A stock car flaming with a loser at the cruise control!

This is my new project,it is a little outside the box for me. I saw it for sale here on Moparts, and the seller was more than fair with me on it. I was going to get a used Hellcat Challenger and sell off a bunch of my project cars, but then I saw this car and I had to buy it. I have this sick plan to drive a Hemi powered fuel injected stock car on the street!

I saw the car here on Moparts, and the following weekend it was on my trailer! I jumped in my truck on Saturday went to Virginia, and the car was in my garage on Monday! The wife was my co pilot! We got to visit with family in DC too! It was an awesome trip!

The car is a 1970 Charger R/T body on a modern Loughlin style Nascar chassis,with a Dayclona areo body kit. The car came with tons of new parts, including an ATL fuel cell, a Tremic 5 speed, a hydraulic clutch throw out bearing kit, Brembo 4 wheel disc brakes, and a full floating 9 inch rear axle.

I was told that the chassis was built in a Nascar fab shop,whoever built the chassis was an amazing fabricator. Everything is tig welded, but unfortunately one of the previous owners was trying to turn it into a Fast and Furious wannabe and they butchered the fenders,doors and hood. They also cut and distorted the rear window plug trying to put flush glass in the car. I will probably have to cut the rear window plug out and build a new one. Who ever did this was not the same person who built the chassis. I have been undoing all of the hack work that was done by this guy. He made the hood so that there is one large depression instead of two like the factory Charger hood. He gaffed the fenders and doors up by cutting and welding all over them with no rhyme or reason.

I was able to locate a drivers side NOS door skin,so I was able to fix the drivers side door.

I got the door finished and on the car, I also test fitted the painted racing mirror too!

These cool steel door panels were in the car when I got it. They bead rolled them to look like stock Charger door panels. I have to drill them for window cranks and inside door handles. I want working glass and doors that open like a stock Charger. I had a nice Texas rust free door for the passengers side.

I fitted a 70 Charger dash frame into the car, I had to modify it to fit around the roll cage. The tube that comes up from the floor to the crash bar behind the dash fit right in the hole for the ash tray! I couldn't have planned that if I tried! I welded up the speaker and defrost holes in the dash!

The previous owner was going to build a tube frame to mount the fenders and the nosecone assembly, but I decided to go with a stock 26 inch radiator support, because the whole nosecone assembly was designed to fit that radiator support. I couldn't believe how well it fit! All I had to do was cut the lower corners off of it and it dropped in like it was made for it. The inner gussets of the stock radiator support fit perfectly! They made the frame rails the same width as the factory frame rails!

By going with a stock 26 inch radiator support, I can mount the fenders like they were done at the factory. I had to modify the fenders to clear the rocker panels. This car has a full frame so the rockers are extended further forward than a stock Charger.

More pics

This is the other side.

The modification like the other side.

I also had to modify the 70 Charger fender to accept the Daytona front valence pan.

Unfortunately the original owner of this project decided that it was a good idea to cut up an original 70 Charger R/T to build this car. It is not something I would have done, but it was done in 2003. Now a days a project like this could be constructed from AMD body panels and not have to sacrifice an original Charger to do so! Especially an original R/T! I will add more pictures tomorrow of my project. We will get into the engine next!

This is my 472 Hemi engine that I bought in 2005. It is a Cummins built crate Hemi engine. I have never run the engine, but the dyno sheet that came with the engine said that it made 531 hp. These engines were plagued with issues so I have always planned to have an engine shop go through it before I used it. It was going to go in my 70 Charger R/T SE before I bought the stock car. I bought another Hemi short block that will be rebuilt and installed in the Charger so it will get a Hemi too. I bought the Edelbrock 705 horsepower top end kit for the 472 Hemi, and the top end from the 472 Hemi will go on the 426 Hemi short block, so everything I remove from the 472 will be used for the 426.

The 426 short block

The top end kit

The roller lifters don't come with the kit,neither do the push rods,rocker arm assemblies, or adjuster studs. I also bought a Milodon stroker windage tray, because crate Hemi engines don't have one. I believe they are a must to insure top end oiling which is critical to a Hemi's survival.

I ordered the Fitech dual quad fuel injection system for the car.

More pics

Some pictures of mockup of the front fenders.

Mockup pictures of the nosecone assembly on the car.

More pics

I had a guy who was parting out a 4 door B body cut the upper part of the inner front fenders out for me. I decided to go with stock upper inner front fenders so I can bolt the fenders and the hood on the car like a stock Charger. I will have to fabricate inner fender lower sections to attach the inner fenders to the Loughlin chassis. I will make bolt on bead rolled steel panels so they can be removed to work on the car. I figured that I would need to cut the upper inner front fenders up to fit around the crash bars, but all that was needed to make them fit was a half round notch in the lower step area! I can't believe how well the stock Charger pieces are fitting! I am starting to think that I may know what the heck I am doing here!

I will have to fabricate inner fender sections to connect from the back edges of the factory inner fenders to the top of the cowl, firewall, and frame. The firewall is set back almost a foot from a stock B body. This allows the engine to sit lower and further back in the chassis for a better center of gravity.

Just minimal notching was required to make them fit! I will be able to bolt a stock Charger hood on it too! Part of what I am trying to accomplish with the project is to put as much Charger back into the stock car as I can, while still maintaining the cars purpose!

I have decided to call this project NASTONA. Take one NAScar chassis,add one NASTy Hemi,and one dayTONA Charger body and you get NASTONA.

I will be following your progress.

Looks like great progress so far.

Enjoy!

Red

I'm picking away at it. I dug out a pair of hood hinges yesterday for the car. I also have to check the inner front fenders for tire clearance. I may have to mini tub them,I am hoping there is enough room for the hinges to collapse if I have to tub them. I am also considering going with air ride instead of the coil springs. I may setup the car to use air ride on the street and be able to switch back to the coil springs for track use. The TTI headers should arrive sometime this week.

I like where this is going.

Very cool!

Cool stuff. Have you set any performance goals or a 'performance profile' for the build?

HP?
Gearing?

Just wondering if a shredding stoplight bruiser is the focus or perhaps hitting 200mph +

According to Edelbrock the top end kit for the Hemi made 705 horsepower on a 426 Hemi short block with a 750 Holley carb and headers. My engine being a 472 stroker Hemi, with the Fitech dual quad fuel injection system,I am hoping that it will dyno at somewhere between 750 and 800 horsepower at the flywheel. The dyno will tell the truth. As far as the rest of the driveline goes,I have been told that the Tremic TKO 5 speed may not hold up to my engines output, so I am thinking of going with the Tremic 6 speed transmission. With the double overdrive 200 plus MPH should be obtainable. The rear axle is a full floating 9 inch so any gear ratio is possible, and can be swapped in easily in about 15 minutes! The rear wheels don't have to come off the change out the rear axle chuck. What I hope to achieve with this build is to have an aero car that can be adapted to whatever type of racing or driving I want to do with it,be it autocross,circle track, top speed trials, or limited street and cruise duties.

I worked on the hood hinges last night. I was going to go with aftermarket billet hood hinges, but because of the crash bars they will not fit. So I modified a pair of factory hinges, and the will fit perfectly. I had to remove the hinge springs and the areas that the springs were attached to get the clearance needed so the hinges could collapse correctly next to the crash bars. I will have to use a prop rod to hold the hood up when it is open. I did the same thing on my 71 Challenger convertible, which has a fiberglass Challenger T/A hood on it. I used a piece of half inch electrical conduit, it slips right over the factory hood pin. I drilled a hole in the conduit so the hood pin clip fits through the conduit to secure it to the car. I had to put a bend in the conduit, then I put another hood pin in the top end of the conduit. I drilled through the conduit and the hood pin and secured it with a cotter pin. The hood pin can then be installed in the hood pin hole in the hood,and then secured with another hood pin clip. This setup works well on my Challenger.

More pics

More

Well, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that my $1200.00 headers are MIA. UPS is saying that they delivered them and left them by my side door, but I don't have a side door, so I don't know where they delivered them to, but it wasn't me. I am not going to say what vendor I bought them from, as they are trying to find out what happened to them! I hope to hear more from them soon! The good news is that the R/T door scoops that I bought from a fellow Moparts member came in today, and they are really nice as described by him. I was cleaning out my closet the other day and I found a brand new pair of emblems for them that I had bought years ago! Score!

Looks exciting!
Totally awesome project!!

I was able to locate my missing TTI headers on Craigslist! It seems that due to a one digit typo on the shipping address,they were delivered to the only rental property in my neighborhood! After a few phone calls where I exchanged pleasantries with them,they said that a guy that helped them move out last weekend took them! They were returned to me tonight!

Here they are! The $1200.00 TTI headers I thought I would never see again!

No introduction is necessary for the detective who solved the case of the Hot Hemi Headers, Lt Columbo!

Interesting build. Keep up the good work.

Should you ever find out that you are missing any expensive car parts that you have ordered, and the company you ordered them from says that they delivered them, then check your local Craigslist ads,and you may be surprised at what you can find!

I picked up some sheet metal to make the lower sections of the inner front fenders for the stock car. I have not purchased any sheet metal in a while, and I was surprised how expensive it was. It was forty bucks a sheet for a 3 by 4 piece of 18 guage. I think I remember paying about half that the last time I bought some. I bought two pieces of sheet metal, and some glazing putty, and it cost $120.00!

Here is the sheet metal, and some thin cardboard to make the templates from. I hope to get started fabricating the inner front fenders soon!

I got the Daytona stock car up on the lift. Here are some pictures of the underside of the car.

More pics.

A few more pictures.

I have not updated this thread in a while, but I finally got back to work on the racecar. I spoke with my engine builder and he said that he could take the Hemi after Thanksgiving so I got it pulled out of the yellow 70 Charger R/T SE last night. Because of the known issues that the Mopar Performance crate Hemi engines from the era,I have always planned to have a machine shop go through the engine before running it. My friend has two 472 Hemi crate engines from Cummins, and both of them had issues. The first one had the wrong head gaskets on it,the rear main seal was installed backwards, and the rocker arm adjustment studs were over hardened causing them to be brittle, and three of them broke. His second 472 Hemi crate engine lunched the camshaft due to a batch of improperly hardened camshafts from Comp Cams. I bought my engine in 2004,and I have not run it yet. I have no way of knowing if my engine has any of the issues that my friends engines had, or if it has one of the improperly hardened camshafts in it. My friends engine that lunched the camshaft was still under warranty, so Cummins rebuilt it and sent it back to him and it has been fine since. Because I never ran my engine, the warranty is long over so if it were to fail it would be on me. Now that I am using the engine for the racecar, and I am using the Edelbrock 705 horsepower top end kit,this should take care of most of the issues that Cummins built Hemi engines from the era had. I will probably have to swap out the 9 to 1 compression pistons as well to make the horsepower that I am looking for.

After pulling the Hemi engine out, I started to disassemble the top end of the engine. So far, everything looks good, and the parts appear to be quality parts. But as I stated, I have no way of knowing if my engine has one of the improperly hardened camshafts in it. The camshaft is not showing any improper wear,but the engine has only 6 hours of run time on it by Cummins on their dyno. My friends engine passed the Cummins dyno test,and the camshaft failed shortly after the engine was installed in the car.

Now that I bought the Edelbrock 705 Horsepower Top End Kit, I will be using the cast iron Hemi heads on the 426 Hemi short block that I bought last year. This 426 Hemi engine will be going into the yellow 70 Charger R/T SE. I had planned to upgrade the 472 Hemi engine, so I bought an Indy mod man intake, and a camshaft and lifters matched to work with the intake manifold, dual Carter carbs, and TTI headers. All of these parts will be used to build the 426 Hemi engine.

When I get the 472 Hemi engine back from the machine shop, it will be broken in and tuned with the Fitech dual quad fuel injection system on it. I will have dyno numbers in hand when it is completed. The engine should be 100 percent and should run good and should stay in tune,with the roller cam and the fuel injection system. I am planning on bolting the cast iron Hemi heads on the 426 Hemi short block,and bolting it into the racecar for mockup for the exhaust system, and determine if the rack and pinion steering system that is currently in the car can be used with the Hemi engine. It appears that the steering shaft has to go where the oil pump is on the Hemi engine. I may have to go with a different type of steering system on the car.

Once I get the mockup engine in the car,I am reaching the point where I will have to find a racecar fab shop to setup the chassis, steering, rear axle and brake system. I am hoping to find a competent shop that can set the car up to a road course setup, so it can be driven on the street and on autocross courses. I will also want to know how to setup the car for banked circle track use as well for the few occasions when I go to wingcar meets at racetracks.

I bought this 472 Hemi crate engine in 2005 as I stated, it was built by Cummins for Mopar Performance at the end of 2004. As anyone who bought a new Mopar Performance crate Hemi between when they were introduced to the public, and up until Mopar Performance switched vendors from Cummins knows,that these engines should be dismantled by a competent machine shop and gone through to check for subpar parts and assembly issues. I have seen and heard horror stories about them. When I bought my engine, my friend had just finished installing his first 472 Hemi crate engine in his car, and his second 472 Hemi crate engine was still in the crate, and the car it was going into was still under construction. When I started hearing that his first engine was leaking coolant and oil shortly after he started running the engine, and the fact that Cummins put head gaskets for a 528 Hemi engine on his 472 Hemi engine, and then he found out that the rear main seal was installed backwards, I started wondering what I got myself into! Then after my friends first engine started breaking the rocker arm adjustment studs, which wiped out one rocker arm, and fortunately with the use of a telescopic magnet we were able to retrieve the broken pieces of the adjustment studs before they caused catastrophic engine failure, I was starting to panic about the possibility of major issues with my engine. It only got worse when my friends second 472 Hemi engine lunched the camshaft due to an improperly hardened camshaft for Comp Cams. Soon after that I started reading other horror stories of major issues and catastrophic failures with the Cummins assembled Mopar Performance crate Hemi engines, I was sick! I paid 13 grand for an engine that I was afraid to even run! When we pulled the oil pan on my friends first engine, we found out that it didn't even have a windage tray in it. To me a windage tray is very important to the survival of a second generation Hemi engine, as they are known for top end oiling issues at high RPMs. The windage tray helps keep the oil in the pan,where it has access to the pickup for the pump,instead of the oil balling up around the crankshaft caused by centrifical force,causing possible oil starvation issues. So after seeing and hearing the stories, I just let the engine sit in the car and never ran it for the last 13 years, only rotating in occasionally to keep it turning freely. I am looking forward to having my machine shop completely going through the engine, and upgrading it with the Edelbrock top end kit, Fitech dual quad fuel injection system, and running it on the dyno. I will finally be able to use the engine for its intended purpose.

My friend took the broken rocker arm adjustment studs, and had them tested,and found out that they were over hardened, using a test called a Rockwell test. Mopar Performance was pointing fingers at Cummins, and Cummins was pointing fingers back at Mopar Performance, saying that they supplied subpar parts. After seeing the problems with the engines, I determined that they both were at fault. It almost seemed like Mopar Performance was buying blem parts from parts manufacturers! By blem parts,I mean parts that didn't meet the requirements of the manufacturer's specifications, and Cummins assembly work on these engines was subpar at best! Between the over hardened studs,and the improperly hardened camshafts, I truly believe that this was the case.

I got my Christmas wish today! I delivered my 472 Hemi engines short block to the machine shop today! Forward progress is always good!

It's still Christmas time for the Daytona stock car! My new MSD Pro Billet distributor, and FiTech hyper fuel pump for the dual quad fuel injection system came in today. The spark plug wires are still being shipped. I should have almost everything that will be needed to run the 472 Hemi engine on the dyno when the engine builder is ready!

The Fitech hyper fuel,fuel pump system for the dual quad fuel injection system.

When I got to the bottom of the box from Summit Racing, I found that they sent me a Hellcat too

Today I ordered an aluminum waterpump housing,with a high volume waterpump,and a billet thermostat housing,and a billet rear main seal kit from Mancini Racing for the Hemi. I also found out that my 10 millimeter spark plug wires were shipped today.

Who said that Christmas was over! ,I musta been a good boy this year, because my gifts just keep on coming! The gifts will keep coming too,atleast until my bank account is empty! Lol I got my 10 mm Live wires from Steve Davis, and the high volume aluminum water pump, and housing, and the billet water neck too. I also got the billet rear main seal kit too.

More pics

I also ordered a mimi starter too. I still have to order a MSD coil, a fuel pump block off plate, and the March serpentine belt pulley set up for the Hemi!

I just got the mini starter for the Hemi!

very nice a lot of work

I know that I have not updated the thread lately, but it looks like the weather is finally breaking and spring is here, so I am hoping to get back out in the garage and get back to work on the car. I did go to the machine shop the other day to check on the progress of my Hemi engine and he has not started on it yet. This would have been a bad thing, but unfortunately I had an incident with my truck that caused me to have to use some of the funds I had put aside for the Hemi build. A blowout on the left front tire of my diesel Ram,to re out the plastic inner wheel well and the three feet of tread that peeled off the tire tore out the fuse box and wiring harness, basically destroying an otherwise bulletproof truck! While I plan on getting it repaired and back on the road, I had to buy another truck. So the delay at the machine shop has allowed me to almost completely put the funds back together to continue with the Hemi engine build. Keep in mind that if you have a Dodge ram that a blow out on either front tire can completely disable your vehicle. The computer is on the right side, and the fuse box is on the left side. The plastic wheel well will not protect those components in the event of a blowout. I was going 65 mph on the highway when it happened and fortunately no one was injured.

Unfortunately for me, I kinda caused my own problem with this one by taking my new wheels and tires off for the winter, and putting the old ones back on. They were only 4 years old, but it failed badly. The wiring harness is no longer available from Mopar, so I had to source a used one.

Here are my new wheels and tires from a 2018 Ram that bought last fall resting comfortably in the garage! I tried to protect them from the harsh winter elements of New England . I would have been better off just leaving them on the truck! I thought I was doing the right thing, oh well! Anyway this is my new to me truck. I hope to send the diesel Ram to the auto electric shop next week. Hopefully the next installment of this thread will get back to the racecar!