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69 Charger. 426 Hemi. EFI E85

INTMD8

Well-Known Member
Local time
8:47 AM
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Lake Villa IL
I decided to start a thread detailing the work I've been doing with my 69 Charger.

Though it has more of a stock look I suppose it's a bit of a restomod with disc brakes, overdrive trans and becoming more so now that I'm rebuilding the engine and switching it to fuel injection.

I thought the engine rebuild would be rather straightforward but it has proven a bit tedious.

It was a "crate" MP 426 with a comp cam, not enough valvespring and floating the valves at 5900rpm/405rwhp.

Now it's .060 over, ported iron heads, solid roller (raised redline on tach to match), working on getting it to 13-1 compression, Holley HP efi, coil on plug, flex fuel and E85.

TKO600 which I swapped the .64 overdrive out for a .82. Dana that I swapped the 3.55's for 4.10's.

I'll update as I make progress :)

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Beautiful car, I have to admit that usually I am not a huge 2nd gen Charger fan (don't hate them, just am not super enamored with them) but this car really speaks to me, it looks so clean and understated. I love the pistol grip inside, the shade of blue, the steel wheels, and of course the Hemi. I would add the door hemi emblems if it were mine.
 
What he said above! Add the emblems to the doors. Also what are those seats outta? They looks badass!
 
Thanks guys. The seats are from a 2013 Chrysler 200 convertible.

I made brackets to mount them. Modified them to accept original head rests. Added bracing to bolt through the subframe connectors and had them reupholstered locally.

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I have a couple customer's with Sebring convertibles and I have told a few people that they are perfect retro-fit candidates, mainly because of nice design and integral seat belts. Yours seem to be a continuation of Sebring design. Did yours have pyrotechnic tensioner assemblies, also ? Nice car. Always wanted to run a 12.5-13.0 to 1 engine on the street. Takes a real man !
 
Yes mine had the pyrotechnic tensioners, I removed them from the reel and tossed them out before sending them out to have the webbing replaced.

Only downsides to the seats are the original brackets are riveted on and no fun to remove from the tracks, and they weigh a ton. Really comfortable though! Especially the seat belt, compared to stock.

There are a ton of E85 stations around me so that along with the flex fuel/efi setup makes the target compression a much easier decision.

If it wasn't so readily available and I had to buy drums of that or race fuel I wouldn't be going so high.
 
I have a couple customer's with Sebring convertibles and I have told a few people that they are perfect retro-fit candidates, mainly because of nice design and integral seat belts. Yours seem to be a continuation of Sebring design. Did yours have pyrotechnic tensioner assemblies, also ? Nice car. Always wanted to run a 12.5-13.0 to 1 engine on the street. Takes a real man !
With E85 or meth injection high compression is no problem! gas prices help too
 
What are the wheel size on the rear? Could you get me the measurements with backspacing and size of the rim? Was there any wheel well modification on your car?
Thank you!
Looks great!
 
Thanks. There was no wheel well modification. There are very slight rub marks on the rear inner wheel housing and outer wheelhousing where it has a bump in it but not enough to mark up the tire.

245-60-15 and 295-50-15

Rear 15x10 5.5" backspace

Front 15x8 4" backspace
 
That is a GREAT looking car. Best of luck with your project.
 
Thank you!

So turns out having a valve job done and also new valves (with I now realize have a deeper dish) gained a few cc's. Had the heads milled .015 (asked for .030 but they were nervous about removing the valve seat). Now the final compression is only 12.4-1. Not what I was aiming for but probably still enough to not be a slug. 4 points higher than where I started at least :)

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I used Cometic .027 thick gaskets with a 4.335 (measured) bore. Part number is C5454-027

Listed for 4.28 bore, I guess they usually go for a little more radial clearance but I didn't want that so these tightened that up on my 4.31 bores.

Valvetrain is Cam Motion low lash solid roller, Morel black mamba lite lifters, Trend tapered pushrods, PSI CT1225 valve springs, Xceldyne titanium locks and retainers.

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I wonder why you removed the pyro tensioners on these superb seats...?
Shoulder belt tensioners were invented for ejection seats, to align the spine to reduce forward flexion and anterior lip spine compression fractures.
Here, i guess they decrease your chance of facial contact with dash, as belts are loose, and stretch under load.
I really like your adaptation of later MOPAR seats with integral belts, and may use this solution in my 63SF!
 
Thank you. The tensioners are electronically activated, not inertia so they wouldn't function without the SRS from the vehicle they were taken from.
 
I've been working on the accessories.

Machined the mandrel drive and spacers for the vacuum pump. I didn't like the design of the aluminum pulley it came with so I modified another power steering pulley (and flipped it) for a more consistent look.

The edelbrock 75245 efi intake has been on backorder forever. Finally ran out of patience and ordered the carbureted 7524 version (that I previously had and sold, whoops!) ported it and drilled it for injectors. Bought blank rails and drilled them too.

Of course a day after I drilled the intake I got an email from Edelbrock saying the EFI version along with the rails was now available.

I suppose this may work out better anyway since I put the injector angle at 14deg to aim them at the intake valve (rather than straight up and down as Edelbrock does it). Also used short injectors so the rails are a bit lower overall.

Drilled the intake and rails in a Bridgeport. Set up the rails by grinding a couple of 3/8 sockets to injector length and putting them in place with some shim stock. The rail mounts are from Wilson, cut them out after making a cardboard template and welded them on.

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