The Slant Six is a Mopar mainstay, but if given the chance to swap a complete 340 and 727 Torqueflite from a ’70 ‘Cuda into your Slant Six Dart, especially when it’s a factory Go Mango car, many of our hands would go up and stay there. That’s what the owner of this ’70 Dodge Dart Swinger decided to do upon finding a numbers-matching (to the ‘Cuda) drivetrain go up for auction back in 2006 (according to the documentation). Thus, from Orange, California, we have this very orange (cough, mango) Dart with a street-racer vibe and a fairly reasonable price tag. It’s on eBay with an asking price of $21,900 or best offer.
The 340 small-block is one of Mopar’s most legendary muscle engines, a classic overachiever. Even today at Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race events, you’ll see 340s taking down much bigger iron. Rated at 275 horsepower, NHRA almost immediately refactored it at 310 horsepower when it was introduced in 1968, and modern dyno tests show that 320 horsepower and up is not uncommon. The owner of this Dart has taken the 340 a step or two further with TTI headers, an MSD ignition, and a set of Flowmasters. It also has a front disc brake conversion (with no power assist, so bring your leg muscles), an 8 3/4″ rear end with 3.23:1 gears and a Sure Grip, a front end rebuild with PST components, and more. (Yes, it does have power steering, so you don’t have to bring your biceps).
Aside from the “’80s speed shop” steering wheel, the interior looks like the car still has its 225 Slant Six. It has a black bench seat, column shifter, and plastic upholstery covers. If it weren’t for the factory Go Mango paint (verified by the fender tag), it would look like a basic grocery getter, 1970 style. The interior is in nice, original shape overall, but there is a torn seam in the headliner.
The extremely solid trunk appears to still be wearing its factory coat of paint. The exterior has certainly been treated to a new paint job at some point in the past, with perhaps a vinyl top change; my decoding seems to point to an original black vinyl top. Regardless, the white top looks nice with the mango and aside from a blemish on the fender, the seller says that the body and paint are “A+.”
The seller has included pictures with basic hubcaps, no hubcaps, and a set of Cragars, so it’s a bit of a “choose your own adventure” Dart. Whatever you choose, it’s hard to not have an adventure with a 340-powered A-Body. Let’s see a show of hands; who’s OK with the engine swap?
I say it all the time, because I’ve seen it. Put 3.91s ⚙️ in these and they fly down the 1/4 with very impressive times and trap speed. Big blocks better be ready on the street lites 🚥 too. Little liteweight speedsters. 🏁
That’s right, Stan. I snoozed on a 69 340 Swinger in my 455 Olds at a stoplight back in the day. I got schooled, quickly, pun intended. Ever since that day, I have had a healthy respect for the 340 mill. One helluva small block.
exactly my thought!! i had a 70 aar and one gave me a run !!!! very fast
Very nice looking car, and a great upgrade or three!
Nice upgrade, but what kind of moron takes a 340 out of a running and driving, “not a rust bucket”, numbers-matching, 45,000 mile, ‘Cuda and puts it into a Dart? Leave the ‘Cuda alone and buy a crate engine next time!
Perhaps one that has excessive past due registration fees or a…questionable ownership history? As in the last registered owner doesn’t know where it is?
A friend works for the CHP, their office does VIN verifications, often for cars being brought into the state. There have been several occasions where a Pro Touring car with late model drivetrain that the VIN on the engine came up as coming from a car that had been reported stolen. I’m not sure what the ultimate dispositions were, but he said several of the cars in question were sent back to dealers and the buyers were refunded their purchase prices.
Steve R
its kind of rough the work is sketchy
The seller utters not a single word about the condition that the Cuda was in. It is highly doublful that the engine was pulled from a restorable / drivable car.
Most likely, it was a total / rust bucket / or some other thing that prevented that car from seeing the road ever again.
Okay, I take my last comment back. I see where the Cuda is mentioned – a picture of the engine when the seller bought it from an auction back in 2006.
You can’t blame the seller of the car for pulling the engine out of the Cuda, he bought it from the lunatic who did that.
Who orders a1970 Dodge Dart in Go Mango with a six banger and not the 340?
Nobody would order one with a slant six, but dealerships would get them in to attract customers .I’ve seen plenty of the Impact colors on 6cyl cars – 70 Duster in Mulan Rouge (repainted chocolate brown) 71 Swinger in Plum Crazy and I once owned a Sassy Grass Green Duster that was an absolute base model ; 198 with a 3 speed , no ps ,pb, ac, no outside trim , poverty caps, rubber mats, no radio . With 17 colors available , a dealership could have a rainbow of colors so they’d have the right car a person was looking for
And why not? Color doesn’t make it go faster but regular folks like cool colors, too. Go man go.
Over my lifetime, I have brought more vehicles than I care to remember into California from other states (and countries, including an ex-West German army Unimog radio truck with paperwork in German and an ambulance from Canada- I am currently looking at a vehicle in Portugal). Every time, I paid a licensed California VIN inspector to come to my home (about $75.00, IIRC) to do the verification, then off to the DMV with the completed inspection form, typically without issue. The VIN inspector never looked at the engine or other components- door and dashboard data plates only, and confirmed that they had the original OEM fasteners attaching them to the vehicle. My inspector indicated that the DMV was not that happy with peace officers doing VIN verifications- a lot of messed up/incomplete paperwork resulted. On vehicles that seemed like they were going to be an issue (flaky paper trail, etc), like the Unimog, I sent everything off to a civilian registration contractor in California (a retired DMV employee who really knew the system) and within a week or two, a clean title, current registration and license plates arrived at my home. The cost was about $350.00, but well worth it to avoid a DMV nightmare experience. This information is possibly dated, and the process may be tighter today, but for me, back in the day, VIN verification was a just a minor required step in the acquisition of a non-California vehicle.
As I liked to mostly collect older trucks (no smog test required), it was really a bummer having to weigh them at a commercial scale in order to register them. One time, I purchased a non-running Dodge W-200 crewcab pickup from the Midwest. I had to hire a tilt bed, transport it to the scale, unload it, weigh it and then winch it back on to the tilt bed, and return it to my home, as the DMV would not accept the weight shown in the Dodge factory manual. THAT was a hassle.
Mango, that is a lot of orange!! The white top sets it off nicely. I far prefer the Cragers over the other wheels. I have absolutely no problem with the 340 mods, especially with all the other upgrades to the car to balance the power.
Pulling it from ‘Cuda seems odd but the Hemi swaps are bringing so much money that it is certainly possible.
The price is in the ballpark and it might be just the right car for someone.
Yeah, like you guys I’m scratching my head why the guy with the 1970 Cuda pulled the engine and transmission and sold it? Would be nice if they left some information about this in their eBay ad when they sold the engine.
Either way it’s in a happy home and this car looks really nice! While Crager’s are nice, I actually prefer the look of this car with just the steel wheels and no hubcaps. I like the extra long studs showing in the rear. Gives it street racer vibes.
The 340 is a cool engine. I knew a guy that was a Mopar specialist on one of the E-body forums and he said stock for stock, he didn’t see a 383 powered car faster than a 340 powered car.
Drivers race Philbo. 🏁 👍
The engine compartment is worth the price of admission
yes i like the heater core
As Derick Bieri from Vice Grip Garage says about Craig’s List rebuilds. The spray can rebuild. The seller will say that the engine has been rebuilt but in reality only a spray paint rebuild. That engine bay has a lot of paint. Looks clean enough to eat off.