My 1972 Plymouth Duster 340

Hi, my name is Bruce, and welcome to my site.

It's all about my 1972 Plymouth Duster 340 I acquired and have been working on. I'm not totally obsessed about date codes and originality. I am restoring this car to suit my taste. No trailer queen here. I drive this car a lot, I wouldn't have bought it if I wasn't going to drive it.

This site will be updated often as I detail the restoration efforts, and modifications I will be making to my Mopar

For roughly six months I had been scanning the classifieds in the local paper for a 60's or early 70's Mopar suitable for restoration. I had given up scanning the classifieds for 2 or 3 weeks when at lunch one day, I decided to check them just in case. There to my amazement was an ad for a 72 Duster 340 4-spd, immaculate, for a very reasonable price.

This is my second Duster, my first being a 1974 Duster 360, red with black stripes. This 72 has a black vinyl roof, black interior recently restored with a black vinyl split bench, black carpet, and 4 spd. The Duster has 14" Rally Wheels with the rear wheels having been split in two, and then an insert welded in to widen them. I may replace the Chrysler Rally wheels with a set of centerlines, but that hasnt really been decided and carved in stone yet.

A pair of air shocks out back, give the Duster a pronounced nose down stance. The airshocks are destined for the trash bin as they have no business being on a mopar

When I went to see the car the owner said this Mopar didnt idle well when cold so we let it warm up a couple of minutes and then we went for a spin round the block. After it was warmed up, I nailed the throttle in first gear and it just cooked the 60 series tires right through 2nd gear. It pulls strong all the way through fourth gear.

I try not to beat the motor but you cant have a nice car and NOT run it hard on occasion.

The first thing I started to work on was the Holley 4150 carburetor. It turned out the throttle body of the 650 double pumper had a hairline crack in it, which was causing it to leak fuel, and I found a blown power valve inside. The blown power valve made it idle rich enough to make your eyes water! I replaced the cracked part with a new design that prevents backfires in the carb from blowing the power valve and then rebuilt the carb. It now idles well, and just plain hauls ass. ;-)

If you ever have a Holley 4150, they are quite easy to rebuild, and Holley has all kinds of info at their web site if you need assistance with any aspects of the carbs. I recommend this highly, you'll find it very helpful in rebuilding and tuning.

Mail me at: abysmali@gte.net