Once Mike called and spoke with Mark, he
delivered his car to Street & Performance personally where Marks
team would perform the 5.7 Hemi transplant.
The easy part was to remove the 440 engine and
5-speed transmission for the car. Once this was done, Mark Kincaid who
is the resident installation tech, was able to start the process of
custom fabricating the 5.7 engine mounts.
We lowered the bare 5.7 into position; from here
we can determine what will be needed to bolt the engine back to the
stock 440 mounts. We also had to check the hood clearance on the new
custom aluminum intake manifold from S&P.
We found that the stock rear sump oil pan would
hit the drag link. To fabricate the engine mount plates, we had to
remove the stock oil pan. Later we will install a new mid sump oil pan.
Mike Crowell of Newburgh, Indiana after seeing
Tony Squires 1955 5.7 Hemi powered F100 at the Mopar Nationals in
Columbus, Ohio, he contacted Mark Campbell and the team of Street &
Performance in Mena, Arkansas about installing a 5.7 Hemi into his 1970
Challenger Convertible. Mike and Mark decided to have the project
finished in time for SEMA 2003 which only left three and a half weeks.
Mark Kincaid fabricated these engine plate to
mount the 5.7 into the 440 frame mounts. These engine plates are now a
new product offered by S&P.
Shown here are the engine plates mounted to the
block and setting in the 440 frame mounts.
Since the car already had a tremec 5-speed, we
contacted Keisler Automotive Engineering located in Knoxville, TN for
an adapter kit to mount the transmission to the 5.7 Hemi and a rear
transmission mount.
Earlier we found that the stock rear sump oil pan
would not work because of the drag link hitting. To correct this
problem, we contacted Charlie’s Oil Pans located in Norton, Ohio,
who provided us with this mid sump aluminum oil pan. When you change
the pan to a mid sump, you must also have the oil pick-up tube
modified.
There was not much clearance between the oil
filter and the front crossmember, so, we used a oil filter
adapter from a 5.7 Hemi 4X4 which angled the filter toward the
radiator.
Because injection systems must have a higher fuel
pressure to operate, we chose to have Rock Valley Gas Tanks build us a
stainless steel tank with the fuel pump installed.
In order to keep from having the fuel regulator
put into the tank, we used a 99 Corvette fuel filter kit with adapters
from S&P, which regulates the fuel and returns excess fuel back to
the tank.
With the fuel lines installed, the tank is put
into place and we can continue detailing the engine and preparing it
for installation.
