1968 Charger 5.7 Build

[rescuediver1982]

I may have missed it but what did you decide to do for the harness and ecu?

Also it is amazing the work they did back in the day with Bondo, screen, and newspaper... the rear quarter extensions on my 74 Charger were nothing but bondo and newspaper underneath them!

 

[joseph p.]

good work..keep up the great standards,,its gonna be a beautiful car.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

I may have missed it but what did you decide to do for the harness and ecu?

Also it is amazing the work they did back in the day with Bondo, screen, and newspaper... the rear quarter extensions on my 74 Charger were nothing but bondo and newspaper underneath them!

Right now I am not sure on the harness. I have an 05 truck that I bought (wrecked) And I read I could make a harness out of it and just have the ECU re-flashed. But not sure if that is the best or just buy a harness and ECU from Chris (hot rod harness). I figured I would wait till I am farther along with the car and decide.

 

[rescuediver1982]

Right now I am not sure on the harness. I have an 05 truck that I bought (wrecked) And I read I could make a harness out of it and just have the ECU re-flashed. But not sure if that is the best or just buy a harness and ECU from Chris (hot rod harness). I figured I would wait till I am farther along with the car and decide.

Thanks, I am interested to know how the reflashing works. A friend of mine does LS hot-rod swaps all the time, he uses HP Tuners to unlock the GM Ecu's and I recently heard they can be used on the Hemi's too, but I am not sure how hard it is. He did a 6.1 hemi swap in the infancy of the gen 3 days but that was before all of the advances the aftermarket had made, so he isn't a huge help with everything that is out there now...

 

[chtampa]

I have read a few swap threads and have seen a few things that I don't want and do want on my 69 b-body swap to a 2008 5.7 . I have seen some Gen III's with a/c compressors mounted high and some that are mounted low and the k-frame motor mount perch had to be hacked up and it was a pain to plumb. What determines high or low position for an a/c compressor on the donor vehicle? It seems more sensible to have it high and so it can attach to the early factory lines. Wouldn't it would be ideal to have a Gen III with a/c high on top, alternator on the right side, power steering pump on the left.

I have a small block b-body 727 so I can keep my speedometer, driveshaft, crossmember and shifter.
I have the Jeep 606 and 605 exhaust manifolds that are supposed to clear everything except the steering box and there are supposed to be minor modifications to fix that.
I want to use a factory pulley and belt system and the top centered fuel injection unit.
Nobody lists motor mounts for swaps with exhaust manifolds.
There is supposed to be a method that involves a minor trim to the perches and nothing else to get the engine installed.Can anyone fill in the gaps?

 

[Dreamcatcher]

I have read a few swap threads and have seen a few things that I don't want and do want on my 69 b-body swap to a 2008 5.7 . I have seen some Gen III's with a/c compressors mounted high and some that are mounted low and the k-frame motor mount perch had to be hacked up and it was a pain to plumb. What determines high or low position for an a/c compressor on the donor vehicle? It seems more sensible to have it high and so it can attach to the early factory lines. Wouldn't it would be ideal to have a Gen III with a/c high on top, alternator on the right side, power steering pump on the left.

I have a small block b-body 727 so I can keep my speedometer, driveshaft, crossmember and shifter.
I have the Jeep 606 and 605 exhaust manifolds that are supposed to clear everything except the steering box and there are supposed to be minor modifications to fix that.
I want to use a factory pulley and belt system and the top centered fuel injection unit.
Nobody lists motor mounts for swaps with exhaust manifolds.
There is supposed to be a method that involves a minor trim to the perches and nothing else to get the engine installed.Can anyone fill in the gaps?

The truck engines have it higher than the car engines.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Another update on my build. I got the one piece trunk pan installed. Then the tail light panel using the original quarters to get everything lined up. Then installed the rear valance. Everything went well to this point. I have pre fit the right quarter with a lot of issues in fitment (as posted in the body work thread ) Just not sure how I am going to weld it to the Dutchman panel.

 

[rsqrdave]

I have read a few swap threads and have seen a few things that I don't want and do want on my 69 b-body swap to a 2008 5.7 . I have seen some Gen III's with a/c compressors mounted high and some that are mounted low and the k-frame motor mount perch had to be hacked up and it was a pain to plumb. What determines high or low position for an a/c compressor on the donor vehicle? It seems more sensible to have it high and so it can attach to the early factory lines. Wouldn't it would be ideal to have a Gen III with a/c high on top, alternator on the right side, power steering pump on the left.

I have a small block b-body 727 so I can keep my speedometer, driveshaft, crossmember and shifter.
I have the Jeep 606 and 605 exhaust manifolds that are supposed to clear everything except the steering box and there are supposed to be minor modifications to fix that.
I want to use a factory pulley and belt system and the top centered fuel injection unit.
Nobody lists motor mounts for swaps with exhaust manifolds.
There is supposed to be a method that involves a minor trim to the perches and nothing else to get the engine installed.Can anyone fill in the gaps?

TTI makes headers and engine mounts for whatever you want to swap. There is a small dent on the front tube on the driver side you make for clearance.
The AC compressor location depends on the vehicle it was pulled from. Cars down low and trucks up high.
Call up Bouchillon Performance, they can get you whatever parts or adaptors you need.
With these modern hemi swaps the 727 will wind out fast. The 545rfe is the most common swap and it will give you highway ability.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Not much to update except that I am about to pull the plug on my build. The more I get into it the more rust I find in places I do not want to work on. The outer wheel houses on both sides are toast. Cant get the quarter to fit right and now I see a lot of rust damage on the lower rear window frame. I think it is a 12000.00 loss. I have restored a lot of other cars but the way these were assembled make them very hard to replace the parts right with out starting from the frame up. I cant figure out how to change the outer wheel house as it is woven into and under several other different panels. A word of the wise to anyone buying a 68 charger. There are so many places you can not check when looking at one to buy. A car that looks solid might not be at all. I was good with changing the floor, trunk and quarters. But then quarter skins became full quarters and then tail light panel and now this is leading to more and more. Not sure at this time where I am going but possibly to the crusher and move on to my 72 charger.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Don't give up. It's a pain in the ***, but time is on your side as most people have more time than money. So take a step back, have a beer or 3, and tackle on area at a time.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Thanks 5.7 just a little disheartening I guess. I just don't know this body style very well. Put together different than any I have ever worked on. If it were a mustang I could tackle any part of it. But I have never seen rust in places like this car has it. The car looked fairly solid from the outside. But terrible in all the places you cant see. Makes me think even being in it for this much cash is it really worth saving. Guess I will figure it out but it aint looking good at this point.

 

[5.7 hemi]

It's worth it!! Mustangs are a dime a dozen, no offense. Chargers, well, they are bad ***! So cut out the outer tubs a small piece at a time and you'll see how the new ones go in.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Well repaired the outer wheel house. I couldn't see how it could be done the way it is weaved in and out of other panels. So I bought one and cut it out as close to the top as I could and grafted the new one in to the old one.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Looking good!

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Worked today on fitting things before welding the quarter in solid. I got the Dutchman panel to fit much better. I got the trunk to line up very nice. The quarter extension gave me fits (I herd that it would with these AMD quarters) But I got it. And the valance end caps. WOW what a joke! I thought man I messed up some where bad. But after looking on the net I discovered what every one else has said. There JUNK! I had to cut it in half weld it to both sides and fill in the middle. But as long as the other side fits this lousy it will come out lol.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

After a brief interlude I am back on the charger. Yesterday I cut off the drivers side quarter and replaced the outer wheel house on this side as well. Today GOD willing I will seal everything up and start fitting the quarter.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

I took my 300C in to Dodge town to have the transmission flushed and fluid replaced. 125000 miles on it now. But as I was chatting with the service manager we were talking about the hemi transplant I am doing. He told me of a computer guru here local that he said broke the code on the factory computer on these cars. He said this guy can get into them and re-program them. I am going to go talk to him and see if he might be able to do mine here instead of sending it off. He also might have in site on wiring as well.

 

[rescuediver1982]

I took my 300C in to Dodge town to have the transmission flushed and fluid replaced. 125000 miles on it now. But as I was chatting with the service manager we were talking about the hemi transplant I am doing. He told me of a computer guru here local that he said broke the code on the factory computer on these cars. He said this guy can get into them and re-program them. I am going to go talk to him and see if he might be able to do mine here instead of sending it off. He also might have in site on wiring as well.

I believe HP Tuners can readily unlock and reprogram all of them except the 2015/2016's (and that may have changed too.). It's pretty common in the LS swap world and is fairly inexpensive. I talked to Chris about my swap and he said all I had to do was use HP Tuners to disable the rear o2 and disable the security. Now if you want to switch it from an auto ecu to a manual ecu, hp tuners can't do that yet, is what he told me. Good luck! I'm following along!

 

[superfragl]

Now if you want to switch it from an auto ecu to a manual ecu, hp tuners can't do that yet, is what he told me.

HP Tuners can do that. I am running 727 and I programmed PCM as manual.

 

[rescuediver1982]

HP Tuners can do that. I am running 727 and I programmed PCM as manual.

Maybe I misunderstood him, or I got it backwards... Or maybe he just wanted to sell me crap! Lol