Project SuperBee, www.cars-by-chris.
How embarrassing is it when you get to a local cruise night or car show and you can't get the door on your Mopar to stay latched? Everyone is watching as you try slamming it several times, each time the slam gets harder. Not what you want your Mopar to be known for.inline_mediumwraptextright26565385/projectbuild/mopp_0911_dynamic_renovation_door_jam_repairmopp_091100_bee_02_o+door_jamb_repair+.jpgTrue

A Bare-Bones Beginning
A while back, we introduced our Project Goodmark/Big Challenge, and asked you to help us devise a plan of what we should build. We got a lot of letters and e-mails; an overwhelming amount saying to make this a modern musclecar. You guys really are into updating your Mopars, and so it will be done.

With the car painted, the engine going together, and the parts procured, the end of Project Timber Wolf is finally in sight. Of course, now it's up to us to get everything put together in time for the car to be given away, but we're used to working nights and weekends. Somehow our motivation level just gets higher once we know we have everything in place to complete a project. The feeling of completing this car and taking it for its first testdrive will be almost as good as the feeling we'll get when someone wins this car and gets to enjoy it for years to come.

If you've read the past couple issues of Mopar Muscle, we're sure you know about our latest project car. We're teaming up with the Timber Wolf Speed Shop to build a killer '69 Super Bee that will be given away when it's finished . . . that's right, given away. So if you haven't entered the contest yet, be sure you do. We'd love for one of our readers to end up with this Super Bee in his or her garage.

You could win this car or one of five other classics at the Timber Wolf Speed Shop. Go to TWSPEEDSHOP.com for details.

You could win this car or one of five other classics at the Timber Wolf Speed Shop. Go to TWSPEEDSHOP.com for details.

Around here, we've been into cars longer than we sometimes like to remember. To put this in perspective, air shocks, glasspack mufflers, and Keystone Classic wheels were still in style when we had our first cars. In those days, musclecars could still be found in the back rows of local used-car lots and could be purchased for hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. Of course, in retrospect we should have bought every one of those cars and stored them for future sale, then someone would be writing for our magazine instead of vice-versa, but our foresight wasn't very clear in those youthful days. We'd simply purchase one car at a time, fix it up some, then sell or trade it, and move on to our next project. Since aftermarket components were few and far between in those days, one of the first things we'd do to our car was to have the local exhaust shop install dual exhaust and glasspack mufflers. Cherry Bombs were the mufflers of choice back then, and Cherry Bomb probably contributed to more "disturbing the peace" violations than any other exhaust manufacturer. so when we heard the company was still around and wanted to upgrade and customize a new Dodge Charger, we wanted to be involved.

Whether your Mopar is a street car or a dedicated race car, chances are it's overpowered. Tire shredding, axle snapping, u-joint exploding torque is something even stock Mopar engines are known for. While too much power is not necessarily a bad problem to have, the driveline behind the engine must be built to withstand the power, or reliability will suffer. Since reliability is one of the keys to our bracket racer project, we had to decide what rearend would best suit our needs. While an 831/44 differential would probably suffice if built properly, it still wouldn't be as tough, or last as long as a 60-style rearend.

Our base model Barracuda is no exception. Since this car didn't have the boxes installed from the factory we called the Paddock and had a set of aftermarket torque boxes delivered. These torque boxes resemble, though aren't identical, to the factory units, but when installed it's hard to tell the difference. They do, however, brace the forward leaf spring mount exactly like the originals. An added benefit in our application is the torque boxes are located under where the main hoop of the rollcage will go, increasing safety by preventing the rollbar from punching through the floor in the case of a rollover accident. Installing the torque boxes is a breeze. Our torque boxes fit well with minimum amount of trimming required before welding the units in place. A welder, clamps, and metal grinder were the only tools we needed to complete the installation.

It's a common problem that many have already had to or will have to deal with-rust. Let's face it, short of finding a car stored in a climate-controlled garage, any Mopar project we try to undertake is going to have some rust somewhere. But it's usually just a simple matter of contacting the appropriate restoration supply house and getting the parts needed. What if the afflicted area doesn't have a replacement piece of metal available? Let's take, for instance, the driver-side inner front fender of our '70 Super Bee. The battery tray mounting area had a fairly large rusted area brought about by many years of battery acid slowly eating away at it, and no replacement is available. We can either weld a piece in where the rust is apparent, or find either a nice panel at a swap meet that has been removed from a donor car or hope to find a N.O.S. panel at the same swap meet.

There was really only one option when it came to picking a transmission for this car. The 727 TorqueFlite automatic is tough, consistent, and relatively inexpensive to build for this type of application. Of course, we'll freshen the transmission and beef it up with a bolt-in sprag and manual valvebody, then install a loose converter for hard launches. TorqueFlites are plentiful, and we can pick one up for less than 100 bucks, saving more of our budget for engine and transmission internals. Behind the transmission, we're still undecided. We will certainly keep the rearend all Chrysler by utilizing either an 8-3/4 unit or a Dana 60. The 8-3/4 would need to be beefed-up substantially, but would still cost less than the Dana. In the interest of reliability, however, the indestructible Dana 60 may be our logical choice.

COSTS
Car	$400
Wheels and tires:	$1,036
Exhaust:	$160
Cold air kit:	$240
Header:	$275
Coil and wires:	$122
Prothane inserts:	$35
TOTAL:	$2,268

It all began a few months ago, when we announced our Neon project. we were quite surprised at the volume of e-mails we received telling us what to do to it. We heard everything from "you have to do wheels and tires," all the way up to "yank the engine and transmission out, and put a V-8 in it." We must admit, the latter sounded appealing to us, but Misty (and her mom) were very adversarial to the idea. In her mom's words, "Are you crazy?"

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time, or in the case of Dave Young, tech editor for Mopar Muscle, listening to the right radio station at the right time.

To go with our cam, we ordered a set of Comp's (PN 829-16) solid roller lifters. These Comp lifters drop right into a production big-block Mopar with no modifications to the block or oiling system required. The correct pushrod length for the solid roller is different than what is used with a hydraulic flat tappet, so the required length was found by mocking up the combination with a length-checking pushrod. Custom pushrods were ordered from Smith Brothers. To provide valvetrain control, selecting an appropriate spring is vital. The spring seats in the Indy heads are machined to 1.550-inch diameter, so that set the spring diameter spec. We looked no further than the Comp Cams spring chart to find PN 999-16. These are an H-11 tool steel spring set, which delivers 196 pounds of load on the seat at an installed height of 1.900 inches, and 608 pounds at .650-inch lift. With that kind of spring load, we would easily cover any question of valve control with our combination. To go along with the springs, we selected Comps' (PN 732) titanium retainers, and (PN 611) 10-degree SuperLocks to fit the single groove 111/432-inch stems of the Indy valves.

ignoreIn the initial testing of our Mauler 440 engine project, we had a chance to see how close our selection of parts came to meeting the stout objectives we originally set. The one thing that stood out from that test session was that our combination was overwhelming the capabilities of the flat-tappet hydraulic camshaft we were running. In the quest for the ultimate in fast-acting valve motion, we started with the quickest of the quick .904-inch flat-tappet profiles, and then goosed the rate to an unheard of speed with a set of 1.7:1-ratio rocker arms. As flat-tappet hydraulics go, it was intense, reaching .600-inch lift with a short 231 degrees of duration at .050-inch lift. As our testing showed, the fast rate had the potential to make the number, but the effort was hampered by the ability of the lifter's hydraulic mechanism to cope with such aggressive action. The simple solution was to move to a solid street roller.

It seemed as if there was little we could do to correct the valvetrain instability problem, but the lower part of the power curve at which the valvetrain was operating correctly seemed normal. We had run all of our tests to this point with the ported Indy 2D two-plane intake. We also had an Indy 440-2 single-plane intake and were curious about how it would compare. The 440-2 was port matched, but not otherwise modified. The single plane manifold added marginally to output above 4,500 rpm, recording a new high in peak power of 570 hp at 5,500 rpm, while peak torque moved to 561 at 5,100 rpm. The lower end of the torque curve dropped sharply for the 10hp gain at peak torque, dropping as much as 50 lb-ft off the bottom end. Outright top-end power, however, was clearly limited by the problems we were encountering at the higher rpm.

ignoreWhen it comes to building an engine, when is enough really enough? Well, if you ask Wes Hudgins of Goodyear, Arizona, he'll probably tell you that you can never have enough when it comes to horsepower. Wes has this car that he likes to make go really quick, and when it came time for motorvation, he contacted Best Machine in Shelby Township, Michigan. While speaking with the guys there, they came up with a game plan for a really stout combination. Now, this wasn't going to be a run-of-the-mill stock-blocked engine that could kick it on the local boulevard; this was going to be nothing but pure adrenaline for close to 8 seconds.