Mopar Muscle Association UK

Any advice welcome : Any suggestions to increase power from my dart 270, only thing is i ain't the last of the big spenders??

Buy an Aussie Charger!

Lance wrote:Any advice welcome : Any suggestions to increase power from my dart 270, only thing is i ain't the last of the big spenders??

If you wanna go faster, but have limited budget, loose weight off the car.

Doors is always a good starting point for loosing weight
Light weight bumper brackets
Remove carpet or just the underlay if you wanna keep the carpet
Back seat is a good few pounds (less passengers means faster car )
Remove all unecessary junk from the trunk
Only ever half fill up with fuel
Basically if you dont need it, dont drag it along
Lightening holes, in non structural areas
Fibreglass panels come up 2nd hand from time to time, check on here, Ebay, Mags, swap meets.

Remove all the unecessary a parts you can, they say for every 100lb's in weight you lose, you will gain a tenth in the quarter mile.

Drop a 360 in it.

What's the current spec ?

Ave a word with Kev.

Adam68 wrote:Ave a word with Kev.

Do 12 piece top rings add power then Adam

Ok! Ok! That's enough! Is this a /6? Gareth is yer man for that. Oh, sorry! You wanted to go FAST!!!

Gareth wrote:

Adam68 wrote:Ave a word with Kev.

Do 12 piece top rings add power then Adam

It was 14 pieces, if you could count! Oh, Yeah! You HillBillies have only got 12 fingers

mopar_mark wrote:Doors is always a good starting point for loosing weight.

Bit drafty though.

carb upgrade. if its got a cater 2bbl look to get a decent intake that will allow a holly 4 barrel or an edelbrock AVS style carb of slightly bigger CFM than the holley you identify for a 273

electronic ignition ***** see below

decent exhaust system. proper headers

make sure everythig works properly to get a good baseline without having to take of the heads or open the engine case first


then

consider if a 318 340 or 360 might be better.

basically the next steps are going to cost similar on any of the above and your current motor.

Although probably not necessary for the 340 as it came from the factory fighting fit rather wheezing and lazy like the other 3

An Oz 318 never really got strangled by emissions laws like the US version, something to keep in mind

cam
lifters
adjust able rockers
and choose either
new pistons to give better CR
or get the block decked and head skimmed to increase CR to 9.5:1 - 10:1
you will need adjustable rockers of you do this


**** leccy ignition

no grief solution
recurved dissy and FBO kit from Wil(neil)


or
minor grief low cost solution

if you currently have an electronic dissy paired with an ageing Mopar box a worthwhile upgrade is a new 12V coil (i use a Bosch blue coil) and a decent 4 pin HEI module out of a Chev or buick. got mine for £17 + £20 for the coil

you basically mount it on the inner fender or a bit of ally.
put a bypass loop of wire across the ballast resistor
plug the two wires from the dissy into 1 end and 2 from coil + and coil - into the other.

works good to 6K rpm varies dwell based on coil resistance and can put up with any decent coil. or use the laminated frame coil that the chev or buick used. these are welding packs compared with standard round oil cooled coil.

further upgrade to this would be a dissy recurve.

bacially most Car manufactures did an ignition module in the late 70s early 80s with 4 pins coming out of it. they are all based on the same motorola chip and will all work if you can ID the pins.

look up 4 pin HEI module on the net and try to get a Delco or Echlin one from the US

otherwise invest a £5 at your local breakers yard take home a selection use the Internet to ID the pins and giv em a go

electronic dissys had a less agressive curve than points dissys why???me not know. But the electronics in a modern igntion box have come on in leaps and bounds and the dissy is still the same so i guess it should be altered to partner a new box


dave

Don't expect any more power from a bigger carb unless your existing carb is restrictive and limiting rpms. Or unless your 2bbl is not tuned right.

An otherwise stock 273 engine will only need a 500-550cfm 2bbl. That equates (they are measured differently) to a 360-400 4bbl and I don't think they make them that small.
Any bigger and you will loose throttle response and driveability.

If it had a performance cam, valve springs, and some head porting you would get a benifit from a 500cfm 4bbl.

A good electronic ignition system will offer better starting and more torque.

A decent exhaust system with headers will add a little power for sure.

Holley do or did a 465 4bbl which would suit my 265 in standard form so i guess would suit a 273

it looks like dave has done the calculations or visited holley's site so from what he says its probably too big for both

however i can never get past the fact that most 265s that have even the most mild tuning really like a carter/Edelbrock AVS style 600 carb

but 265 |6 is not a v8 and already has large valves and big ports so......

eeerrrm

Dave

Dave999 wrote: but 265 |6 is not a v8 and already has large valves and big ports so......

Dave

I see what you are saying.

Well in that case (and if it revs up to 6K - 7K) then you are right Dave. But I really wouldn't go any bigger than that and use vacuum secondaries to make sure.

As for removing seats and saving weight, grand ideas but not the direction i want to take.
Now a 360 sounds more like the sort of thing i was thinking of, perhaps i should have given more detail, the dart has a 270 V8, 3spd auto (no kick-down at the moment) and a 71/2" axle, would it be feasible to make the required changes(engine, trans + axle) for say a grand - 12 hundred quid??or am i dreaming , i want to share the total budget between paint interior and power increase.