Dumbo The Flying Elephant

[Rod Greene]

Where are the pics of your progress? That is the fun of these posts. I'm sure Patsy has a camera handy.

[Larry Hill]

New hood will be painted like old hood!

[Larry Hill]

Its almost ready to go to the paint shop. When the car is being painted the shop will be uncluttered. Those big old boxes really eat up floor and shelf space.

Then the new learning curve will start on the new Gen 3 Hemi elephant motor. 2015 Drag Pack 392 N/A. I'm going to be lost, no carbs, no distributor, no jets to change, and its all done with a computer, This looks like a sure recipe for a disaster.

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

Surprise, I found a serial # on the car in two places. Had local dealership punch it in and zero information returned. Its like it never was made

Now entering the phase of, is this protected enough from potential over spray. Is this tight and finished or do I need to revisit.

A tip of the hat to my parts guy at the local dealership. He has helped me find the unusual parts, like the threaded backup plate for the hood hinges.

Goal today: fused test wiring harness for the car.

If this is an original dragpak ie a 09 like mine which is #53, at the time, I think the bodies may have been assembly line reject bodies(fell off, etc), or order cancellations, something like that, at least that is what I think I remember the guys on the hotline telling me, wasn't the best of times for Mopar, but the challenger was hot. Tueton or Donato would be able to fill in the details. Where was the Vin # found?

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

Its almost ready to go to the paint shop. When the car is being painted the shop will be uncluttered. Those big old boxes really eat up floor and shelf space.

Then the new learning curve will start on the new Gen 3 Hemi elephant motor. 2015 Drag Pack 392 N/A. I'm going to be lost, no carbs, no distributor, no jets to change, and its all done with a computer, This looks like a sure recipe for a disaster.

The learning curve begins.

I was given some very good advice on mine by the tuner: A dedicated laptop, only for use on the car, following the specs to the tee from the tuner, in my case old school rs232 port. I now keep a spare laptop, cheap insurance.

Attention to detail on uploading tunes is the key, naming them something unique like my fastest one named and created by Roth and Bales, royale with cheese.

Up to you, but I like to download data from every run from the ECU, and the Racepak for the dragpak. Different data paths, etc. Pull the data before you start charging, don't temp fate.

An even bigger learning curve is going to be the traction......your e-body was scienced out for max weight transfer and was likely going to hook on every decent track...Since you are starting with a built car, likely less of an issue, but the steam from a 2015 392 motor is going to be significant, good news is that for those No-prep days you can have your tune set up to retard to get you off the line.

You are either going to love the new car experience, or hate it. When the power windows are working right, its pretty sweet!

Eric

[Larry Hill]

''Royale with Cheese'' a Pulp Fiction fan? don't forget the mayonnaise for the fries. The torque from the six pack was close to 600 at the hit, it's the seven inch longer wheel base that has me concerned.

A little help here....what is a rs232 port? I was hoping to tune it with my new, to me anyway, EYE Phone V. Or is it Iphonefive.

It will be new and different for sure!

[Larry Hill]

The two places I found serial numbers. The base of passengers side lower windshield mount close to "A" pillar. To see it I had to remove windshield and dash pad. The second one is located on the drivers side interior rocker panel under the carpet and sill trim just about where the seat adjustments are. On mine it's a stippled stamping of 7H000299

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Larry Hill

''Royale with Cheese'' a Pulp Fiction fan? don't forget the mayonnaise for the fries. The torque from the six pack was close to 600 at the hit, it's the seven inch longer wheel base that has me concerned.

A little help here....what is a rs232 port? I was hoping to tune it with my new, to me anyway, EYE Phone V. Or is it Iphonefive.

It will be new and different for sure!

The rs232 port is the old serial port data connection. Dates back to the early 60's. Cable looks like the old printer connection cables. For my applications, AEM and Fast, both utilize that connector. Requires 32 bit XP laptops. The AEM is a relic, the fast is current, it should work with a usb connector, but I have a rs232 connector in my old pilot vehicle dakota. Still used in a lot of severe duty applications, military, etc.

Now using a Mac product on a race car, well, you can try anything in life once!

Tuning with a phone wirelessly that would be the latest and greatest. But also a great new excuse....I didn't miss the tree, that #$#$#@#!@ hacked my car and adjusted my two step down to 2,000 RPM!

Eric

[Larry Hill]

The car did come with a computer to download the runs. Its a small laptop with a real small keyboard, so its difficult for me to hit only one key at a time. It feels like I'm trying to type with the big end of a pool cue.

Back to work

[Larry Hill]

Yesterday was a bad day. I discovered that early driver's side drag pack headers will not work with late model heads. The attachment bolt holes on # 3 and 5 are in the wrong place. The fix is easy: buy some stainless steel, fabricate four custom fit ears, bolt header to head, tack weld ears in place. Almost forgot, make welding fixture to bolt header to to minimize distortion during welding. Let cool then weld opposite side, refinish flange side and put in service.

Today is going to be better than yesterday, the paint shop will be receiving the car @ 1:00 PM. I just have to fix leak on differential. I must have been skimpy on the sealant.

We are going to paint hood red without blacked out scoop.