Back to my roots
 

Hello all. My name is Bert. i am an HVAC technician in Las Vegas.
I have recently picked up a 75 dodge 3/4 ton long bed club cab.
she has a 440 and 727.
I started life as a mopar kid with a 74 plymouth fury canal boat that just would not die.
Later i found me a 78 dodge of the exact same setup as the one i just found, however, with a 318. I remember that truck wold smoke the 16.5 wide back wheels.
eventually it caught fire and burned by spitting up when i got on it one day due to not having an air cleaner or good vacuum advance. being the dumb teenager i was at the time i pulled the 360 from the fury and threw it in the truck. had one hell of a vibration due to not knowing the torque converter from the 318 was not compatible.
this caused the truck to throw a fan blade up the arm of my moms last husband and almost sever his artery.
we fixed the problem and it was a good work truck until we lost the family business due to his accident.
i have been a chevy guy and with the gas prices a subaru guy building a lifted 78 brat and a lifted 79 wagon.
I have been looking for a truck like this for a while to throw me back to the days of the unstoppable dodge truck i once had.
I have a 78 pace arrow RV for a donor engine and tranny.
the truck is a one owner vehicle that was driven by the guy until it burned a few valves coming up the hill from cali to vegas. it has sat for 20 years with the heads off.
Its all there so i will rebuild the original and maybe throw a cam in it and upsize the bore.
for now i will run it with the donor engine.
I am in need of a dashboard as mine has turned to dust under the vegas sun.
I was wondering if anyone her can steer me in the right direction.
Thanks
Happy to join your forum.

Welcome.

HVAC in Vegas.... Hope you work at night?... lol
Welcome to the site.... Welcome back to the Mopar family....
Try these folks >>>>> http://www.mopartruckparts.com/
Also: Just dashes might be able to redo your old one, might just give them a call..

so its been over a year and i have been driving my truck as needed.
the swap took about 2 days with my son and i.
i am probably gonna get some flac from this but the ignition module gave out on the first start up over a year ago as well as the one from the donor rv...........so seeing as i had so many chevy parts laying around i ended up wiring an hei ignition module and coil to the mopar pickup in the dittributor and it worked like a charm.
it was supposed to be temporary, as the plan was to rip out the engine and swap it during my 2 week vacation and be riding on my birthday at logandale roadkill style, but i have had no issues whatsoever... the rv was exactly like the one from the roadkill general mayhem episode lol.
time and money are always the culprit of a franken-truck.
besides the inevitable vapor lock problems i have come to live with out in this desert she ran strong pulling a trailer with 4 quads and one in the bed.
i wound up retrofitting a fuel pump from a donor subaru legacy inside the cab fuel tank, noisy but works great.
just purchased a 34 gallon under cab tank and fuel pump assembly.....more GM parts as i could not find anythin dodge for a realistic budget.
So.... now that i have angered some of you, would it be audacious of me to ask what is a good daily driver cam kit to get some of the dog out of that economy smog RV 440?

Glad things are working for you, GM parts in a Mopar?

shamefully yes. but in my defense i grew up in nowhere arizona and attended the school of fix it or walk.
the fuel tank is just a fuel tank and i cant argue with a 34 gallon tank to feed a hungry big block.. it is a bit wider and i may need to do some hacking and reconstructing under the bed.
I do plan on installing maybe an MSD set up one day but if the hei components work and get me around i see no urgency in doing it just yet.
I am more focused on getting the fuel tank in and then fabricating my exhaust system.
the bump stick is a must though. i cant live with a 440 rated at 185hp, the boys will just laugh at me. Even though it has a performer 440 and carter competition sitting on top i am sure it is adding very little to the party without getting those valves to open up and breath .