Indice dei contenuti per October 2021 in Mopar Action

WEIGHT PLATE I have a 1992 Dakota that is factory equipped with a 5.2/518 and 3.55:1 rear gear. I have a complete 1999 5.9L that I would like to install in this Dakota, I will be keeping the original trans to the truck. My question is concerning the flex plate. Do I use the flex plate that came on the core 5.9L, or use the flex plate from the original 5.2L? Ralph Vaquero Covington, GA Ralph–The 1999 drive plate has the needed 360 (5.9L) external-balancing counterweight welded to it. So...you must use that drive plate (and your original t/conv). IN MY CLUTCHES I transplanted a 440 6-pack into my 1970 Charger 500 that was originally a 383 car. I had the stock radiator improved to a 3-core. I find now…

TABBED? Mr. Ehrenberg–I am finishing up a 1969 Road Runner, just a 383. It is almost ready for paint. My question: Were the hood “scoops” (if that’s what they are called), and the taillight extensions, assembled on the car when it was painted, or were they painted and then installed? Mel Solomon Atlanta, GA Mel–In every case like this, the item was painted disassembled from the car, but done at the same time the car was being painted, via a process called “tabbing.” They were hung on re-useable brackets, “tabs,” usually at one end of the shell or the other, and sprayed as the body was painted. Then they were installed, using gaskets, which were not painted. The gasket material differed depending on the importance of leakproof sealing, e.g., the…

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes! Oh, wait, it wasn’t a year, but just six months ago we were at the Mopars at the Rock show, held last August after being postponed by the China virus. Now, with things finally restabilizing, one of the best and longest-running Mope get-togethers in the South returned as a rite of spring, with track owner Steve Earwood pulling out all the stops to make sure everybody enjoyed this good, ol’-fashioned car-ganza! As we know from years past, Steve is not somebody who does things halfway, either. For this event, he sets aside the “big arena” (tower-side pits) for the car show itself, which quickly filled up with some great classic iron and late-model thundermakers early in the day. He also had the hottest racers…

TURN-IN. No, not what you do in your pajamas at night, but the result when you yank the tiller on your Mopar. How quickly and responsively the car reacts is known by road racers and autocrossers as “turn in.” Most modern cars react promptly, but our muscle-era Mopars can take a few hundred milliseconds to set up for the turn. What causes this is well known - much of this delayed action is the result of various rubber bushings being compressed. Swapping to urethane tension strut bushings helps, as do polyoxymethylene (acetal, a/k/a Delrin) lower control arm bushings. Much, however, of the take up is in the anti-roll bar (“swaybar”). Some Mopars, namely 1962 thru ’66 ½ and ’73-up B, and R-bodies, use a rather lousy front swaybar system (see…

OH, BOY, here we go again. Another 1971 Plymouth ’ Cuda. How do we manage it? I mean, these things are not like ’ 72 Chevelles, which we believe may still be in production by the cartels in some secret Mexican facility. We seem to just find our fish, or they find us. In fact, Kip Hartzell’s just-finished E-body was begging us to look closer from the moment we saw it on the show field at Rockingham. And rather than wait 5 years to run it like we do some other stuff, it became pretty obvious we needed to get this fine fish broiling right away on in the ’ol Mopar Action edit oven for a happy meal before the other mag guys had a chance to rip us off.…

HARD TO BELIEVE , but until mid-’60s, the only rearview mirror that was standard equipment (federally required) was but one inside mirror—not even a prismatic (day/night) inside mirror was required. Wanna avoid cutting off that Shivvy in a lane off to your side? Two options: Play bobble-head and spin your cranium, or listen for his horn. Then, in 1966, a left outside mirror was added to the fed’s must-have list, but, surprisingly, a right-side mirror was not- that wasn’t mandatory for several decades. Of course, smart buyers, especially if you lived in a high-traffic area, checked off the option for both outside mirrors while adding Sure-Grip, a big-block, and so on, to your new Mopar’s order blank. However, even if you did that, you got mirrors that were, by today’s…

I’LL BE BLUNT. This article is a blatant plug for vo-tech learning with the goal of getting scores of ad pages from trade schools across the country (see our ad contact on page 11), therefore increasing the size of Mopar Action to 240 pages per issue. In fact, if it weren’t for votech guys, the Mopar hobby would never have been elevated to the rarified heights it has now attained thanks to Joe Pritchett’s 2013 Challenger. See, back a few years, when he was 16, Joe’s mom gave him a beater. While the price was right, the aesthetics weren’t. Not possessing the coin for a better beater, Joe took a couple of vo-tech autobody and paint classes while in high school and the rest is history. Joe progressed from customizing…

AS I JOT THIS DOWN , it’s just after Memorial Day weekend. A guy named Helio Castroneves took his fourth Indy 500 win on Sunday, a huge achievement for anyone who knows about the 220-MPH competition’s challenges of Indy’s legendary brickyard. Just one win there can be a life’s achievement. No young gun, the 46-year-old Brazilian has been known as “Spiderman” for climbing the starting line fence to celebrate his victory, which he achieved in front of 135,000 fans in the biggest in-person gathering since the Wuhan plandemic began. He did not disappoint. Indy cars? Zoo, there ain’t no Mopars there! Nope. Indeed, as I covered in my Hemi book, the first Chrysler Hemi-powered Indy car, known as the A311, went so fast in testing it was almost instantly outlawed…

A GUY AT MOPAR PERFORMANCE named Jon Clark asked me 10+ years ago how to quickly and simply describe the different generations of Hemi engines. I wrote up: 1G - Distributor in rear 2G - Distributor in front 3G - No distributor. (Mitsubishi 2.6L = 0G) He loved it, and Chrysler / MP publications since have used this terminology. Of course, 1G is a broad-spectrum term, there were distinct versions for Chrysler, DeSoto, and Dodge, and many variations inside those families, as well as quite a few 3G variants. Still, I like to think I helped straighten it up.…

LOOKING BACK , it’s hard to believe that Mo’fans passed on some of the coolest cars that Chrysler built during the golden age of musclecars. I mean, who wouldn’t have wanted a 1970 Hemicuda convertible in 1970? Turns out everyone, 14 buyers. And only 7 were sold in the USA the following year. And what about 1969 Hemi Road Runner droptops—10 for U.S., and 2 exported. Add in the 4-speed and the number shrinks to only four. Maybe you did want one of the above models, but you couldn’t afford one as a kid with your newspaper delivery route. Back then, you were lucky enough to get free air for your tires. Today, you have options: cash in your Bitcoins, and Dogecoins and lay down your big bucks for the…

OLDEST CAR on the property by far was nearby Sanford, N.C. resident Andy Woodruff’s unrestored 1926 Chrysler G-70 2-door Royal Coupe, which came to him from a private collection after decades of well-maintained preservation. From the wooden wheels to the leaded-glass bullet-design headlamps, the car showcased tons of originality, with its factory L-head six-cylinder engine featuring 219-CI displacement under the hood. Working with quality styling and paint combos, Walter sold over 72,000 of these G-70s in this 2nd year of Chrysler production.…

WINNING. Before there was the winged Dodge Charger Daytona in 1969, there was the finned Dodge D500 in 1956. The new “high performance personal car,” noted Dodge’s December 22, 1955, bulletin to all its dealers, tagged the D500 as “dynamite in kid gloves.” Dodge went on to explain that the D500 was not to be confused with a simple bolt-on or accessory power kit, but as a model that included “a chassis of extra rugged proportions.” Touted as “a masterpiece of engineering perfection,” the D500’s 315-CID V8 (putting out 260 horsepower with a 9.25:1 compression ratio), was “the biggest and most powerful engine in Dodge car history.” It featured a new 4-Bbl carb and dual exhaust. Inside were Chrysler’s hemispherical combustion chamber design with double-rocker-shaft cylinder heads, larger valves, stiffer…

LEAF SPRINGS. Unless your rear bumper is dragging on the pavement, you rarely think about them. Ask most non-Mopar guys, and they consider leaf springs a remnant of the Conestoga wagon days, and, yes, leaf spring suspension design is now in its second hundred years—if not longer. As you might expect from Chrysler Engineering, however, things are not as they seem. Chrysler springs were unique, actually very cleverly engineered to provide a excellent balance of smooth ride and good axle control, whether under heavy braking or a 10-second launch. In fact, some Mopars—even 1930s Dodge Trucks—had a modicum of 4-wheel steering via the leaf spring design. By default, every leaf spring suspension exhibits some of this effect, but by splaying the leafs—either way, wider or closer together at the front…

RISE AND SHINE SUMMIT RACING TUNNEL RAM AND CARBURETOR PRO PACKS SUMMIT RACING’s Tunnel Ram and Carburetor Pro Packs are made for horsepower, pure and simple. They come with a Weiand tunnel ram intake manifold and either 450 CFM Holley 4160 or 600 CFM Holley Street Warrior carburetors. The linkage is included, too. Available applications are: LA smallblock (450 CFM carburetors) and RB big block (450 or 600 CFM carburetors). Go big on top with Summit Racing Equipment www.summitracing.com 1-800-230-3030 STRUCTURAL STEEL US CAR TOOL INNER ROCKER SILL BRACES ADD THE ULTIMATE in stiffness to your Mopar’s unibody thanks to USCT’s rocker panel sill braces. These weld-in parts will add incredible triangulated strength to the Rocker Sill Box of your Mopar’s unibody structure, and each set includes a…

2020 WAS A TOUGH YEAR, Covid hit the US and events were cancelled, businesses closed, shortages out the ying yang, and the aftermath continues. You name it—toilet paper, parts (and the quality of parts), etc. So, now you were stuck in lockdown. After you went out and scored some Charmin, masks, and hand sanitizer to keep the family calm, you think, “Now what? Spend some quality time watching Lifetime movies? Hell, no! I will get some upgrades done to me beloved Mopar! They can’t take that away from me, or can they?” That’s what a lotta guys and gals thought once we were in a lockdown. Get online and start clicking, only to find out that no one had anything in stock with no ETA on when they would have…

MIKE FRITZ is the kind of guy that just can’t pass up a deal even when it isn’t a “deal.” Tell him there’s a Mopar for sale and chances are Mike’s gonna spring for it—regardless of condition. He’s collected several so far including a ’70 Challenger T/A, a ’71 340 Swinger and a ’67 GTX that he’s building as a Sox & Martin tribute car. Also on his to-do list is a ‘68 beeper and ’69 Coronet R/T. He works on the cars in his spare time when he’s not hammering out dents on customer’s cars in his autobody shop business. ’Course, Mike wasn’t always the Mo’fan he is today. Fresh out of high school, Mike got a job working in a Chebbie dealership. He tooled around in a ’65…

SO YOU WANT TO GO RACING, EH? As we all know, there are lots of ways you can do that, and for East Hampton, N.Y. resident Jim Golden, it was a lengthy process. Today, he is taking no prisoners with his 2019 Challenger Hellcat Redeye, which has become a familiar sight at Modern Street Hemi Shootout events. However, as a corporate-level manager for a nationally-known auto parts retailer, his car enthusiasm goes waaayyy back. “As a child, I was always captivated with cars. I owned every Matchbox car and Hot Wheels car imaginable,” he laughs now. “I had every magazine car subscription and looked forward to getting the monthly magazines.” Even the bi-monthly rags like Mopar Action? Nope, not then. When Jim turned 18, he went to the Skip Barber…

THE JOY OF RUNNING A MAGAZINE that comes out 6 times a year is tempered by timeliness. We do not want to waste page space on stuff that doesn’t matter, but we still enjoy showing you the latest happenings regardless. To that end, we attended the first two Modern Street Hemi Shootout events of 2021, going to Orlando, Florida and Petersburg, Virginia to witness the start of a new year of 3G competition. Thanks to our print schedule, by the time you read this, we will likely be in Detroit for the event there. The Florida weekend(s) began with the NMCA’s season opener in Bradenton. I wrote about that in my Zoo Keeper’s editorial last issue. The MSHS race was held at Orlando Speed World the following weekend and run…

BRIAN JENNINGS didn’t have to wait until middle age before he had the wherewithal to indulge himself in a Hemi Mope. He was driving back and forth behind the wheel of a ’68 Hemi GTX while still in high school. And don’t think that was because he had become the school’s oldest student, having been left back 18 times. Nope, he was 16 at the time, during the mid-’70s, before Hemi prices went through the roof. Brian enjoyed that car up until the mid-’90s, driving from yon to hither (in reverse) before he sold the’ X to get into (or rather on) motorcycles. When that got old, Brian got the urge to swing back into the Mopar groove. “I know Mopars in and out pretty well,” says Brian, “I looked…

GIVE ME AN “A” MATTHEW CROSSMAN from Vinalhaven, Maine tells us that his dad had an A100 van as a work truck when Matt was growing up. He always liked the truck’s looks and knew one would be hard to find as time marched on. He searched for an A100 off and on over the years, but the ones he found were either too expensive or too far away. Last year, Matt’s finances improved so he searched more seriously for his A-van. This one popped upon Craigslist not far away in Lisbon Falls, Maine. Matt checked it out with a mechanic / bodywork buddy on the coldest day of the year in February—17 degrees and howling wind. There was 4 inches of crusty snow on the ground, but the seller…

THEY’VE PLAYED TAPS several times recently for some heavy hitters in the performance world—Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, king of the street racers “Big Willie” Robinson, Carroll Shelby, and Ralph Kramden. But the guy we personally miss most, and the one we fired off a 21 12-ga. shotgun salute for at 2 a.m. was E.J. Potter, a/k/a the Michigan Madman. Elon Jack Potter didn’t just think outside the box. To him, there was no box. He loved to do stuff that couldn’t be done. His initial claim to fame was mounting a V8 engine sideways in a chain-driven Harley-Davidson motorcycle frame. He had problems getting clutches to stand up to the abuse, so he abandoned clutches completely, starting off by raising the rear wheel on a stand revving up until it was…