Dave-R • The Dodge Challenger Message Board

by **Dave-R (Roppa440)** » 16 Jul 2002 18:00

1970 Dodge Challenger R/T

List of Modifications

Engine Block

Original "numbers matching" 440 cubic inch (7.2 L) HP2 Chrysler RB V8.

Bored 30 thou oversize. Keith Black quench dome 10.5:1 hypereutectic pistons.
Half inch oil pick-up. High volume pump. Windage tray. JP Performance double roller timing chain and adjustable timing sprocket. March Performance serpentine ribbed belt type crank/alt/water pump pulleys.

Machine work and assembly of short block by Hauser Race Cars.

Camshaft

Hughes Engines HTL3742BS solid lifter cam.

Lift = 0.570 intake/0.579 exhaust.
Duration @ 0.050 lift = 237/242 degrees.

Heads

Original type "906" iron castings. Ported at Hughes Engines to their Stage One spec. Stainless steel one piece valves 2.14" intake and 1.81" exhaust. Three angle valve seats with hardened inserts. Bronze wall valve stem guides. Adjustable aluminium roller tip rockers with 1.6:1 ratio and heavy duty billet hold down clamps.

Induction

Six Pack" 3x2bbl Holleys fed by a Carter 'Strip' mechanical fuel pump and Holley regulator. Carbs are mounted on an Edelbrock aluminium intake with the heat cross-over passage blocked off.
Centre carb has air horn & choke machined off and the venturies smoothed for better flow. The jet sizes are #65.
Outboard pair (secondaries) modified to accept accelerator pumps, squirters and progressive mechanical linkage. Promax carbs billet metering plates fitted with Holley jets. #84 (front) and #86 (rear).

Exhaust

Dougs headers with 2 inch primaries into 3.5 inch collectors. TTI 3 inch exhaust system with two Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers. System cut into 18 sections and re-welded to fit around overdrive and to include electric cut-outs and a wideband Oxygen sensor for air/fuel ratio monitoring.

Ignition

MSD billet distributor. FBO ECU and coil. Timing set at 24 degrees initial and 34 total @ 3000rpm. Battery re-located to trunk.

Cooling

Be-Cool" custom fit aluminium radiator. High output Flow Kooler" water pump. 180 degree thermostat modified for better flow. Trans and engine oil coolers. Summit Racing Electric fan.

Transmission

Numbers matching" Torqueflite automatic mated with Gear Vendors overdrive unit. Trans rebuilt to street/strip spec with B&M Transkit. Fitted with a 10" TCS high stall converter, deep oil pan, and temp sender. Hurst Pistol-Grip" type Quarter Stick shifter fitted into original centre console. Driveshaft safety loop.

Axle

Original 8.75 inch Sure-Grip" axle. Rebuilt with 4.30:1 gears. Effective rear ratio with overdrive engaged is 3.30:1.

Brakes

Original 11x2.5 inch drums on rear. 1976 Police car 11.75 inch discs fitted to front. Strange Engineering light-weight master cylinder. Power assist removed.
Electronic line-lock to front brakes operated from button on top of shifter.

Suspension

Up-rated about 30% all-round with custom made leaf springs at rear (each moved inboard by 0.8 inch) and 1 inch diameter front torsion bars. Polygraphite suspension bushings.
Anti-roll bars are 1 1/8th inch front and Â¾ inch rear. Gas shocks.

Steering

Manual steering box with 20:1 fast ratio gearing (4.5 turns lock-to-lock)

Wheels and Tyres

Minilite wheels. 15x8 front. 15x10 rear.
Tyres 245/60 front. 295/50 rear.
Hoosier 28x10 inch slicks for rear when on Drag Strip.

Bodywork and Interior

As original except for;
Wheel lips cut. Plastic front bumper. Painted Hemi Orange". Black vinyl top and black interior fitted. Chassis strengthened with chassis connectors.
Auxiliary gauges fitted in dash for water temp, trans temp and volts.
Monster" tach with remote shift light fitted in dash above steering column. Headlights and turn signals to UK spec.
Interior woodgrain trim replaced with carbon fiber panels. Grant steering wheel.

Performance

Best quarter mile time to date: 11.92
Best quarter mile speed to date: 113mph
Top speed: 145mph
Engine power at crank: 510hp (est.)

by **Dave-R (Roppa440)** » 29 Jul 2002 17:19

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 30 Jul 2002 15:18

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 05 Aug 2002 21:04

Linda in action.

You can get a free 1024x768 wallpaper of this image from http://www.feel-the-noise.com/

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 09 Aug 2002 7:39

Photo by Dave Dick.

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 09 Aug 2002 17:34

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 06 Jul 2003 20:25

Here are some up-to-date photos of my car. Sorry I didn't wash it first but this is a REAL car that sees a lot of road use so this is what it looks like most of the time.

(Message edited by roppa440 on July 06, 2003)

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 06 Jul 2003 20:28

Here is the interior.

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 06 Jul 2003 20:33

Engine bay.

by **David Robson (Admin)** » 06 Jul 2003 20:36

Last ones. Very sorry if you don't have a Broadband connection!

by **dave-r** » 03 Nov 2003 18:00

Here is a movie (windows media video) of the car at the 2003 Mopar EuroNats. This is taken from the excellent official video for which you can find the details here http://www.quartermilehigh.com/

With the trans slipping a little and a loss of power at the top end we were only running low 12s.

Click HERE for the movie.

I thought I would put the video of me racing Tim here as well as this was my first 11 second run.

http://challenger.mpoli.fi/hauki-on-kal ... -small.wmv

by **dave-r** » 02 Dec 2003 21:07

I thought I would show you photos of my Challenger as it was when I first paid for it.

The car was found for me by a British based importer. They tried to hide from me how bad the car was and although they told me it needed some work they did not tell me about the accident damage so they 'lost' the photos of the car as it was before work started on it.

I did a deal with them to have the car restored before shipping to England because it would have cost twice as much over here to get this work done plus the parts were a lot harder to find here then.

The car belonged to a Jack Peavce of Cleburne TX. I don't know how long he had it or if it was damaged when he had it but the date sticker on the licence plate was last renewed (or expired?) in May 1983. Then in 1986 the car was sold to Terry Mullins also of Cleburne TX. The car was purchased for me in the summer of 1989.

The condition of the car was this;

It had a bad front end smash which had bent the frame, ruined the front bumper, and damaged the grille. The windows had been left open for some years and the white interior was not very good although the dash pad was great. All the seat covers and carpet needed replacing as well as the headliner.

The passenger side fender was history. As was the white vinyl top. All the bright trim was missing as were the headlight bezels. The trunk floor was an iron oxide lace.
The 440 was not running and had not ran for many years I think.

These first two photos show the front end after it had been straightened out and a good used fender fitted to the passenger side.

by **dave-r** » 02 Dec 2003 21:10

These next two show the back end of the car with the new trunk floor fitted.

by **dave-r** » 02 Dec 2003 21:18

These last two show the car as delivered to me. All the bright trim from the front and rear of the car was still missing. As were the headlight bezels.

The air con was not functional. The electrical system was a mess. The windscreen wipers did not work right. The turn signals did not work and the steering column blew out smoke and sparks when I tried them! The wheels were 14inch on the front and 15inch rear. You cannot tell from the photos but the front grille had been straightened out with a hammer and looked rough. The smashed front bumper had been replaced with a plastic racing version.
The engine ran well but after a couple of thousand miles started burning oil. They had fitted new piston rings in the worn standard bores and the valve guides were worn.

But I loved it all the same!

by **dave-r** » 16 Dec 2003 21:37

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! :lol:

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? :roll:

by **dave-r** » 20 Dec 2003 21:05

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.

by **dave-r** » 11 Apr 2004 14:21

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? :roll:

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

by **dave-r** » 21 May 2004 17:40

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

by **dave-r** » 28 Aug 2004 15:41

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.

by **dave-r** » 15 Mar 2005 11:08

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

Working on the car now and again too! :shock:

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.

by **Neil** » 17 Mar 2005 11:24

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

by **dave-r** » 19 Mar 2005 19:59

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

by **dave-r** » 26 Mar 2005 14:10

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. :frown:

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

by **dave-r** » 29 Mar 2005 20:45

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. :tears:

by **dave-r** » 14 Apr 2005 7:56

Meanwhile in deepest Yorkshire.....

by **dave-r** » 17 Jul 2005 14:27

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

by **dave-r** » 04 Aug 2005 16:22

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?

by **72 Challenger (Hans)** » 14 Aug 2005 11:54

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?

by **dave-r** » 14 Aug 2005 12:09

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.