Hello Everyone! getting further on bringing the Duster back to a respectable shape! Im at the point where i have to order some stuff for the engine (360ci) i took the heads off, and the cylinder wall looks brand new, so for now the stock short block is staying in, but im looking into Edelbrock heads. thats where my question comes: Ive seen in a couple of magazines that when using the Edelbrock heads they go with the stud mount rocker arms w/ chevy rockers retrofitted,as opposed to thestock style shaft mount rockers. Is one better than the other, cheaper maybe, but what about better? which would you go with: stud or shaft mount?
Now, since ive gotten such good help here, and i dont have a deep enough depth of knowledge to give backthrough giving reliable advice, heres a few pics. of a salvage yard that i snuck (not knowing if the owner was ok with pics) and one pic. of our new dash just to show off as thanks for all your help!

Some background about the salvage yard: i went there when i was 4 with my dad, the only thing different is that there are fewer cars out there, he said he'd normally get 6 cars a year, but now hes only getting one if hes lucky. There are still about20-25 A-bodies, 5 or so E-bodies, and acouple B-bodies.Before it was an all domestic pre 1980's cars, but its dwindled down to basically a mopar only yard (still pre 1980). theres a whole block of cars about 30 total that i did not take a picture of, but heres what i did take!










The rewards!


And the new dash!
If you want to see more about the car, feel free to go to my car domain
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2909978
Thanks!

 

I love the new dash! I am working on my other Demon now and would love to see or hear how you did the dash. The one thing I cant figure out is how to do the headlight and wiper switches. My other Demon is pretty much stock interior wise and an original 340 car so I dont want to mess with it too much, but the one I am working on now is a 71 6 cyl car, so I am pretty much pro-streeting it. I have an extra 5.7L HEMI that I picked up, so I may try to retro fit it into the Demon, how cool would that be!

 

The 5.7 would be amazing, for a while i was looking into retrofitting a t-56 6 speed to the 360, but the cost and difficulty stopped me. I bought aftermarket switches for the headlight and wiper, since the old ones were worn, and im using a complete painless kit, might as well get the switches too. ill post some more pics of the dash, and how its made later, for now theres some on my car domain.

 

i have just bought my first muscle car, 1971 swinger 318 etc... i want to keep the 318 but i want power. i have been looking around at some sites and found that 400+hp is reasonable. they all keep the shaft mounted rockers for the weight savings over stud, lower weight means higher rpm possibilities.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng...ar_318_engine/

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/t..._engine_build/

these are two engine builds using the 318, both on the cheap, both making nice power. Basically my answer is I would use the stock set-up, its good enough and it wont cost you anything more.

 

Hey everyone, i think with the help of the articles fromtomcopbar. I have decided to go with the shaft mount rockers, because as the article from popular hot rodding said, the aluminum rockers restricted their peak rpm by at least 600 rpm (claiming a peak of 6700 rpm)! Plus, the stock rockers are still good, and as long as they wont restrict me from using COMP's new "motha thumper" cam, theres no reason to replace them. thanks for the help!
Horseapples, for you or anyone else that wants to see more about the gauges and how the cluster was made, heres some pictures


Just cut out of thick gauged steel, outline was traced from old dash.


Then I went to a local shop and asked for some scrap exhaust tubing.


Bondo'd up the corners, weld joints, and such.


side view.


you guys have already seen the finished, ill take more pics as the intrerior progresses, if anyone has any specific questions about anything just ask