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| 1972 Dodge Charger Special Edition Mopar Performance 360 Magnum Crate Engine 300 HP TCI A-727 Automatic 8 1/4" Rear with 2:76 Gears Mopar Performance Torsion Bars, and Anti-Sway Bars Koni Adjustable and Monroe Coil-Over Shocks Vintage Set of Cragar Racing Slotted Mags BF Goodrich P235/60 R14 and P295/50 R15 Performance Suspension Technology Polyurethane Suspension Kit Custom Rear Leaf Springs with Added Leaves, Clamps, and Adjustable Shackles MSD Ignition, MSD Ignition Wires, Holley 750 CFM Double-Pumper, Holley Electric Fuel Pump, MP Headers, Trans-Dapt Oil Filter Relocation Kit, K&N Filters, and AutoMeter Monster Tach |
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| Hello, and welcome to my page devoted to my 1972 Dodge Charger Special Edition. This car belonged to my aunt from 1975 until 1990, when she gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday. When I recieved the Charger she was in pretty good shape, needing only to have the master cylinder to be replaced to be driven. The paint was faded and the vinyl top had dried out and was cracking, but for a free car I was thrilled! She had an old set of ET rims and BF Goodrich tires. I loved the way the car looked with the headlight covers down, unfortunately the motor to lift them up and down was shot. The rear tires were bald (love my aunt!) and the chrome was all peeling off the rims, so that was the first to go. A set of Keystone Vortec Rims went on next shod with new BFG's for the rear. Me being a 16 year old, I had to have some tunes. $750 later found me installing a Pioneer tape deck, Kenwood Amp, and a set of MTX Terminator speakers in the back seat. Who needs passengers? After the usual teen-age antics, I blew a front tire on a dirt road, lost control, and put the car into a dirt bank. The fender, valance panel, and my pride were trashed. Lacking any automotive knowledge whatsoever, I was forced to let her sit. I didn't even have a socket set of my own back then. Eight years pass, and my Charger is still sitting with no front end and is on blocks. The rims and tires went to a Toyota 2WD pick up that replaced my Charger as daily transportation (did you know that the bolt patterns were the same?). The necessary body parts had been located during meantime as well as an NOS taillamp lens, all the side markers, a Mopar Performance Electronic Ignition Kit, a new headlamp cover motor, and a set of vintage Crager Racing slotted mags, with new BFG's. Even after sitting for eight years the little 318 still ran like a top. The fender and valance panel that replaced the originals still aren't right, they came off a 1974 Charger parts car, but they work well enough for now. After driving her again, it was obvious that the front end was shot, and would have to be rebuilt. I looked at the polyurethane kits and thought about trying to make the car handle better than stock. Mopar Performance had released the HP torsion bars again, and I thought about that also. Soon the Charger was sitting on a new set of BIG torsion bars and all new suspension. Wider tires all around were installed and we hit the streets again. Tuning suspension for this large of a car turned out to be quite a chore for me, since this was my first time. Eventually I managed to get her to handle better than any cheap GM (Generic Motors) Plasti-car (Corvette). Well, naturally with the way it now handled, the little 318 was getting a workout. I started losing forward gears in the little 904, and finally the engine started knocking rather loudly. |
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| With only first gear left in the transmission, I drove her for a 20 minute trip to my friend's garage at 60 MPH, at redline the whole way. It was a make it, or break it run. Surprisingly, the 318 held together with 130, 000 miles, and a nasty knock. Way to go Mopar! Unfortunately, I fried the headers, some wiring, and just about killed the battery from all the heat. But she made it, and the new engine was on it's way. The engine I had ordered was of course, a new Mopar Performance 300 HP, 360 Magnum Crate Engine. After fighting for about three months with Chrysler to get the engine (does anyone else have trouble getting MP parts from their local dealership???) the 360 Magnum finally came in. What a beautiful engine! This thing looked powerful just sitting in the crate! I had also rebuilt another 904 for her, I would have gone with a 727, but they are getting hard to find around here for a small block. Anyway, out came the beaten and battered little 318, and the totally trashed original 904. New headers, 750 Holley Double-Pumper, Holley fuel pump, MSD ignition, and a lot of blood and sweat went in. Believe it or not, you can still use the old style A/C compressors with the 300 HP version. Well, at least if you don't use a dual feed Holley with the usual chrome fuel inlet lines. There was some interference between the alternator and the head, but other than that it seemed to go together rather well. Of course the new 360's use the same old 340/360 driver's side motor mount bracket, so that had to be obtained from Schumacher Creative Services. New torque converter weights from Mopar Performance had to be welded on to the original converter, and with the usual cursing (I was doing this by myself) the engine dropped in. After doing the finishing touches, she fired up, smoothed out and sounded great! First time out, she made it 2 miles from the garage before spitting out the new 904. I wasn't even running her hard, honest! Something was wrong in that transmission, either something I overlooked (hate that thought) or it was a bad case. It cracked around the pump in two places. Next, I rebuilt the original 904 and put it back in. That worked for about 2 weeks since I babied it around town. Now I have a nice, new, heavy duty, TCI small block A-727 transmission. What we did was took the TCI 727 out of our 383 Duster, since it had cracked the housing. I had my good friend and mentor, Fritz, rebuild it with a mopar Performance Race Overhaul Kit. I would have done it myself, but I had done the two 904's that got chewed up, and I wasn't taking anymore chances. This kit uses some really kewl Kevlar internals, and takes the new Mopar ATF+4 fluid. This stuff can only be bought at a dealer, and cost me almost $50 a case with my employee discount, lol! I hope I never spring a leak with this stuff! The tranny does fine, and shifts hard enough to make the CD player skip! A few other things have found their way onto my Charger. A new set of March aluminum underdrive pulleys from Mopar Performance, an old Mopar oil cooler to cool my power steering pump, and a really kewl, and super cheap transmission cooler. I used my old A/C condenser! Believe it or not, this works great, and how many transmission coolers are the size of your radiator, and for sale dirt cheap in salvage yards across the country? I tested it for a good bit before I really gave it a workout, and it flows good enough, cools better than anything else I have tried. |
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| Anyway, there is good news in the future! It seems that Mopar is bending over backward to make parts for the Magnum engines affordable. Maybe to gain a following in the street ranks? At any rate a 360 Magnum short block will run me around $1,100, and they offer the 300 HP version in 9.5 to 1 compression and a 380 HP version with 10.5 to 1 compression. With the Magnum heads, the 10.5 to 1 becomes an even 11 to 1 squeeze. The catalog lists them both as having the 380 HP version's .512" lift cam, but I think the smaller cam would be in the low compression short block. The last few catalogs have been full of typos since Ma Mopar went to the new catalog fomat, so who knows? I refuse to call the Tech Line to get a BS answer off the top of their heads. Anyway plans now are for the high comp. short block, the single plane intake, windage tray, roller rockers, and some new lifters. That should give me a better than stock 380 horse engine. Other additions will be some homemade oil pan baffles, an oil accumulator tank, Auto Meter Pro-Comp Liquid Filled oil pressure gauge, Auto Meter 15 PSI oil pressure warning light, a 7 PSI ignition cut off switch and braided lines to plumb it all. This may seem like oil system overkill, but to me it's cheap insurance. Future plans include: new 16 inch front rims, and 17 inch rears, BFG Comp T/A tires, Magnum Force Racing tubular upper control arms, adjustable Konis for the rear, and I have found a wing that I think will work. It's based on the airfoil wings used by dually trucks with fith wheel trailers. I think it will look outrageous and suit the car perfectly! A 6 speed tranny would be nice and a roll cage with racing buket seats would be nice additions too. I'm also concidering having the paint and bodywork done. The pics look pretty good, but the car is actually all done with spray paint, and a lot of buffing to make it look good. I would like to do the front end in fiberglass also, but I can't find anyone that makes a fiberglass power bulge hood. Hopefully after it's all done (are they ever done?) I'll enter her in races like Car And Driver's One Lap Of America and some other road races. Sponsors anyone? Well, it's been a while since I have updated this page, but there really hasn't been much going on with the Charger these days. The engine is still out, and I am waiting to get my tax return to finance the rebuild. I haven't done much other than update a few of the parts while hiding from the snow and cold. I made a lot of flow improvements to the oil filter relocation kit, and modified the Mopar Performance electronic distributor for quicker advance. I also put on a Grant GT steering wheel that is much smaller then the factory one. I originally bought this for the Charger after it was wrecked but hated the small size back then. Now that I'm older (and bigger) the smaller steering wheel appeals to me. It was in sad shape after sitting around all those years, so I repainted it and stuck a ram hood ornament off a Dodge Grand Caravan and now it looks more like a part of the car. I've been looking at fuel injection setups lately, and have decided that is the way I have to go in the future. The 750 Double-Pumper is good for performance, but in a tight turn the jets get uncovered and it causes some problems. I've ruled out Holley Projection, as I have heard nothing but bad things about it and I don't really want a TBI system. MoTec makes some nice racing engine controllers, but are really pricey. I've also looked at Haltech and Electromotive, but I think the way to go is Rance Fuel Injection. They seem to have a good product, and a lot of hot rodders are using them. I like the idea of a fully tuneable port injection system rather than the TBI and modified stock set ups. It's also good that you can send them your intake manifold for them to modify for the EFI system. Someone to call with questions is always a big plus also. I'm still looking at the One Lap idea, but I doubt I will get into SCCA racing. Chrysler has pulled their sponsorship of the SCCA because they tried to short change Mopars racers the way NASCAR did in the 70's. I'll never under stand why when a Mopar wins races, the sanctioning body feels that the rules need to be changed. Oh well, time to get off my soap box. Eventually I think I will have to split this page into two pages. This one is getting rather full and I know takes a bit of time to load. Maybe after the engine build I will come back with some pics of the engine and so forth and redesign this part of the site. As always, suggestions are welcome. Also, if you are feeling generous, or maybe just a little frivolous, check out my 88 Ram page. I really need this truck to go to a good home, and the cash would certainly help my Charger project. How does the name Charger GTS-E sound? It is an SE, and with the handling mods it could take a little from the Viper GTS coupe. I think I'll check into having some decals made. It's something different, and more than a little eye catching. Besides, with all the modifications and changes, it's really not a stock Charger anymore. Hmmmm, now about that Viper 6 speed... Thanks again for visiting, Elwenil |
| Ok, here's the new news. The first set of tires are gone, and have been replaced by the same style and size. Appearantly, some idiot thought my car would be faster if he stuck a knife in the side of both my passenger side tires. Needless to say, I was quite angry, and he got an all expenses paid trip to the luxurious, Clifton Forge City Jail. With about twenty miles on the new BFGs, smoke started pouring out from under the car, and I was rather alarmed. I was already pulling into the local Covington Fisher Auto Parts store when it happened. Upon opening the hood, I saw that the smoke was coming from the passenger side header. One blink later, the header flamed up, and the engine caught fire. Ok, at this point I was running around in circles screaming as visions of my precious Charger going up in flames ran through my head. Enter friend, and former boss, James Vest, who reminded me that the delivery trucks have fire extinguishers in them. I got my emotions under control and put the fire out. No problem. The fire burned the oil that had soaked into the header wrap. You have to be careful with that stuff, as it will burn any liquid fuel like it's an oil lamp. It doesn't really hurt anything, but it will burn like a lamp wick for a long time, which will hurt something. Where did the oil come from you ask? Why the TD Performance Products oil filter relocation kit, of course. Now I'm not knocking TD, but this the second set of hoses that have let go on me. If you are going to use one of these, buy the nice expensive braided hoses. I did, and they look terrific, but they cost me $150, so they should. Ok, next problem. When installing the Aeroquip Braided Lines, I stripped out the oil filter adaptor. So, it's another $10 part that needs to be replaced. Ok, after replacing the oil lines and the adaptor, she fired up and ran great. It was cold, so I left her running after pulling her out of the garage. I went back inside to chat with a friend who was replacing the plugs in his Chevelle, when the engine died. No big surprise when it's 30 some degrees outside and my 750 Holley has no choke. Ok, I start her back up. I shut the door and made it to the fender before she died again. When I tried to start her again, she wouldn't even turn over. Dead battery? Nope. Bad starter? Maybe. The next day I put a new starter on. Same thing, she will engage, but can't crank the engine. Also, I somehow managed to break the SFI approved flexplate. The engine is for all intents and purposes, seized. Go figure. With just over 700 miles, never been over revved, never lost oil pressure. Needless to say, I placed a call to Chrysler. I'll just have to wait and see what happens now. According to the Mopar Performance catalog, no parts with the "P" prefix have any warranty, but this engine came with warranty papers. Warranty papers for an engine that isn't even supposed to be street legal? Yeah, that's what I thought, but I plan to find out what the deal is. I love Chrysler, and have spent thousands of dollars on their products, but if this isn't straightened out, I will be very ticked off. This engine was close to three months late coming in anyway. I can't help but wonder if it was a rush job and someone screwed something up. As I said, I will just have to see what happens. Ok, as of Friday, November 5th, Chrysler's Parts Representative for this district, wants one of the technicians from my local dealer to look at the engine. So far, so good. The technician will probably be my friend, Fritz, as he knows what is in the car, and I trust him more than I would anyone else. Chrysler hasn't said that they are going to repair or replace my engine, but they are at least curious to see why it seized up. I think that they might help me out. I know they don't have to, but I'm a big fan, and more importantly, a big customer! So, now it's back to waiting to see what will happen. Well, as of December 14th, the story is like this. My 360 Magnum has spun a main bearing and is basically a $3,300 boat anchor. After having the Charger towed to my garage out in BFE, I pulled the 360 out to take it back to the dealership where I bought it. The Mopar Parts Representative wanted one of the technicians to tear it down and see what happened to it. It just so happens that the technician was my good friend, Fritz, who also built the transmission for the car. According to Fritz (and I trust him more than anyone in these matters) the oil line blowing caused a loss of pressure to the number 5 main bearing. This is naturally the the bearing whose cap actually mounts the oil pump and therefore probably get oil (or lack of it) first. Now I've run engines with no oil pressure for miles without any real damage but it looks like the combination of close tolerances and soft bearings are the reason for it costing me my engine. No one at Mopar Performance can say for sure, but I think the bearings are of the super soft Babbit variety. I must say that even though Mopar didn't have to help me any, they seemed to go out of their way to give me the benefit of the doubt. I should also thank Andy, Fritz, and Jeff at Dressler Motors Inc. in Covington for all their help, as well as Bill Jr. for not raising to much hell about what we were doing. The only complaint I really have from all of this is the Mopar Performance Tech Line. These guys know a lot of stuff, but I wish they would double check what they tell you before opening their mouth. They don't have a lot of knowledge about what goes into the crate engines. Hell, they had me convinced that my engine already had a baffled pan and windage tray from the factory. NOT! Hey, guys?!?! Are you listening?!?! |
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| Click here to see a list of all my Charger's factory options and a scan of my Charger's actual factory Broadcast Sheet. |
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