anderson74
New Member
Hello from Tacoma, WA- long time reader...finally joined since I'm now circling back to some long-needed work on my '74 Charger. Seems like a great community of Mopar folks here.
The quick backstory: I've had the Charger since high school...I believe I bought in 2000. It came with a tired and leaky 318. After owning the car for a couple of years, I had a shop swap in a 360 (still LA). Well, it turns out they didn't know the difference in balancing between the 318 and 360. At the time, I did not either. They moved the neutral balance flex plate/TC and balancer to the 360. Needless to say, no bueno. The shop could not figure out what was wrong. By the time I figured out what was going on, the shop was out of business, so no recourse. I then installed the correct offset weighted combo. This helped immensely but it was never "right". I assume bearings etc were already too far gone. I continued to drive it on and off up until ~10 years ago. It has been parked in the garage ever since.
Fast forward to now: I finally have some time and (hopefully) the knowledge to do things right. I started going down the EFI rabbit hole (and many other rabbit holes). I *think* I've settled on sticking with carb and mech fuel pump, and just keeping things simple in general. Otherwise, I fear I will never get her back on the road! Not doing a full resto- just fixing what needs to be fixed and adding a few nice things along the way. Looking for a nice street car to use as a semi-daily driver.
I recently pulled the engine, trans, and fuel tank. Now starting on some body, chassis, and fuel system items:
- Patch rear footwells (very bad rust through)
- Subframe connectors- I hear this will be "fun" due to the isolated torsion bar crossmember in the way :/
- Fuel system rehab & planning
-- tank cleaned and new 3/8" pickup installed
-- rebuild existing Holley Street Avenger
-- Aeromotive fuel log w/ double adjustable regulator
-- plumb in a return line
-- new mech fuel pump
After all of that is done, the high-level plan is:
- General health check of brakes, steering linkage, bushings, rear end -- repair/replace as needed.
- Will use existing Mopar electronic (orange box) ignition- possibly send out dizzy for recurve
- 727 to trans shop for reseal
- Gear Vendors overdrive
- 408ci long block (Magnum)- not sure where I'll source this yet.
- Serpentine pulley system
- Probably use existing long tube headers and dual exhaust w/ balance tube as this is all still in good shape.
I'm sure I'll find more things that need to be done along the way. Good to know this forum is here for when the inevitable questions arise. Wish me luck! Hoping I can contribute and help others, too.
The quick backstory: I've had the Charger since high school...I believe I bought in 2000. It came with a tired and leaky 318. After owning the car for a couple of years, I had a shop swap in a 360 (still LA). Well, it turns out they didn't know the difference in balancing between the 318 and 360. At the time, I did not either. They moved the neutral balance flex plate/TC and balancer to the 360. Needless to say, no bueno. The shop could not figure out what was wrong. By the time I figured out what was going on, the shop was out of business, so no recourse. I then installed the correct offset weighted combo. This helped immensely but it was never "right". I assume bearings etc were already too far gone. I continued to drive it on and off up until ~10 years ago. It has been parked in the garage ever since.
Fast forward to now: I finally have some time and (hopefully) the knowledge to do things right. I started going down the EFI rabbit hole (and many other rabbit holes). I *think* I've settled on sticking with carb and mech fuel pump, and just keeping things simple in general. Otherwise, I fear I will never get her back on the road! Not doing a full resto- just fixing what needs to be fixed and adding a few nice things along the way. Looking for a nice street car to use as a semi-daily driver.
I recently pulled the engine, trans, and fuel tank. Now starting on some body, chassis, and fuel system items:
- Patch rear footwells (very bad rust through)
- Subframe connectors- I hear this will be "fun" due to the isolated torsion bar crossmember in the way :/
- Fuel system rehab & planning
-- tank cleaned and new 3/8" pickup installed
-- rebuild existing Holley Street Avenger
-- Aeromotive fuel log w/ double adjustable regulator
-- plumb in a return line
-- new mech fuel pump
After all of that is done, the high-level plan is:
- General health check of brakes, steering linkage, bushings, rear end -- repair/replace as needed.
- Will use existing Mopar electronic (orange box) ignition- possibly send out dizzy for recurve
- 727 to trans shop for reseal
- Gear Vendors overdrive
- 408ci long block (Magnum)- not sure where I'll source this yet.
- Serpentine pulley system
- Probably use existing long tube headers and dual exhaust w/ balance tube as this is all still in good shape.
I'm sure I'll find more things that need to be done along the way. Good to know this forum is here for when the inevitable questions arise. Wish me luck! Hoping I can contribute and help others, too.
