The front spring hanger boxes that were on the car were thin and hacked up so I built some new ones from 0.188 steel and had the chassis shop install them. Here is a before and after.

Here is a better shot of the front chassis work showing the under fender bracing as well as the new core support.

I decided to see how things will fit together when using a DC type K frame rather than a motor plate. If this all lines up okay then I think I'll go this way. Need to see how everything fits but I like the old DC setup when using internal oiling.

Got some more parts hung on the engine. So far so good.

Looking great Andy !

The Pro Dash showed up. Now I just need to figure out how to get it mounted. It is pretty big when compared to the stock instrument cluster.

Got some more parts for the Duster today. A Milodon road race oil and a big anti-sway bar for the front from Hellwig. Both of these parts should help me on the street although the anti-sway bar might cost me a bit at the track.

Keep em coming Andy !

If you are running cal tracs with the solid bushings in the front you will probably find you don't need the front sway bar. I was very surprised at how much the solid spring eye bushings killed body roll when I put them on ages ago. My car doesn't have much body roll with cal-tac monos, /6 bars, and no sway bars. On drag week this year we went through lots and lots of sharp and curvy mountain roads. My car sits at about 4000-4100lbs on the road for drag week(gear plus passenger) and handling was of very little concern, I think the spool and skinny fronts run out of talent before body roll can become an issue. Just an FYI if you want to save the weight.

Are you installing a rear sway bar that is proportional to the new front sway bar?

Motor mounts? No motor plate?

I do not intend to add a rear sway bar. Yes on the motor mounts. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to switch over to the DC type K frame with spool mounts and not use the motor plate. I have some other things that I want to do in the engine compartment that won't work with a motor plate so I'm making the switch.

I hadn't thought of that. I'll keep on eye on how the rear bushings make the car feel.

Andy: You seem to have a great deal more header clearance than i do on the passenger side.
I'm using your motor plate , RB block, TTI that appear the same as yours and i set up with a bar as you have shown- even popped a centerline on the floor and checked with plumb bob- number 4 header tube almost touches the shock mount- did i get something wrong or is this pretty normal?

For the life of me I haven't figured out how to post pics.

Thanks for any info.

I'm no A body expert but it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the sheetmetal location is different between various years and models.

TTI has the engine location on their website. They'll tell you where the center of the crank should be side to side and up and down. Best thing you can do is put the engine where TTI wants it and then just deal with any problems that pop up.

I've sold the 2 1/8 headers and I'm switching to 1 3/4 headers. The 2 1/8 headers physically fit on my car but they required a very time intensive process of installing and removing. For example, it required a couple of days of work to change the starter.

On my car given my tools the only way to remove or install the headers was to remove the K frame. So the car had to go up in the air and then the suspension and steering had to be pulled away so the K frame could be removed. Once the K frame was off the car then the headers went in and out with 5 minutes of work. TTI says the headers can be removed or installed from below if the car is on a two post lift. I don't have a two post lift so I had to pull the K frame. I came to the conclusion that I didn't need the big headers for what I was doing with the car.

Thanks Andy.
These are 2” headers and it’s straight as an arrow from crank crank centerline to rearend pinion nut .

Pretty tight on header opening on passenger side trans mount as well but I think part of that is the mount bushing is new ( red poly ) and seems to have pushed trans up a little higher than the bushing I mocked up with - lesson ?
Mock up with exactly what your using- grin.

Next : will you be selling those front spring hangers in the future?

Thanks.

I could make more of the front spring hanger boxes but there are several folks who already make them so it doesn't seem like a big winner for me to make them too. US Car Tool has some heavy duty spring hanger boxes and so do some other places.

The ones I made for my car were out of 0.188 steel so they are really stout. Probably thicker than they should be since the frame rail is a lot thinner than that. If I was going to make more of them I'd drop it down to 10 ga or maybe even 12 gauge so they would weld to the frame rail easier.

Rusty, Andy’s motor is a low deck........ so it will have more header clearance than your RB.

Looking at the picture of your engine sitting there ready to install; noticed you had coil on plug. What would it cost to change a regular engine over to this set up and would there be any benefit/gain for a mostly street w occasional strip use?

Coil on plug is just a natural evolution once you have multi-port fuel injection. The computer already has the ability to run COP so why not use it. COP solves a bunch of issues but it does create a few more. The OEM's have all gone to COP to get rid of the mechanical distributor and to get rid of long spark plug wires. On a race engine COP is nice since it allows you to adjust the timing for each cylinder. Also, really high HP engines need either COP or a mag in order to have enough energy to fire the coils.

Awesome work as always Andy.
Just a thought, you may want to add that fresh air vent back to the battery box side if you are still going to run the battery up front. It will help to keep the battery temp down a little with summer street driving.