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My Most Impressive Tune-Ups: #2828108
10/02/20 10:02 PM
10/02/20 10:02 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,390
Highland, MI.
Sunroofcuda Offline OP
master
Sunroofcuda  Offline OP
master

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,390
Highland, MI.

I sent this in an email to a bunch of friends tonight - I had been texted an article about air cleaners, & it got me to thinking about things I've done to cars that REALLY made a difference.

I bought this 70 Challenger R/T off the original lady owner in Phoenix – it was a 383 Magnum 4-speed & it was her everyday driver. We pulled another car back from Phoenix with it & it was very hard to start & ran like it was firing on maybe 5 cylinders. I figured it was just really worn out.

After getting the car back home & driving it around for a few days, I decided to give it a tune-up: new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, & air filter. After a quick tune-up, I turned the key & it fired right up & felt like it had 100 more HP! WOW – did it need a tune-up bad. It would SMOKE the tires! Clearly the most awesome tune-up I ever did.

Second best was a red ’72 Cuda 340 automatic I bought locally in 1985 – a really nice all original car with 202 heads, & a cam & engine rebuild – the motor was supposed to be HOT! It wasn’t. I bought it off a local Mopar guy who scratched his head for probably 3 years wondering why it ran so weak – also his Chrysler engineer buddy – they were both totally stumped. They were about to get into the motor & try & figure it out. He decided to sell the car to me. A couple weeks after I bought it & was driving it around, I started tinkering with the Thermoquad & decided to pull it off one afternoon. After examining the carb, I quickly realized the gigantic secondaries did not seem to be opening – at all. Not only was the whole secondary area all black with carbon, when I operated the throttle, they did not open. I turned the carb upside-down & worked the throttle again & they opened. There was a small linkage elbow that connected the primaries to the secondaries & I bent that a little & worked the throttle again with the carb upright – secondaries opened fully each time. I installed the carb & took the Cuda for a test drive. HOLY CRAP! Once again, it felt like it had 100+ more HP, & would light the tires from a stop.

The following Wed., I drove up to Telegraph for our Wed. Mopar cruise night. The Chrysler engineer guy was there & I told him to jump in the car & I took him for a ride. First time I got on it he about had a heart attack: “WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT?” I told him all about the carb & how his buddy had been driving it around for 3 years on two tiny primaries. He was speechless. I sold that car to a guy from Saginaw several weeks later.

Yellow 70 Challenger FR.jpgYellow 70 Challenger RR.jpg

No Man With A Good Car Needs To Be Justified
Re: My Most Impressive Tune-Ups: [Re: Sunroofcuda] #2828115
10/02/20 10:26 PM
10/02/20 10:26 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,803
Between Houston & Galveston TX
SattyNoCar Offline
Smarter than no class Flappergass by a mile
SattyNoCar  Offline
Smarter than no class Flappergass by a mile

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,803
Between Houston & Galveston TX

Sometimes its the simplest thing(s), cool stories! up

Closest I have is from when I had my '77 Gran Fury cop car back in HS ('84).. While it had considerably more power than the tired '73 Satellite 318 I had before it, it never had the power I was expecting. Cop car still had all the Lean Burn stuff on it. One night, unrelated to the 'Lean Burn', the dash wiring caught fire, so I yanked the drivetrain and junked the rest. Fast forward a few years, and I decide to put the cop car parts into a '76 Club Cab I had replacing its very tired 360. To replace the Lean Burn parts, I used an earlier TQ and electronic ignition and I used headers. Never cracked the engine open, just gave it the most basic of tunes to get it running..........

Compared to when it was in the car............ eek It was doggy around town due to the higher gears from the cop car, but DANG! Above 50 MPH, it pulled HARD. I literally broke the needle off the truck's 100MPH speedometer one night. whistling

Crazier still was that 440 gave me better MPG than the 360. Go figure. confused


John

The dream is dead, long live the dream.......😥






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