70 Charger "SRT", 6.1 Hemi + T56

[Mikko]

Hi

Been working this for few years now, and finally planning to get it finished. So at first, what has been done in those years.

First i took whole car apart, and had body waterblasted to bare metal.



Then i did seamwelded (?) whole body to add body stiffness, and painted interior and underbody.



Then off to paintshop, this was in decent shape and not much rust repairs needed, painshop did those, patched front floors. Changed rear valance panel and rear lower quarters, and rear window frames lowers. And it sprayed beatiful black with few layers of clearcoat.



I sandblasted front and rear axles and had these powdercoated. Rebuided rear axle and added auburn lsd, and axles with new joints and urethane bushings, and fast ratio pitman and idler arm.



Then few years pause, consentrated to drifting as motorsport and builded couple of racecars. At meantimes painted and restored smaller parts and pieces for Charger.



And restored other Charger meant for more "dailydriver", but that was fast project compared to this.



And slowly started putting this one together. But mainly just collectted part and bits to it.




To be continued...

[JB400]

Looks like some nice work

[Mikko]

Got engine from crashed Jeep Grand Cherokee 2007,  30tml. I´m trying to decide that do i keep it bone stock, or stick mild cam in it? Does 6.1 gain how much about cam?  
It had crack in intake which is now welded, also timing case has cracked, got used one from ebay. Needs to be replaced. Milodon oilpan and pickup for fitment.

Gearbox is from 2000 Ls1 Camaro, i did rebuild it with stage 2 kit + billet keys and bronze shifter pads for 1-6 gears, and viper 3-4 shift fork.

Quiscktime bellhousing to attach it to Hemi, and Ram 9.5" twin clutch meant for new Challenger.





Engine management:
I´m from Finland, i´ve used Finnish ecu called Tatech in my previous projects, are familiar with that and bought it for this too, needs offcourse custom harness, but jeep harness can be used as base so pretty simple. Uses engines original sensors, just need drive-by-wire throttle body, and probably i don´t use MAF, just MAP. It has sequential 8 cylinder injection and ignition control, wideband lambda and autotune, 2 programmable digital outputs for fan etc control, controls warning lights, fuel pumps, rpm signal and egt meter. Pretty cheap and good one.

[Charger-Bodie]

Very cool!

[70 sublime]

Looks good

Is there lots of clearance to shut the hood with how tall the motor intake looks in the pictures ?

[Mikko]

Hood clearance is Ok, few other things worry me.

Its pretty tight (impossible?) fit with steering box and drivers side exhaust manifold. Is someone who has done this swap reading this... any ideas which location should i move engine?

If i remove A/C compressor, i can take it further back...
It´s now about 1.5" on right of centerline and oilpan at k-frame level. How far back are these ususally mounted? Transmission tunnel seems to need quite a bit modification for T56.












I´ve been playing around with idea of fabricating bolt on subframe add-on for steering rack, that would solve issue with steeringbox, and couple other problems too, like handling...

[70 sublime]

I saw a picture I believe on here somewhere of an orange (I think it was a GL) Charger
They had put a different motor in it and needed some more room to get the hood shut
They took and cut the webs out of the underside of the hood in the center
Took the hood springs off to keep them from bending the hood and just used a prop rod like the modern cars to hold it open

Might give you a bit more room for around the steering if you lift the motor a little

[Bob T]

Hi and Welcome.
Pretty cool project you've got going on.
Busy hands!
Just a question, any ideas on performance upgrades for the motor whiles you've still got it out?

[BrianShaughnessy]

Very cool 

You might want to investigate using a Borgeson steering box to gain some room.

[Mikko]

How much smaller borgeson box is than original PS box?
And is normal no PS steering box how big compared to original ps box?
About 1" more clearance would be nice.

I will check what rack&pinions do i have at home and investigate bit how would fitting one could be done. K-member modification seem fairly simple for bolting rack. Routing of steering shaft is bit complicated, angle in joints is going to be bit too sharp if rack is mounted backside of axle.

I did do custom rack&pinion setup for my 2gen Camaro and i used 90 degree gearbox in that to rotate steering shaft, that´s one option in this also.

I´ve been thinking that should i do camswap or not, how much stock 6.1 gain from that? But that´s pretty much how much i want to upgrade this engine, if at all. Don´want to sacrify relibiality at all over performance in this.
This doesn´t have to be stupid quick, i got other cars meant for that

But bit extra power doesn´t hurt anything but i´ve got pretty clear vision what i want from this car, fast multipurpose car for it´s own age. Fast at road, drivable at track. Most of all comfortable and reliable car which can be taken 1000km fast roadtrip whenever, and drivable enough to stay at road at 250km/h 

[patcharger]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,72007.msg808437.html#msg808437

[Mikko]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,72007.msg808437.html#msg808437

Have read that one, and few build topics at forbbodiesonly. Most of them seem to use some aftermarket frame instead of original k-frame. Like meantioned before, i´m from Finland and big stuff get amazingly costly when shipped to here, those are way out of my budget. Trying to come up best and most cost effecting solution for me.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Unisteer R&P's suck.   

There's plenty of info out there on Borgeson boxes to make your own choice... they're just twice as much as the hot rodded firm feel boxes.   
But frankly I'm not positive what other new hemi conversion folks have used.   

[kanadanmajava]

I thought that many aftermarket headers could solve this. Here's TTi's offerings. But according to some pictures it is still going to be tight and some do require non-original starter to be used.

What's wrong with the Unisteer kits? I have seen other comment about them but I haven't been able to figure out the problem. The mounting parts look a bit wonky but is there some issues with the rack itself?

I haven't even started my project but I have been wondering if I could use a front mounted rack (Mustang units are well available and they are cheap) but the spindle arm issues has to solved.

[Mikko]

No guarantees that TTi fit with T56? and those dont fit with fast ratio pitman and idler arms, so would need to use some aftermarket steering box afterall. Totally standard steering wont do it for me.
And hate idea of spending over 1200$ on headers (uncoated ones, Finnish customs and taxes...) just to seem that those dont fit and nobody else in here needs them.

I did cut away flanges today from Jeep headers and removed steering box, headers clear with torsion bars quite well  if just weld v-band flanges to them.

[kanadanmajava]

I think that the TTi headers go quite far to the sides and a bigger gearbox shouldn't be an issue.  I couldn't find any pictures to show how the near does the center link come to the headers so I have know idea how the fast steering modification would suit them. TTi guys would probably know. They have had some fitment issues with their headers so I'm sure they will know most of the unsuitable part combinations.

The Borgeson box might be a solution but it is priced around $600 so it isn't cheap either.

Did your engine come with the angled oil filter neck? I know that pickup versions have them but I'm not sure about Jeeps.

[Mikko]

One question, my car has no A/C.

Smartest way to make A/C to non A/C car? Would be using compressor from 6.1 engine? And non A/C heater box, what core would fit in there?

[Bob T]

Mikko, have a look at Vintage Air kits, there might be something that could work for you.
A lot of Hot Rodders fit them to have a custom and reliable system. I don't know of any others , I'm sure there must be other guys on here that have done it.

My car was factory a/c but all the compressor and hardware has been taken off and lost by previous owners, ike you I would have trouble trying to locate parts as I am in NZ far away from wrecking yard parts for U.S. cars so a custom kit would probably be the way to go if I was looking at getting a/c back into my car.


http://www.vintageair.com/

[Mikko]

Bit of progress, gearbox tunnel quite ready, still smoothing and filler, and paint. But next, gearbox mount.

Btw. does everyone sees 4 pics below, im not quite sure of my flickr settings...









Rearside of tunnel isn´t that pretty when looking inside of car but that will be under center console  so who cares...

[JB400]

You have 4 pix as intended

[Mikko]

Little progress, trans tunnel reaydy for paint. Tranmission mount done and ready for paint. Engine and trans of, hopefully final time. And back in by the end of next week

Any hintś what is wise to assemble before engine and transmission go back in. Fuel and brake lines. What else, i have to get Charger off from my 2-pillar pretty soon.

[1st_charger]

What headers are you using??

[garner7555]

Awesome build!

[Mikko]

http://shop.dougsheaders.com/doug-s-headers-d4477-b-1-5-8-4-tube-full-length-header-mopar-r-t-5-7-hemi-68-74-hi-temp-black-coating.html#.VM8hMWisV8E

These headers, 400$ find from ebay. Needed little bending, and i will change v-band flanges to them.

[Ghoste]

Are you using a hydraulic clutch release or mechanical?

[Mikko]

Hydraulic. GM Slave cylinder and some random 3/4 master cylinder.

[Mikko]

Transtunnel painted. Epoxy primer and 2K polyurethane paint.





Also changed timing cover for engine, original was cracked in crash. Sourced one from ebay. Oli filter neck was also broken so opened two connection rod caps and checked bearings, should be first things that damage if engine has run without oil pressure, all like new so back together.

One question related to this. Ordered  4 connection rod bolts because of this, these are torqued to yield. Part number has changed and bolt design also. New bolts are 2gram lighter than original, so bottom end balance is now 8 gram of from factory balance. Should i worry about this?

[Mikko]

Installing body plug kit, anyone remember what goes where ?

[Mikko]

Time to get back to this project, been busy building my Camaro and racing it since spring.

Yesterday took inner roof to metal and prepped it with POR15.

Now time for insulation and headliner, but bit of help would be appreciated at this point.

I thought that i put dynamat at first to roof skin. But where should insulation originally go?

I there step by step guide for headlinet installation anywhere? Sail panels, how those are supposed to be mounted, those werent anymore in place in my car when i took it apart...

[b5blue]

Headliner, good coverage on Youtube for a 69 Charger.  (What I used on my 70 Charger as a guide.) Do you know to use "search" here to find topics?

[Mikko]

Have to go throught youtube if i´ll find that also.

Yes i have found that mysterious search button, but always it isn´t very cooperative I´m Finnish and sometimes it´s hard to know right words how to search for.

Here and 70chargerregistry are tons of helpful topics with good pics, when putting your car together after few years from boxes, and don´t have clear idea anymore what goes where. I took photos when taking it apart, but should have taken a LOT more

[bill440rt]

Created this how-to thread on a headliner install, perhaps it will help you. 

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,31212.0.html

[Mikko]

That topic and other one found on forum were helpful, headliner is pretty much in place.

But front end, where should it be glued / and how far should headliner go? Hard to explain with my english skills, i´ll post pics soon...

[Mikko]

These clips, should these be mounted here? I have no memore image what so ever, and if here, what was purpose?

And how far that headliner should be glued, to this corner or beyond it.

[Mikko]

That headliner install...



First taking inner roof to metal and couple coats POR15 to it, forgot to take a pic, than dynamat lite.



Then sound deadener, i remember this part wrog, it was in three pieces, not in one like i wroted earlier.





Photographing black headliner in my workshop was pretty much impossible cause light  in there, but it is all black even it looks grey in pictures...

If i didn´t overstretch this, meaning pull it too tight, i think it came pretty decent.

Back part is pretty much without dimples, there are couple minor in front (and inner lamp bulb) which is biggest. But let´s see does those dissappear in few days by itself, or does it need shrinking. Quite happy overall, it´s been ten years since i´ve last done this.

And i even remember to but emplems to c-pillars before headliner was in place

[daveco]

Impressive work, thanks for taking the time to share photos of the project.

[Mikko]

Some pics without any proper story, anyway bit of progress with this.

And one question. How much should gap be between fender / bumber?












Ps. if anyones interested about GM´s, my Camaro was noticed, and kinda featured in LSXTV and Chevyhardcore sites
http://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/homebuilt-hero-mikko-viitala-is-drifting-a-second-gen-camaro/