Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

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Topic: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

Posted By: overdrive75 on 05/05/09 01:15pm

Has anybody every put Headers on their 360 in the Class C? Thanks ahead of time for the info.

Posted By: Skyliner on 05/05/09 10:12pm

Not sure if I am in the right place to ask this question, but here goes.
I have a 76 Dodge RV with 8x16.5 tires. I am wondering if anyone would know if the 8x16 rims from a mid 90's Ford would fit on this vehicle. With the price of the 16.5's I would really prefer to switch to 16's, and I found a great deal on the full set of 6 tires on a Ford at the local scrap yard. The lug pattern looks the same but I am concerned that something may be different and not work out. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 05/05/09 10:29pm

Skyliner wrote:

Unless they're for late model Ford, they should fit. Early Fords and Dodges used the same bolt pattern -- 8 x 6.5". Measure center to center on the opposite bolt holes.

Late model Fords went to a larger bolt circle, 200mm if I recall correctly.

Late model Chevy (Silverado, etc.) went to the 8 x 6.5" pattern but the hub (center) hole is slightly smaller so they won't fit Dana 70 rear axles without modification.

1970 Explorer Class A on a 1969 Dodge M300 chassis with 318 cu. in. (split year)
1972 Executive Class A on a Dodge M375 chassis with 413 cu. in.
1973 Explorer Class A on a Dodge RM350 (R4) chassis with 318 engine & tranny from 1970 Explorer Class A

Posted By: ALnCORY on 05/06/09 09:17am

Griff, do you know about what year Ford changed bolt pattern? I have the 16.5's also but not sure what to be looking for to change them out... thanks,
Al

I don't think anyones dying statement ever contained the words "I wish I had spent more time in the office", so lets go somewhere!

Posted By: chinook440 on 05/06/09 03:18pm

Skyliner wrote:

One thing that might be different is how the rims are centered . The old dodge duallys that i,m familiar with had stud centered / coined hub rims. Older fords had the same arragement as well until 1983 or so and dodge used this style up until 1993. I,ve heard of some people running flat flanged/hub centered later model rims on the old dodges with mixed reviews.

I had the same problems finding 16.5" tires for my rig so a few weeks ago i bought a complete set of 16" rims from an 85 dodge D350 pickup with the correct coined lug holes.
If you take off one of your rims and see that the rims have a alternating raised /dished countersink on them you have coined hubs.

Posted By: overdrive75 on 05/06/09 05:19pm

Question on spark advanced. The information on the 360 says 0 Degrees top dead center. I am set 5 degress advanced. I talked friend that worked at Chrysler back in the day and he said the heavy truck engines were really sluggish on spark to meet emissions of the day. He said to set the timing 10 degrees advanced, and go no more that 15. That would give me some more power. Anyone heard of this.

Thanks

Posted By: chinook440 on 05/07/09 06:04am

Yes It,s very common to run more initial timing than the stock specs , as long as it doesn,t make your engine ping or hard to turn over .
One thing you have to watch out for though is that it doesn,t raise your total timing with the mechanical advance to much and cause detonation at higher rpm. Somewhere between 30 to 38 degrees total timing without the vacuum can hooked up is the general limit ,each vechicle/engine combo is different.
You,ll need an advance/dial back timing light to check the total advance and rev the engine up to around 3000 rpm or so. If needed you can limit the amount of mechanical advance by careful welding and filing the advance slots the proper amount or buy a new distributor that has adjustable slots. Either way it,s well worth the $ or effort for the increase in performance.

Posted By: Leeann on 05/07/09 06:10am

We set ours to 15° BTDC, but it pinged a bit too much, so we set it back to 8° BTDC, where it runs fine (the spec on the 440 is 7½° BTDC).

So try 15° and see how it does. If it pings, then back off a little at a time until it stops pinging.

'73 Concord 20' Class A w/Dodge 440 - see profile for photo

Posted By: overdrive75 on 05/07/09 06:48am

Thanks for the info. I am going to do this this weekend. I will pass on the results. On a side note, I finally drove it last night with the new plugs and the choke opening properly. I think those plugs where the main problem it runs better than it ever has. 70 mph on the freeway without even thinking about it. So maybe I will get a little more out of the spark advance, and it won't work near as hard and need less throttle to run down the road. I will post results.

Posted By: Leeann on 05/07/09 06:56am

Excellent - thanks [emoticon]

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