Dodge Durango Forum II

Re^2: Yeah, but now you're leaving the world of reliable daily drivers...

That is not my point. No extensive mods on these cars other than a few tricks to add extra fuel and do work arounds on the computer such as eliminating fuel cut(occurs at 14.7 PSI, use zener diode to clip voltage from the MAP sensor or install pop valve in line to bleed at say 14 or so PSI so the computer wont cut). Most are stock short blocks, many have ditched the forged cranks(used in some of them, specifically the Shelby Daytonas) for the lighter cast cranks to go faster, none have reported failures of the bottom end.

Food for thought, listened to a guest speaker, Peter Bondura, former Mopar Engineer. Used to work for FORD in their drive train. His(and many others at Ford at the time)really respected the 340/360. Claimed it beat all the FORD engines in weight, power, durability. Forgot the persons(Engineer) name who was in charge of the 340 development, but this guy also did the 2.2. He overdesigned both engines on the bottom ends!

Most are daily drivers and yes some have failures, but these guys push them to the limit. Others are more conservative, keep the boost at 18 PSI for around town. Go to track, add race gas, open up the waste gate and go to 20 or 25 PSI. Alot have run this way for many years. I didnt believe it myself until I met a few. Note the stock boost is 9-11PSi, depends on the model.

I believe Gus ran his van in the 13's for two or so years until he screwed up, made a pass on high boost 25 PSI, forgot to arm the extra injector and his 2nd fuel pump. Not the cars fault. He collapsed the ring land, also forgot to watch his guage, if he had he could have lifted off the throttle and probably not wasted the engine. Of course he didnt care, the 2.5 had 100K+ on it. Some of these cars are so cheap to buy right now it is pathetic. He put another piston in and ran that way until he did a fresh motor.

My point was, some stuff is hype that is all. Not claiming MSD is no good, but my approach would be to see if I really needed an ignition up grade.

If you are going to put a blower on and run low boost, I would think you could get away with the stock. Head gasket shims dont require any mods other than installation. Try a blower with the stock motor and see what happens, but get yourself some guages. On the 2.2/2.5 Fel Pro makes a.060" shim, lowers the compression. Stock it 8.0 ish, and these will bring it down to 7.2 to 1 or so. Dont know if any one makes a shim for the 360.

Yes, getting one of these in the 11's would be quite a trick, you would find out all the weak points. It could be done if you removed a lot of weight and upped the ponies. Maybe someone will do it after they have been out there for a few years and depreciate some.

You mentioned you want to put a blower on. E-mail Gus he could give you some good pointers, he is the king of boost on a budget.

I personally dont know of any larger engines who run gobs of boost because my other cars have the turbos. How about the DAK mailing lists.
Pick the brains of other who have done so, learn from their mistakes. That is how I have learned, the folks on the other lists are great. See what they use, maybe they can save you some $$$ and grief.

Fri Sep 1