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StrokerAspen
February 28th, 2008, 12:29 PM
This is my little project (one of them) It is a 1976 Dodge Aspen. We found it when I was 15, and put an offer of $800 on the table, it was a running slant 6 car with no options, but it was rust free and had 19 701 miles on the Odometer. Someone else ended up buy it for $1000, which was a bit of a disapointment, but later we found out all he wanted was the low miles powertrain out of the car for a resto in a convertable dart. So we offered to give him $200 for the car and we would yank the boat anchor out for him. Done deal!

We found a V8 K-Member and torsion bars at the wreckers and ended up putting in a 1970 340 small block in it that we built at our engine shop. It was backed up by a 727 'flite, and a variety of gears from 3.23's to 5.13's The car has ran a best of 12.32@111mph at a ground elevation of 2400ft. In full street trim.

The 340 was fairly simple. it had a set of ported "J" casting heads on it, with 2.05" intakes and 1.6 exhaust valves. It was topped with a 800cfm holley, and an RPM air-gap. The camshaft was a solid flat tappet with a lift of .540/.560 and 252/254 @ .050" with 110 lobe seperation. It had a set of forged pistons on the stock crank and rods, with a total compression of 10.8:1

I painted it in 2006 but since I was in college at the time, there was very little spare change to fuel it nevermind go racing with it.

Now I am out of college, and we have built a 432ci small block for it using a 318 block, and using the same "J" casting heads for now. We haven't had time to do any tuning on this combo yet since winter came just as we bolted it together, but that will soon change. The tranny needs a rebuild so that will happen in the near future aswell, and we will be bolting on a set of W5 heads I picked up on another forum.

The combo as it sits now...

1050 Dominator on top of a Edelbrock Super Victor.

Stock Casting "J" heads 2.05" Intakes 1.60" Hand Ported in-house. milled to 60cc chambers

Ross custom pistons with a 16cc reverse dome.

6.300" Eagle H-Beam rods

Eagle forged crank.

custom built In-House 1/2" steel main cap girdle and 1/2" ARP studs

Comp Cams Solid Roller .575" lift, 262 @ .050" with 110LSA

Puinie 1-5/8" headers (have a new set of 1-3/4" to hold it over until the W5's go on)


Before paint....

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n725843059_292123_6756-2.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_28942_9015.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_28928_4073.jpg

StrokerAspen
February 28th, 2008, 12:32 PM
After paint...

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_147574_8432-2.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_216118_3701-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_32343_4112-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n505471031_216117_3406-1.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/The%20Aspen/n504198482_450872_8104.jpg

StrokerAspen
February 28th, 2008, 12:33 PM
Some pictures of the 432...

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/n505471031_178229_555.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/n505471031_178232_1381.jpg

Matt Cramer
February 28th, 2008, 01:15 PM
I like the subtle pinstripes - they seem to be tricky to photograph, but they probably look pretty good in person.

StrokerAspen
February 28th, 2008, 01:32 PM
I like the subtle pinstripes - they seem to be tricky to photograph, but they probably look pretty good in person.


Yeah they are flat black vinyl. I used to work at a decal shop so I just drew them up and put them on. I wouldn't mind getting the reflective flat black stuff like whats on the trunk of the 1970 road runners.

JOES66FURY
February 28th, 2008, 06:57 PM
Neat car, not often you see an Aspen as wicked as yours...very cool

blu65ramb
February 28th, 2008, 07:38 PM
Another case of a car you just don't see to many of, looks really good. I like it

chryco
February 28th, 2008, 08:12 PM
Cool Aspen ! I had a 77' R/T Super Pak originally with a 360 , but swapped in a W2 340 ran something like 12 .20`s @ 114 with slicks and open headers. Sure miss it now . Real nice to see your car , HANG ONTO IT !
Chryco ;)

dulcich
February 28th, 2008, 08:30 PM
Nice Aspen

cantvalve16
February 29th, 2008, 01:28 AM
Completely dig the look, man. Car has that street nasty stance and the coolness of regular guy parts. Nice work. I thought you had 2 of them because the pic in your avatar looks black. Looks like fun.

StrokerAspen
February 29th, 2008, 06:12 AM
Thanks all, I do have two of them but the other one is a basket case that was headed for the crushers when we found it, maybe I will post some pictures of it later.

I am also just finishing up the final dimensions on a sheet metal intake for the W5 heads I will be putting on.

Here is a rough drawing of it....

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj240/StrokerAspen/sheet_metal_intake_assembly.jpg

fahrenschnell
February 29th, 2008, 05:00 PM
Nice original car. You don't see those much and it looks like a great one.

Vegaman
February 29th, 2008, 05:13 PM
Sweet ride dude! Hell, I liked it before paint too 8) 8)

HEMI
February 29th, 2008, 07:12 PM
I always liked'em,almost bought one once.

CudaZappa
March 1st, 2008, 02:07 PM
that's a sick f-body! SWEET!!!

Gary 351C
March 1st, 2008, 04:45 PM
I've always liked the Aspen/Volare. 1 block from my house there is a '77 Aspen that's been sitting in someone's side yard for the past 5 years and I'm always tempted to go knock on their door. Not because I need another project, I'm just afraid if they ever move it will end up at the local auto salvage. :'(

Doggins
March 1st, 2008, 06:40 PM
I have never seen on of those before. It's cool and to me looks like an updated duster.

Darren N.
March 1st, 2008, 07:23 PM
Lookin' mean.

I bet it will look even meaner with that new sheet metal intake. I think I spot some Solidworks action going on, and I was wondering if you could enlighten us on your design process. I'd be interested in hearing about how you went about sizing up the runners and plenum.

I've been a closet Aspen/Volare lover for quite some time. I really dig the Super Coupes and NASCAR kit cars. It was more or less the tape-stripe/fiberglass special but I always thought they would look mean decked out with the full NASCAR treatment. I haven't seen too many drag oriented Aspens and I have to say yours looks tough.

jp260z
March 2nd, 2008, 06:31 AM
I'm really like the Aspen, very cool. I have to agree I liked it before the paint too - either way it looks great. It's cool to see how mean they can look with the right setup.

StrokerAspen
March 2nd, 2008, 01:43 PM
Lookin' mean.

I bet it will look even meaner with that new sheet metal intake. I think I spot some Solidworks action going on, and I was wondering if you could enlighten us on your design process. I'd be interested in hearing about how you went about sizing up the runners and plenum.

I've been a closet Aspen/Volare lover for quite some time. I really dig the Super Coupes and NASCAR kit cars. It was more or less the tape-stripe/fiberglass special but I always thought they would look mean decked out with the full NASCAR treatment. I haven't seen too many drag oriented Aspens and I have to say yours looks tough.


Haha, very true it is a SolidWorks design. Like I said before this is just a rough draft so far, the runners are the very rough part of it, I have the basic shape figured so far, but the volume hasn't been messed with yet, and I haven't even set the runner length yet. But that is still to come, and I will keep you posted. The first one will be quite the experiment, and might not even have a dominator on it, but maybe a dual four set up. We will just have to take the car into the shop and test it on the dyno for a couple of days.

When we get the manifold working good I will be open to selling them if anyone is looking for one!

Darren N.
March 2nd, 2008, 05:52 PM
Thanks. I look forward to seeing your design develop. Ever since I've been working w/ CAD I've always wanted to design a sheet metal intake.

Good luck.