| Neal writes: Here is my new ’62-’65 Mopar: originally a slant six, 3 on the tree car, the last owner had already upgraded it with a V-8 K-frame, front discs, and newer, non-tapered 8.75 rear with 3.91 SureGrip. | |
| I found the Mopar in the northern part of Oregon, up in the mountains. |  |
| I am building a 440 with pushbutton automatic for the Dodge and plan on making a 413 Ramcharger clone. |  |
| The neatest part was finding the “Friendly Dodge” dealer tag in the glove box—a dealer right here in my home town of Eugene—and the holes for the tag are still there in the tail panel. After 46 years, this old Dodge has returned to its home town! |  |
Originally I was going to install my Hemi 4 speed into the Dodge; it already had the pedals for it. But I really wanted a pushbutton car, so I changed course.
I purchsed the parts needed: tailights and hood letters, front bumper, pushbutton shifter and cables, pushbutton dash cluster, and an automatic pedal assembly.
I got my new 440 back from the machinist. The motor I bought as a pig in a poke, with one of those “hardly any miles on it” stories from a ski boat motor built for a boat that got arsoned by an angry neighbor a few months later, with only a few weekends worth of ski pulling on it. The seller seemed honest enough and he budged on the price, so I took the gamble, and for once it turned out true: the pistons looked brand new when we pulled the 440 apart.
My machinist went through the whole thing: tanked it, fluxed everything, replaced the cam with a Racer Brown hydraulic, new bearings and rings, gave it a hone, installed hardened exhaust seats, new guides and a valve grind to the 906’s and squared the block and balanced it all. We used the ISKY mechanical rockers that were on the motor.
I could not believe my machinist did all the work and reassembly for $1000 bucks. So I got an all new 440 for about $2000 dollars, I only need to find the right pan and pickup for the 1962, probably gonna go with a Milidon 7 or 8 quart. My machinist said he gave me a break on the cost because I “didn’t bug him,” just let him have his space.
It is not that trick of a motor really, the compression works out to 9.8 to 1. The heads are not ported. And the cam isn’t all that radical.
But with the Edelbrock RPM manifold, headers, electronic ignition Racer Brown cam and windage tray, I think 400-425 horses would be a fair guess.
Hope to have the Dodge on the road this summer for the Mopar Nationals up at Woodburn Drag strip in mid July, 2009.
A young kid I know today who is into old cars gave me a big hand and we got the 1962 Dart well on the way to its new motor. We yanked the hood, stripped everything from the engine compartment, removed hood hinges, swapped out the 3 on the tree pedals for automatic pedals, removed the gauge cluster and steering column, installed the new tail lights and got the rusty floor pans cut out. Next I am gonna get my new floor pans in, or at least get started on them.
Contact Neal at — 
September 6, 2008: Updated February 9, 2009; February 21, 2009