TLouisJ

Rat Rods Rule

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TLouisJ

Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2015
Messages
24
Location
Eugene/Springfield Oregon
Hi all, I'm 67yrs old, live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon a couple of hours south of Portland, but grew up in Eastern Oregon farm country in the 50's and 60's. Dad was a gifted mechanic, and I followed him around his shops as a kid. I've built a few hot rods through the years. 20 years ago I built a 440 powered '41 Dodge pickup that I still have, and am currently working on a 20s-30s roadster pickup with a 300 ci inline Ford 6. Since the frame is mostly from a 1925 Ford Model TT (Ton Truck) I refer to it as a RaTT Rod. I found this site after Googling for info about building a windshield frame. Good info. :) Terry
 
TLouisJ '41 Dodge rat rod

Built this old Dodge 21 years ago before Rat Rod was a term. Took a '71 Plymouth Fury front frame section, grafted it to a '67 Dodge 1/2 ton frame, '71 440 from a New Yorker, Power Steering/power disc brakes/torsion bar front suspension/727 auto/ 8 3/4 3.90 posi. Found a complete turbocharger set up off a 440 powered motor home and ran it blown for years, but pulled it off eventually because of bad gas. Still have it.
 

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Welcome from New Mexico. Glad you're here.
Nice old Dodge.
Is the turbo set up for the 440 for sale? I have a '48 Dually with a 440 that might like a breath of fresh air.
 
Turbo is long gone. It was an interesting set up . It took me awhile to figure out ways to make it work good though. It was a typical "Draw through" with the manifold adaptor split into 2 chambers. The air was pulled through the Edelbrock 750 Carb, into the top chamber through a pipe to be compressed in the turbo which was attached to the passenger exhaust manifold, then back through another pipe into the bottom chamber and into the intake manifold. This in effect put the carb about 3 feet away from the intake manifold, with resulting in hard starting, turbo lag at WOT and lean detonation under full power. I solved this by mounting a high pressure ( FI) fuel pump in the engine compartment with a T in the gas line, welded a "bung" in the return pipe pointing at an angle to the area where it entered the bottom chamber and mounted a single Fuel Injector in that bung. I had a button on the steering wheel and a 5 pound electrical pressure switch in the intake manifold. So when starting cold, I'd hit the button and shoot a spray of fuel into the intake manifold to start up. When I was about mash the pedal, I'd give it a shot of fuel to eliminate the lag, and when the intake hit 5 pounds of boost the pressure switch would activate the set up. Also in Mid 70's Fords the distributors had a vacuum advance that would advance and retard, so I modified one of those. It would retard the ignition about 6 degrees at 5 pounds of boost ( the waste gate was at 7 I think). It actually worked very well. That old truck really hauled butt when I poured the coal to it. Still does without the blower. :) TJ
 
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Welcome from the right coast...I spent about a year in Klamath Falls OR back in 1990...[P
 

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