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545RFE trans tunnel and other questions

rsqrdave

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I have decided on the 6.4L with the 545RFE swap into a 68 Coronet (previous posting dealt with a possible 8sp auto). I have a few questions on the trans tunnel, wiring, and brakes.

What has been the preferred method of cutting the tunnel? I have seen it cut at the base, next to the floor pan and rebuilt and I have also seen it sliced on the top and reformed that way. Also, I am assuming the trans cross member will have to be refabricated. What about the upper tunnel bracing, does it need to be cut up?

What wiring will I not need on this swap? Can I eliminate the voltage regulator and ballast resistor? What else? Does the battery need to be relocated?

Where have people mounted their computers?

I currently have power disks on the car. Most of the swaps I have seen people do on here have involved no booster, any recommendations?

If you have read this far thank you for your time.
 
I haven't gotten to mounting the ECU yet but If you are capable of building your own mounts it can be done with out cutting the tunnel. And by moving the engine forward about 3 inches a brake booster will fit. I think the smaller booster (8") fits anyway. But 5.7 or six pack to go will be able to tell you more than I can. But I like the way mine fit and was even able to use my stock drive line with out cutting it. I just have to change the yoke.
 
What years the drive train from? The newer the vehicle the more is tied in throwing codes. Like if you have low tire pressure or a bad turn indicator bulb. Even low washer fluid. Id take the entire harness and whatever its plugged into if you can, including gauges fuel pump, tank etc. Then trim it back one circuit at a time..

For the tunnel, get as much space as you can. Cut out the entire hump as one piece. Install drivetrain, then see what extra to trim and how the hump fits. Maybe cutting the hump down the middle to widen it with a wedge shaped filler, as well as lift it up a fit with filler strips along the sides.

Not quite the same but helped my friend put crown vic 4.6 police interceptor and trans in a 65 mustang. And having the hole harnes actually helped tremendously, already had woring for all the lights washer fluid pump everything. Screwed computer to bracket we made to left of heaterbox under the dash.
 
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What years the drive train from? The newer the vehicle the more is tied in throwing codes. Like if you have low tire pressure or a bad turn indicator bulb. Even low washer fluid. Id take the entire harness and whatever its plugged into if you can, including gauges fuel pump, tank etc. Then trim it back one circuit at a time..
.

The engine is from a 2016 Challenger with all the engine harness, however all the new wiring was ordered through Bouchillon Performance (I am assuming they are using the Hotwire harness). My question on the electrical side was directed more towards the old components.
 
Call Chris at hotwireauto.com and tell him your year engine and trans. He can make the harness plug/play.

The tunnel will need to be taller and wider. Cut it an inch back from the firewall/tunnel pinch weld and also at the floor just where it start to curve up to make the tunnel.

The upper part of the torsion bar cross member has to be cut out. Place a 1x3 board on top of the trans (use tape to hold it on). This will give you air space around the top and also provide room for the wiring/plumbing.

Once eng/trans is set in the remake the top of the torsion bar cross member and widen your factory trans cross member.

This will get you going and while it's work, you'll be happy you did it this way when your done as everything will have room and it'll look factory when done.
 
You will not need any of the old voltage regulator / Ballast resistor or wiring. The voltage on the 6.4 is regulated in the computer. You can get rid of the starter relay too unless you use it for a terminal junction for your battery. I mounted my battery in the trunk as I used the battery box area for my air intake. Under the dash, you will need to replace the brake light switch with a newer style switch. Your 68 ignition switch used Ignition 1 and Ignition 2 along with the ballast resistor. The Gen 3 Hemi won't start and run properly with the stock ignition switch because of the break in continuity between start and run so Hotwire recommends using an auxiliary push button start instead of the start/run on the old switch. I tied Ignition 1 & 2 together in my wiring harness with the thought that I wouldn't need the push button. It worked but once in a while, it seemed to run a little rough so I ended up adding the push button.
As far as the computer mounting, I installed mine under the dash on the upper right side kick panel. I used the TTI engine mount adapters and headers so I needed to cut my tunnel and torsion bar cross member. Basically, it needed to be about 2" wider and 2.5" higher to make room for the 545RFE. Dreamcatcher has avoided disturbing the tunnel by moving the engine/trans ahead. As for the brake booster, My setup has the factory disc brake booster mounted in the factory position with no issues with the 6.1. I wouldn't think there would be an issue with the 6.4 either. I have pictures of most of my install issues. Once you decide which way to go, there is plenty of help here. If your car has factory A/C, there are more issues to deal with like Heater box clearance and compressor clearance. I can help with both of them if you have them.
 
Thanks Sixpac, I have learned that about the brake switch when Bouchillon sent me a new brake switch in my parts order for the swap. I installed the Classic Auto Air AC system and it gave me about 10 plus inches of space with their new heater box where I mounted my new wiring fuse box. However it is sounding like I will need to maybe reconfigure this panel for the new gas pedal. On the AC compressor clearance TTi recommends a few minor modifications to the headers. I will try those first and see what happens. Was there a specific push button you used or just a standard variety, I am assuming it is just a momentary switch that provides 12v direct to the starter? I have been itching to start the swap but I want to finish installing the US Car tool chassis kit first. I have to grind out all the finish work from the last build on the car we did. Figured I would do as much research as I could before I started this. My goal is to have the entire car done by Hot August Nights here in Reno. Including the new paint and body work. We will see, I am just one man. Thanks for your time.
 
Thanks Sixpac, I have learned that about the brake switch when Bouchillon sent me a new brake switch in my parts order for the swap. I installed the Classic Auto Air AC system and it gave me about 10 plus inches of space with their new heater box where I mounted my new wiring fuse box. However it is sounding like I will need to maybe reconfigure this panel for the new gas pedal. On the AC compressor clearance TTi recommends a few minor modifications to the headers. I will try those first and see what happens. Was there a specific push button you used or just a standard variety, I am assuming it is just a momentary switch that provides 12v direct to the starter? I have been itching to start the swap but I want to finish installing the US Car tool chassis kit first. I have to grind out all the finish work from the last build on the car we did. Figured I would do as much research as I could before I started this. My goal is to have the entire car done by Hot August Nights here in Reno. Including the new paint and body work. We will see, I am just one man. Thanks for your time.
I had to ding the front tube on the Left side header to make room for the Compressor. I also ground off the rear mounting hole on the compressor. Any momentary PB will work. I bought one from O'Reilly Auto.
Good Luck with your build. I'm sure it will be great.
 
I hope so, she has been such a joy to build the first time around we nicknamed her Nightmare.
 
In an attempt to keep my questions in one thread....For those that have used a transplanted 6.4L out of another vehicle versus a crate motor, on the oil filter adapter needed to be used in a B body, can the oil cooler be reused or will the cooling lines need to be rerouted?
Power steering pump lines, any specific lines or just find some that will fit?
 
I bought fittings and hose from Bouchillon for my PS lines. I used the Borgeson gear. Here is a pic. Also, I didn't have any transmission cooling lines so I bought some 3/8" tube from an auto parts store and bent my own. I guess I don't have a good pic of the cooling lines except where they hook up to the radiator.

100_7355.JPG 100_7592.JPG
 
Sixpac thanks for your input on this build. The cooling lines in question are for an engine oil cooler that came on the engine. It connects to a port on the engine and into the radiator lines. From looking at the 45 degree adapter the cooler is bypassed and not used. I may have to run a filer relocation kit on it.

Resized_20170330_185854.jpeg
 
The oil cooler doesn't matter now. The motor mount is in the way and it has to go. When I installed the Bouchillon performance 45 degree oil adaptor the oil pressure switch is in the way and will also need to be moved.

Additionally, the AC condenser is not in the way. The motor mount bolt is and I had to dimple the pipe.

IMG_0243.jpg IMG_0239.jpg
 
It looks like TTI took my advice and re designed the pipe coming off of cylinder 1. I had to cut off the rear mounting bolt on the compressor and still had to dimple the pipe. Looks like they still don't have it correct but it is better. What are you using for a frame? Are you going to be able to use the stock oil pan? It looks like the dip stick tube is in the way too. I had to relocate my dip stick to the driver side. Sure glad they thought about that when the cast these blocks. I also had to re-do the Oil pressure switch. My car is using the factory gauges so I needed to use the vintage sender. Here is a pic of how I made mine work with a 90 degree fitting.

100_6856.JPG
 
I haven't gotten pics yet. But the dipstick is now moved to the other side. The issue there is the dipstick needs to go on before the motor mount. If not it doesn't work due to the headers and the mounting points.
I am using a different pan with stock K member. Stock pan is a front sump. The issue there is there are two bolt holes that are hidden and the stock windage/pan gasket needs to be drilled to make them fit. Along with a couple extra bolts. There are 21 new pan bolts but the engine comes with 19.
Where the headers pass the bottom of the block there are a couple points that need to be dimpled so they don't rub the casting.
 
You will not need any of the old voltage regulator / Ballast resistor or wiring. The voltage on the 6.4 is regulated in the computer. You can get rid of the starter relay too unless you use it for a terminal junction for your battery. I mounted my battery in the trunk as I used the battery box area for my air intake. Under the dash, you will need to replace the brake light switch with a newer style switch. Your 68 ignition switch used Ignition 1 and Ignition 2 along with the ballast resistor. The Gen 3 Hemi won't start and run properly with the stock ignition switch because of the break in continuity between start and run so Hotwire recommends using an auxiliary push button start instead of the start/run on the old switch. I tied Ignition 1 & 2 together in my wiring harness with the thought that I wouldn't need the push button. It worked but once in a while, it seemed to run a little rough so I ended up adding the push button.
As far as the computer mounting, I installed mine under the dash on the upper right side kick panel. I used the TTI engine mount adapters and headers so I needed to cut my tunnel and torsion bar cross member. Basically, it needed to be about 2" wider and 2.5" higher to make room for the 545RFE. Dreamcatcher has avoided disturbing the tunnel by moving the engine/trans ahead. As for the brake booster, My setup has the factory disc brake booster mounted in the factory position with no issues with the 6.1. I wouldn't think there would be an issue with the 6.4 either. I have pictures of most of my install issues. Once you decide which way to go, there is plenty of help here. If your car has factory A/C, there are more issues to deal with like Heater box clearance and compressor clearance. I can help with both of them if you have them.

Did you use your factory gauges? If so, what additional sending units did you need to buy or what signals come directly off of the hotwire harness? I have a 73 Satellite and Dakota Digital does not make direct fit rally gauges for it yet.

Also do you have any pictures and/or words of wisdom on dealing with the heaterbox issues. My car is a factory air car and I intend on using the factory a/c.

Also where did you mount your ECM with the factory a/c box being there?
 
I still have not gotten the engine in the car. The pics above is as far as I have gotten. The "bolt on" parts are not very easy to bolt on. For gauges I used Autometers. I was going to try and use Summits LED digital but decided on this route. Going to be swapping out the bulbs with red LEDs to continue with the Nightmare theme. When I started the restoration I was going to rebuild the original heater/AC box. After pricing out the new evap cooler, and heater core along with the rebuild kit and new compressor I was well over $1000. I ended up using a Classic Auto Air kit, total kit was about $1300ish and was a complete bolt in from condenser to compressor, to heater box and lines. This kit was designed for a B-body AC car specifically. They do make them for non AC cars. Give them a call. If you are not looking for complete restoration. Their kit only needs a 12V source. The rest is computer controlled, including the fan and def controllers. Image 859 is the cluster we bent and made then wrapped in vinyl. The two big centers are tach and speedo, between them the little circles are high beam light (top) and probably oil pressure (bottom, not hooked up). the two to the bottom L/R of the speedo/tach are turn signals. The rest are just pop rivets to complete the look. There's an oil pressure (Autometer sending unit), water temp (autometer sender), fuel, and volts. I am not using an ammeter. In the other two pics the one of the heater controls is what Classic Auto Air uses. The other pic is of the space saved from the new heater box. Compared to the stock the new one is close to 10" shorter. This allowed me to mount a panel for the fuse block for the car, the heater controller, and the remote box for the door poppers. I am probably going to have to rearrange/rebuild it to mount the new pedal. The current setup had the electronic conversion, I mounted the orange box behind the firewall above the heater box. It was out of the way. As for the new ECM I will have to see how it goes on where it will end up. Goal is to have it running by the middle of May but we will see. Longwinded but I think I answered everything. If you want anymore pics let me know.

859.jpg 871.jpg 870.jpg
 
Did you use your factory gauges? If so, what additional sending units did you need to buy or what signals come directly off of the hotwire harness? I have a 73 Satellite and Dakota Digital does not make direct fit rally gauges for it yet.

Also do you have any pictures and/or words of wisdom on dealing with the heaterbox issues. My car is a factory air car and I intend on using the factory a/c.

Also where did you mount your ECM with the factory a/c box being there?
I used the factory gauges in my build. Used vintage oil sender and temp sender. The hot wire harness has both of those wires included in their harness.
As for the A/C, I don't have much for input because 73 heater box and dash layout are different. Like my car, there won't be much room under your dash either but I mounted my ECM on the upper right side kick panel and the 2.5" hole had to go under the heater box as there was no where else to put it. There was no room for the fly by wire gas pedal either so I had to use a 04 Ram bell crank assembly to relocate the fly by wire electronic out under the hood. I used my existing cable activated gas pedal and a longer cable to activate the bell crank. Most people are using the aftermarket AC box because it is much smaller and doesn't create some of the issues I had. Here are some pics of where my harness ended up and where the ECM is. As you can see, not much room for anything else.

100_7138.JPG 100_7150.JPG 100_7151.JPG 100_7158.JPG
 
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I used the factory gauges in my build. Used vintage oil sender and temp sender. The hot wire harness has both of those wires included in their harness.
As for the A/C, I don't have much for input because 73 heater box and dash layout are different. Like my car, there won't be much room under your dash either but I mounted my ECM on the upper right side kick panel and the 2.5" hole had to go under the heater box as there was no where else to put it. There was no room for the fly by wire gas pedal either so I had to use a 04 Ram bell crank assembly to relocate the fly by wire electronic out under the hood. I used my existing cable activated gas pedal and a longer cable to activate the bell crank. Most people are using the aftermarket AC box because it is much smaller and doesn't create some of the issues I had. Here are some pics of where my harness ended up and where the ECM is. As you can see, not much room for anything else.

View attachment 414925 View attachment 414926 View attachment 414927 View attachment 414928

Thanks! That does help! I just got my Hotwire harness and pedal assembly today. I'm gonna see how it mocks up this weekend sometime. Hopefully!
 
Thanks! That does help! I just got my Hotwire harness and pedal assembly today. I'm gonna see how it mocks up this weekend sometime. Hopefully!
A note on the Hot wire harness. Not sure if you specified a location for the fly by wire location when you ordered the harness. If you are using the truck bell crank like I did, the fly by wire plug needs to be under the hood. Otherwise I believe they locate it under the dash. With the factory A/C, there is no room for that pedal assembly. At least on my 68.
 
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