1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 – Dart Games, Revisited

Veteran readers know the story, but for the benefit of those who have arrived after 1985, it’s a tale of restoring a Dodge Swinger two times over. It all started innocently enough with a magazine attempt at the time-honored technique of bartering. In the back pages of the July 1983 issue of Car Craft, we offered a used aluminum connecting rod up for trade. A few months later, we had horse-traded up to a Muncie four-speed that Stick Only rebuilt, which we then offered up for a best-offer swap. That’s when Coralville, Iowa, reader Tom Toycen offered to trade us his ’69 Dodge 340 Dart. We actually tried to convince him to wait until the trade got better, but his mind was made up. He wanted to trade, so we obliged him. Mopar aficionado Roland Osborn offered to transport the 340-powered Swinger to Los Angeles, and within a few short weeks, a Bright Poly Blue A-body with a Swinger 340 bumblebee stripe was sitting in my driveway. I swept out the wasp nests and rat droppings, changed the carburetor to a Carburetor Shop 650 Holley, messed with the Mallory ignition for a time, and actually fired the small-block. After some further rough tuning, I decided a drag test was in order before disassembling the Swinger for its complete restoration and subsequent giveaway at the Street Machine Nationals. I barely got out of the driveway for one last road test when the engine began clanking badly and was suffering from at least one dead cylinder. I removed the driver-side valve cover and discovered a broken aluminum(!) valvespring retainer, and further inspection revealed at least three more that were badly cracked. That ended our drag-test plans.

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Photo Gallery: 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 – Dart Games, Revisited – Car Craft