> I was just wondering if any of you guys knew what performance options I
> could get for a Shelby Dakota. I think I found one in good condition and
> as soon as my cousin gets a caravan he will sell it too me(cheap).
Besides
> exhaust what else can I get for it?
>
welp, its the old "la" style 318 V8's rated at like 175 horsepower. those
engines have 9.2 compression i beleive, which isnt bad, i would install a
mopar performance purpleshaft cam with .455 lift, .484 if ya dont need
emissions. have the heads ported and polishged, or replace em with a set of
915 casting heads from a 360. they got some big ole valves. i would gasket
match the intake manifold and heads. upgrade the ignition with a msd 6a-L.
put a shift kit in the trannny too. sides that ya should have a prety
honkin ride dude!
if yer real ballsy, convert over to a 4 barrel carb setup, better yet, i
got a new edelbrock tunnel ram intake for a small block chrysler:).
==========================================================================
Running the "915" heads will lower your 318's compression ratio quite a bit and
that .484 cam will suck in front of an automatic with the stock stall converter.
Shelby Dakota's are kinda rare and my suggestion would be to not hack it. But I
love more performance as well so if you don't have smog problems to worry about
I would remove and store the original 318 and EFI setup. In it's place I would
drop in a warm 360, which is where you can use those "915" heads to best
advantage. Just duplicate the 340 Magnum engine, not to be confused with the 93
and up "Magnum" engine of 4, 6, and 8 cylinder flavors. If your stuck with the
318, either because of smog or money concerns, then you have quite a bit of hop
up items to choose from. Shelby's are a bit different than non Shelby's and I
don't recall the Shelby's 318 spec's off hand. But if the 318 is just a stock
type mill, as in Shelby didn't tweak it, you can replace the stock roller cam
with a flat tappet cam. You will need a cam, flat tappets, and NEW pushrods as
the roller cam pushrods are too short, by a long shot. The .455 cam is a good
suggestion. What are you willing to do to hop this up? What are your goals
after the hop up? Sounds like your not interested in towing the Empire State
Building but let us know what you want and then we can point you in the right
direction.
Thunderstruck...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:47 EDT