What do you reckon to this - Plymouth Satellite?

its a Mopar. That stands for "Most Old Plymouths Are Rusty". Check the trunk floor, especially about the fuel tank and also down into the rear quarters. Check the rear quarters too. Expect them to be full of filler round the trunk floor supports and expect them to be bodged up with Dexian. If not the car must be a recent dry state import! Check the bulkhead and A pillers carefully too. Bulkhead rot is pretty much terminal. Check the panel ahead of the rear wheel arches and also make sure it has a floor in it.

Its refreshing to see a Satellite thats not pretending to be a Roadrunner or a Superbird.

That wiring under the dash looks like the usual standard of repair which american cars in this country are subject to. I remember a Fury I pulled enough botched wiring out of to wire up 3 other cars with.

The 318 is a sturdy old engine. Hard to kill, although I think I've about finished two of them off. They are not good candidates for a HP build as nobody does decent pistons for them unless tey are custom forgings or billets ($$$$) and stock compression is about 8.25:1 and allowing for producton variations they can be as low as 8.0... You could put 360 heads and all that on it, skim then hard and not-quite-zero deck it (the pistons stay a bit down the bores ar TDC anyway - curse word for good quench)

Car Craft built a 318 which made 450 BHP but everybody called BS on it and it fell apart quite quickly.

Problem if you want a big block in there is that the whole front subframe (and I think the front core support) are different on small block and big block cars. Schumacher do an engine mount kit which will get a big block in a small block car though.

Plus it may have the weaker 8.25" rear if its a small block and B body 8.75"ers are getting more expensive now.

Then theres the brakes and suspension all need reding (different torsion bars on a big block)

So small to big isn't just a quick bolt in deal.

You could build a 360 in to a 400+ inch stroker and keep it smallblock. It would handle nicer then too.

That colour sucks serious ass. Odd as it appears it was once blue

General XP2000s are great burnout tyres. Shriek loud and smoke well.

How much is it?

Could be a great project car.

You can easily convert to a console shift if thats what bothers you and Keisler do a nice 5 speed manual kit with all the parts you need in it if you prefer to bang your own cogs.

got a 360 here if you do fancy 'upgrading'....
(got 2 actually, but the 2nd has a knack'd crank!)
go for it!!!
- kev

The Duster is nice but what puts me off is the knackered reverse in the current box (although it is supplied with a rebuilt one).

Don't want to get involved into tearing something down that far without getting to drive it first!

Many thanks for all the info by the way - much appreciated and printed out for reference!

faster than the speed of light, according to the B52's

(younger members of the forum google it ;D)

is column shift really an issue since looking at the pedals it appears to be auto?

Sadly those icky tail lights are stoick but you can fit the earlier model ones whihc are nicer. Or Lexarse ones which are horrid. Assumig its a V8 that could be a fun car.

A Satelitte with a 318 won't be faster than the speed of light