Altered State



 
 Dave Gagliardo spends his days as a mechanical Designer in Tampa, Florida. In '97, he ran across this beater '73 Duster for $595 , and took the opportunity to exercise his skills and create a ride that's truly one of a kind. Dave would spend the next 5 years modifying, updating, or totally changing almost every piece of the car. To help stick to his goals, the first item on Dave's list was a custom plate to remind him of the finished product... MY440 8U.
Starting with the chassis, Dave upgraded everything to bullet-proof, NHRA legal specs. Chassis Engineering supplied him with a 12-point cage and ladder bar back-half kit. A Dana 60 was narrowed and filled with a Trac-Loc diff, 4.56 gears and Strange S/T 35 spline axles. Stock rear drums were used for stopping power.  Eagle Double Adjustable coil-overs compliment the ladder bars. Power hits the pavement through 15X15 Convo-Pros wearing 19.5X33 M/T's. A 727 was built by Lip Shifted Performance Transmissions, and includes a Turbo Action Tranzbox and manual valve body, an A&A bolt-in sprag, master bushing kit, Mp deep pan, and a B&M supercooler. A 9.5" Dynamic converter flashes to 4500rpm.
Up front, the 73 disks were retained, as were the Slant 6 torsion bars and manual steering. A PST kit replaced the worn out stock bushings, and Competition Engineering provided 3-way adjustable shocks. 

 

The sheer volume of body and tin-work on this car is just staggering. 
Inside, a 2-piece, vinyl convered, aluminum removable transmission tunnel was built. Polished stainless dash panel, custom made gauge panel Autometer Ultra-Lite gauges and Autometer monster tach. A Hurst Quarter Stick takes care of gear changes. Not shown is custom bead work on the rear floor tin. Summit seats make for lightweight comfort and a Grant wheel increases road feel. A Painless Performance 12 circuit Pro-Street harness and 8-switch panel replaced the dried-out factory wiring, and a GM 110 amp 1-wire alternator keeps it all alive.


 
Mods to the rest of the body include custom made aluminum inner splash panels, shaved drip rails, filled gas filler door, filled antenna hole, custom front bumper brackets, rear wheel openings were stretched 4.5", and a race-style fuel filler door was added to the trunk lid. New side marker lights, door handles, and locks were also installed. The bumpers, hood and trunk lid are glass, and the A&A aero scoop was installed to maximize fresh air intake.



 
 The whole thing was then shot with urethane base/clear in '75 'Vette yellow. As you can see, the results of all this work were spectacular.

 
Last but not least, the fire for this dragon comes from a '71 440. The block was bored 0.030, deburred, align bored and honed, and zero decked at 10.700". ProGram main caps are used with ARP main studs. The machine work was performed by Oddy/Perfection Race Engines in Sarasota.
A stock steel crank was used along with Eagle H-beam rods. Ross forged flat tops and C&A rings hold compression at 11.4:1.
A Hughes solid cam specs out at 257/266 dur. @ .050 and .626/.642 lift with 1.6 rockers. Edelbrock Performer Aluminum heads were milled .050 to raise compression and hold 2.14/1.81 valves. The 1.6 rockers are Crane Gold Race Rollers. An MP M1 4150 intake has an Indy adapter with a Holley 1050 Dominator.
Spark is handled by and MSD Pro-Billet distributor with mechanical advance, MSD Digital 6 plus box, Blaster HVC coil and Accel 300+ Racing wires. Spent fuel exits via Pro-Parts semi-fenderwell headers into Aluminized 3" pipes and Straightline Performance 3" mufflers. A 2.5" H-pipe improves performance and mellows the exhuast note a bit. The whole thing is held in by a polished custom motor plate.

 

 
 
With the exception of the transmission and engine machine work, all this work was done by Dave himself in his 2-car garage. Dave mentions this was his first engine project as well, and credits Moparts.com members Dan Costello and Gary Davis for their assistance in the initial startup and tuning of the engine.
5 years after Dave pulled a ragged slant 6 into his driveway, his 2908lb Duster ran a 7.16 @ 99 in the eighth mile. He admits his poor strip skills kept him from running 6.90's but once he gets a handle on this beast he'll be hitting 6's.

MY440 8U ... Mission Accomplished.

 
Email Dave

 
 
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