Suggestion on a 72 bird restoration
 

Well first things first I Zach The owner of these fine unrestored 1972 Road Runner has to admit I am frickin completely confused on what to do with this car. I have had the car about 8 years and it has sat collecting dust each and every day. My major problem is Money second problem I dont know if I should go back to the original colors and if I should bore out the 340 I would love to have a good 600 horse power I dont know if the 340 could handle the power I dont want to put to much stress on the original motor. Then there is the good old 440 I love the motor but can seem to find a good one for a reasonable price. In everybodys opinion is the car worth sticking 30k to 40k into is the car going to be worth that amount after its all done I have only restored one car and let me tell you i hate chevys i will never restore another one any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated i also only paid 2000 dollars for the car and its a middle class car thats what the vin says

Well 600hp on a 340 is posible but you would have to go blown to get it. you could make a modest 400 maybe 450 with minor modification to the engine. As far as where to start. That depends and the quality of the body and drive train. If your bird is kind of rusty that is where i would start. You could rid the rust and primer for cheap. If the body is good, and the engine doesnt run then i would start on the engin. The 340 is a good strong engine. They even paired it with a 6 pack at one point. I would stick with it. Or you could look for a 70 or 80s dodge truck to pull a 440 out of. The salvage yard probably has quite a few depending on the are you live in.

This comment tells me that the best thing that you can do is a budget rebuild, I am not trying to be smart.

Basicly the lack of funds is what kills most projects, I have been there in the past.
so I would keep oiginal color,just give the motor a freshen up. At lest this way you will be able to enjoy your car.
Regards Rod

I agree with Gilesie.

I think you should step back a few steps and take a good look at the big picture. If you start building, rebuilding, breaking, and replacing engines and parts, pretty soon you'll have a lot of money invested in broken parts.

What I'm saying is, ON A SMALL BUDGET getting that kind of HP out of a 340 is not cheap, nor for the inexperienced. You'll cut corners, and you'll blow things up.

If this car is in ANY way a car that is unique,-- and you should research it to find out---then you don't want to be tearing it up with swapping in a BB, because you'll destroy the collector value, if there is any. There is a reason why "numbers matching" cars are worth more. It means that sombody hasn't hacked the car up with mismatched parts.

A completely stock 340 Mopar is a lot of fun to drive. All it has to do is output the honest HP it was built with. Quite franky, I doubt you have ever strapped on anything approaching 600HP.


By the way, I had my old '70 RR six pack car back when the first "fuel crisis" of the early '70's "hit." I had lost the original 440, and swapped a low miles 340 into the car. This is something that Chrysler did NOT do in '70, and should have. That engine, with only headers added, would get over 18mpg on the freeway, and would beat a good running, stock 383 RR. It was still fun to drive, cornered much better than the BB, and got great mileage. Even if you "lost" it was a lot of fun to lift the hood, and with the huge "six pack" flags, watch some jaw drop when they saw that "ittle bitty" engine down there.

I know what everyone means but factory horse power and parts are not all that great and the horse power is sh** and i have straped on to a 600 horse motor thats why i have the road runner now because i rolled my 625 horse pontiac gtp i had less than 500 miles on a new motor I will probably drop a 440 into it and keep the 340 for resale thank for all the input if i can find my roll over picks ill post them

I know what your thinking there is no way a front wheel drive gtp has 625 horse guess again I had the 3rd fastest street legal gtp is the U.S and im not joking my buddy Zoom and his crew have the #1 fastest in the U.S i had 30 k into just performance parts I just decide maybe its time for a true muscle

I truely appreciate all of the imput and I wish everyone the best.

IM NOT SICK
 

a little history on me Runninbird believe it or not im 21 I live in a small town in Michigan The money issue I stated above yes I am lacking the money to restore the car but I am going to inherit an large sum of money I AM NOT SICK I am just plaining the way im going to invest and i would never tell anyone that i new i was doing so because it is kind of wrong in a way The car is somthing special to me because It was bought originally from a guy i knew from the camp ground i stayed at. He later died of a long battle of cancer anyway the car also was purchased together originally by my father and his father but his father passed away and i recieved the other half of the car and theres one really odd thing that makes it special to me the motor on the road runner quit running the day before my grandfather died so its like he almost took it to the grave with him I just thought may be i would get some info on how to build the car the right way I plain i sticking lets just say over 30k into it. money is not going to be th issue I jus thought i would state it how it is as of right now with the money.

Again please dont think im weird I really do appreciate all the help im getting thanks allot Runninbird