1964 Dodge Polara

In 2001 while passing through Cairo, NE on a family trip, I spotted a 1964 Dodge by the road with a for sale sign and remarked that I had not seen one for years. My first new car was a 1964 Dodge 330 two door post car w ith a 383 and four speed stick shift. My wife told me to turn around and go look at it. The next day I drove it home for $1100 and a shotgun. That was the start of my relationship with LeRoar, aptly named by my wife as a take-off on Leroy, my middle name.

In the early 1970's my love of hot rods pushed me to take all the autoshop classes available at Saddleback Community college. I loved the engine building best. So over the years I have been doing what-if and how can I mechanical work on LeRoar. There have been many engine combo's tried to see how they worked. Originally I had a couple 440 engines I planned to use as sources for an engine transplant but, due to financial issues, I thought it cheaper to go with what the Dodge had presently and avoid all the changes required. I am glad I went that route as the 318 poly engine has proven to be not only a great power base but also a great crowd-pleaser. The Dodge definitely isn't a mundane 350 vanilla cruiser.

I began my quest with a Weiand WPD4D dual four barrel manifold and a pair of Edelbrock 1404 500cfm carburetors. The initial cam was a Schneider hot street 264deg/.450" lift 222deg@.050" solid lifter. It was a real eye-opener when the engine had a hellacious backfire which blew the ends out of the original cheaper mufflers. It seems I always managed to put the distributor in 180 out. After the first cam break-in, which was done without a tachometer and probably varied from 2K-4K rpm's, I went to back out and try driving the Mopar around and, since it was just idling and not needing much fuel, the carburetors began to spew gas like Old Faithful. That's when I realized the Holley mechanical fuel pump put out between 9-11psi and the carburetors could only handle 6.5psi max. So I had to reset the floats as they were severely mangled and I added a Holley fuel pressure regulator. Issue solved. As time went by I learned to tune the carburetors but overheating was always an issue. The carburetors were so hot from the engine even with the Swirl Torque aluminum spacers that they would evaporate the bowls empty in a short time after shutting down. At the time the only spacers I could find for the bolt configuration of my manifold were made of aluminum so I made my own 1 and 3/8" plywood spacers from MDX and that reduced the bowl temps from 180 degrees to 110 degrees! One of the best things I did for the fuel system. My Holley mechanical pump blew out a check valve which caused me to die at the starting line at the dragstrip. Bummer! So I updated to a Holley Blue electric pump and I installed a 3/8" fuel line from the tank. I re-routed the line in the engine compartment so as to run up the passenger fender to the pressure regulator. The line was also heavily insulated from the firewall forward. The fuel lines from the regulator crossed above the engine via braided -6AN lines to the carburetors. I initially used a single line to a custom made fuel block but later switched to a line for each carburetor. The headers caused the paper label on my oil filter to burn off, so I made an aluminum shield which fixed it. The heatshield for the starter needs to be replaced every couple years as it eventually gets fried from the heat. I had also made a heatshield for the mechanical fuel pump as suggested by our old ally Don Dulmage.

At this point I had turned 70 and decided to start driving LeRoar and retire the racing option. I sold off my dual carburetor stuff, including the converter, and I went with a basic OEM hydraulic, (note hydraulic, not a solid cam like all the other camshafts). I swapped back to my original heads which were set-up with hardened seats. I even installed my stock 2 barrel manifold and carburetor. The transmission had been replaced with a 1965 cable shift from a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere owned by Michael Harding. So I had a new driveshaft made for the ball and trunion to u-joint configuration and bought a new stock converter. This did not last long. I hated the combo. I tried a 7503 Weiand with an Eddy four barrel and it was no better.

So I bit the bullet and decided to go back to the 264 cam with the 7503 Weiand. I was thinking I wanted EFI and had swapped a brand new stock 7503 for a dynamite re-done 7503 with EFI bungs and fuel rails. Magnificent work by Kevin Mignosa. I got involved with the new Windtunnel Poly SS-X manifold and had to have one. So perhaps the final set-up will be this one with the SS-X manifold, the 264 Schneider cam, a 2000 stall converter, 3:23 SureGrip gears and soon the new cast valve covers. I have not had the car out much yet but I can tell it is a very nice driving street set-up and it feels quite strong when you push the go pedal. The torque seems very much improved at this point. I will not be racing regularly but I will have to run LeRoar a few times so I can make a comparison with previous set-ups.