1987 Shelby-Z
This is my 87 Dodge Daytona Shelby-Z. I picked this thing up with 177,000 miles and a rod knock. I am currently rebuilding the motor and getting it ready to be a daily driver this summer. Gotta love the good mileage and the T-Tops! This is the fourth T-Top Daytona I have owned.

The paint is toast, but there isn't a dent or a spot of rust anywhere on the car. Thats the only reason I bought it.

It has the 2.2 T-II with the A-555 5 speed in it. Also another reason I bought the car.

After the short block is in the car, I will probably put on a 3" exhaust with a stage II computer with some bigger injectors. I may even do a front mount IC, but I am not sure.
Project Pictures

The motor finally came out of the car on Saturday the 12th. Everything under the hood looked pretty good except for all the mounts, and obviously the rod knock.

I never had a chance to drive this car, but by the looks of the motor mounts and the tranny mount, I imagine it it was a bit of a bumpy ride. I just happen to have all new mounts laying around. Lucky me!
I bought a Dremell and am teaching myself to port. Pretty scary since I have no idea what I am doing. I have extra manifolds so I am not too worried about screwing these up. I think they are looking pretty good, even though I am not quite done yet.

This is the inside of the intake runners

The lumps inside these runners have been completly smoothed since I took this picture.

Just a close up of one of the runners
Well, as of 12/1/06. The short block went out to the machine shop and all the proper work was done. Block was hot tanked, honed cylinder, turned crank, resized and reconditioned the rods. I installed new rings and clevite bearings and have assembled almost all of the motor. This is what it looks like right now. I just have to finish mounting all the accessories and install the clutch, flywheel and trans.


As of 12/23/06, the motor has been installed in the car. I ended up replacing all of the vacuum lines because the old ones were old and brittle. I got everything hooked up and realized that I have a few bad injectors. So I have pulled the fuel rail and replaced them with some extras I had laying around. Just need some time to get everything put back together. At least the motor turns over though!

Here is the empty engine bay after I cleaned it up for the new motor.

Motor ready to be dropped in.

Motor in. Trying to tie up loose ends.

And thats the finished product. Runs really well and man does that turbo want to boost. Trying to break it in on only 5 psi is a test of my will power. Basically this was a complete tear down and rebuild of of the stock T2. The only mods I added where the ported intake and exhaust manifold, port matched the intake for a larger 52mm throttle body, and silicone filled motor and trans mounts. I would be interested to see what this car would do at the track setup like this.

After owning this car for about a year, sadly I decided to sell it. I need funds for my R/T build, and the 16V GLHS so the Z had to go. This is the last picture I took of the car before it was picked up. I sold it to a local friend who will take care of it, and hopefully get it out to the track every once in a while. Good luck Corey.
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