My 73 Charger SE Project

[bigez04]

Well lets start with some history of the car.  My Grandparents bought the car new in 1973, it was my Grandmas daily driver.  She passed away and I bought the Charger in 2001.  Well I was young, it was my first car and I had big dreams for the Charger.  Soon I found out the big dreams come with a big cost.  I pulled the 318 that came in it cleaned it up making it pretty to look at.  Bought headers, a 4bbl carb/intake, bought a cam way to big for the 318 bent the push rods, etc. etc.  So the car has sat most of it's life with me. 
It's a single owner car (in the family).  I fell in love with it and am still in love with it.  I still have the same dreams but have been a mechanic for the past 5 years and it has done nothing but good for me. 
Ok, enough story time (hope I'm in the right place for this thread), the passed 5 years have been crazy.  Between work, getting married, and having my first child.  The charger found a spot in the back seat.

The Charger sat for the past 6 years, with the 360 I put in the 318's place.  It happened to blow the head gaskets and crack the heads.  Prior to that I have dual 40series flow master with 2.5" pipe hooked up. (Yea I know, I thought i was done with story time)

So 6 years later, as of this last Saturday, the Charger lives once again.

The fix that i was looking for was a set of heads to mount on the 360.  I found a friend of a friend that happened to have a good set of 318 heads the he just pulled off his truck.  I know a lot of guys don't agree with putting 318 heads on a 360, and I have read the pro's and con's of doing this. So I decided to just go with it and take on another learning experience.  So, between dodging the rainy weather and working on the car on the weekends it is running again.

I am on a pretty tight budget right now so it will take some time to get it how I want it.  Right now the only mods I have are 1 5/8 headers, Edelbrock Performer Intake, Edelbrock 600 Carb (My Holley 670 Street Avenger's Accelerator pump is frozen I was told) 318 heads off a 79 pickup.

Goals:
Have the right rear quarter panel patched due to rust.  The left side behind the door has a pretty good size bondo patch that is about 1/4" thick, it got T-boned prior to me getting it.
Once the body work is done, thinking about Candy apple red with a black vinyl top, and black interior. 
Still debating on whether or not I want to build up the 360 or put a 440 in.
Rewire the whole car.

I'll post pictures as i get them and keep this updated.  Sorry for the long winded post.
Eric

[rt green]

welcome.sounds like you are getting to know your car well. i dont know if going with a big block or a crate motor would be much diference in cost. labor would be less with the crate motor if you decided to go that way instead of still working on yours. how does it run with the 318 heads?

[bigez04]

Well it's not quite road ready yet...I need to do a couple things first.  Need to take my radiator in to have it rebuilt, top off the trans, and....I think that's it.  Sitting in the driveway, it idles and revs fine .  Will let you know as soon as I get it on the road.

[Fitz73Chrgr]

Looking forward to pictures.  You should post this over in Charger discussion.   

[bigez04]

UPDATE.  I got the exhaust hooked back up.  Of coarse after firing it back up it smoked like crazy.  It didn't have much fuel left in it so I bought 5gal. and some Chemtool fuel system cleaner last Friday.  Saturday morning with the added fuel and Chemtool I fired it up and let it run through.  The smoke finally started to thin out after about 10 minutes or so.  I noticed that my temp gauge wasn't working.  So I checked my wiring diagram and saw that it was supposed to be a violet wire.  Went under the hood and found the wire go temp. sender and it wasn't violet.  It did have the correct plug on it though  .  So without knowing what exactly that wire was for I grounded it to see if the temp gauge moved, it didn't.  So i checked the back of the instrument cluster to make sure all connections were good.  They were, so I chased the wire that was hooked up back to the loom a bit (I didn't go too far because I plan on rewiring everything at a later date.  So I found the violet wire where it comes through the firewall and spliced into it.  I grounded it again and the gauge starts to move.   So I ran a new wire from the point and hooked it to the temp. sender.  Fired it up again and the temp gauge starts to rise as it should.  
I took it on the first test drive.  It ran great! But it drove horribly! More like a car that has been sitting for 6 years.  The front end needs all new bushing, ball joints etc.  The steering also has about a 1/4 turn of free play  . I'm not sure if the steering box is rebuildable or if i just have to get a new one.  Or if it's worth rebuilding.  The break pedal sticks to the floor.
The only problem I ran into was after running the Charger for awhile.  I tried to restart it and the battery is dead.  I forgot my volt meter and light tester at work, so I will have to wait until next weekend to check that.  Or I will just pull the alternator and get it tested.
Nearing the end of my run time Saturday, I leaned on the throttle a bit and it started popping and shaking a lot.  So I shut it down thinking misfire.  I pulled the #1 plug and it was completely black.  I assume all the plugs are in the same shape.  So I will be throwing another set of plugs in it next weekend also, probably another shortly after that.
 
Well, sorry for the long post again.  I just like detail, helps me too if say my memory fails me at a later date.
Eric  

[bigez04]

Ok, so I copied my posts and moved them to Charger discussion.  So if you all want to follow you can go there.
Thank you,
Eric