar!), radiator in it? If so you did an exemplary job, it looks good!

airfuelEddie wrote:Dave, is that pic a current one with the Be-cool,( be cool man it fits everything but a MoPar!), radiator in it? If so you did an exemplary job, it looks good!

Took that photo last night.

Here is a photo of the other side of it. Taken a few years ago. You might just see how it is mounted quite high and level with the top of the radiator frame. This is after dropping it 2-inches already.

Nice "set-up" Dave. I bet you were pissed that they said bolt-in and it was the opposite.So no fan blade which you really dont need. And nice line lock for the smokeys and heating the rubber. BTW how does it cool compared to the 26" max cooling,(A36).

It cools better than the stock 26-inch rad for sure despite the core itself not being as wide. With the "tanks" being at the sides instead of the top and bottom you can't really go any wider.

If you check out the spec on the first page you will see I have a high flow water pump as well. The electric fan has a high airflow (bummer about the high current draw that comes with it) and is controled by a Painless relay and thermostat switch screwed into the water pump housing.

Part of my plan this time around is to reduce the amount of time the fan comes on. To do this I need to get more air to the radiator core when the car is moving.
I have noticed that out of all the bugs stuck to the radiator there were very few in the top third of the core and non at all in the top couple of inches.

This is why i just dropped the radiator a bit more.

The other thing I need to do is drop the front licence plate as it is in the way of air entering the space under the bumper.

After that I intend to install plates to stop air spilling out under and around the radiator and force it to go through the core.

lastly I intend to use more initial timing to see if that lowers the engine temp a bit.

Then with a 180 degree thermostat it should maintain a constant temp with the fan coming on only in slow traffic. Hopefully.

Santa came at last.