They should be able to sit for months at a time as long as they are put away fully charged. Lots of those small batteries are just motorcycle batteries with a fancy label and price tag.

saying those are motorcycle batteries, they probably wouldn't last long if the engine were hard starting ?
EFI would go a long way on that type battery's life, no ?

Looks like it'll be done just in time for SEMA 😆

Finally got the rod shifter installed and working. I designed this last year but couldn't get it built quite right so I asked for some help from a local fab guy. He made a few tweaks to my design and now it works. I think it looks cool. Might not be cool enough for SEMA but it is cool enough for me.

The same guy helped me with the exhaust. It built from a box of 3" mandrel bends. You can't see much of it since it tucks up under the car. The TTI headers hang down a bit so the exhaust has to come down to meet them.

Starting in on the wiring. I'll be able to start the car once I hook up the ignition.

I took some time off over the summer but now I'm starting to get back on the Duster. I have the Pro Dash wired up and it is live. I have it sitting on the cowl for now as I double check things. I haven't seen any cars with a Pro Dash installed yet so it might get some attention around here when I take the car to the local Cars & Coffee.

Love the mix of new and old on this build!

Yeah as it is coming together I'm starting to get some really positive reactions. I had a couple of Mopar guys stop by the other day to buy some parts from me. They just stood and stared at the Duster for a while and tried to wrap their heads around it. They hadn't seen coil packs and MPFI and a digital screen married up with a Direct Connection K frame and a Cordoba radiator and Viper brakes. I'll need to get the car out to some local Mopar shows next year to see what people think.

The coil on plug really throws them for a loop. People immediately assume LS swap, partially because I use LS coils but most just don't expect coil near plug on an old car. I had a gentleman pull me aside at Cordova on drag week 2015 and tell me he really liked my car even though I had put a chevy motor in it haha. I hadn't finished my EFI at that point so it was coil on plug with a carb so it really looked wacky.

The duster is looking great Andy, and that pro dash looks awesome.

Pretty nice job Andy

looking good. how big is that Holley dash ? can't wait to see it in the dash!

The Pro Dash is listed as 12.3 inches but that is diagonal. Here is some info on it: https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/fuel_injection/gauges_and_displays/parts/553-111

Yeah I expect to have some people ask me if it is an LS engine even though the heads say Mopar right on them and it has a stock water pump. But people who only have a general knowledge of cars will probably assume it is a LS engine.

Latest article in Car Craft: https://www.hotrod.com/articles/dustbin-duster-tackle-big-block-body-swap/

I enjoyed the article Andy. Can we get a little more information on the battery you are using and also your shifter rod setup? Thank you.

The battery is just an off the shelf B2618 from Braille. I think I bought it from Summit Racing. The rod shifter is fairly simple. Just a piece of tubing with rod ends on it that was bent into a S shape. It connects the shifter to the linkage on the transmission. The rod takes up a lot less space than a cable but it has to be bent correctly and cut to the correct length. Shouldn't be too difficult for the average chassis guy to make.

Thanks, I think that is a great idea. I will have to research Braille batteries.

Andy, that article says you are running the Mopar version Edelbrock heads but CNC ported. Do they flow as well as the PP240 heads? do you know the port volume?

Thanks!!

I have old Mopar 452 heads on the Duster engine. They were ported by Modern about 15 years ago. I don't think they work as good as out of the box Trick Flow heads and they cost about 3x what TF heads cost.