90 3.0/543 Dynasty

[Vigo]

Yes.. hehe. I put minivan struts/springs in the front, with some fairly tall tires on it. It needed bigger tires in the front and coil spacers in the back to be 'finished' as a lifted Dynasty but after i figured out i was keeping it i lowered it. I only lifted it because i had the parts and thought it was funny, and the car belonged to my cousin at that point.

I figured out that to lift it much more in the front would require you to space the k-frame down, which would require spacers for the steering rack to stay in the same place. Otherwise the passenger axle was already hitting the k-frame and there would be no downward travel at all. It's moot now as i wont be going back that way with this car.

[Vigo]

Well i didnt have my camera with me but the thing is all bolted back together as a 5spd. Thanks to Strax22 for helping me out even though we both were probably too tired to be screwing with this thing.

I made the k-frame brackets for the bobble strut out of a jeep cherokee bumper.

I ran out of time and didnt get to drive it.. and i ran into a few snags:

The clutch cable either snapped or something in the pedal adjuster broke. I didnt even look at it.
One of my shift cables is stiff because of how it's routed through the floor. I will probably fix this with an air chisel.
Even though i have 4 manual trannies sitting on the ground, i had no bobble strut brackets! I'll pick one up from Strax22 in a few days or something.

I also didnt have a 'large mount' 5spd trans mount. We modified an old 520 ('small mount') mount to work by doing a little clearancing where it bolts to the trans, and putting the wider bar part (that the bolt goes through to hold the mount to body) in from the 604 mount i took out. Seems to have worked fine..


So it's together, but i need to re-attach or swap out the clutch cable (got 3 more) and put the bobble strut on before i drive it.

[Ondonti]

don't really need bobble for first drive.

[Vigo]

No but i ran out of time and that was the issue. Had to leave.

If i get it drivable before i pick up the bobble strut than i will definitely drive it!

[Matt86]

I have a 3.50FD small-spline 543 for the van project. It's probably not in as good of shape but i decided i wanted the lowest cruise rpm possible for that one.

I used a 3.50 IROC Daytona trans in my 94 3.0 van, very happy with it. Get 30+ mpg at highway speeds.

[Vigo]

That is EXACTLY what i wanted to hear for my van project..

[Juggy]

i ran my charger for 1 whole season without the bobble strut. 1.71 60' footers and all!!

im sure the poly mounts helped keep the engine in check tho.....i wouldnt be too worried about not running one.

does the K frame even have the tab on it???

[RoadWarrior222]

Funny thing is, the K frame that was on my van when I got it had the bracket on it. Dunno if it came like that or had a different K frame... That one cracked though so got swapped out.

[daytonablue]

I ran my shadow for at least 3-4 months before attaching my bobble strut with the stock 200k used mounts. Never caused any issues except for excessive engine rocking. It did however cut one of my plug wires almost in half on the hood once though... Couldn't figure out why it would only misfire under a hard load or when taking off, turns out the wire was half cut and arcing to the hood. (my hood was dented from dancing... you should be fine.) Nothing the bfh didnt fix.

[Vigo]

When i did my first 5spd swap (this is the 3rd iirc) I drove it around without a bobble strut for a few weeks. Using reverse was the worst part of it. It would set up some weird gyration that made the car feel like it was going to shake to pieces. Adding the bobble strut fixed it. Also, i had to shift nicer than i wanted to because i thought the engine would fall out because of all the noise and motion from shifting hard @ wot. Also, wheelhop is a -----.

I'll probably drive it once or twice without the bobble strut to make sure everything works, but i'll put it on as soon as i get my hands on it..

As for the tabs on the k-frame, i cut some out of a cherokee bumper and welded em on. We'll see how long it lasts...

[Vigo]

Well, i finished up the car and drove it today. I added a permanent ground to the coil side of the starter relay, installed the front mount, fixed the clutch pedal, and also fixed some shoddy alternator wiring.

The car drives surprisingly well without a bobble strut. I had no issues at all, even chirping into 2nd. The shifter is still stiff because of the cable, haven't fixed that yet. I also havent devised a way to mount the shifter console, and i havent painted it.

I think the clutch cable i put in is a little too short. I have the adjuster maxed out and the clutch is already slipping if the clutch pedal is level with the brake pedal. I have ~3 more clutch cables sitting around, so i will have to compare.

Also, this thing needs a higher rev limiter. I was bumping into it a lot (5800) before shifting, and it doesnt feel like it needs to shift that early..

The acceleration improvement is not as dramatic as i was hoping for, but it is definitely faster. Feels like a high 15 car. I raced it against my friend's cherokee who was over helping me, and it was about dead even with me creeping away after 70mph, which probably makes it a high 15 car since the cherokee has run 16.0. Im not unhappy about that race at all because 4.0 jeeps are faster than people give them credit for (i have a 4.0 cherokee to build sitting in the back yard, coincidentally).. ive had several good races against the lighter 5spd ones over the years.

Also, this Dynasty doesnt really have power mods so im happy with it for what it is.. it has a 52mm tb and the divider knocked out of the plenum (with a hammer) but still has the stock nasty 180* intake pipe with an open filter on the end of it (HAI). I took the car out about an hour after the sun went down and it was faster.. Definitely needs a better intake. Other than that it has no cat and a 2.25" cat-back i built with an old chambered flowmaster, so it's barely better than a stock exhaust.


Im pretty happy with it. It needs to be faster.. ill get around to it. For now it's just "The World's First and Only 5spd Manual Dodge Dynasty"

[Vigo]

I've got a Nick Boers UDP for a 3.0 that i bought for my van (to run low boost w/ supercharger) but until that gets put together i will put it on the dynasty.

I'll also socket the SBEC and see what i can do with that. I already tried to socket this one before but i was really impatient and pulled up a bunch of traces on the board and had to get another one.. I'll just wait and use a friends' REAL desoldering iron next time..

[RoadWarrior222]

I already tried to socket this one before but i was really impatient and pulled up a bunch of traces on the board and had to get another one.. I'll just wait and use a friends' REAL desoldering iron next time..

Well another way is to slip a couple of thin zipties or similar under it for handles and to use a heatgun on the solder side, keep the gun on and stick the socket straight back in then fix all the dry joints with a pencil iron.

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 AM ----------

(Disclaimer, guess i should say I haven't actually done that on an SMEC or SBEC but I've done it on a motherboard and other components)

[Vigo]

I dont really get what you're going for.. trace repair or pulling up the socket in the first place? I just didnt have enough heat and wasnt getting 100% of the solder out before i tried to tilt the chip up.

[Aries_Turbo]

this is how the car looks now. adam sent me some pre release pics. i said, screw it, im posting them.

Brian

[RoadWarrior222]

I dont really get what you're going for.. trace repair or pulling up the socket in the first place? I just didnt have enough heat and wasnt getting 100% of the solder out before i tried to tilt the chip up.

Ooops yah, doing it in the first place... with a heat gun you can get all pins melted quick at the same time and it should come off easy.

So it still needs fixing? For difficult traces, if there's still the through hole plate left to actually solder the pins down to, you can mask with tape and mend traces with defogger repair paint for short lengths... but for long traces, like if you managed to pull up inches... it's better patching with wire because the resistance might be high enough to screw things up with the paint... long thin strip of it might be a few ohms.

[StraX22]

Holy crap that made me LOL.

[RoadWarrior222]

it has a 52mm tb and the divider knocked out of the plenum (with a hammer)

Did that break it right off or leave some sticking up?

I've got a theory that it might be better to leave a stub of the divider to encourage a figure of 8 momentum exchange between intake vortices formed in each side, by the radial pull of the offset ports.... otherwise... the momentum carried over in the swirl from the last side to induct, kinda hits the momentum of the air gathering to go in the next valve, and they kill each other... where if you kick it up of the floor on so it aims at the roof of the other side it adds to the momentum that is building during that intake event...... kinda sorta...

Anyhoo, if you did leave edges, I would be interested in your observations of whether this plenum seems to have more "pick-up" or gets better mileage, or even more buttdyno feel, than a standard, or "well cleaned up" plenum.

[Vigo]

Holy crap Brian i forgot those pics existed!! lol

Yeah that was a joke cardomain i made of it when my cousin owned it and we were like 19. We still joke about it sometimes.

[black86glhs]

I thought that you worked under cover for the border patrol and that was how you tricked them into thinking they were safely across the border. Once in the car, handcuffs drop from the ceiling and the doors lock!! LOL