I am new to this forum. My car is a 1969 Roadrunner, 383 cu / 727 column shift / numbers matching / stock wheels and tires / stock exhaust w/ ol cherry bombs / a nice quality driver which has some motor work done like a Holley street avenger 670 cfm carb, Edlebrock RPM 383 Manifold, a Comp Cam 21-223-4 Grind #CRB XE268H-10,

Engine was rebuilt with new valve guides milled and machined heads and rods.

THE QUESTION:

What comes first in prioritizing what should be done so it makes sense?

Part A - Suspension Wheels and Tires

1)Torque Thruster Wheels and Tires - bigger and fatter
2)Possible disc break upgrade from a 75 Volare(I heard that works)
3)Some Hotchkiss suspension parts, and /or coil overs and beefier tortion bars. Need car to have a better stance, but not too low for normal roads.

What should be done first?


Part B. Motor


1) Hooker 5101-01 Ceramic Headers
2) New Stainless custom exhaust + mufflers
3) Possibly Stealth Heads Kit
4) Possibly Go Nutz and do a Dyer's Blower Kit and really irritate my neighborhood

In items 1,2,3, I see it working out fine.

if someone else did the stealth heads yet on a 383 so let me know cause that is my big hesitation. Dyer's blower looks great on my friends car + wheelies.

Mostly car will be driving in a straight line as roads out here are like that. I'd like it with 475 - 550 usable horsepower all motor so stealth heads seem like a great idea, and like to be able to do low - mid 12 sec or better. with a blower and good tires high 10's.

Any advice on my priority on my resto-mod appreciated.

If I was you I would find a good 400 block and make a new motor instead of taking a chance on ruining the numbers matching block Now if you do that start with a 512 C.I. stroker kit, a good set of heads, not the Stealth heads unless you have them fully CNC ported by a good shop Big motors need big heads, cam, carburetor and headers BTW, 475 to 550 hp is not hard to do with the right parts and assembled correctly That small carb. will limit the hp and torque so forget about that on a stroker motor, think 950 HP or larger really As far as the chassis you need to work on the rear suspension so it will hook up real hard and not spin the tires, maybe move the springs into the subframes and get a extra set of wheels and really sticky street tires to race it on only and a harder set of tires on a identical set of rims for regular driving Disc brakes are a really good upgrade, especially in a car that will run 125MPH+ in the quarter mile As far as a GMC type blower sticking thru the hood, how you going to get someone to race you besides your friend with the other blown car NOS will work as good as the blower and it is a lot easier to hide than the blower thru the hood is My 3400 lb Duster(with me in it) runs 10:34 at 128.6 MPH with the exhaust and air cleaner on, no power adders
other than the 518 C.I. low deck pump gas six pak stroker motor Your Road Runner may be a little heavier than my Duster, maybe not

If I had a nice driver numbers car, I think I would build a race car and keep this one pretty much as is.

Chech in at www.69roadrunner.net

Thanks - Your Duster sounds like the beast from Hell-

I already had that idea about pulling numbers matching block and throwing in a race motor.

The main thing I am really confused about is suspension and disc brake upgrade when moving to a larger wheel and tire set up.

I do not know which comes first the larger wheels and tires and then brakes and suspension? I am not sure which order is best to proceed with first. I am also not strong in knowledge in this area, just reading tons of things lately and trying to get a few ideas.

My uncle said the same ting about keeping it all stock (and I have all the stock parts still nicely preserved and 3 binders of all records).

My line of thought is this. When I see a car at auction like mine and the car has been resto-modded to a degree putting in the items + muscle (which would have been desirable had that tech been available) these cars bring just as good of money as an all orig un-restored or restored frame on.

So if my car is worth say 19K-20K now and I drive it 50 miles a week I just wanna get my 20K out of it in street-jollies.

The idea being that this car was made to do crazy stunts and puttering around in it is no fun.

When I drive a car I drive it like I mean it... The scarier the better too. My uncle likes to lolly-gag around drive a car so I think he doesn't understand how much fun these cars were meant to be.

If I break even or loose a couple bucks 10 years from now, I always say that is for the fun I got out of it. Just like my ol 69 SS camaro 25 years ago.

Your point is well-taken. My uncle and I go back and forth on it. Then I show him a resto-mod mopar going off at BJ for 40-50K like mine and he kinda shruggs his shoulders.

I have a 69 RR 383 car so I will chime in.


First comes the brakes. Consider a Wilwood set-up for the front. The rear 10x2.5 drums in back should be fine for a long time, just make sure the linings and hardware are good.

Next comes the suspension and steering. Two directions to take. Straight line or road? Replace front strut rods with RMS chassis parts. (see bigblockdart.com)

Look towards firmfeel.com for additional suspension components if it's for road.

Cal-tracs if straight line.

Leave the HiPo manifolds if it stays on the street. Call TTi for 3" head pipes to go with the manifolds. Dump the cherry bombs. Get some bullets or spin-techs and a full length exhaust.

Leave the engine alone and buy the blower with alcohol/watertion kit. Upgrade the cooling with a radiator from USradiator.com to handle the additional heat.

Install the blower and you won't need the headers and heads to achieve your goal. You may need to beef-up the trans and diff.

If you insist on pain in the ass headers then consider hedman or TTi. Those manifolds will flow 550 HP....without the leaks, burnt wires, noise, or excessive heat in the engine compartment.

If you want heads then consider RPM's or a set of stealth's that have been upgraded. Your 906's will make 550hp with that blower...easily. Make sure you have good head bolts and quality head gaskets.

Thesuperchargerstore.com has a nice blower for ya.
http://www.thesuperchargerstore.com/products.html

I wouldn't sweat the numbers matching block. It's not a Hemi, or a GTX. If your concerned about #'s then you best save every part that comes off the car.

When you get around to upgrading the suspension use rubber. Forget about the polyurathane crap.

Perfect Answer "Mopar Teacher" - Thanks - Exactly what I needed today - What a load off my mind. Now I can make a sound plan -

I really appreciate all the advice and help from everyone else too.

I did bookmark that roadrunner.net forum link too from the other member.

I have seen racey 69 RR's go for 10-15K many many times in the last 5 years. I would think you could have the two cars for what this one will cost to mod like you want. BJ is a circus show, complete with illusions so take it with a grain of salt.

Alot of this comes down to how much you are looking to spend and just how well that 383 was rebuilt last time. If you are not really sure about it I would certianly not be throwing a blower at it or even a head/cam change. Alot of the things mentioned here are quite expensive and I would not do any of them on the engine side unless I was sure I had a really good short block. I have been piecing mine together for 10 years as money would allow and have gotten quite lucky with my numbers block. I eventually just decided to get another block and work on that engine as money was available and quit piece-mealing my numbers 383.
As a point of reference I got my car to run 13.2 at 106mph with the 383 and home ported 906 heads/headers/rpm intake/750 double pumper then I slapped on my edelbrocks and ran 13.1 at 106.8 so unless you stroke it or put on a blower I don't think you will gain much from putting stealths on a mostly stock 383 shortblock.
Of course it is always smarter to make sure you have good brakes and a solid suspension before you go throwing lots of hp at it so that is where you should focus. Not sure what size wheels you are looking at but I have 17" on mine that allow me to go to 13" brakes which are quite a step up from the 11" stock type. But even the 11" ones are better than drums for repeat use. About 1" tbars, sway bars front and rear and subframe connectors are all great things. I also put on tubular a-arms which gave me good front end alignment specs. Firm Feel makes most of this stuff and it is good quality stuff. In the end my RR feels like it handles very well and soon it will have more hp without the concern of blowing up a numbers matching shady rebuilt short block. Good luck with yours.
Todd