Originality question

[BrianShaughnessy]

Sounds like you got your mind mostly made up anyway.   But I got  here anyway.  Do the EFI 5.9.  Screw the temporary carb conversion... do it once.

Rick's Savoy runs freakin great with the EFI 5.9 magnum crate and it turns decent times with 2.94 gears.

Most of it's based on factory parts.  It looks fairly stock except for a few extra gizmo's here and there and he's got a unsilenced air cleaner on top.    I'm sure a '70ish air cleaner would cover up most of the injector stuff even better.

It starts right up, idles great, dam good mileage.   Sounds killer with the 3" TTI system. 

I'm just not convinced that a non RT 340 car is THAT historically signifigant to go all original.   Your opinion may differ.

[firefighter3931]

Here's my 

E-bay the 5.7....it's not a real  hemi anyway.  

Spruce up the low milage 5.9 Magnum (awesome little engine with excellent cylinder heads  ) with a 4bbl and a nice mild performance cam, headers/dual exhaust and call it good. A proper  rebuild of any engine (insert 340 here) will cost 3k if not more.

And most importantly, finish of that E-headed 440 that i sent you parts for !   



Ron

[1969chargerrtse]

One 1970 Challenger With a 5.7 Hemi Coming Right Up!

By the way, that's a 392 - way out of my budget (list price of ~$19,000).... but pretty cool. I didn't realize they were that light though.

Troy

  sorry if i had 19k to spend on a motor it would be a real hemi 426 based 

Friggin A!!

[Troy]

Just a little background on the 340 cars in 1970:

They weren't badged as an R/T although the A66 "Challenger 340 Performance Package" included R/T bits such as the performance hood, HD brakes, HD suspension, bumble bee stripe, and Scat Pack (Bee) decal on quarter window. The wheel lip moldings were deleted as well. Road tests and personal accounts show that the 340 would generally beat a 383 in the 1/4 and the lighter weight (mine says just over 3200 lbs on the sticker) improved the road handling over the big blocks. I found another source stating 6,933 340 4bbl Challengers were made and I know about 1,800 were 4-speed cars leaving about 5,100 automatics. Dodge made 70,000 Challengers so this is a relatively small number (7%). I can't find a break down of colors (or even a good "guess") but all of the high impact colors are rarer than standard colors.

By the way, that's a 392 - way out of my budget (list price of ~$19,000).... but pretty cool. I didn't realize they were that light though.

Troy

Stop nitpickin'   


BTW, if you go the way of the 340 & want to get rid of the 5.7......I bet it would fit nicely in a Charger ragtop   

I had it up for sale several months ago and only had one person inquire about it. Did you decide to finally have your vert made?

Sounds like you got your mind mostly made up anyway.   But I got  here anyway.  Do the EFI 5.9.  Screw the temporary carb conversion... do it once.

Rick's Savoy runs freakin great with the EFI 5.9 magnum crate and it turns decent times with 2.94 gears.

Most of it's based on factory parts.  It looks fairly stock except for a few extra gizmo's here and there and he's got a unsilenced air cleaner on top.    I'm sure a '70ish air cleaner would cover up most of the injector stuff even better.

It starts right up, idles great, dam good mileage.   Sounds killer with the 3" TTI system. 

I'm just not convinced that a non RT 340 car is THAT historically signifigant to go all original.   Your opinion may differ.

Yes, I keep an eye on that. Didn't know he was running a 3" exhaust though. Mopar's pricing policies have left a bad taste with me in the past and their EFI kit is no exception. I'm still interested but for those prices it needs to be tunable. See my description of the A66 package above.

Troy

[Troy]

Here's my 

E-bay the 5.7....it's not a real  hemi anyway.   

Spruce up the low milage 5.9 Magnum (awesome little engine with excellent cylinder heads  ) with a 4bbl and a nice mild performance cam, headers/dual exhaust and call it good. A proper  rebuild of any engine (insert 340 here) will cost 3k if not more.

And most importantly, finish of that E-headed 440 that i sent you parts for !   



Ron

Yeah, yeah, I almost had myself talked out of it before I even posted. Should have just told people I couldn't find a 340. The 5.9 has a ton of potential and really doesn't look that different from stock.

Oh, and I sold off most of my "real" Hemi stuff to buy what I have now. The 440 goes in something else...

Troy

[pettyfan43]

I agree go with the 5.7 and drive the hell out of it !    but if the 340 is cheap enought pick it up also and keep it . Thats alway a good selling point down the road if you decide to move it.

[BrianShaughnessy]

See my description of the A66 package above.

Troy

YAWN.  Too many words.      Sorry but I'm still not convinced that it rates a full original resto. 

Otherwise...  plenty of time to scope out alternate EFI systems.    But you don't pay for wide open throttle tuning - just about anybody can do that.   What you pay for is part throttle,  cold start, warm start, idle quality, etc. tuning.   

At least you could use it for a 6 months / year driver. 

[WingCharger]

Plop in the 5.7, put in A/C, Power Steering, Power Brakes, and a good cam, and daily drive!

[Troy]

Sorry but I'm still not convinced that it rates a full original resto. 

Yeah, neither do a lot of other people since most seem to turn them into R/T clones. It's basically all the R/T stuff without the R/T badges.

As for the EFI, technically, I already have it since all the EFI equipment still attached to the engine. I even have the exhaust manifolds (which flow extremely well) and sensors. The stock computer will run the 5.9 Magnum just fine as long as I don't make too many changes - the automatic transmission computer with an A518 overdrive transmission or the manual transmission computer with an older automatic or any manual transmission. Hotrod98 is running the 5.9/A518 setup exactly as it was pulled from the donor vehicle. The Mopar MPFI "kit" is more for a total conversion. I believe it uses the 390 hp crate engine programming so it will handle some modifications but it isn't adjustable at all. The Savoy is using a 390 hp crate engine with no mods so it works well. I'd need to change my engine a wee bit to get into that range (cam, intake, and possibly heads). Optionally, Hughes sells a modified Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake for roughly the same price as the Mopar EFI M1. The Air Gap is the king of intakes for those Magnum engines and I could run one with a carb for a while until I decided to add the EFI system - no major changes! I guess I have all winter to sort it out so perhaps going with EFI from the start is the best course.

Unfortunately, I have to get most of the information about tuning and upgrading these engines from truck sites (and LX sites in the case of the Hemi) since the swaps just aren't widespread yet. There are a bunch of places that will reflash a stock computer to any specs and also sell chips and programmers. The selection of performance parts is pretty good as well.

Troy

[General_01]

Just a little background on the 340 cars in 1970:

They weren't badged as an R/T although the A66 "Challenger 340 Performance Package" included R/T bits such as the performance hood, HD brakes, HD suspension, bumble bee stripe, and Scat Pack (Bee) decal on quarter window. The wheel lip moldings were deleted as well. Road tests and personal accounts show that the 340 would generally beat a 383 in the 1/4 and the lighter weight (mine says just over 3200 lbs on the sticker) improved the road handling over the big blocks. I found another source stating 6,933 340 4bbl Challengers were made and I know about 1,800 were 4-speed cars leaving about 5,100 automatics. Dodge made 70,000 Challengers so this is a relatively small number (7%). I can't find a break down of colors (or even a good "guess") but all of the high impact colors are rarer than standard colors.

I am looking at Galens little white book and here is the breakdown of 340 Challengers:

6,933          340-4
343             3SPD
2,819          4SPD
3,771          AUTO

It is up to you, but if you want to drive it ALOT, I would go the 5.9 route.

[Troy]

General_01: I modified my number in a later post to the one you just listed. I didn't have the breakdown of transmissions though. Seems to be an inordinate amount of 4-speeds in 340 cars. I think it's somewhere near half of the AARs and T/As and, according to that, over 40% of 340 4bbl cars.

I drove my Barracuda as a daily driver for a solid month, on three long road trips to shows, and almost every weekend for the summer and a half I owned it. I'd have driven it more but it leaked a bit and I wasn't taking any chances with rain after I put the new white interior in it. That car got as high as 23 mpg with the 318 and highway gears (even though it had a 4bbl). It wouldn't hardly spin the tires but it was awesome on the highway and (almost) never had any reliability or starting issues. That's what I'm looking for. I probably shouldn't have sold it... 

Troy

[Old Moparz]

I had it up for sale several months ago and only had one person inquire about it. Did you decide to finally have your vert made?

Troy

I remember seeing your 5.7 listed & almost sent you a PM about it, but decided to wait until I have things in order with the junk I have already. At the time, I was thinking about it for the '68 Charger instead of the 440 I have.

About doing the Charger ragtop conversion......yes, I'm pretty sure I will.....but not until after I visit their shop on a side trip from Florida this winter. I did take the Coronet for sale ads down from the few sites it was on.

[General_01]

Oops. Missed your other post.

You are right though. A lot of Challenger owners liked shifting the gears. 

Those were the days when people drove these cars every day. When I got my Bee in 1989, it was my daily driver from May to October until about 1995. Wish I could do that now. Problem is, I know how much it costs to fix these things now.

[Troy]

I had it up for sale several months ago and only had one person inquire about it. Did you decide to finally have your vert made?

Troy

I remember seeing your 5.7 listed & almost sent you a PM about it, but decided to wait until I have things in order with the junk I have already. At the time, I was thinking about it for the '68 Charger instead of the 440 I have.

About doing the Charger ragtop conversion......yes, I'm pretty sure I will.....but not until after I visit their shop on a side trip from Florida this winter. I did take the Coronet for sale ads down from the few sites it was on.

I'll trade you for that ugly brown car you have... Good luck with the convertible! I expect to see it at Carlisle next year.

Oops. Missed your other post.

You are right though. A lot of Challenger owners liked shifting the gears. 

Troy

[Charger-Bodie]

I think you should restore it back to as original as you can, cause thats how I would want it. 

[moparstuart]

larry roper has a cuda with the 5.9 set up he raves about and love the drivablity and mileage , maybe get his advise. I still say use the 5.7 

[oldgold69]

1 had a 69 340 in my 63 fury . i loved the way it would just keep revving. if you can put one in your car i would do it.  all the work of putting of putting in a 5.9 hemi is worth too because it is something different. but it is cool to say i have a 340 in it

[resq302]

Troy,

Here is one thing to consider since I have basically done an EFI conversion on a car.  I had a 85 Jeep CJ7 with the inline 6 cyl and converted it to EFI from the 2 bbl carb.  Had nothing but nightmares with it.  This was my daily driver for me also.  Was out in PA on a trip with it and had something go on it.  The problem was that no one had parts for it and they wanted to look it up by the vehicle even though it was not part of the original set up.

My vote is to keep it original since it would be a daily driver and this way should something happen, you know exactly what part you need, and wont have to play a guessing game with electronics controlled this or that.

[Ghoste]

I like the idea of putting a 340 in it as well.  I've just always liked 340 E-bodies. 

[69charger2002]

General_01: I modified my number in a later post to the one you just listed. I didn't have the breakdown of transmissions though. Seems to be an inordinate amount of 4-speeds in 340 cars. I think it's somewhere near half of the AARs and T/As and, according to that, over 40% of 340 4bbl cars.

I drove my Barracuda as a daily driver for a solid month, on three long road trips to shows, and almost every weekend for the summer and a half I owned it. I'd have driven it more but it leaked a bit and I wasn't taking any chances with rain after I put the new white interior in it. That car got as high as 23 mpg with the 318 and highway gears (even though it had a 4bbl). It wouldn't hardly spin the tires but it was awesome on the highway and (almost) never had any reliability or starting issues. That's what I'm looking for. I probably shouldn't have sold it... 

Troy

lol i probably shouldn't have sold the 70 340 challenger...   

hahaha  hey if  there is something to consider.. the challenger is much rarer and cooler than the plain jane yellow 318 73 cuda i got from you..

put the 5.9 in it(challenger)

[PocketThunder]

General_01: I modified my number in a later post to the one you just listed. I didn't have the breakdown of transmissions though. Seems to be an inordinate amount of 4-speeds in 340 cars. I think it's somewhere near half of the AARs and T/As and, according to that, over 40% of 340 4bbl cars.

I drove my Barracuda as a daily driver for a solid month, on three long road trips to shows, and almost every weekend for the summer and a half I owned it. I'd have driven it more but it leaked a bit and I wasn't taking any chances with rain after I put the new white interior in it. That car got as high as 23 mpg with the 318 and highway gears (even though it had a 4bbl). It wouldn't hardly spin the tires but it was awesome on the highway and (almost) never had any reliability or starting issues. That's what I'm looking for. I probably shouldn't have sold it... 

Troy

lol i probably shouldn't have sold the 70 340 challenger...   

hahaha  hey if  there is something to consider.. the challenger is much rarer and cooler than the plain jane yellow 318 73 cuda i got from you..

put the 5.9 in it(challenger)

whats that supposed to mean!  i think that "plain jane" '73 was a pretty good deal!              

[69charger2002]

oh for sure.. 
i was just being goofy as always..

[charge-it]

I would like to put a 1971 340 in the new Challenger...

[bull]

I don't know what it is about the 340 but I have a lot of respect and admiration for it. If it were any other CID I'd probably just run one of the other modern engines but IMO the 340 is special. I'd go with it.