Projects 1930 Dodge DC8 Roadster - Sleeper

G'day Guys,

I hope it is ok to post this here.

I am building a 1930 Dodge DC8 Roadster with my brother and my Dad at the moment.

The plan for the car is that it will be an externally stock standard looking car restored to quite a high standard, but under the bonnet have the original 220ci straight 8 built up to provide quite a bit more power and hopefully surprise quite a lot of people .

We plan to use the car for road events and historic hill climbs and circuit racing here in Australia.

At the moment we are planning to increase the compression, port the block, use two Stromberg 97's, build a set of headers and put a much hotter cam in it. We are expecting to make 120+hp.

I am looking for an intake for it, please see wanted add here.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...sler-straight-8-thickstun-2x2-intake.1022906/

A bit of history

The car was saved from a paddock in outback New South Wales in 1982.



We bought it from him in 2002 - This is it loaded up for the trip home



We did the chassis and woodwork while I was in collage.





We are currently working on the steel work with local panel work genius Peter Tomasini - Here are a few pics.







With all the patches made the body is now off for welding.





Hope you guys enjoy.

Cheers

Stewart

 

Tom Peach and Peter Tomasini so excellent work.

 

Stewart, re the twin carb intake you are chasing......are you sure it will fit the 1930 engine?.........it may have been made for the later mid 30's onwards Chrysler/De Soto straight 8's.........also Tom Raven here in the Clarence Valley has a couple of 1930ish straight 8 Dodges, a restored sedan and a coupe or roadster.......Andy Douglas

 

Stewart, just checked the Rodders Journal Vintage Catalog Box set I have and a twin carb intake by Edmunds is listed in both the 1950 Almquist Engineering and 1952 Bell Auto Parts catalogs.......its part # ECC8-1-4, $60.00 from Almquist and $66.00 from Bell Auto..............BUT both catalogs show it only to suit the Chrysler/Desoto 8 from 1937 to 1949/50.............do you know whether the intakes interchange from 1930 up?..............andyd

 

Thanks Andy,

I know Tom well, in fact he and I bought our cars from the same guy down in Newcastle.

I understand all the small series (non imperial) Chryslers 8's are interchangeable in terms of intake. I have had my hands on various Chrysler Straight 8's up to 1939 and while there are subtle changes the port spacing etc remains the same and the cylinder heads all fit across the engines etc. I am yet to get my hands on a post war engine however.

The Edmunds manifold also looks like a great product but the Thickstun is a bit more smooth. I have a friend in the USA who is running an Edmunds on a 1931 Chrysler CD 8 which great success.

I would consider one of those also if it were available.

Many Thanks

Stewart

 

Fine project.Like to see the engine.Nice workspace too.

 

I don't have any photos of the Dodge engine yet, but here are some photos from when we built the Straight 8 for my fathers 1930 DeSoto 8 about 15 years ago.

The Dodge DC 8 and the DeSoto CF8 share the same engine execpt that the Dodge got an extra 1/4 of an inch of stroke to give 220ci against the DeSoto's 207ci.

Before the crank went in.



Note the oil pipe work out the side of the block is custom to allow for a full flow oil filter and the weld that can be seen on the rods is a shell bearing conversion using bearings from a Nissan Patrol.



Valves being installed


And this is the car it is in.



It was a stock rebuild except for the use of a 32 Ford V8 Cam profile, slightly increased compression and cut down valve guides. It made 36kw / 45hp at the wheels on a tuning run (we never really flogged it on the dyno) and comfortable does 50-55mph on the highway.

 

Stewart, that's interesting re the interchangability of the intake & head, its good to learn something..........I know that when a mate, Russell Cope was restoring his 1937/38 Imperial Limo 35/40 yrs ago he hada lot of problems trying to find info here in Oz regarding the straight 8's, ended up selling the car unfinished to Les Sonter who did finish the resto......funny thing was that the starter motor or lack thereof which was creating a real problem was solved by contacting Halvosons Boats who used the Chrysler 8 regularly in the big cruizers they built and had a few spare starters......yrs ago I called into Nicks Motor Wreckers in Melbourne just after they had imported a pile of old hotrod & custom parts from an old speed shop in the USA and they had a couple of new 8 cylinder finned heads standing against the roller door.......lol......this was the mid/late 70's and at the time I remember thinking just who in their right mind would want such things......lol........Nicks closed yrs ago so dunno whatever happened to these and other stuff............regards, andyd

 

Looking good, and cool that it is a Dodge....

 

Nice project. Nice Dodge.

 

Yes i am enjoy it

thanks for share

 

Thanks Guys!

Andy D, I have heard of the boat motors before, in fact a friend of mine is building a Chrysler Airflow using one of those Cylinder heads you speak of and I am current wrecking out a Chrysler straight 8 engine out of a boat which has a very rusty block.

Cheers

Stewart