RamZCharger's 68 6.4 Hemi Restomod

[JamieZ]

Great project!

[RamZCharger]

Thanks!  Appreciate all the comments.

The fuel system begins with a tank from Rick's Hot Rods.  Stainless with an in-tank Walbro 255 LPH pump and a fuel sender matched for my fuel gauge – 76/6 ohms.  The tank essentially is modeled after a stock tank, dimension wise, but it is about an inch deeper to accommodate the pump. To install you use custom straps with OEM type design.  It is a very nice piece, check out the welds.  My builders had issues using a return style filter on a different car; they had to pinch the return line to increase pressure for it to run.  So instead of that set up we went with an adjustable regulator at the motor for good measure.   Jumping ahead I am happy to say this worked out great and looks fantastic also, more on that in a later post.  One issue we did encounter is the sender and return lines were mislabeled on the tank, minor but it took a bit of troubleshooting to figure it out.

[RamZCharger]

Tank installed . . .

[NHCharger]

Car is looking great!

I'm in love with the gauges

[RamZCharger]

Many thanks, I am very happy with the dash.  Slick and subtle.

Plumbing, is it a chore or opportunity?  I believe the later.   It is all in the details for me, and this means nuts, bolts, fasteners, and lines.  With the decision of using a fuel regulator at the engine we have to run a return as far as the main, front to back.  We went through the torsion bar cross member via a reinforced tunnel, custom bent the stainless lines, secured, and the result is a tight, tidy, and very clean install.  Where fuel enters the engine we are using a 90 degree adapter so everything fits under the 392 valve covers without modifying – more on this later.  Radiator hoses and overflow plumbing is equally as nice – more on this later, and the AC and heat plumbing is very trick – more on this in a later post.  

[RamZCharger]

The next couple pictures are of the finished fuel system with regulator installed on the firewall, the fuel pressure gauge looks like it was always meant to be here.

[RamZCharger]

Cooling of the engine is accomplished with an XV radiator.  The inlet and out are both on the passenger side for a Gen III hemi.  You will need to move the battery to the trunk for fit, and fit is okay – it could stand a little more height (pun not intended) – more on this in a bit.  The dual electric fans are nice, but the mounting of the fans and shroud leaves something to be desired.  Not as finished as I would like with long exposed bolt threads.  Also there are machine bend marks and scratches on top of the radiator, and no fittings are included for the overflow tank.  I like purpose built kit, but for an item with a headline view in the engine compartment craftsmanship goes a long way.  Just look at a fuel tank by Rick's for comparison.  Welds are nice and a lot of potential but it has fallen short on final execution.

[RamZCharger]

So what did this very particular owner do . . . the radiator is plumbed similarly to the fuel system with stainless lines to the overflow tank.  We have made it a closed system so if there is overflow into the can when the system cools the overflow liquid is syphoned back into the radiator.  You will see a small hole at the top of the overflow tank, I am not sure what this is, perhaps guys were using this as the overflow mechanism?  Does not make a lot of sense to me and will be plugged.   The cap is something I pulled off Summit, and the brushed tubes to the engine are a signature of my builder.  I had seen him do this on other cars and loved the look.  The dark bands are taken from the trucking industry, they heat shrink and will hold rubber to radiator to tube to engine.  No clunky hose clamps.  If you look closely you will also see the fan shroud bolts are now capped, and the top of the radiator has been brushed to remove blemishes from machining.

[RamZCharger]

Last bit on the radiator, there is a decent gap in-between the radiator and radiator support; all that cool slippery air will just rush on through and bypass the radiator, and condenser.  You can all see a preview of the AC hard lines - more on the AC stuff is to come.  Aluminum deflectors were installed to move all that O2 into the radiator core instead of under it.

[RamZCharger]

It is my understanding XV has closed their doors.  I had them on the phone a few times and they were very responsive and quick to ship out my chassis stiffening components – items which I like a lot.  In fact all items I purchased from them arrived timely and in good order.  I also bought their electric window motors – more on that later, and certainly appreciate a company such as this contributing to our hobby.  Makes me wonder why now am I seeing press on XV in current Mopar Muscle publications . . . ?

[Troy]

One of the previous employees of XV has purchased the bulk of the intellectual property and tooling and is still producing parts - although on a "per order" basis the last time I heard.
http://xvengineering.com/

Troy

[RamZCharger]

One of the previous employees of XV has purchased the bulk of the intellectual property and tooling and is still producing parts - although on a "per order" basis the last time I heard.
http://xvengineering.com/

Troy

That is good to know, thanks for the link.  XV had some very cool ideas, and good parts too.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Sweet build!!! Love the color combo and all the modifications.   

What's the plan for wheels and brakes?   

[bill440rt]

Excellent! 
That paint looks OUTSTANDING!! 

I'll be watching this as progress unfolds.     

[RamZCharger]

Sweet build!!! Love the color combo and all the modifications.   

What's the plan for wheels and brakes?   

Thanks!

I know there is a lot of debate on wheel size and brakes, I like them all actually.  But for me I really want a vintage look . . .  and this means 15" Magnum 500s with chunky tires, I like sidewalls.  Brakes are non-assisted discs all around, Dr. Diff's kit for 15" wheels with mild upgrades.  The build is further along than my posts so I am catching up.  The car is not driving, but I am passed this part and will report soon.  Hopefully I can report on the braking capability soon too, stay tuned.

[RamZCharger]

I think the next logical assembly stage to post is the suspension.  Complications left and right, or more appropriate front and back.  Let's look at the rear first.  My differential is a Strange Dana 60 courtesy of Dr. Diff and the rear gear is 3.54.

This is a good segue into how I chose gearing.  In excel I developed a speed analyzer schedule where you plug in transmission gear ratios, differential gear, tire size, and then engine RPM.  By tire size you can determine tire circumference and distance by revolution, and based on these variables you then can calculate MPH per RPMs.  I tested it with another vehicle I own and it is pretty spot on.  For a quick illustration, with my TKO 600 overdrive is .64.  Tire height is essentially 28", so with a 3.54 rear end in 5th gear at 2,000 RPM speed will be approximately 74 MPH.  3,000 RPMs in 5th is 110 MPH.  I did not invent the wheel (has to be a joke in here somewhere), there are lots of speed calculators on-line that I borrowed logic from but this exercise helped me to get comfortable with my own understanding of how the interconnected ratios and sizes depend on each other.  If anyone wants this xl file PM me.

Where were we, the Dana 60 was upgraded to a true-trac differential, is powder coated black with an aluminum "S" on the cover.  I also have a reproduction pinion snubber.

The back of the car is suspended with Hotchkis leafs, rear sway bar, and Bilstein shocks.  The springs installed as advertised.  My original shock plates were long gone, so I ordered a new set from Mancini.  I had trouble here.  The shock mounting location is different from OEM, so upon install the sway bar hit the shocks.  Took some research and scouring lots of photos to figure this out.  Interference was averted by moving the shock mount on the plate to the OEM location.

[RamZCharger]

I am very pleased with all these parts, they are jewelry.  Below is a picture of everything installed.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Wish these pics were bigger!  You're allowed up to 200KB per pic  Love to see more detail

[RamZCharger]

Wish these pics were bigger!  You're allowed up to 200KB per pic  Love to see more detail

Let me know which picture(s) you would like to see larger and I will (re)attach . . .

[RamZCharger]

Again, the front suspension is Hotchkis, and I will not dwell on the parts too much as there is a ton of information already available.  However, I will say they are fine.  Holding the front sway bar in your hand you can just feel the quality.  The tubular upper control arms equally ooze craftsmanship and are easy on the eyes.  There is a missing component in the Hotchkis TVS kit though which always bothered me, and that's no lower control arms.  So I decided to hang a curve ball and went with the QA1 lower control arms, come to think of it perhaps more of a screw ball.  I wanted them and sometimes you just have to have what you have to have.

The Hotchkis sway bar comes with new mounts, and bolts into place for mock up.  Once satisfied with fit and location you can weld in place.  It is heavy duty at 1 3/8", and Hotchkis claims one of the benefits is it "brings handling excitement to your Mopar" – ha!  Hard to argue with that endorsement.

[RamZCharger]

Now here is where the trouble occurs, the QA1 end link is in a different position than stock and we have interference.

[RamZCharger]

QA1 advises in black and white that their lower control arms are only recommended for 1962 – 70 b-body applications with no sway bar or one must use an e-body sway bar.  Great, this one is on me.  So let's try an e-body sway bar.  I purchased all this stuff some time ago from Summit, I gave them a call and explained my situation, and they gave me a deep discount on an e-body sway bar, I really like the guys at Summit.  Once the new bar arrived, it was apparent this was not going to work either.  It hit the oil pan and other interference issues.  Here is a picture in the Hotchkis instructions of how it should mount up using a stock lower control arm.

[RamZCharger]

So the e-body bar goes back to Summit and we are moving forward with the lesser evil b-body bar.  Summit was cool with this return.  My clever builder fabricated a bolt in bracket to relocate the mounting point in the stock location.  If you look closely you will see the QA1 end link just hanging out there.  A very pragmatic solution, I owe my builders big time on this one, disaster averted.

[SovereignZuul]

That is one good looking suspension.

[tan top]

  good stuff , nice work