esdi92’s 1992 Dodge Dynasty

Exhaust System I am running basically a 2.5" cat-back exhaust system with a typical flowmaster performance muffler (2.5" inlet, 2.5" outlet).This muffler is actually louder than the supertrapp that preceeded it (more about that on the next page) and honestly, it sounds decent on acceleration but I hate it at idle & while deaccelerating. This muffler does NOT have that glasspack rumble that you'd expect from a performance muffler... but for now I have no say in the matter.I do not currently have a picture of the flowmaster, or a sound clip- but it will be here eventually.  Before that I had a supertrapp, which was bare none the best muffler I'd ever owned. It was quiet, adjustable, sensible, and actually allowed me to move/adjust my power band.Yes you read that correctly. How a supertrapp works is you basically have a normal straight through glasspack muffler... only at the end of it they put a series of bellow disks followed by an end cap which are held on place by a few hex screws. There are two benefits to this arrangement:1- you can adjust how loud it is by adjusthing how many disks are on it2- you can adjust the amount of backpressure which in return adjusts the power band of the engine.You see on an engine, back pressure is directly linked to the performance of the engine at given locations on the RPM scale. If you were to take any engine, doesn't matter what it is- and remove the entire exhaust system you will get great exhaust gas flow... but the performance will stink. Why? Because it alters the power band in such a way that you have no torque at your bottom end rpm ranges.People talk about horsepower in terms of performance but as Shelby said, HP sells cars, torque wins races. Torque is how much energy the engine produces, and that rotating energy is what drives your trans, drivetrain and eventually rotates your tires. The more torque, the easier it can do this and the faster you can go, the more you can haul.... you get the point.Too much backpressure is also bad, and long story short you can use the supertrapp to say "ok, I need more power mid range... so I want some back pressure, but I don't want it to shift all my torque to the low rpm ranges... because if I do that, I can't put the torque down on the ground, I won't get traction and my launching will bomb at take off." So you go and you adjust the amount of disks on until the power band is where you want it (less disks = less holes for the exhaust gases to travel through in leaving the muffler = less flow more back pressure, more disks = more holes for the exhaust gases to travel through in leaving the muffler = more flow = less back pressure). Also more disks = louder, less disks = quieter. These mufflers come with 12 disks normally, but you can get more- they will accept quite a bit more, if you want even more flow (remeber, too much is bad). This is no sales gimmick, this is real physics here and it's quite elementary. If you don't understand this stuff you'll probably hurt your car's performance if left to your own devices.

Suspension, Trans, Wheels, etc The battery has been relocated to the spare tire well in the trunk, installed a cold air intake using a cone airfilter, and eliminated the (what was for me not in working condition anyway) AC system.I also have a strut tower brace installed, one marketed for the 1st generation Neons (with new mounting holes drilled in the bracket). It was cheap, looks great and I have been very happy with it.At almost exactly 150,000 miles on the trans , the trans threw the differential pin. This was not due to any crazy events of that day, no burnouts, ice, etc... it is as if the differential pin woke up and said "enough of this, I am going for a walk" and left... via the case, leaving a nice lil hole for all my ATF 3 to leave the case (this was back before ATF4 came out).So I brought the car in limp to a trans shop I know of locally, and had the guy confirm what I already knew... it was time for a rebuild.So I decided to go all out with a racing spec built A604. I ended up going with (among other things): -High stall billit torque converter -Phantom Grip limited slip differential -5 pinion planetaries -Final drive gear ratio mod -shift kit -transtar kelvar based clutch & overhaul kit -custom pressure plates -and of course, differential pin stoppers. I have a new set of rims, they're "Devil" brand, do not know the rim model#, they're just like the "Devil's Revenge" rim only these spokes are painted. They probably won't be on the car until the spring, I need my winter tires and so I will use my stock rims for use in the winter.I need some spacers to feel comfortable putting these on my car, since 7" rims are a fairly tight fit, so that's another $100 to throw into the cost of putting rims on (in addition to the tires) so this plan maybe on hold for a while.

Just How Much Stuff Can You Haul in an 80s FWD Mopar?  Question seems simple enough, how much can you haul with an 80s/early 90s FWD Mopar sedan? A lot more than you'd think. The Dynasty was made to take a great deal, I frequently have people look at me strangely when I comment that from the factory the car had the capability to hold a fullsize spare AND a mini spare, with ample room in the trunk left over. I have heard stories of people with the longer-wheelbase EEKs like the Imperial being able to simply sit household lawn mowers on the floor of the back seat area without having to move seats around.The one thing I hear a lot from suv owners is that they like their cars because of how much stuff they can put inside them, that they're great for moving and things of that nature. I've very rarely run into a situation where I could not fit what I wanted into my car. The only thing I really have difficulty with is lumber, and that is because of the steel firewall behind the rear seats (which do not fold down). If the firewall were taken out, and the rear seats made to fold down, I would be able to haul full length 2x4's easily. Plywood would be a problem, but from what I hear not all modern SUV's can haul a full 4' x 8' sheet of plywood either.The load capacity, in terms of weight, has been pretty impressive. I have had multiple servers in my car at one time without loading down the car... and that was with a stock suspension.One day, one of my friends found himself in a pickle. He wanted to buy a disassembled, used crate motor that he knew was for sale a few hours away. This was a small block v8 BOP engine that had been built up, over-reved, and needed a rebuild. He had a suburu wagon, which he said was not going to be able to take the weight, and even if he did he was afraid he'd mess up the interior in hauling a disassembled v8. So I said, "why not use my car?" "What, you're going to haul a disassembled small block in YOUR font wheel drive mopar?" And so began the quest.Since my trunk is gutted, and I only keep the small spare in it, my trunk is pretty big. Though the battery is relocated into the spare tire well, which limits how much stuff you can fit in it. Nonetheless I think the pictures speak for themselves:

As you can see the clear ruler has 58mm marked off with black marker. BTW the 58mm TB is the one on the right in these pics, the other is a 52mm. Ever see a working AC/AY traveler? This rare option was only used between 1988-1990, and I've only ever seen it in New Yorkers and a few Dynasty's... usually only rarely, and on ebay. I saw one, once, in a junkyard with it- and grabbed it. Sadly it will not work with my 1992 CCD bus so I use it as a paperweight on my computer desk.

Other Mods I have a painted, ported intake manifold waiting to go on from a 2000 model year 3.8 Town & Country.It came off of the same model as my 58mm TB and yet the TB neck had a 52mm bore and, inside- it had three ridges that got as thin as 46mm diameter.I also have a set of painted, matching red valve covers (early version) all of which is not installed yet. I am waiting for a better set of heads (2000 model year) to go with it so I am not paying for gaskets twice.

Way back in 1991, Chrysler started selling this ungodly expensive option (believe it was in the neighborhood of 5 grand in 1991 money) for a car phone. At the time, the big brick car phones being sold by various companies (OEM or aftermarket) were being ripped out of cars at such a rate that Chrysler teamed up with a couple companies to offer one that was incredibly hard to steal.The whole purpose of the Visorphone was to make the car phone as hard to steal as possible, from what I have figured out the phone itself was in a sealed box hidden away in the trunk, the antenna wound go on the top driver's side corner of the rear windshield, the phone's controls would be mounted in the driver's sunvisor, and then the driver itself had to punch in a long 10 or 12 digit password just to turn the unit on. This made the device hard enough to steal that the car would pretty much have to be stripped in a chop shop to get to all the components.As a concept the device was actually well thought out. Some of the Infinity1 and Infinity2 radios got a R45 (?) jack on the rear of the radio that the visorphone would plug into, so that the car's stock audio system would be "switched" to the phone when making a call, the visor itself had a speaker & mic, and there was a way to plug a headset into the visor. This means that this massive 1991 car phone was hands free from the start.I have read about this system in old Mopar literature but never saw one until the Spring of 2009 when in a junkyard I passed a 1992 or 1993 Imperial that had a cell antenna on the rear windshield. I joked to myself "I can't be this lucky, can I?" and looked and found that the car had the visorphone option. These were factory installed options and very rare ones at that.I took the visorphone home and am not sure what I will end up doing with it. I did not grab the rest of the system (I don't have the big cell box from the trunk, or the antenna or cables) and even if I did, I wouldn't have the PIN to turn on the unit, and this ancient analog protocol hasn't been able to get service in years.

More Body Work My next foreseen project was installing a rear spoiler from a 80s IROC Camero, its a fairly mild angle, not very large- and has a provision for a third brake light which I will need (since it will be blocking the view of my OEM one).This is a fiberglass part so it will be easy for me to modify it for my application, mine was a freeby that had the 3rd light portion of the middle broken off. I have a 3rd brake light, from ebay (was amazed how much more the light was than the spoilers on eBay).Mocking it up showed how close to the stock trunklid curves this spoiler is.

I also have a full set of chrome door switches, and headlight switch. I also have the better glossy woodgrains. The doors use woodgrain out of a 5th Ave, the dash woodgrain is a combination of 5th Ave and Imperial parts. The upper dash bezel is out of a fully loaded Imperial (notice the lack of a message center). Fully loaded AC/AYs with all the digital options never got the message center since the message center was incompatible with having a fully loaded model (BCM problems). On the 5th Ave this meant the lower bezel's woodgrain covered up this "hole" in the dash and the Imperial had a large Imperial logo over the "hole."

My Review of POR-15 & Resulting Rust Repairs Sometime around 2002/2003 I wanted to repaint the bottom section of my car's body. By this I meant the bottoms of the rear quarter panels, the rocker panels, floor boards, rear axle, spring cradles, inside & outside of the trunk floor boards, etc. So upon hearing so many great things about POR-15 I gave it a try by first stripping the OEM paint off these areas, degreasing, prepping with metal ready... and then I applied 1-3 coats silver POR-15, and up to 1-2 coats of their semigloss black topcoat.These are some of the pictures I still have from when I did this:

Roller Velvet ( Satin) Black PaintjobI was having terrible problems with the clear coat on my car. The factory clear coat, after years of being kept outside in the UV radiation, polluted rain, and other problems of a post-industrial world... the car looked like crud. But worse; the areas where clear coat had been peeling off in sheets were starting to rust! It was time for a change anyway, so I went with a flat black paintjob initially- completely DIY.

Front Nose/Body Modifications: I don't like the grill they used on the Imperials at all. It is a horrible design, and almost impossible using the stock configuration to line up correctly. The separate chrome trim top often gets out of alignment and since the grill itself is spring mounted, it will rarely conform to the curves in the steel chrome bumper.So here is my solution.

Custom Aluminum Center Console My flatmates and I built a custom center console from scratch using sheet aluminum.Originally what I wanted was something that would allow me to mount a slave cd player, along with three standard 2 1/16" gauges, 6 toggle switches, and a keyed battery disconnect switch.Finally I settled on a design, and made a basic version of it in sheet metal.

As you can see I am in the process of a lot of body work, and as the other pics later show, things are moving fairly far along. The pics don't do the velvet black paint justice, most pictures are as I am completing work on the car and are DIRTY.Basic premise of the project: A performance AC/AY body based on what would have been a Dodge version of the Imperial. Think a sportier, sleeker, smaller Imperial- and you get the idea. Has the Imperial front end, Dynasty wheel base, Dynasty rear end, less chrome than both and lots of black.To make a Dodge version of the Imperial was pretty simple, the Dynasty has a shorter wheelbase, less chrome and no vynil roof (generally speaking) which gives a sleeker, sportier feel, same with the rear end of the body. It is also the lightest of the AC/AY bodies from a mass/weight perspective, with an Imperial front end, the right interior trim- the car pulls off the "Imperial look" just the way I wanted. There are lots of subtle body modifications done to this car to make it sleeker, like the "Buick" style grill with extensively modified header panel (shown above). Sadly no one seems to realize its a mopar anymore and everywhere I go I get some kind of "is that a Buick!?" comment.

Not hard to fix at all, a lil body filler and the one side will be complete, then its just the other side to fix and its ready to go on the car. I am leaving it "open" under the 3rd brake light because frankly, I think (on my car) it will look better. Worst case I go and add some fiberglass below to finish the repair.Mounting the spoiler to my trunklid was surprisingly difficult. The task was not difficult per say, but it was one of those days where everything that could go wrong... went wrong.  On the Chevy, this spoiler mounts using 6 studs that poke threw the trunklid, but my trunklid isn't quite as wide so I could not use the two bolts on the end (1 per side). Using the remaining 4 studs, I put nailpolish on the studs, placed the spoiler on my trunklid and thats what gave me the "mark" to show where to drill. A punch then indented those marks, and I drilled them out.A problem with that alone, is that the Dynasty trunklid is a fairly complicated part, the braces that support the sheet metal were in the way, and you could not even see, let alone put a nut on the studs. In theory, the solution to that is to then use a hole cutter blade in a drill to cut out a big circle for each of the 4 studs, that way you can use just a standard deep socket wrench to put the nuts on the studs. This is SUPPOSED to be an easy task, but I was missing parts to the hole bit set I had access to, I then started using my portable jigsaw... the blade snapped in half, and then I went looking for the allen wrench for switching blades only find it was missing (grr!). So I ended up having to use a large drill bit, in my drill to make a big rectangular hole for each of the 4 studs. This took most of the day (at least 4 hours). Note to self: harbor frieght drill bits suck and go bad very quickly!Once I got that done I found the next problem: the studs used to mount the spoiler are not nearly long enough to work in my application (grr) so I had to hunt down some threaded bar stock to cut into studs. With my newly cut studs I used vice grips to screw them into the fiberglass, only that buggered up my new studs' threads (grr). So I grabbed the die set to redo the threads, guess which die was missing? (I am seeing a pattern here...).Eventually I found enough nuts that I used the nuts as makeshift dies to fix the threads, only on my last stud I stripped the fiberglass so the stud wouldn't stay in the spoiler. I epoxyed it in, gave it almost an hour to set- then mounted the spoiler.Success, everything lined up right, so I then started bolting it to the trunklid using the nuts, only to remember I need to run the wiring for the 3rd brake light, so I had to take the spoiler off, run the wiring, put the spoiler back on... and that's when the stud I had epoxyed in broke out (!!!).After beating the spoiler into submission, I got it all in and bolted up right, minus the one stud that had broken off. I'm pretty much done at this point, I just need to do some work with my 3rd brake light (which I am converting to use LEDs instead of light bulbs), and then it's a matter of body filler where needed, and paint.

It was actually rebuilt back in the 90s by a ham radio repair shop in central NY. Imagine, back in the day car electronics were REPAIRED instead of being either junked or sent to China. I've seen travelers, BCM's, even digital clusters with repair stickers from small mom & pop electronic repair shops threwout the US. Sadly those days are long gone now for the most part.

The car also has a set of Mark Cross red leather seats which I converted to nonpowered (less mass). Now this same leather seat "style/cut" was also used in the later AC/AY bodies without Mark Cross logos or badges. I do not know if that means someone else made the newer ones, or if Mark Cross was told not to advertise on them for those years. BTW, if you have these seats- take care of them MONTHLY. Once they start falling apart in hard flakes the only solution is replacing the seats OR having them professionally reapolistered.

As you can see (above) the exposed metal quickly lead to rust spots on my previously rust-free car. I called POR-15 up, explained my problem and they said I must have had some kind of "contaimination problem" and told me to try it again and sent me a new batch of POR. So I did what they advised, and while redoing everything... again, I noticed the passenger quarter panel had some surface rust that I hadn't address the first time around, since it was behind the trim and I was originally just aiming to preserve the rust-free sheet metal where it can be seen- rockers, bottoms of the quarter panels- all the areas known to quickly rot on these cars.In taking my trim off for painting them (the plastic trim parts fade so I go and painted them satin black) I found the surface rust- hit it with POR-15 the way you're supposed to (degreaser, then metal ready, etc.). Same "1-3 coats silver POR-15, 1-2 coats semi gloss black POR top coat over it" process as before.

So far the the piece was attached, but had to be blended into the body by sanding and grinding away high spots, and getting the piece to be the right shape. This process made the glass thin enough in some spots to cause slight cracking, splitting and other problems like that- particularly along the front bottom edge.The solution was to add more glass all over the piece, and then sand that to shape.

I don't consider alot of the stuff on my car to be modifications or "bragging rights"- I don't follow the philosophy of going over the synthetic oil I use, how great my steering wheel cover is or any of that stuff. But for those curious I have a complete build list below of everything on the car at the moment- the big, important, the meaningless and everything inbetween.

I sanded off the stock clear coat and scuffed up the color coat. From there I removed all the door trim, wheel well chrome, front fender trim and a few other things. These parts were promptly thrown out and are no longer of use to me.Then I got to work. I initially wanted to use flat black rustoleum since it would be water proof and would slow the rust process. The problem with flat black primer (the typical paint of flat black paintjobs) is that it is filled with tiny pores that let water go right into the body... and WILL cause your car to rust.The rustoleum however.... looked like crap. It periodically left a very rough surface, that felt consistant with 220 grit sandpaper. Basically what was happening was in the summer sun, the spry rustolum would "flash" dry before it could self level leaving a sandpaper texture.I tried wet sanding it and learned a valuable lesson: you can't wet sand flat black. When you wet sand flat black you leave swirl marks in the paintjob unless you sand it smooth, and if you do that, you end up with a semi-gloss puke gray that looks like this before polishing: