My friend has a white with red interior dart here with the 225 and pushbutton trans. i'm having a hard time finding alot about this trans, i think its the torqueflite A-904? also she only has a single barrel carb (i didnt look too hard and i'm more used to cycle/moped carbs) and i thought that the 225 came with a 2 barrel? the current engine is painted mopar orange, she's getting a spare engine which we'll probably rebuild and swap in, along the way i'd like to do what i can for cheap and for free to get a little more pep out of it. what can i do? where can i do it? and where do i get it? (sounds like the oldspice commercial).


a little about me....i'm 22, my gf is also 22, the owner is 38. we're all into cars to varying degrees, me being the most. most of my experience is with modern cars. i do love the lines and looks of older cars tho, but my real passion are 2 strokes. my gf has a 1977 cimatti citybike with a polini 75cc topend, bored 14mm carb, and modded stock exhaust. it does a zippy 40mph with the stock gearing and she has a blast riding it, makes her grin from ear to ear. i know that the owner of this car will be the same way once its going and looking good, i love to make people smile! i am familiar with how carbs work, point/breaker ignition, and some of the older stuff like rocker arms and pushrods but i'll need a little help along the way. we'll get a reprint factory manual online for the car which will help...but i hope that this community can help fill in the gaps and help us out some!

she has a bunch of spare parts shes getting along with the spare engine, what we dont use we'll be selling. keep an eye out for parts!

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

welcome to the site! nice to see another younger guy getting into these, these guys know their stuff, i ask lots of questions , but i try to research the topic first using the search button up above, this site has been invaluable to me, and buying a fsm is a great idea,i havent gotten to that yet, but it would be nice to have, im hoping to get one for christmas or something, maybe youll like it enough to pick up something with a slant in it for yourself, improving on something in my dart and then driving it and it working is one of the greatest feelings for me...good luck!

nah, i'm a toyota guy myself but i appreciate it all really. my 14yr old 1.8 gets great mileage and with the little tweeking i've done its not too boring to drive.

my main questions focus around porting the head and better intake/exhaust. i know that making an engine breathe can really do miracles for how it performs or can destroy its performance when done wrong. porting can make or break it i've always heard. i have a general idea, i've done a little work on the moped engine with its intake, boring the carb from 12mm to 14.2mm and the intake to match, i know how to use a dremel tool, just need a good guide to teach me what and where you know? also the trans information, i know its not too complicated inside. if i can comprehend a 4L60-E than i think i can rebuild a A-904 TorqueFlite. i'd like to get the book for just the trans too, but i havent really seen one around the internet.

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

Welcome...
Is there a problem with the 64 Dart's transmission?

As for head porting, get a die grinder and have at it, there is a lot of performance found by porting the head.
DD

yea theres a problem with it, but i dont know what the problem is yet. i'm just going off what i was told by her, she was told by the guy who gave it to her, i'll try to ask him if i see him. as it stands now (and imo with any serious trans problem) the only fix is to rebuild it since i dont know really how bad it is, something as small as it slips into 2nd could be indicative of bigger problems like a clogged fluid passage and some smoked clutch.

good to know about the porting, i'd love to get the Clifford sidedraft setup with the 3 Webbers, it looks pretty cool and classic and looks like better (more even) fuel delivery than the stock intake manifold. i'll talk to her more about these things and see what her budget is, things like this may come after we sell some of the spare parts to generate more funds. with the stock manifold and single barrel carb, which cylinder(s) run the leanest? i'll adjust the carb from that cylinder(s) so it doesnt get lean.

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

Welcome to the site!

Yep, that's an A-904 Torqueflite. The shift mechanism is, of course, a bit different from later ones, but the internals are about the same.

The stock carb on a 225 that year would have been a one barrel. There was a two barrel setup called the Super Six that appeared in the late '70s. I agree that they should have made a two barrel the standard carb - it performs better and gets better mileage too, in my experience.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Fuel distribution with a factory SL6 manifold & carb is just about perfect so there is not much work to do in that area.
DD

i thought i read somewhere than the fuel distribution wasnt that great? but what do i know! not much about this topic yet. what i read and from looking at it sort of seemed like the middle 2 cylinders would get it a little richer than the outer 2 cylinders. i can check into it with my colortune (i dont know if it'll fit this engine, its made for cycles)

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

ok, heres the pics....sadly i think this car is worth more as parts than it'll cost to fix it. alot of the trim is in good shape.

whats the 270 mean?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5231.jpg
hasnt been on the road since 1983 evidently....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5229.jpg
dash is all orginal
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5226.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5225.jpg
looks like 95K miles on it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5221.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5220.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5219.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5218.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5216.jpg
some of the spare parts, i love the black and red, i bet that looked slick on a car

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5212.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5210.jpg
theres the number on the engine

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5211.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5205.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5204.jpg
the 'sky light'

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5200.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5199.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5198.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... G_5201.jpg


i was hoping it was in better shape, her expectations for it are prettty unrealistic considering her budget. when i said the top alone was $500 and up she gulped.

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

All things considered, it doesn't look TOO bad, considering it is 43 years old. I noticed the Homewood sticker on the windshield, I'm not far from you, if you need any advise or help with this car, let me know. I wish I had the money/space to buy this car myself, I'd love to have a convert....

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There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, and Slant Six Dusters !!!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/slantasaurus/

take a look around

thanks, i appreciate the offer of help. i'll be talking to her more about this as time goes on. if she had a complete other vert body and a fresh interior then it'd be alot more doable, but some of the vert specific panels are good n rusted. i'd have to do some decent mangling of the hardtop rear 1/4's to make them work with the top. looks like i'll have to cut the wheel wells out from the vert, repair them with patch panels, and then tack them into the hardtop 1/4's so that the folding top will work. also she needs a new floor pan, however where thats rusted i could probably cut and patch with sheet steel. its just ALOT of work and i dont know if she really understands HOW much work it is. you cant just put on the new panels and spray it with paint, i doubt she comprehends this or knows how much the materials needed cost. based on her hesitation when i mentioned the price of the top, i suspect that her budget for this doesnt have many zeros in it..possible has one zero.

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

In evaluating the car, be sure to check the chassis structure; especially the torsion bar mounts. It looks like there's a lot of rust on the lower part of the body and that contiunes to the frame rails and cross members it could realy be a deal breaker.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

thanks, i havent looked under the car at all yet, but what i can see of the frame in the engine bay looks promising. as long as theres metal left, either I or my girlfriend can weld in patches or repairs to the frame to reinforce it.

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In progress: '64 Dart Vert

A trim level, in between the base (Dart 170) and top of the line (Dart GT) models.

Chrysler had a perplexing habbit of using numbers as trim levels that sometimes matched the engine size (Dart 170, Corronet 440), sometimes didn't (you could have ordered either one without the engine size that matched the number), and sometimes had absolutely no relation to any engine Chrysler built (270, 330, 500, 880).

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

A trim level, in between the base (Dart 170) and top of the line (Dart GT) models.

Chrysler had a perplexing habbit of using numbers as trim levels that sometimes matched the engine size (Dart 170, Corronet 440), sometimes didn't (you could have ordered either one without the engine size that matched the number), and sometimes had absolutely no relation to any engine Chrysler built (270, 330, 500, 880).

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair