SO,what do you think ???

reborn73 said:

'73 Challenger, 340 completely stock and original.

110K miles and in super shape.

The question is..................

Since I am having the engine "freshened up", should I "warm" it up a bit and add some go fast parts to the internals???

I am keeping the car as close to OEM as possible and don't want to screw things up.

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I think you answered your own question with the last sentence. If you do anything, just a small cam.

Yes, since you have the low compression 340, I'd bring it up to 71 and earlier 340 specs. That is I'd install some 2.02 valve heads with hardened valve seats so you can run unleaded gas, bump the compression, maybe add a mopar purple shaft cam or the older 340 manual trans cam and a set of headers. Now that's just me and having owned a few 340 cars in the past I always felt the need to squeeze a few more ponies out of them. The 340 is a good motor but after 71 the power dropped a good bit, so again if it was me I'd warm it to the earlier specs or a bit better. Good luck with your decision.

Unless it's some sort of rare numbers matching type car that's worth a ton in original condition, I would make it faster. If you're already tearing the motor down to freshen it up, might as well make it faster.

If your goal is to keep it all original though, then no, don't touch it, just leave it alone.

I couldn't leave my Nova alone so now it's much faster than it was when I first bought it. It wasn't anything all that special though in original condition, just a nice old car, not a rare Yenko or COPO, etc. Much more fun to drive now than stock. Just depends on your overall goal.

70barcuda said:

Yes, since you have the low compression 340, I'd bring it up to 71 and earlier 340 specs. That is I'd install some 2.02 valve heads with hardened valve seats so you can run unleaded gas, bump the compression, maybe add a mopar purple shaft cam or the older 340 manual trans cam and a set of headers. Now that's just me and having owned a few 340 cars in the past I always felt the need to squeeze a few more ponies out of them. The 340 is a good motor but after 71 the power dropped a good bit, so again if it was me I'd warm it to the earlier specs or a bit better. Good luck with your decision.

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This^^ maybe not the headers, 202 heads and a 68 340 cam and leave the external pieces stock.

The 1973 doesn't draw the money the 70 and 71 did. Beef it up and don't worry about value when you sell it.

^^^^ what they said unfortunately for reasons I don't know ( because I love them ) they just don't get big money . I would leave it stock in appearance and make the internals strong and fast . It's never going to a " rare " car , but a great car to drive and enjoy . :smileup:

Didn't it come with 2.02 heads, just less compression? I'm not sure. Either way you could do a mild port job on the heads, add a little cam, pistons to bring up the compression ratio, and some headers. The headers will not look stock but will help on the power.

Thanks for the input. I know it's not rare at all except for the fact that it is almost 100 % original as it sits now and all #'s matching.

I'm not out for break neck speed, just checking to see what you'all thought since I have the engine/trans out and doing a major clean up.

You see, I owned the car as a teen in the late 70's, (bought it from the original owner that lived down the street from me) traded it off on a new car in '83 and just found it on Ebay the first of Dec. and bought it back.

The value is PRICELESS for me at this point. It was a once in a lifetime score for me to find it again. It sat in the dealer's collection warehouse for the 30 years that he had it.

I love a car got back story . Is there anything better no mater what car it is ( and yours is a challenger ) . This is undoubtably your car do with it as you please . :smileup:

I disagree. Probably a thermoquad not an AFB and even then either one can be made to run great with a thermoquad flowing a lot of air.