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I started having heart issues in my forties and tried to do everything the doctor said but there were days when I didn’t make an appointment or didn’t eat what I was supposed to and the wife would raise hell. But then one day she was chewing me out for something and then she stopped and she said you’re gonna live forever anyhow, it’s the good that die young. And I didn’t hear anything after that…

 

Took the Dart for a test drive. Slight high speed miss, I’ll change plugs. My son took a video but we’re having trouble uploading to my You tube channel. Pulled good for having 2.93:1 rear gears. Hopefully a video to follow or we will re shoot tomorrow morning.
Dan

 

!!

 

Finally got the video done.


April 5, 2026

Dan

 

A few hours later
OK a few minutes later.
April 5, 2026

 

Sorry for the poor quality video and sound, everything got compressed during transfer.
Dan

 

Also thanks to my son Nic for running the camera and being my co-pilot!
Dan

 

WHOO-HOO it lives!!

 

Our road is pretty rough, needs graded, tools and fire ex laying on floor along with no windshield and window open made a lot of noise
Dan

 

Awesome joy ride! Glad for you.

 

Great to see you finally got a chance to take it out for a run!

 

The first thing I thought was "Why is he driving it in Illinois? That road looks pretty rough."
Thanks for taking us along! It looks like it might be fun on a smoother road.
That ride may put a huge fire under your **** to get it finished now.

 

Congrats! After a few more adjustments, once things are settled in, recheck the 'kickdown' adjustment.

oh, and
We got two honkies out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants

 

Need to do some fine tuning on the ignition, carb, kick down. I’ll change the plugs also. I’ll be out of town- picking up a car in Florida for a friend. Then hopefully get windshield, hood, interior and wiring done.
It’ll be quieter with windshield and interior installed.
Dan

 

Our road is rough, needs graded. When I get it legal I’ll take on a road trip. Hopefully I’ll get better video and sound. Actually sounds better than the video. Our gravel road is fun the Dart tried to get sideways a few times. I was impressed with the manual steering easy to steer and control.
Dan

 

My experience tells me the the only times manual steering becomes a problem when you are trying to park the car and its moving slow or not at all. That issue can get worse as the front tires get wider, there is more weight added to the front end, or someone replaces the original steering wheel to one with a smaller diameter. When some people ignore greasing the front suspension and steering components, the steering can get more difficult as well.
A larger diameter steering wheel can improve the effort to steer the car when parking, but sometimes clearance around a larger diameter steering wheel doesn't work.

 

Actually it steers easy when parking, I won’t any wider tires on the front, so should be good.
Dan

 

Sounds great! Very well done. I look forward to seeing you at Lloyd's.

 

Got a lot to do on before Lloydsfest, time to get off my ****.
Dan

 

Thanks
See ya soon.
Dan

 

Congratulations on the successful test drive, always a great moment, it's going to be a great car.
Regards, Harald

 

Thanks, needs a lot of work yet
Dan

 

Looking at cams
Hughes Whiplash 318 for low compression
WARNING: Our Whiplash cam is designed for basically stock, low compression engines. This cam will run on pump gas in a 318 with 8.6:1 or less compression and iron heads. If your compression is higher than this you may need to use a higher octane race fuel. Your vacuum should be in the 9"-11" range using this cam.
(Figures calculated using stock stroke & compression at 750' al***ude.)





Basic guidelines (These are not absolutes, just guidelines to help you get close on a cam choice)
Use: Street and some strip
Idle: Like it wants to bite your head off! Very aggressive
Vacuum: Low
Converter: Stock or a mild stall
Rear gear: Stock or up to 3.55
Benefits: Tons of low end torque and a super aggressive idle that scares Mustangs, Camaros and rice burners from even thinking about messing with you.

Mopar experts or anyone’s thoughts
Dan

 

I used a cam very similar in the original 289 in my Fairlane. With some mild port work headers, Edelbrock performer, RPM intake and a 600 VS Holley, my 64 ran 14.00 @ 99 mph in drive. I think it would work great for a 318.

 

I haven’t watched this particular vid, but might be worth watching.

 

I ran the big purple shaft Mopar cam in my 340. 292 509 advertised.
It was a throwback engine, more compression (10.5), more cam as noted and more carb (tunnel ram and 2 4bbls). It was in an A body 4 speed. It was not happy below 1800 when you stomped on it, but above that it went. I was able to get 11 inches of vacuum at ~1000 RPM, but it took more base timing and a fine tuning of the carbs. Both of those cams are split straddling the lift but with a lot less duration. Much more modern design and aggressive ramps.
It might be a bit much, but don't have experience with ones like that. Had a friend who ran SBMs 360 up to a 416 in compe***ion (sand drags and 1/4 mile) and swore by Hughes. His experience was also not a street 318. They were very helpful on the tech line. Ask about your weight, converter, gearing and intake/exhaust, along with lifter life. The increased exhaust lift will favor your exhaust manifold limitations. Converter choice will play a big part in making it streetable.

 

Good video, learned a couple things
Dan

 

I forgot about the converter in my Fairlane, with the stock converter it drove just fine and you wouldn’t say it needed more stall but I had a JW that the 289 would stall around 2900 and when I swapped it in the car went from 14.38 to 14.0s even though it pulled off idle well. Now I’m one of those guys that tune for the hit so I don’t bring it up on the converter, I bring it up to 1000 rpm and then hit it were I need to to get the light. This gives the suspension a hit allowing it to work, if I didn’t do this on my Plymouth I would have traction issues and the Ford had street tires on it.
The funny thing about running the Fairlane was I set it up to run in drive so my 16 year old daughter could run it and she did for three years until college was in the way, she was a tenth quicker than I was.

 

X2!!

 

It have the low stall speed converter now 1800rpm, there is a factory high stall converter 2000 rpm. The 904 is lock up converter transmission My understanding is that I cannot run a non lock up converter without transmission mods. I would like a little higher stall, I will be installing a Ford 8.8 with 3.55:1 gears. That alone should liven things up.
Dan