Vice Grip Garage’s 1973 Plymouth Duster is losing its famously indestructible slant six and weak 904 automatic, but what Derek drops in their place isn’t the Mopar-correct choice anyone expected. A 351-based stroker, paired with a heavy-duty 727 TorqueFlite, sends this budget-performance fastback in a direction that’s already sparking debate among Mopar loyalists in the comments. Longtime fans are also reminiscing about their own Duster and Dart memories along the way. See exactly what Derek chose to build this Duster around, and why it’s dividing the Mopar faithful.
Some engines get pulled because they died. This one got pulled because it never would. The slant six under the hood of Vice Grip Garage’s 1973 Plymouth Duster has a reputation for being nearly indestructible, which is exactly the problem, because “nearly indestructible” and “makes real power” have never been the same thing. Derek’s been building this Duster back to life piece by piece, and this time the target wasn’t a rebuild, it was a full identity swap, with an engine and transmission combination that has zero business living in a factory Mopar body, at least according to purists weighing in loudly in the comments. What ends up under that hood instead is the part worth sticking around for.
The Slant Six’s Reputation, and Why It Still Had to Go
The Chrysler slant six is famous for exactly one thing: refusing to die. The 225-cubic-inch inline-six under this Duster’s hood is the same basic engine family that powered taxis, work trucks, and economy Mopars for decades on minimal maintenance, earning a reputation as one of the most durable engines Detroit ever built. The problem is that durability was never paired with power, even in its healthiest factory tune it was built for reliability, not quarter-mile times, and paired with the weak 904 automatic it left this Duster durable but never fun. Pulling both wasn’t about the six being broken, it was about retiring an engine that had already done its job in favor of something built for an entirely different mission.
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A Chevy-Headed 318 Stroker, and Why Purists Are Already Arguing
Here’s where the title’s promise to Mopar purists earns its keep: the replacement isn’t a period-correct 340 or a built 360, it’s a $200 junkyard Chrysler 318 bored .030 over and stroked out to 351 cubic inches, swinging Dodge Viper rods on a stroker crank and wearing budget aluminum heads that take a Chevrolet LS valvetrain. The block is Mopar to the core, which is exactly why the hardware bolted on top lands so hard in Mopar circles, where engine-family loyalty runs deep and nobody expects to find LS rockers sitting on a small-block Chrysler. Derek’s “LS 318” is reported to make roughly 485 horsepower, which is genuine 340-humbling money out of what started as a two-hundred-dollar core, and Vice Grip Garage has never been shy about prioritizing function over factory correctness. For a channel built on dragging dead cars back to life rather than chasing numbers-matching restorations, breaking Mopar orthodoxy isn’t a mistake, it’s the entire point of the exercise.
The 727 TorqueFlite, Trading Weak for Bulletproof
If the engine swap is the headline, the transmission change might be the more consequential decision. The factory 904 was Chrysler’s light-duty automatic, adequate behind a slant six but never designed to handle serious torque. The 727 TorqueFlite going in its place is a completely different animal, a heavy-duty three-speed automatic long regarded as one of the toughest transmissions Detroit ever produced, trusted behind everything from 440 Magnums to Hemi-powered drag cars for generations. Pairing a stroked 351 with a 727 instead of a smaller automatic signals this Duster is being built to actually take the torque increase rather than just survive it on paper. For viewers who know Mopar drivetrains, seeing a 727 land behind a non-factory engine combination is almost as notable as the engine choice itself, it’s the transmission enthusiasts actually trust.
Derek’s Solo-Wrenching Philosophy
Vice Grip Garage has built its following on Derek doing nearly everything himself, on camera, without the shortcuts a shop crew would provide, pulling engines, wrestling transmissions, and fabricating fixes solo in a way that makes the grueling reality of wrenching visible instead of edited out. One longtime viewer, a 58-year-old with similar solo projects of his own, specifically praised how Derek makes the work look engaging without pretending it isn’t exhausting, a distinction that resonates with anyone who’s spent a weekend under a car alone. That authenticity extends to how the builds get judged, by whether they fire up and make it home under their own power, not whether they win a concours trophy. It’s a philosophy that stands in deliberate contrast to studio-polished build shows.
The Duster’s Place in Early-70s Mopar History
The Duster entered Plymouth’s lineup in 1970 as a budget-minded fastback built off the Valiant platform, quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to get factory performance without paying big-block money. By 1973, the Duster 340 had already built a reputation as a genuine street performer, with 340-badged quarter panels signaling serious intent even on a relatively affordable compact body. This particular Duster wasn’t built with a 340, which makes the current swap feel less like restoring period performance and more like rewriting what the car could have been. That distinction matters to Mopar fans: a 340 Duster and a slant-six Duster occupied very different rungs of the same model line, and stroker-351 territory pushes it somewhere the factory lineup never offered.
A Community That Remembers Its Own Dusters
The comments made clear this Duster carries more than mechanical interest for some viewers, one commenter described a late friend or brother-in-law’s red, white-striped 1973 Duster 340 four-speed, badge-correct down to the quarter-panel emblems, and the memories tied to riding around in it, closing the note with a simple tribute to that friend. That kind of response is common in the Duster and Dart fan base, where these early-70s compact Mopars often carry personal, specific memories rather than abstract nostalgia. Other viewers reminisced about their own early Mopars, including a commenter’s first car, a 1975 Dart with a three-on-the-floor manual. It’s a reminder that this body style, unglamorous compared to a Charger or Challenger, still holds real emotional weight for the generation that drove them new.
Built to Be Driven, Not Displayed
Unlike a resto-mod aimed at a show field or a numbers-matching restoration aimed at concours judging, Vice Grip Garage builds are explicitly meant to get dirty. The channel’s identity is built around hauling long-dead cars out of fields and barns, coaxing them running with whatever’s within arm’s reach, and then driving them home, rather than trailering them to shows and leaving them idling for photos. That build philosophy explains why a 351 stroker and 727 combination makes more sense here than a numbers-correct 340: this Duster needs to survive real road miles and real abuse, not impress judges. It also explains why comments focus so heavily on function, torque, durability, driveability, rather than paint codes or trim tags. Prioritizing a bulletproof transmission and a torquey stroker over factory correctness is entirely consistent with everything Vice Grip Garage has built its name on.
Two Videos in One Week and a Growing Following
Fans specifically flagged the pace of content, with one noting this marked two Vice Grip Garage uploads in a single week, a notable cadence for a channel built around Derek doing the filming, wrenching, and editing largely solo alongside Jessica, who viewers credited with editing quality noticeably sharper than most channels in the space. Long-tenured subscribers reminisced about following the channel since it had roughly 990 subscribers, recalling early, rougher moments like a memorable bit involving a shoelace standing in for a proper polishing tool on a crankshaft that’s become an inside reference for veteran fans. That kind of comment-section history marks a channel that’s grown organically through consistent, personality-driven content rather than viral spikes.
What a Built Duster Means for Today’s Market
Original, numbers-matching 1973 Duster 340s in good condition have become genuinely collectible, with clean examples commanding solid five-figure money at auction as early-70s Mopar values have climbed steadily. A heavily modified example like this one, running a non-factory 351 stroker and 727 combination, won’t chase that same market, it trades on build quality, documentation, and driveability instead of originality. That’s an increasingly common story across the Mopar hobby: unrestored survivors and numbers-matching originals pull a premium precisely because true originals are getting rarer, while modified drivers built by well-known creators can carry their own value tied to reputation and proven performance rather than factory paperwork.
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