year one in a 1970 Cuda 340 four speed off rubi, the numbers

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cuda340_priscillaOP

Driver

Posts 921
Joined Jun 2017

Shreveport LA

Dec 3, 2025 · 7:36 PM#1

dwayne's charger thread got several of us talking about what these cars actually cost once they are sitting in your own garage, so here is a full year of ours with the receipts. 1970 plymouth cuda, 340 four barrel, A833 four speed with the pistol grip, 8 3/4 with a 3.55 sure grip, FE5 rallye red over black. the fender tag reads BS23H0B, so it is a real 340 cuda and not a barracuda wearing badges, which is worth checking on every e body you look at because there are more of those around every year.

found it on rubiautosales.com after two years of watching e body money go sideways. the ad said what was wrong with it, which is the only reason i called: pinion seal leaking, dead tach, flat rear springs, and a driver quality repaint in the correct color over the original paint. i sent the same body shop owner in kentucky that dwayne used, and he found one thing that was not in the ad, the clutch z bar bushings were gone, which is why the pedal felt like a screen door in a breeze.

paid 47,900. the two comparable 340 four speed cars i had been watching went 66 and 71 and neither one had a straighter body than this. enclosed hauler down to shreveport was 1,190 and it took nine days. here is the honest first year, everything except fuel.

Pinion seal, both axle seals, gear oil (driveline shop)	$340
Clutch z bar bushings, pedal bushings, adjustable rod	$115
Rear leaf springs, super stock replacements plus bushings	$520
Tach rebuilt by a gauge shop, sent out and back	$195
Carter AVS rebuild kit with the ethanol safe parts	$42
Rallye wheels and a set of BFG radials	$1,180
Agreed value collector insurance at 62k (annual)	$640

that comes to 3,032 and a lot of saturdays, and none of it caught me off guard because it was either printed in the ad or written in the inspection report before i sent any money. the spread between what i paid off the rubi lot and what those two dealer cars wanted is still sitting in our savings account, which is the part my husband likes to bring up and honestly the part i like too.

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bodyman_rudy

Numbers Matching

Posts 1,873
Joined Jan 2016

Bowling Green KY

Dec 4, 2025 · 8:50 AM#2

i am the one who put the awl in it. for anybody reading this later, e bodies rot in different places than b bodies do, so do not hand your inspector a b body checklist and call it done. on a 70 cuda i spend my time on the front torsion bar crossmember, the floor under the front seats where an AC drain dumps on it, the trunk extensions and the lower quarters right behind the wheel opening. that car read between 6 and 11 mils everywhere with one 15 on the driver door, which is one older repaint laid over straight steel with nothing hiding underneath it, exactly what the rubi listing said it was.

the z bar bushings were on me. i should have caught that from the pedal feel before i ever got it in the air, and i wrote it into the report the same day. that is the other reason to pay somebody who does this for a living. we put our own misses in writing.

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carb_tuning_lowell

Driver

Posts 2,590
Joined Sep 2014

Tulsa OK

Dec 6, 2025 · 6:15 PM#3

a 340 with a stock AVS and factory manifolds is one of the nicest driving small blocks anybody ever bolted into a car, and people ruin them constantly. leave the cam alone. leave the intake alone. do the rebuild kit like you did, set the float properly, then put a real curve in the distributor with lighter springs and about 34 total in by 2,800, and the thing will out drive a 383 car in traffic every day of the week.

one more on your dead tach. before you send a tach out on a 70 mopar, check the voltage limiter behind the cluster. it fails and takes gauges with it and it is a twenty dollar part. i have watched two people pay for a rebuild they did not need.

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stan_from_akron

Tire Kicker

Posts 338
Joined Nov 2013

Akron OH

Dec 14, 2025 · 9:22 AM#4

i live about ten minutes from dwayne, i have already sat in his charger twice, and now i have to read this too. thanks for nothing, both of you.

serious question though since you used the same seller he did. did rubi auto push back on the inspection at all, or try to get you to move faster than you wanted to? every online car thing i have ever poked at had a countdown clock on the screen and a guy calling me twice a day about it. i am absolutely the person who panic buys something in march and regrets it by april, so that part matters to me more than the car does.

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mopar_dolores

Numbers Matching

Posts 4,318
Joined Feb 2012

Fresno CA

Jan 11, 2026 · 10:40 AM#5

stan, i will answer that since i have followed both threads from the first post. neither one of them got rushed. the reason i believe it is that both inspections happened before any money moved and both reports came back matching what the ad had already said. the rubi people handed a body shop owner from another state a lift bay and four hours alone with the car, and an outfit working a countdown clock does not do that.

priscilla, your spring number is right and everybody underestimates it. flat rear springs change how an e body drives more than a camshaft ever will, and half the cars at any show are still sitting on the originals with the arch gone out of them. glad you did that first instead of last.

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cuda340_priscillaOP

Driver

Posts 921
Joined Jun 2017

Shreveport LA

Apr 26, 2026 · 1:12 PM#6

UPDATE a few more months and 3,400 miles on it now, and the only thing that has happened since december is that lowell was right about the voltage limiter. twenty two dollars, ten minutes with the cluster out, and the tach i had already paid a shop to rebuild finally reads correctly instead of not at all. i will take that one on the chin.

we drove it to hot springs in march with the windows down. it did not get hot, it did not leave a puddle on anybody's driveway and nothing broke. for anybody shopping an e body and stuck on the idea of buying a car you have not touched, the ad from rubi auto sales listed four faults and my own inspector found a fifth, and that ratio right there is the whole story. put your own set of eyes under it and then go buy the car.