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512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread


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My fancy new rear shocks came in. I mocked them up off the lower mounts- there’s plenty of room to put them in at a much better angle. I am waiting on bolt in mounting studs to show up before I make some bolt in brackets to relocate the upper mounts. 

 

I found some matching double adjustable qa1 front shocks on sale for just a little more than the single adjustables so I jumped at the sale price. Those should bolt in with just a little massaging of the shock hole in the LCA spring pocket with a die grinder. 

 

You can see how far back the upper mount was on the blue shock in the 1st pic- should work much better now. 

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Thanks Bisquik.

 

I had stock replacement shocks before on project cars and the stock version of this truck, stiff KYB gas charged shocks, and even tried a set of comp 90/10 drag launching shocks on my old 72 demon. All of them were fun- I like changing stuff around and seeing the personality of the ride change with them. Like changing cams but much less work. 

 

These qa1 shocks are not expensive as far as race shocks go but they’re by far the fanciest shocks I ever bought. I think it’s going to be fun trying different stuff- the fronts are double adjustable and single for the backs so I have about a gazillion options.  

 

I will say that the racemaster dot drag radials are amazing. I haven’t really floored it while footbraking yet but the 1/2 to 3/4 throttle in 1st gear that used to leave black stripes all over the roads my neighborhood now doesn’t even bark the tires- just throws me back in the seat.

 

I’m even halfway confident that the driveline will hold up now with my forged yokes and overkill driveshaft. 

 

I decided to pull the bed and install a new tube crossmember for the rear shocks so it might be a week or two before I can get it set up. 

Edited by Radarsonwheels
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Results are in from weighing her!

She’s around 3700 wet without a driver & 1/2 tank of gas. So right at 2 tons going down the road. A little piggy but I was more interested in making it strong than I was in making it light. The front/rear bias is great- I’m happy with that. 

 

I’m sure I could shave 200 or so if I didn’t have the bed made from one of the densest woods on earth and a full 1” thick. The frame boxing is probably heavy too, along with the leaf springs and 1” .120 wall square tube cab and bed floor frames.

 

I’m still surprised it’s so heavy! It makes me feel even better about how light and quick it feels with the stroker motor. 

 

Time to get the suspension under control next with these fancy shocks. 

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Looks way low slung too his truck will ride higher than mine unless he’s got a dry sump. His motor looks even with the front of the door openings/dash for sure. Maybe he’s gonna raise the floor but not lower the ride height- our cabs are pretty tall inside. 

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The weather sorta broke and I cleaned the garage. I have some help on the way in a little bit and I’m going to pull the bed. 

 

Then it’s upgrade time! I got a CE weld in crossmember kit that will be strong enough to hold coilovers in the future if I want and all 4 QA1 adjustable shocks ready to go. I’ll have to install boxing plates inside the frame to attach the crossmember. The fronts supposedly need minor clearancing of the LCA to slip up inside the spring too. 

 

Plus when I got the truck weighed the dude must have rolled down my window way past flush with the door because now my linkage is not hooked up so I’ll have to take the door apart to address that. The passenger window works perfect but the driver’s side has no stop or rear lower track which is fine for now as long as I’m the only one who messes with it. 

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When my help came I had the bed ready to go. The engine hoist holds the back of it and one guy lifts on each forward stake pocket. The engine hoist rolls along for the ride and we set it on stands so the tubs wouldn’t have to take the weight. 

 

Got the rears in and the bed set back on in position with the bolts and top mounts lined up and installed. Gotta button up the poly bed mounts in the morning. I also want to install the front shocks. I guess I’ll probably mess with the driver’s window track another day. Can’t wait to feel the difference in handling! 

 

I unhooked the battery ground and all harnesses to and from the ECU/ throttle body but I didn’t remove it from the intake. I also kept the welding ground clamp close to where I was working so no electrons would be looking for expensive detours. Fingers crossed it still all works. 

 

Sorry for the blurry night time finished pic. The rear upper shock mounts moved forward a ton like 6” or so. Their angle is MUCH better as is their quality. I set them to a 3 7/8” ride height between axle and frame. At that height I have about 2” before getting into the bump stop which has can squish about 1 1/4” before bottoming the shock. That leaves just over 2” of extension so I’ll have to keep the shock adjustment tightish to keep it under control and inside my 5.25” total shock travel. 

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I got the bed mounts torqued this morning, and buttoned up the fuel system, rear lights, running board to tub bolts, and plugged the ECU back in. She still starts! So my pre-welding precautions were enough. I got the rear tires back on and set my ride height for 3” of compression and 2.25” of extension with the current shock placement. 

 

I have work tomorrow too but hopefully I’ll get some time tonight and tomorrow morning to start fitting the front shocks.

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I woke up early and got whittling on my lower control arms to fit the new shocks with 2” bodies and 2 knobs sticking off. The cutting template I made was perfect but needed a little extra due to the angle of the LCA so that the top rod would line up and go home. 

 

My first ride it seems much better. It corners flatter, takes bumps a little more firmly, and even does a little mini understated nose lifting 90/10 action with the rear single adjustables set 10 clicks from zero and the rear adjustables set 10 compression and 5 on extension. There are 18 positions on the adjustment knobs.  I need a bunch more seat time but I’m psyched. I hate having expensive parts sitting around waiting to be installed.

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After a week or so driving them the new shocks are a huge improvement. I have them set at ten clicks out of a possible 18 front and back on compression and the double adjustable fronts are set at 5 on rebound to try for a compromise between launching and cornering. 

 

I think I will stiffen them up some more until it gets harsh then back them off a little. 

 

My new wiper arm/blades came in a few weeks ago and wouldn’t you know the angle adjustment went bonkers the first rainstorm and made them unusable. There’s a small screw that looks like it would set the angle but it barely holds it at rest. Today I took them off planning to solder or braze them and decided to just crimp/swage the adjusters in my big vice. Now the angle is permanantly set and I didn’t even have to burn up the chrome with a torch.

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Edited by Radarsonwheels
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  • 2 weeks later...

Darn collector bolts loosened up again! The passenger side lost two nuts and sounded a little extra cackly last night when I was hotrodding around. It didn’t come loose enough to backfire on decel but this is the second go-around with these things.

 

I never tried the stage-8 locking deals but they make a collector bolt setup that has tab nuts so once you start the threads you can just tighten the bolt with one wrench. That should be super helpful in my tight bay. 

 

Other than that I’ve really been enjoying the truck. My wife traded in her camry for a v6 charger- now my driveway is home to fourteen hundred and twenty two cubic inches of mopar power! 

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Thanks man It makes doing the dishes more fun with a nice view!

 

I bolted up the troublesome passenger side header collector and that job sucked. If I ever take off these headers to make a new set I will make the collectors bolt up in a better spot. The passenger side is all locked in with three fancy ‘stage-8’ bolts, tabs, & locks. The driver’s side is a nightmare to reach and still holding tight with normal hardware so that side gets a ‘maybe later’ ?

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My first time taking the truck to a car show was today. There was a lot of really nice stuff there- led-sleads, perfect stock restored model As, muscle cars, even drag race stuff and bikes. My truck was definitely not built as a show poodle but I figured it’d be fun to park in the exhibition area instead of with all the toyotas. I was surprised to win a large trophy- 2nd place for best engine! 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Howdy CO

 

Yep I’m good. Last year I was cranking on the truck build so hard it was a little much but I knew it was such a big project that it wouldn’t get done if I didn’t get a little obsessed. Now that it’s more of a hot loud gas guzzling daily driver I have just been mostly enjoying it!

 

I do still check in here a couple times a week to read some ‘car stories’, learn some stuff, have a laugh, and once in a while help somebody out with some misguided advice.

 

Last thing I did on the truck was the passenger side ‘stage 8’ locking collector bolts. The passenger downpipe had lost all 3 nuts and started falling off and leaking badly twice. I didn’t do the driver side because it hadn’t been self-loosening- yet! 

 

I took my mom for a ride last week. She loved the interior and the fuel injected reliability but was terrified and actually screaming after a quick half throttle holeshot up to about 30 mph from a slow roll. It was hilarious but I’m not a sadist so I didn’t mat the gas and bang second at redline- just cruised around a little more and went home. 

 

When I cranked up to take her out I noticed a new rattly sound so I hadn’t been driving it this week till I had time to check it out. Yup it was the driver’s side collector.

 

One out of three collector nuts had backed off and vibrated all the way off, leaving just the bolt. I replaced that one with a fancy locking bolt at the cost of much forearm cramping, cursing, and a bunch of skin rubbed off my first thumb knuckle. Man who decided to put a big block in this tiny engine bay ? 

 

Sooner or later I’ll have to do the last two fancy locking bolts on the driver’s collector. I’m going to wait until the skin grows back on my hand that I rubbed of doing the first one. The Driver’s side has the O2 sensor in it that runs the EFI computer so I can’t have it leaking.

 

Which reminds me- once you have a good tune in your holley self learning fuel map it’s possible to set/limit the AFR correction to a small amount. That way you can still have it correct for altitude temperature and and humidity but not go totally haywire if a sensor goes bad. I should probably do that soon. I have about 400 miles on it so far. 

 

Next up is replacing the dakota steering rack, pump, lines, and tie rods, along with a trip to re-set the toe afterward. It’s pretty much the only Dak part I didn’t replace (re-used the denso alternator too knock wood) and now it’s leaking. Parts are super cheap so I’m just gonna do all new. My buddy is a chevy dealership mechanic so he’s gonna throw the parts on and re-align at work. It’s only a few bolts and hoses but with a rack and a lift it’s a cake job and he wants to barter for a tattoo. 

 

Other than that I have a nuisance vibration in the dashboard just off idle and I think I want to back off the aggressiveness on my shock settings some. Also my headlights are aimed too low and the driver’s side sealed beam has a droopy bulb inside that is a little dim and doesn’t hit the reflectors right to throw a good pattern. So I’ll swap em both soon. 

 

The amount of rain that comes in is still significant but much better and I am confident all the metal is sealed up really well so it’s also just a nuisance I can deal with until I decide to get crazy and do a new windshield. 

 

Oh and my fuel lift pump hangs way too low out back- I gotta raise the mount by 4-5” and make a new hard line to the surge tank. 

 

Just like everything else it’s ok for now. I’m really enjoying the fall weather- in the 70°s or even low 80°s the truck runs nice and cool instead of the mid 190°s it runs in summer rush hour. I’ve also turned some of my attention to getting my ‘73 swinger back on the road from paint shop purgatory (free extended storage at the lazy painter/buddy’s garage waiting on him).

 

So there’s a nice big chunk of mopar rambling! I hope everybody is also enjoying the fall weather and burning some gas!

 

Radar

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh man I lost brakes this morning with my kid in the truck with me! Ain’t that a B!

 

I only had to pump up one stop on a main road and was a mile from home and crept thru the neighborhoods in 1st gear so no damage or white knuckling but what the heck man I built this thing right to be safe and reliable!

 

When we got home I found dot3 puddled on my rubber mudflap inner fender/a-arm cover under the MC. Ok that’s easy time to feel around and hunt down the leak. 

 

Turned out it was the brake pressure switch body that leaked! Dunno if it was just chinee quality or if I cooked the plastic in my oven of an engine bay. Grabbed a replacement at my buddy’s indie motorcycle shop on the way to work. “Made in poland” by drag specialties. Gotta switch from the push on mushroom terminals to regular spades but that’s easy. 

 

Not sure if this will require bleeding the whole system or if I can drip some fluid into the switch body and let it flood and leak the air out as I pull the little plug I put in there and swap in the new switch. I pulled the old broken one out to match it up when I bought the new one and threw a plastic plug in so the still full MC didn’t drain all day.

 

 

 

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