moparm action - december 2014 usa

1-800-932-7663Restoration & Performance Parts for GM, Ford & Chrysler Muscle Cars© 2014 YEARONE

Magnum Wheel17”x9”

aluminum

“Magnum”

wheel with 5.125”

backspacing.

17”x8” with 4.5”

backspacing.Black powder coated

with machined lip.

Universal Seat Relocation BracketsSet of 4

brackets with

hardware. Used to relocate

seat rearward or forward by

1-1/2” or 2”. Can be installed on

top of or below the carpet.

70-74 E-Body AM/FM RadioLooks like the original but equipped

with the latest technology. No

modif cations needed. Up to

180 watts of power.

3-Point Conversion FrontSeat Belt SetAftermarket set

for 68-70 A-Body

models with bucket

seats. Correct

dimensions for the

application.

QA1 Tubular Lower Control Arms 64-76 A-BodyA direct bolt-on

for your factory

K-member. Sold

as a pair.

YEARONE Muscle Car Parts License PlateBlack background with red and

white embossed letters.

KenHarrisonKick Panelswith Speakers These allow

you to have great sound without

modifying your vehicle. Paintable

to match your interior.

MA014

(ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE)

Chrysler Catalog:Print: Mopar A/B/E-Body (1962-74)

SPECIAL 426 HEMI 50TH ANNIVERSARY SECTION

26 BIRTH OF THE ELEPHANT Part 1 of a 3-part series. The origin, development

and engineering analysis of the most iconic street/race engine of Detroit’s golden era—Chrysler’s Gen 2 426 Hemi.

78 JOURNEY THROUGH HEMILAND How the NHRA dealt with the Hemi from the

engine’s inception up through the present day. Plus, the fi rst NHRA-legal 426 single 4-Bbl and dual-quad crossram Hemi that’s tearing up the dragstrips.

HEMI MOPES44 HERE COMES THE BRIDE What could be a better start for a successful

marriage than to leave the church (or house of worship of your choice) in a blaze of tire smoke from a 9-second street ’n’ strip ’70 ’Cuda “limo.” Sure beats getting rice down your neck.

84 FISH DISH Our tasty eye candy ’73 ’Cuda that’s packed with

trick stuff and a 635 HP 528 cubic inch Hemi. This one was a real catch.

BIG BLOCK RIDES18 FURR A FEW

DOLLARS MORE Clint Eastwood would even enjoy

this warmed-up ’72 Duster with a 505-inch bullet under the hood, but the owner, Jesse Furr won’t give it to him. This is how the Furr fl ies.

34 MANN TOY It took the Dukes to inspire Charger lust in

this owner who went on to acquire a few. This one has some neat personal touches that did not break the bank.

66 GRAND HEFT AUTO Like ’em big? You’d do well with a ’66 Chrysler

300. You’d do better with the convertible, and even better still with one that’s Ruby red. So now you have a hint that by turning to page 64 you’re not gonna fi nd something like a Fiat.

TITILLATING TECH60 SLUGFEST If you’re gonna signifi cantly boost the power

output of your 3G Hemi, one of the fi rst upgrades you’ll need is more durable pistons. Here’s how to swap ’em, step-by-step in our signature excruciating detail.

70 SEAT TIME Where do you spend all of your time in your

Mopar? On your butt, of course. Here’s how to make those classic Mope seats way more comfortable while still retaining their stock appearance.

FAST & FURIOUS FEATURES22 BATTLE & BEAUTY

AT ROCKINGHAM The Mega Mopar Action Series storms into

Rockingham Dragway for another fun-fi lled, action-packed event (aren’t they all?). Here’s as much fun and action as we could stuff into 4 pages.

40 SIZZLING SIXTIES Our Dodge 100th Anniversary Series continues

with the ’64-’66 period as Chrysler uncages the game-changer Hemi for race and street while the curtain is raised on Coronet and Charger

Chrysler’s Stock Car Connection—Part 9

48 BACK TO RACING Chrysler continues its winning ways going

into the spring of ’66 as NASCAR plays fast and loose with the rules.

54 FISH FIGHT We compare two kits that convert your late-

model Challenger into a “’Cuda-ized” version. There are plenty of options up to and including superchargers. Here’s what you get and here’s what you pay.

76 TIME BOMB Is your Mopar a deathtrap? You could be riding on

four sticks of dynamite. Read this only if you’re interested in staying alive or don’t like loud noises.

“When you care enough to read the very best.”

4 MOPAR ACTION

www.moparaction.com

16 SOLD TO THE MAN WITH THE GREEN IGUANA

1971 4-speed Hemicuda convertible breaks all records for a musclecar sold at auction by fetching a cool 3.5 million dollars. But did that include the mudfl aps?

COVER STORY

YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS, TOO 6 EDITOR’S NOTES 8 NEWS & NOTES12 TECH TOPICS14 RESTO TOPICS 91 MOPAR OR NOCAR97 COOL STUFF 98 ADVERTISING INDEX

70

40

34

Stanley R. HarrisPublisher

Dennis PageGroup Publisher

Cliff Gromer Live Editor

(email: [email protected])

Richard Ehrenberg S.A.E.Engineering Editor

(email: [email protected])

Jim KoscsFeature Editor

Bill ErdmanPhotography Director

Al Dente, TheBruntBros.Contributors

Scott LongmanInstigator

Mark GrubelichRocket Scientist

Rory SlifkinArt Director

Richard Ciotta Single Copy Sales Manager

Brett UnderwoodAdvertising Director

(704) 896-1959(email: [email protected])

Subscriptions(212) 462-9525

[email protected]@harris-pub.com

Editorial information:(212) 807-7100

On the cover: ’71 Hemicuda ragtop, 2G Hemi and ’72 Duster.Photos: David Newhardt,

Chrysler Historical and, of course, TheBruntBros.

MOPAR ACTION™ (ISSN-1059-0692) is published bimonthly by Harris Publications, Inc., 1115 Broadway, New York, New York 10010. Single copy price: $7.99 in U.S.A., $8.99 in Canada. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Copyright © 2014 by Harris Publications, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction in whole or in part, via electronic or any other means, without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A.

Harris Publications, Inc. is licensed to use MOPAR, a trademark of Chrysler Group LLC, in the title of the magazine MOPAR ACTION™. No other connection with Chrysler Group LLC is expressed or implied. The editorial opinions are those of publisher and do not necessarily represent the views of Chrysler Group LLC.

Who will sign their autograph?TM

Editor’s Notes

6 MOPAR ACTION

Back in 1959, a group of engineers from Chrysler Corp. put together a bizarre-looking ’49 Plymouth coupe that they dubbed

“The High and the Mighty.” Fitted with a sky-high intake setup (the first ram induction), the group, soon to bear the name “Ramchargers,” proceeded to kick butt on the dragstrip with the Plymouth and subsequently a number of Max Wedge and Hemi-powered Dodges. The Ramchargers were innovators in go-fast performance technology and, over the years, and along with personalities such as Ronnie Sox, Buddy Martin and Dick Landy have become larger than life. The last thing the Ramchargers would have thought back in the ’60s, was that 50+ years down the road they’d be sitting behind a table signing autographs for Mo’fans.

Then the thought hit me. Fifty years from now, who would the editor of Mopar Action look back on as the heroes of today? Who would be the ones—if any—signing the autographs in 2065?

The answer begged the question of what made Chrysler engineers, such as the Ramchargers, and drivers, such as Sox and the Pettys heroes in the first place? In the 1950s, Chrysler products basically were old men’s cars. Sure, the Chrysler 300 was a hot car, but even those were bought by old men—”banker’s hot rods.” Chrysler cars were very conservatively styled until late in the ’50s, and then they were big and heavy. While Mopar racers such as Carl Kiehauffer (NASCAR) and Garlits (dragsters) made a name for Mopars, kids still didn’t want any part of Mopars, and the few who did were always ridiculed by everybody else on the street. Frankly, a fuelie/stick ’57 Chevy would beat a ’57 Fury—true or not, that’s what everybody thought, and that’s what counted.

When the Ramchargers came along and started cleaning everyone’s clocks—by a lot—at the dragstrip, Chrysler products suddenly got respect. It got better when Lee Petty, and later Richard Petty, started making names for themselves—and Chrysler—in NASCAR. The result was that Chrysler went from (the perceived) back of the performance pack to the front.

By 1963, Chrysler designers produced cars with youth appeal, and coupled with Max Wedges under the hood, steamrollered the Chrysler performance revolution.

Chrysler engineers of the ’60s didn’t have anything up on Chrysler engineers of today. But with current demands of meeting the ever-

increasing challenges of mandated emissions, fuel economy and safety, that ain’t gonna happen with a bunch of guys working out of a garage. It’s now a team effort relying on sophisticated technology. Still, the engineers have pulled it off as evidenced by the new supercharged Hemi Hellcat. This may well be the last gasp for big V8 passcar performance, as restrictions such as a 54.5 MPG CAFE start to take hold. We’ll bet a bunch of Hellcats will end up leading soft lives in Mopar collections.

Chrysler recently released the figures on Hellcat horsepower—a Ford and Chevy shredding 707. But you can be sure, that deep within the bowels of Chrysler the engineers will (if they haven’t already) come up with a different engine calibration, a different size supercharger pulley and a wave of their magic wand over the Hemi and Voila! 800 horsepower. But because of liability and other issues, the combination

may never be released to the public. ’Course, performance mods in the aftermarket is another story.

Back in the day, however, when the Ramchargers came up with a hot modification, to Chrysler’s credit, within a couple of weeks the setup was made available to all their racers, instantly adding to the stature of those engineers. Today’s engineers are low key, no name jumps

out like a Tom Hoover or a Jim Thornton, with the possible exception of Dick Winkles (Viper engineer). Ralph Gilles has been racing and hammering on Mopars and still runs what’s left of the SRT brand. But these are not the household names like Sox and Hoover, so its questionable whether they’ll make the autograph table cut.

Older readers know the names like Tom Coddington and Dick Maxwell. But if you mention those names to a 27-year old who happens to have a ’72 Challenger, you get a blank stare. And if you say to him “man, your car is now running as fast as the Candymatic did in 1964,” you get the same blank stare. Personalities were very important and they played a huge part in revitalizing the corporation which they’ve done again recently (Chrysler is going like gangbusters under Fiat). But the bottom line is: it’s the cars that survive, and it’s the cars that people see, feel, drive race and enjoy, not the people behind them. Fifty years from now, the ’60s personalities that are now larger than life well may be forgotten, but not the cars and the powertrains. The cars will have become larger than life, and that will be the Chrysler legacy. Amen.

John Wehrly at Carlisle’s Ramcharger table auto graphs a Mo’fan’s magazine. Who will be signing 50 years from now?

COUGHLIN DARTS TO SOUTHERN NATS WIN

After winning the 2013 NHRA Pro Stock

Championship, Jeg Coughlin Jr. was

back in the winner’s circle for his first

win of the 2014 Mello Yello Drag Racing

series season aboard the Mopar/JEGS.com

Dodge Dart at the 34th annual Summit Rac-

ing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals

near Atlanta, Georgia.

The victory at Atlanta Drag-

way was the 57th of Coughlin’s

illustrious Pro Stock career and

the second for the Dodge Dart,

which made its debut earlier

this season at Gainesville with

a win by Johnson & Johnson

(J&J) Hemi-powered teammate

Allen Johnson.

Coughlin earned the win by

defeating rival Greg Anderson

following stellar 0.010 and

0.002-second reaction times

by both competitors. The HEMI

engine powered the five-time champion to a

6.558-second elapsed time run (211.63 mph)

to edge his opponent’s 6.588-second e.t

(212.13 mph) for half a car-length advantage

at the finish line. DSR teammates Hagan and

Capps made it to the Semis.

COUGHLIN WINS AGAIN AT THE SUMMERNATS

Jeg Coughlin Jr. drove the JEGS.com

Mopar Dodge Dart to victory at the 45th

annual NHRA Summernationals in

Englishtown, New Jersey, after reaching

the final round of eliminations for a third

consecutive event. The defending NHRA

factory hot rod world champion has been

on a tear, jumping from ninth place in the

points standings to second with his two

wins and a runner-up finish, combining with

his teammate, Allen Johnson, to put the

new Dodge Dart in the winner’s circle

at each of the last three events.

The win was hard fought after only five

of the 16 Pro Stock qualifiers completed

runs under full power in the opening round.

Track conditions even claimed Mopar

teammate and No.1 qualifier Johnson as a

victim in his first round match-up against

Chris McGaha, after previously resetting the

track record two days in a row in qualify-

ing with the Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart at

Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Fellow

HEMI-powered driver V.Gaines also suc-

cumbed in the first round against Shane

Gray. Coughlin also wasn’t able to make a

clean run but persevered to beat his first

round opponent Kenny Delco to the stripe.

WISH COMES TRUE

Don Schumacher Racing driver Tommy

Johnson Jr. drove his Make-A-Wish

Dodge Charger R/T to the team’s first

Funny Car win of the season at the 14th

8 MOPAR ACTION

News & Notes Edited By Phil DePages

Jeg Coughlin Jr. Pairs up alongside Greg Anderson

in the final round at the Southern Nationals.

RACERACE RECAPRECAP

Don Schumacher Racing

(DSR) driver Ron Capps drove

his Dodge Charger R/T from

a tenth place qualifying posi-

tion to a Funny Car title victory

at the 2nd annual NHRA New

England Nationals earning a

42nd career win, his first of the

season, and enabling him to

move up into fourth place in

the championship standings.

Capps’ efforts at New England

Dragway also gave DSR and

Mopar back-to-back victories

after teammate Tommy John-

son Jr.’s scored the team’s

first win of the 2014 Mello Yello

Drag Racing series season last

weekend at Bristol Dragway.

Capps chased down Cruz

Pedregon and beat Courtney

Force to advance to his first

the final round showdown

of the season to face Alexis

DeJoria. He led the race from

start to finish to earn his first

Wally since the Brainerd

national event in 2013.

Ron Capps cleans funny Car clocks at the New England Nats

Capps Give Mopar Back-to-Back Funny Car Titles

HAGAN WINS FUNNY CAR AT ROUTE 66 NATS

He had to beat all three of his Don

Schumacher Racing teammates to

earn it, but Matt Hagan drove his

Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T to

a much needed Funny Car title win at the

17th annual Route 66 NHRA Nationals near

Chicago. Hagan snapped an eleven-race

winless streak by driving past teammate

Jack Beckman and opponent Bob Bode on

his way to a semifinal showdown against

his other fellow Hemi-powered teammate,

Ron Capps. It was also the first time this

season that three DSR Dodge Charger R/T

machines have advance to the semi-finals.

It took a hole shot win against Capps for

Hagan to advance to his second final round

elimination since his runner-up finish in the

2014 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season

opener. Hagan rose to the occasion and

defeated Tommy Johnson Jr. in an all-Mopar

final, to become the first DSR driver to defeat

all three teammates en route to an event title.

Matt Hagan is a happy camper at Route 66.

10 MOPAR ACTION

News & Notes

annual NHRA Thunder Valley

Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

To get to the final elimina-

tion, Johnson defeated Cruz

Pedregon and Robert Hight,

only to be paired with his Mopar

teammate Matt Hagan. The

HEMI-powered duo treated fans

to an exciting semifinal show-

down won by Johnson with a

4.201 second (299.46 mph)

elapsed time run to a 4.207

second (293.54 mph) pass by

the Mopar Express Lane Dodge

Charger R/T. Johnson then took

the victory over Tim Wilkerson

to leapfrog the Make-A-Wish

Dodge Charger R/T four sports

into third place in the champion-

ship points race.

MONTEREY GRAND

PRIX AT LAGUNA SECA

The SRT (Street and Racing

Technology) Motorsports

Viper GTS-Rs finished sixth

and seventh in the Monterey

Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway

Laguna Seca in another trying

weekend in California during

the fourth round of the 2014

IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar

Championship.

The team was encouraged

following strong performances

in the morning’s final pre-race

practice session, but the timed

two-hour race resulted in a

sixth-place finish for the No. 91

SRT Motorsports Viper GTS-R

of Dominik Farnbacher and

Marc Goossens and a seventh-

place result for the No. 93 SRT

Motorsports Viper GTS-R driven

by Kuno Wittmer and Jonathan

Bomarito.

Both teams got caught

up in early-race skirmishes

that resulted in minor contact

incidents. Farnbacher started

sixth, but lost positions in the

early going and later suffered

from bodywork rub following a

hit from a prototype. Farnbacher

handed off the No. 91 to Goos-

sens just minutes after the race’s

halfway mark during the team’s

only pit stop of the race, but the

No. 91 lacked the pace needed

to improve more than one

position by the race finish.

Jim Thornton, Ramcharger, Passes

James. F. Thornton passed

away Monday June 2, 2014.

Jim’s main hobby was mechani-

cal things, primarily cars. His

modified cars were always the

fastest ones in town, earning

admiration from fellow students

and attention of the local law

enforcement.

Jim served as Crew Chief

for a Dodge racing team in a

mid-continent racing associa-

tion one summer, where he met

Chrysler representatives, who

made it possible for him to buy

a Dodge 500 off the produc-

tion line. This frankly sealed his

new-found passion of drag rac-

ing. He joined Chrysler and the

Chrysler Institute of Engineering,

a work/study program leading to

a Masters Degree in Automotive

Engineering. Within days, Jim

became acquainted with The

Ramchargers, a loose confed-

eration of engineers that were

drag racing a Hemi powered

’49 Plymouth C/Altered record

holder. That car became obso-

lete in ’61 due to a rules change

and Jim led the effort to secure

sponsorship for a Super Stock

car. Dodge came through with a

car and engine. At the Nationals

in Indianapolis, that car defeated

every car in the sport worth beat-

ing and launched Chrysler’s seri-

ous participation in Super Stock

drag racing. Jim led the Ram-

chargers efforts racing Dodges

until 1967. Between 1961 and

1967 the Ramchargers were one

of the most innovative and formi-

dable teams in drag racing, win-

ning the National Championship

five times. Jim was instrumental

in designing a different class

of race cars, where the wheel

base was shortened resulting in

a strange appearance. This was

the birth of the Funny Car. Jim

proved to be the most creative

and highly motivated to win than

anyone in the field. As a driver,

Jim won far too many races to

count. His success on the race-

track led to a promotion at work

with Chrysler, elevating Jim to

Race Vehicle Design Manager in

the race group.

Jim Thornton

1937-2014

Tommy Johnson

Jr. relied on

Mo’power and his

driving skills rather

than Tinkerbell

to take the Funny

Car win at Bristol.

• • •

IT’S A WRAP

Mr. Ehrenberg, I was read-

ing your most recent article

on the 400+HP 5.9L last night

and your comment about trying

to get rid of the power steer-

ing pump sparked a memory

for me. I saw a drag truck in

Seattle many years ago that

I snapped pictures of, and I

remembered that he didn’t

have a power steering pump on

his truck, so I dug up a picture.

Not sure it is the best setup, not

a lot of wrap on the water pump

pulley. And it looks like he has

underdrive pulleys which may

be what makes it work OK,

while a stock setup wouldn’t

allow for this belt routing.

Not sure it helps you or not,

but thought I would send it

your way just in case.

— Dion Ricketts

Spokane, WA

Dion:

Thanks very much. As

you mentioned, there’s

not a lot of belt wrap

on the water pump pul-

ley, although, without an

engine-driven fan, I think it

is fine, especially on a drag-

only vehicle. And, yes, the

UD pulley is the key.

PEDAL PUSHER

Rick, Thanks for all the

pointers in my ’72 Dart (340,

904 Auto, 11.75 front rotors,

10.5 inch rear drums, manual

stock master cylinder, Firm Feel

level 2 power steering box, FFI

1.25ʺ front swaybar, and spool

K-member.

I have done the big brake

conversion, as per your MA

guide. The Dart stops on a

dime. One question, I was

autocrossing the Dart a couple

of weeks ago and the height

of the brake pedal was driv-

ing me crazy. I have manual

brakes and the pedal is so

high I have to drive with 2 feet.

Is there any way to get the

brake pedal on a closer level

to the gas pedal?

— Mike Marmorale

Rockville Centre, NY

Mike:

Sure, you can either buy an

adjustable pushrod, or cut the

stock pushrod, slide both ends

into a sleeve (drilled so it is a

very snug fit), and tack weld.

I should mention that I

always drive automatics with

two feet. When I took my NYS

licensing road test in late fall

of 1961, the inspector almost

blew a gasket when he saw me

driving my father’s ’62 Chrys-

ler that way. I whipped out a

booklet that had come with

the new car from the National

Safety Council, explaining how

this method reduced reaction

times. I passed.

I know opinions on this are

all over the map. A reasonably

unbiased discussion can be

found at: tinyurl.com/brake-

2feet. I have spent countless

hours probably in the hundreds

of thousands – driving aggres-

sive on the street, as well as

at road courses, where I have

also done a lot of instructing.

Other instructors have also

been, occasionally, appalled,

but really fast drivers use the

technique to set up the car for

specific corners and condi-

tions. If the engineers weren’t

planning on this back in the

day, why did they make A.T.

brake pedal extra-wide so the

left foot can apply the brakes?

Anyway, all I can say with cer-

tainty is: “It has worked fine

for me for over half a century”,

and I split my drive time about

equally between automatic and

manual transmissions.

HOT WHEELS?

I just bought a 2000 B2500

318 van, it has 16 x 6.5 eight-

lug stock steal wheels. Do you

know if 16 x 8ʺ wheels with

say 245-75/16s will fit on this

van? It is a great truck but the

stock wheels seem kinda small.

Please keep up the great tech

articles.

— Eric Stanton, Niles, MI

12 MOPAR ACTION

Address all queries to this address: RICHARD EHRENBERGPO BOX 302MARLBORO NY 12542E-mail: [email protected] submission form: www.moparaction.com

Ground Rules:

• If you want to submit your question via e-mail,

please use the online submission form at www.

moparaction.com. If we ask for more info, send

back all existing text with your reply, please.

• Snail-mail must include a SASE

• All letters, electronic or otherwise, must

include a full name and a least your city and

state. You can request that it be withheld,

however, and, if we had any the night before,

we might even honor your request.

• “20 questions” letters instantly get shredded

and the scraps forwarded to Mopar Muscle.

So—ask one clear question please, we’re a

sleazy magazine, not an encyclopedia pub-

lisher. We won’t tell you step-by-step how to

swap a 2014 392 Hemi into your 1914 Dodge.

• Remember, we have one old geezer tech edi-

tor (when he’s awake and sober) and well over

100,000 readers. We do the best we can with

our meager resources. Our reply rate does at

times approach 50%, but it varies with our

“real” workload at the moment.

• All letters are subject to editing to make us

look like we know all the answers.

Thanks, Rick.

HOW TO GET HELP:

Tech TopicsBy Richard Ehrenberg, S.A.E.

Photos By Richard Ehrenberg, or as credited

Please turn to page 92

ABOVE: Mike Marmorale’s Dart cutting corners

with lowbuck MA tricks. LEFT: You can remove

the power steering pump from a Magnum V8

if you fit underdrive pulleys.

Dio

n R

icketts

Ph

oto

Wheel cylinder bore vs. stopping power.

Prices good through 10/1/14 • Typographical, description, or photography errors are subject to correction. Some parts are not legal for use in California or other states with similar laws/regulations. Please check your state and/or

local laws/regulations. ©2014 AUTOSALES, INC. SCode: 1412MA

1.800.230.3030•Tech: 1.330.630.0240 • Int’l:1.330.630.0230

Call by 10 pm EST: In-Stock Parts Shipped That Day!

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ARE IT A B?It’s Ed Tobin (the crazy

Canuck) with yet another

intriguing question. There’s a

debate going on at one of the

Mopar forums I’m on. Galen

Govier lists the ’79 Cordoba

and Magnum as an R-body

but everyone insists it’s a B. I

know it was a B up until ’78 but

there’s heated debate about the

’79. What do you say?

— Ed TobinToronto, ON

Ed:

They are most assuredly

B-bodies. The ONLY R-body

cars were:

• Plymouth Gran Fury, 1980-’81

• Dodge St. Regis, 1979-’81

• Chrysler Newport, 1979-’81

• Chrysler New Yorker, 1979-’81

Having said that, note this:

While the body shells are totally

different between the two lines,

the basic platforms are virtually

identical, for this reason, some

sections of the ’79 parts catalog

lumped them together under

“R”, creating the confusion.

LOOSE FURYRick, I am looking to

upgrade my 1960 Plymouth

Fury 318 single-barrel carb to

a four barrel by using a mani-

fold #1828103 and a Carter

AFB 28065 with the matching

air cleaner. Are these parts

interchangeable, and will it still

be considered original? I don’t

want to do this if it will loose

points on originality.

— Michael Jacobs

Hamilton, OH

Michael:

If it was a single-barrel, you

have an extremely rare car that

I’d like to see, I’d sure not touch

it. If the car was originally 2-Bbl,

it could never be “original” with

a 4-Bbl. However, if done with

OEM components, very few

people would be aware of your

slight-of-wrench.

The 4-Bbl Power Pak was an

option, which also included a

slightly warmer camshaft. The

correct AFBs were: 2921A (man-

ual) and 2925S (automatic).

These parts are a simple

bolt-on.

Hey, loose points are better

than tight ones, I guess.

NUMBERS, GUMBERSI was wondering if you might

have any idea what the produc-

tion of the 1970 Dodge Charger

R/T 440 6-Pack with the 727

transmission was. I have seen

several different numbers given.

— Todd Rodriguez

Via E-mail:

[email protected]

Todd:

The most believable number

I have is 337 units.

LINKED UPRichard, I am assembling a

’71 Charger that I bought from

a guy who ran out of money

(I guess). It is an original 383

4-speed car. My question

concerns the steering: The

main drag link looks bent, but

the guy I bought the car from

swears the car was never in an

accident and drove perfectly

fine. I compared the link with

one my friend loaned me, and it

sure is bent!

What to do?

— Scott Jacobs

Springfield, IL

Scott:

From the pix you sent of the

center links (Mopars of the era

did not have drag links), I’d say

that the former owner was tell-

ing the truth.

In your pix, the upper link is

a stock 1962-’70 B-body part,

the number 1851015 should be

forged in. The lower link, your

’71, should be 2835877. Yeah,

I know everybody says that all

B-body, and E-body steering

parts are the same, but it isn’t

true. Here’s the rundown:

When the E-body was intro-

duced in 1970, the steering

column and wheel were lower,

to give the car that arms-out

“sports car” feel. This required

major changes, although most

of them were subtle: The steer-

ing gear mount on the K-mem-

ber changed, as did the idler,

Can my Fury be stock with a 4-Barrel swap?

Resto TopicsBy Richard Ehrenberg, S.A.E.

Photos By Richard Ehrenberg, or as credited

Wanna submit a resto

question? Please follow the

instructions on page 12.

14 MOPAR ACTION


The ’79 Cordoba (shown) and Magnum were, some would say, the last B-body performance cars

(360-4 E58 equipped). Whether you agree with that or not, they were indeed, the last B-bodies,

but B-bodies they were. Because of the front end styling similarities between the Magnum and

the R-body St. Regis, some have assumed the later B-cars were actually R-bodies. They were not,

all R-bodies were, in fact, 4-doors. Yet, as you know, under the skin, they were kissin’ cousins

E-body, and ’71-up B-body steering center links (engineering

number 2535877, bottom) have a “bent” look when compared

to the earlier ’70-down B-body equivalent (1851015, top)

MOPAR

IS MORE

THAN A

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Pro-Dough Dept.

Y ou didn’t squander your Bar-Mitzvah money, and you parlayed the haul into a tidy sum with wise investments and your skill in Friday night poker

games with the boys. And you read the Mopar magazines. They all seemed to run the same story with a different byline and dif-ferent pictures. But the story was always the same: Joe blow always wanted a Hemicuda when they came out in 1970-’71 but he didn’t have the dough. So he bought a 6-cylinder stripper Valiant instead. Then he got married and the kids came along and the Hemicuda dream faded into a distant memory. Then Joe invented the Internet and made a bundle and he bought a nice Hemicuda, had Roger Gibson restore it and the car won a Gold at the Mopar Nationals. The end.

So you figured, hey, I can be like Joe Blow in the magazine story. OK, so you didn’t invent the Internet, but you did man-age to accumulate a large cache of green-backs. And yeah, you always wanted a Hemicuda but couldn’t afford one when they were new. So you figure on buying one now and having Roger Gibson do the restoration on it. But Roger is backed up for the next 16 years. What to do?

Then you hear about a cool 1971 Hemicuda convertible coming across the block at the Mecum Auction in Seattle. The

’Cuda is a 4-speed, and the factory made only 2 cars with that combination. A little research shows that another ’71 ’Cuda was the first American musclecar sold for more than $1 million in 2002, and a white convert-ible with an automatic transmission that was the final Hemicuda built had a bid of $4.1 million in 2005 but was a no-sale.

In case you’ve been living under the pro-verbial rock or hanging out in Tony DeFeo’s garage, here’s a little background music: The ’Cuda’s rise to legendary status began in 1968 when Chrysler turned out big block

1971 Hemicuda/4-speed convertible sells on the block for a record $3.5 million. But did they throw in mudflaps and undercoating?

One of two 1971 Hemicuda 4-speed convertibles. According to Mecum Auctions, it is the only one documented with matching numbers.

STORY By Al DentePHOTOS By David Newhardt

16 MOPAR ACTION

MOPAR ACTION 17

versions in limited numbers but without such amenities as power steering and air conditioning. Chrysler then took the next logical step in producing low-volume mutant pony cars, contracting George Hurst’s Hurst Industries to build special Hemi-powered Darts and Barracudas for NHRA Super Stock racing.

Chrysler finally brought both the design and manufacture of its big-engine pony cars in-house for the 1970 production year, with clean-sheet designs based on a scaled-down adaptation of the larger B-body and designed from the outset to accommodate the Hemi. Trimming the overall length and following the established long hood-short deck design theme resulted in an all-new Barracuda and its Dodge Challenger coun-terpart, both available direct from the factory with the 426/425 HP Hemi, arguably the most potent powerplant ever offered in a “real street” production car.

The all-new ’Cuda was the work of 27-year old designer John Herlitz. The design was initially panned by Chrysler design chief Elwood Engel, who expressed his displeasure during a weekend visit to the

studio by leaving a hatchet embedded in the clay model’s side that Herlitz discovered the following Monday morning. Undaunted, Her-

litz carried on and eventually watched an exuberant Engel drive an early prototype Hemicuda off the third floor elevator in Building 128, roll out into the hallway and lay down two perfect black stripes

on his way to the design auditorium.The new-generation Barracuda and its

high performance ’Cuda variant scored a hit with buyers. Sales all but doubled from 1969’s total of 27,392 vehicles to 50,617, including 652 Hemicuda coupes and 14 Hemi convertibles. But with increasing gov-ernment regulations and ballooning insur-ance rates, buyers shied away in 1971. Total

sales tanked to just 16,159 units, with Hemi production falling to 108 coupes and 11 convertibles.

This ’71 Hemicuda convert is documented as the only matching numbers 4-speed convertible in existence. The broadcast sheet confirms that it was equipped at the Hamtramck, Michigan assembly plant with the New Process 4-speed, 4.10:1 Dana axle, 26-inch radiator and power brakes. Previously owned by Russ Meyer, a famous car-toonist from the Southwest, who later sold it to a buyer in Oregon for $250,000, it was eventually seized by authorities there in a drug investigation and sold at auction for $405,000. Both prices

were unprecedented at the time.The buyer subsequently commissioned a

restoration by highly regarded Mopar restorer Julius Steuer of Los Angeles, California, who completed the work around 2000. A few years later it was then traded for a number of vintage Corvettes from the current owner’s prestigious collection.

Taking the bus to the Mecum auction in Seattle, you settle in your seat with your bid-ding paddle. The ’Cuda rolls onto the stage with a high octane pitch from the auctioneer. It’s an 8-minute bidding frenzy. The ques-tion is does a bidder really want to own the car or does he want the other bidders not to own it. The stakes climb and you’re down to your original Bar-Mitzvah $25 U.S. Savings Bonds—not enough to stay in the game. The gavel comes down at $3.5 million—a new record, according to Mecum, as the highest price ever achieved at auction for any of the storied musclecars that came out of Detroit in the Golden Age.

For you, it’s the bus back home to the Friday night poker games. You want to be ready for the next time this ’Cuda comes up for auction.

4.10 Dana rear is part of the Super Track Pak package. Car has power brakes.

ABOVE LEFT: Mecum claims that this is the only ’71 4-speed Hemicuda convertible still carrying its original drivetrain. ABOVE RIGHT: ’Cuda was fully restored by Restorations by Julius. Looks pretty good to us.

FURR A FEW Heating And Air Conditioning Dept.

18 MOPAR ACTION 1818 MO MOPARPAR AC ACTIOTIONN

For a few dollars more, the Furrs turned a phone company green stripper Duster into the red street machine you see here. Lowbuck theme continued when they swapped in a 340 grille but didn’t repaint the grille’s horizontal bars black.

Father and son team can heat up the street with a ’72 Duster, or heat up your home with a furnace overhaul. Your choice.

DOLLARS MORESTORY By Jim KoscsPHOTOS By TheBruntBros

MOPAR ACTION 19

IT’S A FAMILIAR STORY. A father introduces his son to Mopars and then decides that building a car together would be a great bonding exercise. What could go wrong?

Now 36 years old, Jesse recalled that when he was in high school, a flatbed would occasionally show up in the driveway with a derelict Duster or other A-body on the back. Jesse’s dad, Floyd H. Furr, would find such cars in the backyards of customers and sometimes take them in partial barter for his work. He started a one-man plumbing/HVAC

business in 1981, and today, F.H. Furr is the largest such contractor in northern Virginia, with 227 employees, including Jesse.

“I must have stripped down a half-dozen cars before working on my car, so I knew how to take them apart,” said Jesse.

And with help from dad, he learned how to put them back together. Floyd found the perfect car for his son while doing a job estimate: a green, plainer-than-plain Jane ’72 Duster with the 198 slant-six, three on the tree and, as Jesse puts it, “delete everything.” There was no radio, and not even an antenna, just a set of rubber floor mats. The fleet buyer would have deleted those too, if he had the option.

The Duster had belonged to a phone company employee who’d bought it through his employer’s fleet-buying pro-gram. The guy walked to work, so the car gathered only

about 19,000 miles. “We built our cars side by side in a three-car garage,” said

Jesse. “I’d be out there afternoons after school, then my dad would come home from work and we’d be together every night

and on weekends. But instead of being a bonding thing, it kind of drove a wedge between us.”

20 TACTICAL WEAPONS • Sept. 2010

, Furr A Few Dollars More

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And he wasn’t talking about the 440 wedge that they wedged into the Duster, either. “But we laugh about it today,” he said.

That early parts hunting paid off. You see that Duster 340 grille? It’s an original that they picked up for just $80—20 years ago! They put a 440 behind it, and a 727 auto-matic behind that. Then Jesse kept adding stuff, like Indy cylinder heads and frame connectors and everything else to make it into a racecar. And so he raced it, but that was starting to twist the car and crack the paint. So all the racing stuff came off and went onto a ’74 Duster racecar, and a few years ago they turned the ’72 back into a street car.

The paint job, by Tubby’s Body and Paint, shows off very cool marbleized details by Billy Van. The marble look appears on the sides of the hood scoop, the side stripe, rear wing and a few other spots. Would you like it on your car? Here’s our special Mopar Action one-part tech piece called “How to get the marble effect on your car.” You start by laying down some black paint and letting it dry. Then you cover it with gray or silver, but before it dries, you wrinkle up some 1-mil plastic sheet and stick it on the wet paint. Pull it off before it dries, and you have your marble look. It’s probably important to know just when to pull the plastic off, so you might want to practice on someone else’s car before you try it on yours.

Then, Jesse decided he wanted a 505 big block, going with a blueprint and every-thing else he needed from Muscle Motors. Steve McFarland put the motor together. The whole car took a couple of years to fin-ish. The motor has a World Products block with a 4.350-in. bore and 4.25-in. stroke, with 7.100-in. 4340 rods swinging Icon

forged pistons for a 10.75 squeeze. Up top, Indy 440 EZ heads have Max Wedge intake ports and Stage 2 porting. A Quick Fuel 850 carb inhales through a functional hood scoop and custom air cleaner and feeds the motor through an Indy dual-plane intake. Below that, a custom grind hydrau-lic roller cam works the valves. TTI head-ers have the “biggest tubes they make,” according to Jesse. According to Muscle Motors, it adds up to a tall stack of cash and about 650 horsepower.

The 727 trans hooks to a Gear Vendors overdrive that, combined with the fairly mild 3.55 gears in the 83/4ʺ rear, makes the Duster quite streetable. Purists and Mopar tech editors will be glad to know that the Duster retains torsion bar front and leaf spring rear suspension, with “the latest and greatest” parts, according to Jesse.

Taking pointers from an acquaintance that races Subarus, Jesse and his dad tied the front together, which he said made the car much tighter. There are reinforcing

B&M shifter sports a home-made handle of

flat stock aluminum

covered with faux carbon

fiber. Console is another

custom item.

FAR LEFT: Custom dash—plain and simple with just the necessary Auto Meter Pro Comp dials.

LEFT: A-body buckets get the custom upholstery treatment.

ABOVE: Duster still retains stock suspension front and rear but front end is said to be “tied together.” We hope they can untie the knots if need be.

LEFT: Exhaust is a 3ʺ system with Flowmasters. Body is not tubbed, but rear springs were moved inboard to accommodate the 295/50-15 M/T Drag Radials on American Racing rollers.

The Furr gets ready to fly after some hide boiling.

Tim Soouza Photo

20 MOPAR ACTION

plates welded behind all the attachment points, too, so that elaborate system of trusses is not just bolted to thin metal.

They hid the battery, MSD ignition box and relays in the trunk, behind a secret panel. Under the hood, they hid wiring and heater lines and switched to an after-market heater and an E-body three-speed wiper motor.

Inside, it’s all custom, with lots of work by Jesse and his dad. The front buckets are

real A-body pieces, but with custom covers made by Mike Oss, who repeated the pat-tern for the door panels and in the trunk. The main attraction is the console, made by Floyd. He built it from 2x6s shaped in a band saw, then overlaid it with fiberglass and applied the marble paint effect.

We were hoping one of those switches on the front of the console worked an ejector seat, but they’re just for boring stuff including the trans cooler, fuel pump,

electric fan, line lock and a fifth switch for exhaust dump tubes that are not currently working. Each little light corresponds to a switch, and those two mysterious knobs work the lights and wipers. That’s a black-panel radio above the knobs.

The dash, also dad’s handiwork, meets Jesse’s requirement for “clean and simple,” and as you can see, makes this a glovebox-delete car. Jesse created his own pistol grip for the B&M shifter by cutting down the handle and then shaping a flat piece of alu-minum into a pistol grip outline. To that, he attached some imitation carbon-fiber trim.

Now, if you need your home heat or A/C fixed, know that F.H. Furr takes pride in providing quick, reliable service. But here’s a tip to get the boss on the scene even faster: just mention that you’ve got an old Mopar in the yard and, yeah, it belonged to a little old lady.

Muscle Motors sup-plied the 505-inch big block. The mill, fed by a Quick Fuel 850 on an Indy dual plane intake, is good for 650 ponies. Stout bracing is evident under the hood.

The cool marble paint effect is evident on the side of the scoop. It was also used on the console, rear wing, side stripe and other areas. See text for a how-to on marble paint.

MOPAR ACTION 21

22 MOPAR ACTION

STORY & PHOTOS

By Geoff Stunkard

Like many regional Mopar shows,

modern times have been chal-

lenging as attendance patterns

changed during the past five

years, but Steve Earwood, owner of

Rockingham Dragway, has stayed the

course with his date and program. 2014

saw a nice increase in spectators and

cars, both for the racing and adjacent

car show. Details for the car show were

handled this year by “Frog” Jones, who

also runs the week-long Mopar event

in Myrtle Beach in August. The cars on

hand there ranged from classics and

hot rods to the latest Challengers and

Vipers, with all the major musclecar-era

body designs on hand as well.

With several strong clubs and a large

following for Mopars in the Piedmont

area, this year’s gorgeous weather

allowed some outstanding vehicles to be

on hand. In the end, it was Ancil Cross

and his 1971 Dodge Demon that took

home Best of Show. A 340 car in pristine

condition, it was up against a field of

excellent iron that included other A-, B-,

and E-body cars which also could have

taken the top prize, not to mention a

large variety of late models.

Editor’s Choice was given to George

Nesbit for his motor. Huh? With a rac-

ing partner, George had bought a new

1964 Plymouth Super Commando Hemi

car. Soon after, they had swapped that

engine into a ’40 Willys for the gasser

wars, and when that was over, he had

sold the race motor to a friend in 1966.

He was able to buy the motor back 42

years later and had recently completed

a tribute car around it. We will have the

BATTLE & BEAUTY AT

RockinghamDragway The Rock hosts their

23rd Mopar-themed event,

AND IT ROCKS!

unless otherwise noted

This is the group of many winners at the car

show, surrounding the 1971 Dodge Demon of

Ancil Cross that took Best of Show.

Wheels-up action at the Rock was part of the class racing,

and included this very nice 1969 Dart running in the Footbrake

class under the handling of Allen Farmer, Madison, N.C.

24 MOPAR ACTION

rest of George’s story and a feature on this car in an upcoming issue.

If you were into the 21st century, the Caro-lina chapter of the Viper Owners Club had a row of cars on hand, the truck guys were in an area reserved for the stompers, and a bunch of late-model Challengers, Chargers, 300s and Magnums gave onlookers an eyeful.

After a test and tune on Friday evening, things on the racetrack got off to an unex-pectedly lengthy start Saturday morning due to fluid issues during qualifying. The staff worked very hard to prep the track again so that the lanes would be even from side to side after each of these, and once racing got underway, things went smoothly without fur-ther incident. In both Top ET and Footbrake, races were run on an eighth-mile format, as many regional racers are often on tracks of that length. Trophy and HEMI exhibition racing took to the full quarter.

The S&W Challenger Challenge was won by James Davis, of Max Meadows, Virginia, whose 2009 car is normally aspirated but features a couple of custom touches. In Top

ET, a mere .001 decided the final round. Billy Varner of Stanley, N.C, took his black gen-two Barracuda to a 5.748 at 120.63 on a 5.75 dial but won despite the breakout after

David Keels fouled away his shot at the $1,200 prize money by one-thousandths of a second at the start. In a large field of Footbrake rac-ers, J.W. Ray of Winston-Salem, N.C., held off all challengers with his own 1970 Challenger but only needed to run 9.21 on his 6.15 dial-in

ABOVE: “Cool” honors in Footbrake action go to the’65 Valiant wagon of Eric Hultberg, who pulled the nose up like this on several passes before being unable to make the final.

LEFT: Late-model Mopars are very popular in the South, and this was a row of excellent examples ranging from basic stock to big power.

Here is J.W. Ray and his yellow Challenger from Winston-Salem, N.C., which took home the win in the Footbrake class.

B-body Modified winner was Eddie Gramisci of Greens-boro, N.C., and this radically modified 1968 Charger. The car featured a low-deck B-motor that Eddie, who owns a couple of restau-rants, says kicks out 450 ponies. It’s very clean, and sounded great.

“ Steve Moths and the nitro-burning Bad News Dodge 1965 Coronet match racer led off the HEMI exhibition.”

MOPAR ACTION 25

when opponent Eric Hultberg and his ’65

Valiant wagon could not take the tree. Tro-

phy class went to Davey Emanuel of Laurin-

burg, S.C., and his notchback Barracuda.

As in the Top ET final, Emanuel broke out

but benefitted from the foul start of Jason

Thompson.

Steve Moths and the nitro-burning Bad

News Dodge 1965 Coronet match racer

led off the HEMI exhibition. With 35% in the

tank, Moths cranked off runs in the mid-

nine-second zone at 140 mph. This was a

big day for Steve as he had just completed

getting a fresh big-inch motor together.

Bob Reed had two cars on hand, but was

plagued with mechanical issues. First, a

valvetrain problem sidelined his ride, then

the second car was shut off on the line with

a small fluid leak. The team did make two

full passes with the second car before the

day was over. Also on hand were Tank and

Ralph Crosswhite with a 1980s-era SS/AA

’68 Barracuda, the Homier & Tiller team had

two cars running (another SS/AA ’Cuda and

an N/SS Coronet), and Mike Kayrouz made

passes in the ex-Butch Leal/Steve Bagwell

1965 Belvedere that Ron Butler had built

in the 1970s. To top it off, former New York

natives Eugene and Allen Coard had the

Ronnie Lyles Duster tribute at the event, but

it was only on display as the team was still

getting ready for the 2014 season.

One final car was the 1967 “Old Blue”

Belvedere of Richard Petty, which came to

the event courtesy the Petty Museum. This

car remains the winningest ever NASCAR

vehicle, with 27 victories in one season, and

had been displayed at various locations

during the past 10 years before coming

back to Level Cross, where the collection

was recently relocated back to the old Petty

shop. The museum’s trailer, manned by

Larry Laney and Gary Gardner, was full of

Petty memorabilia.

To see more on the Rockingham show,

visit our website. Drop by anytime.

Need a project? Here was a manual-shift

Challenger that, despite being in pieces,

looked restorable. Asking price was

$7,500, rope and chains included… Lehman Barfield

took home top

honors with his 1972

Barracuda; on the

dash he displayed a

photo of how the car

looked when he first

got it. Nice work

One of our favorites at the show was this 1965 Sport Fury 383/four speed combo owned

by Benson, N.C.’s Danny Wood. Despite being “just a C-body,” the car was surrounded by

onlookers most of the event, who also wanted to see the restored pedal car in the trunk.

The Petty Museum chose Rockingham to bring the original 1967 “Old Blue” Belvedere out

for display, which has been in the museum in Charlotte for the last couple of years.

The Trophy class went

to Davey Emanuel of

Laurinburg, S.C., and

his notchback Bar-

racuda; Gary Rowe’s

winner circle image

shows the trophy was

pretty impressive.

Ph

oto

by G

ary

Ro

we/R

aceW

ork

s.c

om

IIT’S DOUBTFUL that Frank Bialk

gave a moment’s thought to

the long-term impact his efforts

bent over a drafting table during

Detroit’s winter of 1963 would

have on our automotive world

of 2014. Fifty years ago, the draftsman’s

bosses at Chrysler Engineering had

made a decision to resurrect the Hemi

engine design that they’d abandoned

five years earlier. Frank got the assign-

ment to take the new project’s first steps

toward mechanical reality and into the

next century. Those days, the lead drafts-

man was effectively the component or

assembly’s designer, as his supervised

drawings determined the actual sizes

and shapes of the parts being planned.

There were no CAD/CAM or stereo

lithography tools for digital modeling

or rapid prototyping back then—just

the lengthy process of hand-drawing,

dimensioning and then printing out a

copy (typically a blue-line, a reversed

blueprint) on paper. This was followed by

extensive reviewing, revising/correcting,

redrawing and printing out the changes

again and again. Until such time as the

lines on the latest-dated print translated

into the practical engineering required to

make the patterns and molds necessary

to cast metal engine parts with.

26 MOPAR ACTION

An in-depth analysis of the conception, design and engineering of the first 426 Hemi.

bosses

made aSTORY

By Al Kirschenbaum

Gen 2 Hemi 50th Anniversary—Part 1

PHOTOS By Steve Kirschenbaum, Al Kirschenbaum and the Chrysler Historical Collection

BIRTH OF THE

MOPAR ACTION 27

But before looking into actual pow-erplant design and evaluation, let’s back up a few months further to December of 1962. That’s when the Chrysler Corporation President, Lynn Townsend, reportedly influenced by his teen sons’ enthusiasm for hot production automo-biles, decided that his company had to do some big winning in open motorsports compe-tition to improve its new cars’ performance image. To this end, Townsend and his executive committee directed the engineering staff to develop an engine and vehicle combo capable of winning closed-circuit stock car racing events on a national scale. Also specified as part of the same design and development program was a straightaway version of the same powerplant—an engine for “supervised acceleration trials,” aka the popular organized drag racing events that were being conducted all across the coun-try. Not to put any pressure on his staff, but Townsend’s immediate goal was to have his Plymouths and Dodges outrun the ever-faster field of Pontiacs, Fords, Chevys and Mercurys and win NASCAR’s next Daytona 500—the prestigious annual oval-track stock car race that was then scheduled for a little more than a year away.

Facing this challenging schedule, Chrys-ler Engineering didn’t take very long to determine that their best shot at attaining Townsend’s grand objective meant sticking with existing engine designs known to make horsepower and ones they were already familiar with. As best as can be determined, an informal meeting was called in February of 1963 by Engineering vice president Bill Roger. Present at that hallway gathering outside Bill’s Highland Park office was his brother, Bob Roger. Bob worked in Product Planning and was the man known around the corporation as the Father of the Chrysler 300. First generation (1G) Hemi perfor-mance veteran Don Moore was there, as was race program coordinator, Tom Hoover, assistant Chief Engineer, Bill Weertman, and

possibly one or two others. These were all guys that had already learned their ways around a Hemi head engine and were famil-iar with the double rocker shaft design’s plusses and minuses, as well as its unique requirements.

Following brief feasibility discussions and some preliminary determinations, the approach selected mirrored the boss’ thoughts and was also the most direct and theoretically doable. Turned out, that meant fortifying an existing 426 Max Wedge RB (raised-block) cylinder case and developing new Hemi cylinder heads to fit it. The target date had been set for NASCAR’s next Day-tona 500, scheduled for February 23, 1964.

The decisions made sense. It had been only five model years since the corporation had manufactured a Hemi-head V8. So engineers experienced in that 1G 1951-58 331-, 354- and 392-cubic-inch motors were still on staff or accessible within the system. In addition to their Hemi produc-tion background, the group had gained

OPPOSITE PAGE: The 1964 426 Hemi in dual-quad A865 drag race form. Chrome valve covers were original equipment as were the new-for-’64 seven-blade aluminum fan with a viscous clutch hub. The engine was displayed with its original Carter AFB carbs, oval-shaped air cleaner housing and dry-element filter. High-capacity fuel pump was a Hemi- and Max Wedge-only design.

This cutaway illustration of the first 426 Hemi shows the single-four-barrel A864 NASCAR engine’s cowl induction air cleaner, oil pan kickout and solid four-blade fan. Steel tube headers and the double roller timing chain setup were shared by both the A864 and A865 versions of the 1964 Hemi.

valuable experience converting production

Hemi V8s into competition iron. (See side-

bar.) A decade earlier, Chrysler Engineering

demonstrated how a Hemi cylinder head

with optimized port routes, contours and

volumes could help transform a production

version of this internal combustion engine

into a way-deep breather. A few years

later, Chrysler’s 1956 300B equipped with

the optional dual-quad 355-horsepower,

354-cubic-inch 1G Hemi V8 was Detroit’s

first production powerplant output rated at

one horsepower per cubic inch. GM didn’t

come close to making that kind of power

until the ’57 ’Vette’s fuel-injected smallblock

got rated at 283 horses.

Among the advantageous properties

that Chrysler engineering had encountered

in their 1950s development of its 1G Hemi

V8s was the fact that a hemispherically

shaped combustion chamber allows room

for larger valves to fit in than other chamber

designs can. Because the valves’ heads are

tipped to open toward each other, larger

diameters are possible within a given bore

size. Both valves in a hemi also open away

from flow-shrouding bore walls. Compared

to an inline-valve or canted-valve cylinder

head, a Hemi’s laterally opposed valve lay-

out puts the intake valves close to the inlet

tract and the exhaust nearest the head’s

outlet end. Extensive testing had shown

that the laterally opposed inclined valve

arrangement and the resulting crossflow

combustion chamber it forms yields high

volumetric efficiency numbers—exceeding

100 percent under some operating condi-

tions—and therein demonstrating a Hemi

head’s exceptional cylinder-filling abilities.

In addition, crossflow through the combus-

tion chamber sweeps the centrally located

sparkplug with incoming mixture that also

helps cool the exhaust valve. Plus, a Hemi

chamber’s low surface-to-volume ratio

makes it more thermally efficient in the con-

version of fuel to heat.

With the decision to base the second-

generation (2G) Hemi V8 on the exist-

ing 426 (RB) casting, design of the new

race motor began in January 1963. The

NASCAR single four-barrel would carry

Engineering designation A864 while the

straightaway version was A865. Plans were

to use as many performance and durabil-

ity features as practical while retaining as

much existing RB-series tooling as pos-

sible. In selecting the production RB block

as the place to start, numerous baseline

foundation points were established. For

Frank Bialk in Chrysler’s Engine Design

Department that meant dropping sticks of

soft 2H lead into his draftsman’s mechani-

cal pencil and compass and putting down

some lines on a fresh sheet of the transpar-

ent matte-one-side mylar media used for

large-format engineering drawings. Legend

has it that Frank actually began his prelimi-

nary “roughs” before final approval for the

Hemi head revival had been issued. His first

engineering drawing’s title block carried an

incept date of March 28, 1963.

Following the directive to maintain the

RB blocks’ basic architecture and the

first-generation Hemi’s 58.5-degree angle

between the valve rows, Frank began his

second-generation Hemi cylinder head

design by laying out a plan view of the

head gasket. This drawing would also cor-

respond directly with a plan of the new

cylinder head’s deck face (as well as with

the block decks that the heads seal to).

Had he wanted to, Frank could have used

a 426 Maxi’s stainless steel head-to-block

seal as a rough template. After laying down

a pair of horizontal and vertical centerlines,

four known points along the longitudinal

were equidistantly spaced 4.80 inches apart

to represent one bank of a B-series V8’s

bore centers. With each hole’s vertical axes

added to the drawing, those five intersect-

ing lines established the graphic founda-

tion for all other 2G Hemi head design

elements. Setting his compass for the RB’s

bore radius of 2.125 inches, Bialk struck

28 MOPAR ACTION

, Birth of the Elephant

With a 16-pound rocker shaft assembly, two-pounds of studs and seven-pounds of valves,

springs, keepers and retainers, one dry Hemi iron cylinder head weighs nearly 80-pounds.

Although this casting was for a 1966-71 Street Hemi, earlier iron versions are similar.

Visually, the 1964 K-heads’ roof is flat where this later version has two threaded plugs.

Sliced sideways down the middle reveals this ’64 A865

Hemi’s distinctive crossram intake manifold, OE tube

headers and its fat oil pump sucker pipe.

four circles along that horizontal axis to represent a 426’s 4.25-inch cylinder bores. Bialk then added the locations of the block-to-head oil and coolant passages, a pair of blind receiver holes for the block’s locating dowel pins, and some “manufacturing” holes—all fixed by these features’ estab-lished placement in an existing B-series block. A pair of drainback passages was also specified for the heads’ front and rear outboard corners.

From this outline, Frank filled in the blanks. But the overall design process became a complicated proposition involv-ing countless connected factors and a seemingly endless load of interrelated mechanical details. Chrysler’s engineering team had to first conceive, evaluate and analyze each and every individual compo-nent, considering all for fit, strength and potential durability. Component relation-ships to other parts were investigated—static and cycled, hot and cold—and especially their use over time. Then they had to sort out dynamic aspects including geometry changes and how the locations of the active rocker assemblies and the fixed sparkplug wells and tubes affected

planned pushrod paths and whether any head bolt or pushrod locations interfered with planned port routing. There were also all the practical considerations required to manufacture myriad castings, forgings and stampings, including material characteris-tics and properties like strength, repeatable machinability and heat-treatability—any or all of which could come up short to hinder even limited mass production. There were seemingly no end to the further consider-ations dictated by prototype procurement, vendor scheduling, assembly and, eventu-ally, service in the field.

For the most part, Frank had to coordi-nate his cylinder head planning with ideas being drawn up for the modified RB block that the heads were scheduled to bolt onto, as well as everything in between. With all these overlapping concerns, describing these processes and procedures in any kind of logical sequence here makes our coverage sometimes seem a bit convo-luted. So bear with us as the subject matter jumps among the connections between the heads, the block, their related compo-nents and descriptions of how they all work together. This issue, we’re concentrating

MOPAR ACTION 29

A section cut laterally through one cylinder and its Hemi head reveals a number of the new-for-’64 V8’s features, including the head’s large, horizontally opposed valves, opposite-pivoting rock-ers, the combustion chamber’s centrally located sparkplug, a head-to-block clamping stud, internal coolant jacketing (including the shortcut from the block to the head) and the critically close clear-ance condition where the pushrods cycle close to the head-to-block interface.

on the legendary Hemi cylinder heads. Our

next installment will look into the block,

its reciprocating assembly, manifolds and

other hardware.

CYLINDER HEAD

With engineers Willem Weertman and

Bob Rareya “looking over his shoulder,”

Bialk followed Chrysler’s 1G series of

Hemi V8s for style and substance, utilizing

his exceptional graphic and visualization

skills to develop the rest of a cylinder

head suited to the next generation Hemi

engine. His designs included a fully

machined, hemispherically shaped

combustion chamber with

a spherical radius of

2.42 inches, a centrally

located sparkplug and

large opposed valves

seated flush with the

1.34-inch-deep dome.

In 1952, James Zeder,

then Chrysler’s Vice

President of Engineer-

ing, referred to the

new FirePower Hemi as

having a “spherical segment

chamber.” That description was

far more accurate than call-

ing the 2G chamber shape a

hemisphere, as a true hemi head chamber

atop a 4.25-inch bore would measure an

impractical 2.125 inches deep!

Frank’s efforts to retain the 1G Hemi’s

58.5-degree angle between the rows

of intake and exhaust valves led to an

extremely long exhaust rocker arm for

the new 2G motor. In the early layout and

design processes, the exhaust rocker arms’

length was so excessive that the engineer-

ing team affectionately referred to the parts

as “pump handles.” Rather than taking a

radical approach to a solution (like raising

the block’s cam tunnel to shorten the push-

rods and improve their angularity), Frank

Bialk worked with Tom Hoover to come up

with a more practical plan. Their idea was

to “roll” the entire cylinder head inboard

(about an imaginary longitudinal axis), 12

degrees toward the valley. In doing so, the

exhaust rockers would be shortened, their

rotational inertia reduced and all related

geometry improved. In addition, there’d

be a bit more clearance for the exhaust

pushrod where its path passed close by

the crucial head-to-block gasket bead (just

outboard, fore and aft, of each intake port’s

walls). With more deck-face meat to clamp

onto, the gasket seal itself was margin-

ally improved and the intake ports’ route

between chamber and mouth ran slightly

straighter. Rotating the head about its inner

edge by lifting its outboard edge also nar-

rowed the assembled engine, therein eas-

ing the ’64 A865 (and ’65 A990) drag cars’

assembly line body drop. The downside of

the roll scheme was a slightly compromised

exhaust port and a minor increase in the

chamber’s surface-to-volume ratio—mean-

ing that there’d be a little more loss of com-

bustion heat to coolant and a bit less heat

to do work.

ROCKER SHAFTS

Again following corporate Hemi engine

design practice, Frank specified a pair of

equal-length steel tube rocker shafts to act

as fulcrums for the 2G Hemi’s relatively

massive rocker arms. Separate shafts on

each head carry the intake and the exhaust

rockers, four per shaft, pivoting in opposite

directions. Each pair of shafts is carried on

a series of five malleable cast iron brack-

ets, or pedestals, attached to the cylinder

head and the block by the five (6.125-inch-

long) “center” head bolts. Shafts are

secured to the brackets with 3/8-16 bolts

and the brackets are positively located on

the head by a dowel pin in each machined-

flat mounting pad. With “banana” grooves

to help lube the entire length of the rocker

arms’ and pedestals’ bushings, each

0.972-inch diameter shaft is drilled with a

series of 1/8-inch oil feeder holes. A series

of eight light coil springs are spread along

the pivot shafts to help the rocker arms

resist pushrod side-loads and to keep them

positioned. In subsequent Sixties testing,

aluminum rocker shaft brackets were evalu-

ated in place of the conventional iron parts.

But when valve float was encountered at

lower-than-expected engine speeds, the

heavyweight iron pedestals became Engi-

neering’s preference for the Hemi’s eight

model years of production.

ROCKER ARMS

The rocker arms themselves were steel

forgings, each with a full-length steel-

backed bronze bushing that was finish-

sized only after being pressed into place

and oil holes drilled through it. A series

of 1/8-inch holes channel lube from the

grooved shaft out to the valve stem tips

and to the pushrod balls on the adjuster

ends. The pushrod end of the rocker

is drilled and tapped 3/8-24 to accept

threaded adjuster screws with locknuts.

At the valve tip end opposite, the rocker’s

contact pad is ground to a 30-micro-

inch finish and hardened. After several

scuffing-related failures were recorded in

early testing, the rockers’ bushing-to-shaft

clearance was increased from 0.001-inch

to 0.0022 inches, therein eliminating

another potential problem in even limited

production. Theoretically, the rocker arm

ratios work out to 1.57:1 on the intakes

and 1.52:1 on the pump-handle exhausts.

But as Ray Barton has reminded us, the

ratios of a “good” set of OE Hemi rockers’

are off by about a tenth, effectively putting

their numbers closer to 1.47:1 intake and

1.42:1 exhaust.

PUSHRODS

Fabricated from 0.375-inch diameter,

0.083-inch-wall hollow steel tubing, Hemi

pushrods have hardened steel inserts

pressed-in and welded on both ends. Pro-

totype pushrod tests involved tubes that

30 MOPAR ACTION

RIGHT: Domed chamber’s

shape makes room for the

largest-possible valve sizes.

Centrally located sparkplug

benefits combustion.

BELOW: Provisions for

attaching the Hemi heads to

the engine block were cast into

the RB-based tappet valley’s

upper walls.


were stepped down to 0.33 inches along short sections of both ends. But when those rods collapsed this reduced-diameter area during extended durability evaluations they were replaced by tubes tapered 12 degrees at each end to accept the inserts. All inserts’ ball and socket contact surfaces were finished to 65 micro-inches. Intake pushrods in solid lifter 2G Hemi engines measure 10.65 inches long, tip to tip. As you might expect, the exhausts are longer, 11.58 inches overall. A Street Hemi’s push-rods were slightly shorter.

Along their routes from the rocker arms to the tappets (which are detailed in later block and cam coverage), the pushrods pass through short passages in the cylin-der heads. Viewed “over-the-fender” from above, the passages for the more radically angled exhaust pushrods are situated to the right of each inlet port (and its head stud), while the intake pushrods’ passages are to the left and slightly more inboard (toward the valley) than the exhaust push-rod passage. The exhaust pushrod pas-sage is shorter and considerably closer to the cylinder bore than the corresponding intake passage. In the block “below,” four short bosses cast into each upper tap-pet valley wall (alongside and parallel to the walls’ longer head stud bosses) are drilled as intake pushrod pass-throughs. The areas of the valley walls below the cylinder heads’ exhaust pushrod passages are noticeably laid back and relieved for pushrod clearance. Early testing (either on Chrysler’s dynamic valve gear test fixture or on its dynamometers) resulted in factory correspondence advising owners of clear-ance concerns in the above-mentioned pushrod passages, suggesting that filing could help.

HEAD BOLTSFrank’s efforts to retain the RB wedge

engine’s 17 fasteners securing each cylin-der head to the block were complicated by the Hemi design’s port positions and dual rocker shaft arrangement. The twin shafts, stands and rockers, plus the ports, push-rods, valve springs and sparkplug wells and tubes all occupied considerable real estate atop the heads. In order to avoid this jungle of obstructive hardware, a clever plan was engineered to add four inverted bolts to each head with the threaded end of each new fastener secured in a tapped hole in the underside of the intake port floor. Corresponding clamping bosses, integrally cast into the iron block’s upper tappet chamber walls and finished flush with each deck, were added to accept these fasteners.

Although 7/16-18 coarse-thread bolts were originally specified here, they were replaced for 1965 (and later) produc-tion with 7/16--inch threaded studs (PN 2531188). The four studs (per head) have 7/16-18 fine threads on their lower ends for hex nuts (PN 2658882). The boss bottoms were finished square with their tops while adjacent block walls were relieved for nut wrenching clearance. Stress-reducing fillets were also machined into the boss bottoms where they meet the valley walls. Accessible only from inside the tappet chamber, this unique late-Hemi-only clamping setup required a special offset adapter tool to properly apply tighten-ing torque on sequential assembly. Each stud’s 9/16-inch hex nut was tightened to 70-75-ft.-lbs., the same spec as the 13 other Hemi head bolts. When early assemblies showed the studs’ nuts crush-ing their bosses, hardened washers (PN 6026141) were added to the build plan. Note that as in Chrysler’s 1950s series of early-Hemi FirePower V8s, the 426 Hemi’s five long center “row” of head bolts also function as rocker shaft stand hold-downs.

PORTSOnce the pushrod paths were deter-

mined and the head bolt arrangement, coolant jacket and sparkplug locations finalized, the ports were “roughed in.” Their design began at rectangular-shaped port mouths equally spaced along their corre-sponding intake and exhaust cylinder head faces—1G-style. Transitioning from these rectangular cross-sections to round open-ings at the valve seats, the passages’ spac-ing not only helped designers equalize their volumes and avoid nearby pushrod paths but the head’s abbreviated water jackets also minimized heat transfer from coolant to the somewhat-isolated intake charge. Once the connecting passages between the port entries, exits and their respective valve seats had been roughly established, that design data was sent to respected cylinder head specialist Harry Westlake in Great Britain for bench testing and flow model-ing. Chrysler Engine ering combined with Westlake’s development efforts to create an intake port cross-sectional area of 3.00 square inches (at the mouth), an exhaust port area of 2.24 sq. inches, and an intake flow rate of 262 cfm at a half-inch lift and 274 cfm at 0.600 inches lift—all measured at a flow depression of 18 inches of water. Westlake’s refined prototype contours actu-ally added iron inside the intake ports rather than removed it. Resulting flow improve-ments were reflected in the wood patterns for the first “D-1” and “D-2” Hemi heads


32 MOPAR ACTION

cast for 1964 and ’65. Although the down-turned exhaust ports allowed exhaust mani-folding to tuck tightly against the engine’s flanks, the contours didn’t do much for effi-cient flow. Raised and straightened exhaust ports in 1970’s redesigned D-4 heads addressed this.

COMBUSTION CHAMBERS During domestic head development, the

section thickness of the understandably high-stress area at the very tops of the combustion chambers was increased from 0.28 to 0.36 inches. In addition, 0.20-inch-thick ribs were added between adjacent chambers to help prevent deflection due to combustion pressures. Internally, the heads were given full water-jacketing adja-cent to the exhaust valve seats and guides and some water passages around the intake valves and sparkplug seats. To help

conduct coolant from the block directly to the heads’ exhaust valve seats and guides (rather than have it travel all the way to the back of the block before being routed up into the heads, as it is in an RB), four new holes were drilled into each Hemi block bank’s coolant jacketing along the deck faces’ outboard (exhaust) edges. Corre-sponding holes in the cylinder heads then provide a flow shortcut that helps maintain uniform thermal levels throughout the casting. Eight head and gasket holes here allow their interchangeability, bank to bank.

VALVESWithin each 172.7cc 2G Hemi chamber,

Frank specified valve head diameters mea-suring 2.25 inches intake and 1.94 inches exhaust, all with trimmer–than-a-corporate-wedge-head-V8’s 0.308-inch-diameter


As reported in a March, 1952 Society of Automotive Engineers

(SAE) technical paper, Chrysler experiments with a 331 cubic inch 1G Hemi fitted with four single-throat carbs, a 12.6:1 compression ratio, a 280-degree cam-shaft, tube headers and 100 octane gasoline cranked out 353 horsepower. Subsequent evaluations of this combina-tion were fitted with Hilborn fuel injection, and metering methanol, the OE-based all-iron test motor made an optimistic 404 horsepower at 5600 rpm. Conveniently, the AAA Contest Board (USAC’s early counterpart) was then in the process of evaluating the acceptance of 335 cubic inch stock block pushrod engines for Indy 500 competition. With an injection of meth, the early Hemi appeared to loom as a natural threat. But after a 400 horsepower 331-inch A311 Hemi in a Kurtis Kraft chassis clocked 135 mph (nearly six miles per hour faster than the 500-win-ning Offy motor had run),

“old timers” with vested interests in the established Offenhauser and Miller race motors influenced the AAA to limit engine sizes to a maxi-mum of 275 cubic inches. With the most popular Offy conveniently displacing 274-cubes and no time for Chrysler to re-engineer a proper short-stroke 331, the rule effectively legislated the Chrysler Hemi out of Indy

500 competition. Clearly a case of, “if ya can’t outrun ’em, outlaw ’em,”—a situ-ation the Chrysler Hemi ran into a number of times dur-ing its three generations of production. Regardless of this open-wheel dead end, however, the early hipo Hemi effort continued to inspire Chrysler engineers for the next half-century, maybe more.

A Hemi for the Indy 500?

MANNMANNTOY

Mild Mods Dept.

STORY

By Al Dente

PHOTOS By TheBruntBros

34 MOPAR ACTION

Sharp looking ’69 440-6 Charger

YYou gotta give Chrysler credit.

Getting involved with the Dukes of

Hazzard TV show was pure mar-

keting genius. Heck, if the Dukes

were driving Yugos, and the Yugo factory hadn’t

been bombed into dust, the marque might still be

around today and there would be hordes attend-

ing the 34th Yugo Nationals. But enough of that.

Bill Mann is typical of the Dukes influence. He

was a 9-year old kid when the family flipped on the

black and white American-made Andrea TV (a com-

pany that Rick Ehrenberg once worked for as a quality

control engineer before they went out of business—one

of many such firms that were cursed with the “Booger

Kiss of Death”). While the older Mann male family mem-

bers were glued to Daisy Mae’s rear quarter panels, Bill

was fixated by the car. He promised himself that one day he

would own a car like that.

Originally a 383 4-speed non-

R/T Charger in pretty rough

shape, Bill restored the car him-

self with some neat upgrades

and added the V21 hood call-

outs. Headlights are HID.

MOPAR ACTION 35

with just the right custom touches.

That promise came true when Bill turned 16 and he picked up a ’68 Charger, a car he still owns. Red with black top and interior, that Charger was inside Carlisle’s dealer showroom display in its debut year. In 1987, shortly after finishing the resto on the ’68, Bill picked up his second Charger—this one a ’70 R/T purple with white top, gut and bumblebee stripe. It’s the flagship of his 3-Charger collection. Bill ran that Charger through the Nats OE Certification back in 2000 and missed Gold by 3 points on account of an incorrect air filter. Not bad for a car Bill restored himself with a stash of NOS parts. Mopar picked the car for Top Elimina-tor at Carlisle last year and they brought it to the Woodward Cruise. Really cool.

Life went on and Bill got married to Lau-rie. In about 2003, Bill got the urge to pick

up another Mope—an E-body this time. But they were hard to find and so expensive when a good one turned up. He still had an entire basement full of Charger stuff so it made sense to go after another one of those. Bill put the word out, and a friend told him about a Charger sitting in a guy’s driveway less than 5 miles from Bill’s house. Like we always say, whatever car you’re looking for, draw a 10-mile radius circle from your home, and you’ll find the car in that area. (Note: this doesn’t apply to Canada where all you’ll find are trees and ice.)

Bill checked out the car and found a ’69 Charger pretty much stripped out and

sitting on four trailer “wagon wheels.” The B-body had the usual rust issues, no inte-rior, no engine, no transmission, no grille, a bashed-in door and a buckled fender. But, it had potential. Bill left his business card on the car’s windshield.

A week goes by, no response. Then the phone rings. The owner says he’s moving in two weeks and the car has to go now. He had planned to restore it and had all the missing parts in his garage. Bill thinks the guy got in over his head. Bill scoots over and asks about the price—800 bucks including everything: engine trans, grille, taillights, the works. Bill takes a closer look,

36 MOPAR ACTION

, Mann Toy

1970 440 is beefed with forged crank, six-pack rods and Keith Black 10.25:1 pistons. Edelbrock heads top it off while a Lunati 60303 cam conducts the valvetrain. Pro Max supplied the six-pack. MSD’s pro-billet distributor and Mopar 6 AL box make the sparks. Serpentine belt pulleys are custom made and a Griffin rad keeps it all cool.

Bill added the R/T emblems and bumblebee stripe. Exhaust is TTi 2 ½-in. with Dynomax mufflers. Trunk plays home to Alpine amps and subs. You can’t see it, but hold the page close to your ear to hear it.

the Charger is a little more roached out than he first noticed. He cuts a deal for $600. It takes three trailer loads to tote all the stuff back home.

But all is not smooth sailing. Bill’s wife is pregnant with their first child. She knows Bill’s getting the car and she’s not too excited about it. ’Course in that state women aren’t too excited about anything—especially man toys. Bill tries psychology and tells her they could take the kids (when they come along) and all go to car shows together (not to mention he can already do that now with his two other Chargers.) She looks at the car and says it’s not as bad as she thought it was going to be (must’ve been one of her better days). She asks Bill what he’s going to do with it. He replies just slap it together and make a General Lee to beat around in. Laurie looks Bill dead in the eye and dicates, “I’m not riding around in a General Lee!”

“General Grant?”“No!”“General Mills?“No!!”“Gener … ““NO!!!”Well, that settled that. Bill is now in

damage control. OK, he says, we’ll do something nice. He tells he to pick a color. Her favorite is Sublime green. In retrospect, Bill says he’s glad he didn’t go the General route. There are six guys on his block with Generals, it’s a bit overdone.

The resto takes five years. The Charger needs a a hood, left fender, left door, right quarter, a right wheel housing, trunk floor extensions, trunk floor, a lower valance and it requires a trans tunnel because when they converted the car from a 4-speed to an automatic they basically took a big torch and cut a hole in the floor. They also torched holes in the fender aprons so they could change spark plugs easier. Might be a tech article for Ebooger to look into. It also appears that the car had headers at one time. It was a mess.

MOPAR ACTION 37

“ The seats even smell new so Bill didn’t have to spring for Zaino’s Fartz-B-Gone (now with Fartz-Gard) upholstery freshener.”

No!!

Undeterred, Bill forged ahead handling all the body work in his home garage and shooting the paint in a local paint shop’s booth while the guy took his lunch break. Bill laid out the V21 callouts and stripes at home and painted them in a Toyota RAV4 3-stage pearl rather than flat black. They’re cleared over so the surface is smooth. Progressing with the full assembly, Bill installed the vinyl top and the headliner.

The 440 was put together by a local machine shop, NT Racing. Nick over there is an old timer who has his Mopes down pat and does a lot of work for locals. The six-pack setup came from Pro Max. It has their Max Pak system which makes the outboard carbs tunable. A trip over to Pat

Musi’s dyno in Carteret, NJ saw the motor punch out 518 HP and 572 TQ. Bill runs a serpentine belt system with custom pulleys made by “Duster 499” on Moparts. The A/C compressor came from Classic Auto Air. They left the ends off the hoses and gave Bill a bunch of different shaped ends. He routed the hoses and then had the fittings crimped on so everything would line up.

Bill funnels all those ponies through a Keisler Stage 2 4-speed overdrive automatic, because his wife wouldn’t drive a stick—not a 5-speed, 4-speed or a 3-speed. “Just let me put it in Drive, sweetie.” The 3.91 8-3/4ʺ rear is just right for cruising, normal street bashing and good punch off the line. Bill rolls on custom Foose Challenger wheels. They’re made to order, you choose the style and give them your offset which is available in 1/8ʺ incre-ments. The fronts are 18x8 while out back you’ll find 19x10s. To ward off the dreaded “Pretzelitis” during hard launches, Bill installed MP frame connectors. Handling

38 MOPAR ACTION

Nifty Corbeau seats were bought from a guy who had them in his Mustang but were too small for him. Bill had to modify the tracks to lower the seats to fit the Challenger.

, Mann Toy

upgrades include MP leaf springs, KYB shocks, Hotchkis swaybars, aluminum strut rods and the larger C-body tie rod sleeves.

Not one to leave an interior stock, at least not on this Charger, Bill went for the Fancy Pants package—Corbeau seats that he got a deal on from a guy five times Bill’s size who had them in his Mustang. He had sat in them just 3 times before he finally realized he didn’t fit. They even smell new so Bill didn’t have to spring for Zaino’s Fartz-B-Gone (now with FartzGard) uphol-stery freshener. The dash is spruced up with Redline white face gauges and a MP wheel whips the Charger to the left or right. The only thing missing was an audio sys-tem. That was easily corrected by ZNR Auto Salon in Middlesex, NJ. They’ll give your

car a perm while screwing in sound com-ponents—in this case a Secret Audio head unit with all Alpine amps and speakers.

The whole deal comes to a screeching halt when Bill stomps the drilled and slotted Wilwoods—6-piston calipers up front, 4 out back. They work with a Hydrotech Hydro-boost system.

And as far as the looks, character and performance wars go, the Generals on Bill’s block don’t stand a chance.

MOPAR ACTION 39

Handling level is raised a few notches with

Hotchkis swaybars, frame connectors,

Mopar leaf springs and KYB shocks. Bill sprayed the Sublime hue himself. Wheels

are custom Foose Challenger.

Redline whiteface gauges and MP wheel dress up the interior. Stock shifter instructs Keisler 4-speed over-drive auto trans.

The mid-’60s was a hot time for Dodge. 1964 saw Dodge celebrate its 50-year golden anniversary—a fact noted on the steering wheel hub of its models.

Stylingwise, the ’64 Darts were mildly freshened while the larger B-body Dodges received a more thorough makeover. The changes were enough, to boost sales and make Dodge the 6th best selling car in America, with Dart coming in as Dodge’s best seller.

The performance story started modestly enough on the Dart carried over with a slight freshening from ’63. Newly available for the A-body Dart was the 225 CID version of the slant-six and, midyear, its first V8—the 273. The big news, though, had “426” written all over it. The 426 Max Wedge barreled into ’64, its final year, in Stage III trim. With newly ported heads, bigger carbs and a heavy-duty cast iron tuned exhaust, the dual-quad Maxie boasted 425 HP while the

40 MOPAR ACTION

Sizzling It’s fast and furious in Dodgeland ’64-’66 as Chrysler uncages the game-changer Hemi for race and street while the curtain is raised on Coronet and Charger.

Dodge 100th Anniversary Series

1966 Polara 500 was Polara’s top offering. This was basically a trim option that included special badges, buckets, console and some other trim goodies.

By Mack Bennett

The ’64 Dart wore a new grille but few other changes from ’63, until mid-year when the 273 V8 increased the fun quotient.

MOPAR ACTION 41

single 4-Bbl version checked in at 415 ponies. The Max Wedge was going out in a blaze of glory by getting inked into the record books as Top Eliminator at the NHRA Summernats, Detroit Dragway in late ’63. That was accomplished by a young Chrysler attorney, Al Eckstrand in his Ramchargers Dodge “Lawman.” At the Super Stock Invita-tions in York, PA, Maxie-powered Dodges garnered the top four spots. As the Max Wedge exited stage left, the spotlight swung to stage right with the debut of the mighty 426 Hemi. Check out our in-depth report on this powerhouse, now celebrating its own golden anniversary, on page 26.

When the Hemi-powered Dodges first hit the dragstrips in ’64, NHRA classed them in A/FX because of the low numbers of engines available from Dodge. As the numbers increased, the cars were allowed in Super Stock where they kicked serious butt. To insure the Fords would have a bad hair day at the track, Dodge built a limited number of drag package cars that included Roger Lindamood’s “Color Me Gone” and Ramchargers president, Jim Thornton’s “Ramchargers.” Thornton set a record 11.23/130.05 at the ’64 Summernationals, and smoked his way up to the winner’s circle at the ’64 U. S. Nationals.

The Hemi not only decimated the competition on the dragstrip, it pulverized its cross-town competitors in Stock Car competition. Here again, you can get the complete details by following our ongoing series, “Chrysler’s Stock Car Connection.” Suffice it to say that the Hemi-powered Dodges, along with Plymouth, set the rac-ing world on its ear by capturing the top six spots at the ’64 Daytona Firecracker 400. The race was won by A.J. Foyt driving the #47 ’64 Dodge Polara.

The ’64 production car portfolio con-sisted of the compact Dart line, now with a GT offering. The standard-size class featured the 330 and 440 Series and the Polara. A special Polara 500 trim option with buckets seats, console, sports interior and special badging, was intended to compete with the likes of the Chevy Impala SS and Ford XL offerings. The Custom 880 was carried over as the big boy Dodge still built on the Chrysler Newport shell.

“The Hemi not only

decimated the competi-tion on the dragstrip, it pulverized its cross-town competitors in Stock Car competition.

”

Dodge designers forged ahead into

1965 with extensive facelifts for the mod-

els while the engineers revamped what

was under the skin. More important was

the introduction of two new models: The

Coronet, including the 440 and 500 (which

would be labelled “intermediate” models)

and the Monaco displacing the 880 Cus-

tom as Dodge’s top of the line luxo ride.

Available only as a 2-door hardtop, the

Monaco was designed to compete with the

likes of Pontiac’s Grand Prix in the luxury

sports car arena. The standard-size Dodge

880 was canned, and Polara was now the

entry rung for full-size Dodges. The 413

4-Bbl—entered the lineup as an option for

Polara, Custom 880 and Monaco.

1965 saw the first factory A/FX altered

wheelbase cars—Hemi-powered Coronets

with fiberglass doors, hood, decklid, bum-

pers and dash. Bobby Harrop was one of

few chosen to receive a factory ’Xer, and

he won the Super Stock magazine Nation-

als among many others in the eastern U.S.

Another Dodge dragstrip terror was Bud

Faubel who piloted one of the first factory

package drag cars in ’64 with his “Hemi

Honker” Dodge 330. Faubel replaced the

330 with a Coronet “Honker” for ’65.

42 MOPAR ACTION

, Sizzling Sixties

The Custom 880

Series for ’65 was

a sporty luxury car

fielded as competition

to the likes of

Pontiac Grand Prix.

New for 1965 was the Coronet

model lineup which would define

the Intermediate segment.

The ’65 Darts received

the first thorough

rehashing since its intro

in ’63. New were grille,

hood, decklid, bumpers

and taillights. The GT

was the top Dart model.

The biggest news in

’66, along with the

availability of the

Street Hemi, was the

sleek fastback Char-

ger. The model was

not a hot seller.

Dodge literally charged into 1966 with the new Charger, a mid-year intro of a sleek fastback model with four bucket seats that saw the rears fold down for expanded hatch space. Sharing the same chassis as the Coronet, Charger had a fair amount of unique sheetmetal and a front clip featuring a full-length grille with hidden headlights and full-length taillights. Engine choices ranged from a 318 V8 up to the newly introduced street version of the Race Hemi, a $700+ option, of which 468 cars were sold. Overall Charger sales were disap-pointing—only 37,344. Pontiac’s GTO, on the other hand, sold over 90,000. While the Hemi originally was intended for race-only duty, NASCAR ruled that to be accepted in their venue, Hemi engines would have to be made available to the general public—which Chrysler did. On the NASCAR circuit, Earl Balmer etched the Charger name into the record books with its first win on Feb. 25th at Daytona’s 100-miler.

Coronet, now in its second year received extensive restyling and became Dodge’s hottest seller that year. The ulti-mate sleeper was the Coronet with a 425 HP Hemi under the hood and small fender emblems which were easily overlooked. Monaco continued to be Dodge’s top model line, a plushier version of the Polara which still came with a 383 as standard but now could also be had with the more fuel efficient 318 A-series engine.

In ’66, Monaco continued to be the top offering at Dodge. It now came in four body styles as compared to one in ’65. Interiors were plush and luxurious.

Once the Race Hemi was unleashed, the factory wasted no time in putting together race packages for selected drivers. This is Roger Lindamood’s “Color Me Gone” injected and altered wheelbase ’66 Charger.

44 MOPAR ACTION

Holy Smokes Matrimony Dept.

BRIDEHERE COMES THE

The church was warm, but with the overhead fans spinning the parishioners were comfort-

able enough even though there were more than the usual number present for a Sunday. This was the day that Chip Owens and Alexandra were get-ting hitched. Not the usual wedding ceremony, according to the plan, The pastor would call for the bride and groom. He would then step back and off to the side. The church’s rear doors would open and a honkin’ blue ’Cuda would storm down the main aisle of the sanctuary smokin’ the hides all the way. Chip and Alexandra would get out of the car, go through the ceremony, get back in, smoke ’em back out of the church in reverse and disappear in a cloud of smoke and dust and a hearty “Hi Yo Silv … “ oops! Wrong church.

That was the plan. Unfortunately, the church board felt the expense of ripping out pews to widen the main aisle and then laying down a bed of concrete over the polished wood floor

was a bit much for one wedding. So the happy couple had to walk down the aisle and then pick it up outside the church disappearing in a cloud of smoke and dust and a hearty “See ya’” on the way to their honeymoon.

According to Chip, all his friends and relatives wouldn’t have expected anything less. And being as we are Mopar Action, neither would we.

’Course I know that all you read-ers would like to hear about the

MOPAR ACTION 45

STORY By Al DentePHOTOS By TheBruntBros

Chip and dad, Jim, restored the ’Cuda (including paint) from a roller in their home garage. Scoop is a bolt-on fiberglass 4-inch Chevy-esque cowl induction unit. Front suspension is stock with poly bushings and 90/10 shocks. Chip qualified 18 out of 70+ cars at the Pump Gas Drags.

Nine-second ’Cuda could well be the world’s quickest wedding limo.

Chip and Alexandra and their honeymoon ’Cuda makes for haul in the family (Choke!) If you missed the wedding we’ll give you Chip’s address so you can stop by and throw some rice.

wedding—the flowers, the bigwigs that

attended, who cried and who didn’t and

maybe a synopsis of the pastor’s sermon.

But my editor has informed me that if I want

to keep my job (such as it is) I’d better write

about the car. So here goes.

Chip has owned the ’Cuda for some 18

years now, his dad, Jim, bought it for him

when he was still in high school. It basically

was a shell with no drivetrain—a project

that Chip and his dad got right into. Chip

was an avid reader of the car magazines of

the day and he fell in love with E-bodies. He

wanted a ’Cuda in the worst way.

A friend of Jim’s told him about this

’Cuda located about 20 miles from Jim’s

house. Originally a Vitamin C 340 car, it now

sat with a cheap paintjob of the original

color. The interior was out of the car, the

dash, door panels and seats were missing

but the rest was all there. The owner was

going to make a street car out of the ’Cuda

but never got around to it. Chip restored

the car to at least make it presentable. It’s

no show car and was never meant to be.

Chip says someday he’ll redo it, but right

now he’s having too much fun just beating

on it. And beat on it he does turning 9.30s

at the strip. Since the photos were taken,

Chip has added nitrous—a 200-250 HP

NOS Cheater port system--in his quest for

the eights. Traction is the limiting factor and

Chip is trying his best to sort that out.

The ’Cuda had the typical rust in the

quarters, but the bodywork needed overall

was minor. Chip and Jim took care of that,

including paint, in their home garage. The

first motor Chip dropped in there was a

stock 440 backed by an automatic. That

lasted, in various configurations, until 2003

when he went for a more serious big block

(14:1 compression) that propelled him

though the quarter-mile at 10.40/129. The

’Cuda, also serving as a street car, required

Chip to tank up with C12 race gas just to

make a milk run. That got old (and expen-

sive) after a while, so Chip decided to build

a pump gas motor.

Prior to his current job as a traffic engi-

neer with the South Carolina Department

of transportation (he’s laying out special

downtown “wheelie lanes” for high per-

formance Mopars), Chip was a machinist

and engine builder, so he knows how to

put together a combination. He knew he

wanted a lot of horsepower (he planned

on nitrous down the road) so he figured

he wouldn’t start with a factory block. He

narrowed the choice down between a B1

and a Hemi (something he always wanted

as a kid). Chip priced it all out, they both

46 MOPAR ACTION

, Here Comes The Bride

Body is not cut (no tubs)so the 295/65-15 M/T ET Street Radials on 15x8

Centerline Warriors really fill the ’wells. Fronts are 28-inch M/T Sportsman on

15x4s. Caltrac suspension worked well until it was overpowered by nitrous.

572-inch Keith Black

Hemi has bulletproof

internals and ported

MP aluminum heads.

Of the several motors

that have taken up

residence between

the frame rails, this is

Chip’s built-for-pump-

gas bullet. Horse-

power (motor only) is

somewhere between

830-850. The elephant

is cooled off with a

Griffin aluminum rad and an electric fan and shroud from an ’03 Viper.

A Meziere electric water pump keeps the coolant moving.

’Cuda still wears the interior that came with the car. Kudos to Alexandra for not

complaining (maybe she’s getting a new kitchen). Front seats are out of a ’72 ’Cuda,

rear seat is factory. 10-point cage helps hold it all together.

were expensive and the Hemi came in at 2-3 grand more than the B1. But it was a HEMI. Chip started with a Keith Black block topped with MP CNC-ported aluminum heads. Stout internals, spec’d by Dan at Performance Only Racing in Florida, include a Callies crank, Oliver billet steel rods and 11:1 Diamond pistons for pump gas. The valves dance to the tune of a custom Comp Cams’ solid roller spec’d in at 0.672/0.650ʺ lift by Dwayne Porter at Porter Racing Heads in Vermont. All that pump gas gets funneled in through a Ray Barton intake and a Chip-built 1200 CFM Pro-Systems Dominator where it meets its match from a MSD Pro-Billet distributor and 6 AL box. The gases wave goodbye via TTi headers and 4ʺ collectors.

Chip has two exhaust systems but he doesn’t use them at the same time, only Tony DeFeo can do that. For track duty and for annoying the neighbors, there are 4ʺ Dynomax bullets right off the collectors. When he’s up for being a good citizen, he runs a full 4-inch H-pipe system with Flowmasters.

A beefy 727 with billet drums and 5-pin-ion planetary setup runs a Turbo Action reverse manual valve body and a custom

9-inch 5,000-stall converter. Atlantic Coast Converters get the trans and converter build credit. The power then slingshots back to a 4.10 Dana. Custom subframe connectors and the 10-point cage were fab’d by Joplin’s Race Cars.

The suspension up front is stock with poly bushings and 90/10 shocks, while the rear is a Caltrac monleaf setup with 9-way adjustable Rancho shocks. ’Course when the downtown wheelie lane merges

into regular traffic and the front end comes down, you sometimes gotta hit the binders so as not to centerpunch a bus. Aerospace Street & Strip discs up front work with stockers in the rear to keep the 3800-lb. E-body under control.

Alexandra was cool as the proverbial cucumber as Chip smoked out of the church lot and down the highway. She just smiled and shook her head taking all of Chip’s antics in stride. Our guess is that he probably wouldn’t have married her if she didn’t. ’Course when the kids come along we’ll bet they’ll take after dad. Stands to reason, being a Chip off the old block.

MOPAR ACTION 47

And they’re off! Church officials drew the line at a smokey inside the church. Chip didn’t tell us how many sets of rear tires he went through before the happy couple reached their destination.

RAY NICHELS: Chrysler’s Stock Car Connection • Part 9

48 MOPAR ACTION

BACK TO RACINGChrysler continues its winning ways going into the Spring of ’66 as NASCAR plays loose with the rules.

STORY

By Wm. R. LaDow

Photos from “Conversations with a Winner—

The Ray Nichels Story.”

It was now April 17th, 1966, and

Nichels Engineering was racing at two

different tracks, located in two different

parts of the country. After qualifying

sixth and eleventh, respectively, McQuagg

and Goldsmith gave their best effort in the

250-miler on the paved North Wilkesboro

Speedway in North Carolina. The 400-

lap battle took its toll on the equipment,

though, with McQuagg losing an engine

and finishing 17th. Goldsmith had an even

rougher day losing his brakes and finishing

24th. Chrysler still took the top three spots

with Jim Paschal scoring the first-ever

victory for his patron, Tom Friedkin, in a

Nichels Engineering-built Plymouth.

Meanwhile up north, Norm Nelson raced

to his first USAC victory of the year in the

150-miler at Langhorne. Jim Hurtubise

finished second, Sal Tovella copped third,

while Don White in his Nichels

Engineering Dodge Charger

finished fourth. Chrysler drivers

took seven of the top 10 spots.

VIRGINIA 500

A week later, on the NASCAR circuit, the

11th Annual Virginia 500 held at Martinsville

Speedway provided its fans with a racing

story of a lifetime. For Nichels Engineering’s

driver Paul Goldsmith, the outcome of the

race offered both good news and bad news.

The good news was when Goldy crossed

the finish line he captured the checkered

flag and spent the next 45 minutes cel-

ebrating in Victory Circle with his Nichels

Engineering crew. Paul then learned the

bad news. NASCAR officials had lost track

of Paul’s No. 99 Nichels Plymouth during

one of his pit stops and incorrectly scored

Goldsmith with an extra lap. Jim Paschal,

with his Friedkin Plymouth sitting just behind

Goldsmith’s in Victory Circle, was informed

(as he had contended since the end of the

race) that he had rightfully earned his sec-

ond consecutive NASCAR victory. Goldsmith

was more than gracious when he learned he

was not the race winner and publicly lauded

Paschal for his race-winning effort. Overall,

Nichels Engineering and

Chrysler did quite well on

the day with McQuagg

finishing 16th and Mopars

making up seven of the

top 10 spots. It was clear that the Mopar

machines were now dominating more than

ever with the Ford Factory support gone.

However, a look at the race results showed

some Ford drivers boycotting their own

boycott and driving whatever raceworthy

race cars they could find. Many Ford drivers

began to publicly question Ford’s decision

to boycott and it was clear there was unrest

in the Ford driving ranks.

Goldsmith then headed to the Rich-

mond 250, held on the half-mile dirt track

at the Atlantic Rural Fairgrounds in Rich-

mond, Virginia. The 125-mile race on May

15th saw Paul start 12th and finish fifth,

with David Pearson, in his Cotton Owens

Dodge, getting his fifth victory in just 19

races. The David Pearson-Cotton Owens

team was on a roll.

NASCAR GETS WEIRD

The longest race of the year for the

Nichels Engineering racing effort was the

World 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway

on May 22nd. Goldsmith and McQuagg

were joined by Don White for one of NAS-

CAR’s biggest stock car races of the year.

Things got interesting early on, as several

teams timing Goldy during his early prac-

tice laps were stunned by his speeds. The

Mario Andretti in the

USAC race at Canada’s

Mosport Park. An over-

confident Mario flipped

his Charger during

practice causing

extensive damage.

MOPAR ACTION 49

Part 1 Aug. 2013: GM bows out of NASCAR, opening the door for F.R. Householder, Chrysler’s Manager—Circuit High Perfor-mance Competition, to sign on Nichels’ Engineering, which formerly fielded race-winning Pontiacs, to become Chrysler’s stock car builder.

Part 2 Oct. 2013: Nichels debuts his 1963 Plymouths. Initial testing and competition prove out Nichels designs. USAC drops a bomb.

Part 3 Dec. 2013: The Hemi debuts and sends shockwaves through the racing world.

Part 4 Feb 2014: The Daytona Firecracker 400, NASCAR’s bombshell and the end of an era.

Part 5 April 2014: NASCAR bans the Hemi. Part 6 June 2014: Nichels keeps Chrysler in the

game by running other circuits as NASCAR tires to lure Chrysler back.

Part 7 Aug. 2014: 1966—Chrysler and NASCAR settle their differences, and Ray Nichels expands his operation with a new factory and new drivers.

Part 8 Oct. 2014: Chrysler unveils the new Dodge Charger, surprises with the 405-cube Hemi and gets hit with exploding tires.

THE STORY SO FAR

lean, quiet, West Virginia-born Nichels driver was absolutely scorching the high-banked Charlotte track. Word began to surface that Chrysler engineers and Nichels crew members had reworked the front end of the No. 99 Nichels Engineering Hemi-powered Plymouth Belvedere. It was soon learned that through a process of dropping the nose and subtly altering the shape of the bumper, hood and fenders, Nichels Engineering had created a much more aerodynamic racecar. Once the word got out and Goldsmith’s recorded speeds proved to be so far above the norm, NASCAR Chief Inspector Norris

MOPAR ACTION 49

Friel (an old friend of Ray Nichels from their

days racing Indy cars on the old AAA sanc-

tioned Championship Trail) called Nichels

aside and asked that he and Goldsmith

hold off on qualifying until NASCAR could

appraise the impact of their newfound

aerodynamic advantage. Ray and Paul

reluctantly agreed and watched Richard

Petty take the pole with a speed of 148.637

mph, a substantially slower mark than Gold-

smith‘s pre-race runs.

Goldsmith wasn’t the only Nichels chauf-

feur to be challenged by the NASCAR

inspection process. Don White began to

realize that NASCAR inspectors seemed to

spend considerably more time inspecting

the USAC star’s Dodge than other NASCAR

driver’s cars. In time, White would come

to realize that even though NASCAR race

fans welcomed him and other USAC driv-

ers like A.J. Foyt, Norm Nelson, and Jim

Hurtubise, the NASCAR inspectors were

not as generous with their acceptance. The

USAC drivers were not part of the NASCAR

“good old boy” network and it showed at

times during the inspection process. On

many occasions, White would find himself

being told his car did not meet NASCAR

standards and would be sent back to the

garages to “correct” the problem, robbing

Don of important practice time. More than

once White would find himself qualifying at

the end of the line and battling his way into

the field. What surprised White and others

the most was the fact the Sam McQuagg’s

Nichels Engineering Dodge Charger was

set up identically to White’s, but McQuagg

never seemed to run into the time-consum-

ing inspection difficulties that Don White

and other USAC drivers did. This was of

particular importance to Ray Nichels who

(as the “house” builder for all of Chrysler)

insisted his team always be above board

due to his concern that if Nichels cars were

consistently found to be out of compliance,

it would create a NASCAR inspection pro-

cess where all of the Chrysler teams would

be under increased scrutiny.

WORLD 600

In the case of the upcoming World

600, Sam McQuagg qualified well in the

sixth spot. But it appeared that the Nichels

crew would have their work cut out for

them on race day when qualifying delays

relegated Goldsmith and White to 17th

and 19th, respectively, on the starting grid.

Goldsmith’s starting spot of 19th was quite

extraordinary as he had laid down the

fasted pre-race lap of the entire weekend at

149.491 mph.

The results of the race were indicative

of the obstacles the Nichels Engineer-

ing team were forced to overcome. In

the end, McQuagg lost his engine on the

112th lap, finishing 29th. Goldsmith lost his

engine after battling a series of near disas-

ters for over 300 laps. First was a broken

wheel, then an ignition problem. Then his

car stalled in the pits and Paul had to be

pushed back out on the track. It seemed as

if every time Goldy went into the pits he lost

another lap. But that didn’t stop him from

leading the race for all of 112 laps. In fact,

Goldsmith was leading the 400-lap race on

lap 301, when his engine finally blew ending

his day in 14th place. That left Don White

as the final Nichels teammate to run for the

green flag. Don in his first race ever on the

high banks of Charlotte, brought the No. 31

Nichels Dodge Charger from the 17th start-

ing position to finish third, giving notice to

the NASCAR drivers that this USAC Keokuk

Komet could indeed “carry the mail.”

With Charlotte finished, one part of the

Nichels’ team went north with White on his

way to Michigan for the June 3rd race at

the Grand Rapids Speedrome. Don quickly

made his presence known by capturing the

pole and setting a new track record of 23.87

seconds on the one-half mile paved oval in

the process. After leading 50 laps, White,

however, began to suffer tire troubles. Norm

Nelson then took the lead and never looked

back, going all the way to the victory. White

finished seventh.

BIRTH OF THE REAR SPOILER

From then on Nichels drivers and crew

members along with Chrysler engineer-

ing staff spent considerable time testing at

50 MOPAR ACTION

, Back To Racing

Our series, “Ray

Nichels—Chrysler’s

Stock Car Connection,”—

is based on the book,

“Conversations with a

Winner—The Ray Nichels

Story,” which is the

culmination of a ten-year

effort by its author, Wm.

R. LaDow. The book relies

primarily on a six-year

collaboration between the

author and Racing Hall of

Famer Ray Nichels.

Utilizing the Nichels

Engineering Archives that

had been sealed for over

30 years, this book offers

a glimpse into the never-

before-documented life of

Ray Nichels and promises

to be the most wide-rang-

ing narrative outlining

Nichels’ almost-40-year

racing career.

The over 400-page,

500-photo/illustrated

hardback bound book

will be released in Dec.

2014 and has already sold

out. For stories related

to the book, visit www.

SpeedwaySightings.com.

RAY NICHELSRAY NICHELS

Norm “The Great Dane”

Nelson and Paul Goldsmith

at Milwaukee. Nelson and

Goldsmith competed on the

track, but worked together

as car builders when Nelson

was purchasing Chrysler

Stock Cars from Nichels

Engineering.

Al Unser, Sr. and Don White (both in

Nichels Engineering-built Dodge

Chargers) mix it up at Milwaukee.

Daytona. Their work was primarily with the newly designed Dodge Charger. Since Feb-ruary, the various teams running the new fastback Charger had experienced “lift” in the rear of the cars at high speeds. Reports of the cars becoming so loose that their rear tires were spinning while at speeds of 180 mph came from several unnerved drivers, many of them veterans. As qualifying for the Monday, July 4th, running of the Daytona Firecracker 400 drew near, a breakthrough was made. Detailed testing of the Nichels Engineering cars revealed that the place-ment of a metal strip approximately one and one-half inches high across the trunk lid of the car aerodynamically stabilized the rear of the car tremendously. The strip of metal was contoured to create a sweeping effect, removing the car’s inherit rear-end lift almost immediately. Thus, the first rear spoiler in NASCAR racing was born.

As qualifying for the Eighth Annual Firecracker 400 at Daytona got started it became quite clear that the Chrysler contingent was loaded for bear. LeeRoy Yarbrough took the pole at 176.666 mph in his Nichels Engineering-built Jon Thorne Dodge Charger. Of the top 10 qualifiers, only one wasn’t a Mopar, that being Curtis Turner in a Smokey Yunick Chevy.

Meanwhile, following Daytona qualify-ing Don White, Jim Hurtubise, and Mario Andretti flew to Indianapolis to participate in the fourth USAC stock car contest of the year. This time it was the 100-miler on the dirt at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on the evening of Saturday, July 2nd. Don White put his Nichels Charger on the pole and got off to super start. But without warning, Don lost his brakes on lap 20. Most drivers would have called it a night. Not Don White, the diminutive speedster battled his mount for the next 80 laps, holding off the field, save for one, Norm Nelson. White’s sliding his almost 4,000-pound stock car around

MOPAR ACTION 51

Paul Goldsmith in the winner’s circle again. This time for winning the 100-mile Daytona qualifier on February 25, 1966.

the historic Indy dirt track for over 80 laps was a testament to his racing skill, strength and stamina. In the end, Don held on for a second-place finish and most importantly kept pace with defending USAC stock car champion, Norm Nelson’s pursuit of the 1966 championship.

“BACKDOOR” HEMIReturning immediately to Daytona, White

walked into a hornet’s nest of circumstance with the Nichels team. On Friday, following qualifying in fourth position, Sam McQuagg blew an engine in practice, his second since arriving at Daytona. Told there weren’t any engines left to install in his Dodge Charger, McQuagg subsequently learned that there was an engine available in a Nichels car hauler, but it reportedly was a backup for Paul Goldsmith. McQuagg was the youngest and least experienced driver in the Nichels stable. Although Don White had also just joined the Nichels Engineering team in 1966, he had a lengthy history of racing stock cars, winning national championships in both IMCA and USAC. This left McQuagg at the bottom of the pecking order behind Goldsmith and White when it came to priori-ties. Although thrilled to have a factory ride the quality of one with Nichels Engineering,

no one, least of all a truly competitive race car driver like Sam McQuagg, wanted to be considered the number-three man on a list of three. That being the case, McQuagg went directly to Ronney Householder and asked about the “Goldsmith” engine. Householder quickly ordered Ray Nichels to fly in Minnie Joyce from Indiana and install the subject engine. Unbeknownst to McQuagg, the Hemi that Minnie Joyce installed didn’t belong to Goldsmith; it was earmarked for Don White. One of the advantages of having Don White as part of the Nichels Engineering team was he took a hands-on approach to all aspects of his cars and engines. He worked closely with Jim Delaney, the Nichels shop manager, along with Cecil Van Horssen, Jerry Govert

and Minnie Joyce when it came to suspen-sion and engine issues. This meant any Nichels Engineering engine earmarked for Don White was a robust powerplant, to say the least.

DAYTONA FIRECRACKER 400Saturday morning, resulting from his

seeking the support of Householder, Sam McQuagg got one hell of a Hemi engine installed by Minnie Joyce. Later that after-noon, McQuagg was lapping the vast Daytona Speedway at an average of 178 mph. As the talk around the track about McQuagg’s speeds was beginning to sur-face, the 29-year-old driver still wasn’t being given much of a chance to win the upcoming

52 MOPAR ACTION

, Back To Racing

A body-in-white Dodge Charger being readied for its transformation at the Nichels “Go-Fast Factory.” The particular Charger would be driven in competition by Sam McQuagg.

400-mile race. Many openly speculated that the unrelenting Daytona heat would take its toll on the young driver and he would fail to finish. So taken for granted were McQuagg’s skills that, before the race, when the Pure Oil Company Panel of Experts, a group made up of 69 of the top racing writers and broadcast-ers, had cast their votes for their favorite to win this year’s Firecracker 400. Not one listed Sam McQuagg.

On race day, at the drop of the green flag, Sam McQuagg in his No. 98 Nichels Engineering Hemi Dodge Charger wrestled the lead from LeeRoy Yarbrough on the backstretch and ended up leading all but 34 laps on the way to his first NASCAR vic-tory in 31 starts. In the process, McQuagg’s Nichels Engineering Dodge Charger set a Firecracker 400 record of 153.813 mph, breaking the two-year-old mark held by A.J. Foyt in his Nichels Engineering Hemi-Dodge Polara. McQuagg beat the Daytona field to the checkered flag by over a minute. It was the first NASCAR victory ever for the Dodge Charger and the first NASCAR victory ever by a stock car utilizing a rear spoiler. Stock car racing’s aero wars had begun. Nichels Engineering had dominated Daytona and Minnie Joyce once again watched one of his Hemi engines destroy the competition in a major American stock car race.

Some Mopar pilots fared well that day and some didn’t. Jim Paschal finished third in his Friedkin Plymouth, while Don White in his Nichels Charger finished sixth and Marvin Panch, driving a second Friedkin entry, came in seventh. Goldsmith lost a windshield, placing 27th and Richard Petty ended up 29th the victim of a crash. The Chrysler corporate marketing effort was at Daytona in force that weekend. Both Gold-smith’s and Petty’s 1966 Plymouths were labeled with the huge letters GTX embla-zoned on the side of their cars, advertising the new model name for the upcoming 1967 Plymouth sales season. Lastly, so successful was the Nichels Engineering spoiler that just over a week later, every Dodge dealership in the country, now offered the bolt-on option. As with all Chrysler high-performance parts, the part number in the Mopar catalog started with an “N” denoting that it was a product of Nichels Engineering.

Following their spectacular win in front of a record Firecracker 400 crowd of over 40,000 fans, the Nichels Engineering racing operation seemingly caught fire.

Don White and his Nichels Engineer-ing crew went to the Milwaukee Mile on July 10th, where he took the pole with a new track qualifying record and then won the 200-mile race in dominating fashion.

MOPAR ACTION 53


54 MOPAR ACTION

FIGHTTwo “’CUDA-IZED” late-model Challengers battle it our for your attention and Gold Card.

The name “ ’Cuda” has a very special place in the hearts of

Mo’fans, recalling as it does the heyday of classic Mopar

performance and the ultimate musclecar when infused with

Hemi thunder. Back a few years, when Chrysler was shuf-

fling the deck of its new car lineup, Mo’fans waited to see if

the company would revive this fabled nameplate, probably in the SRT

portfolio as we all know that “Plymouth” ain’t coming back. Rumors

and sneak photos of a possible factory ’Cuda were circulated on the

Internet. But it wasn’t to be—at least not yet, and not from the factory.

The aftermarket saw an opportunity to come out with a ’Cuda of

sorts—a late model Challenger with cool ’Cuda cues and perfor-

mance options that would do more than justice to the hallowed ’Cuda

name. Mr. Norm came to the party first with a series of ’Cuda pack-

ages, and he’s come out with a new one called the “King ’Cuda.” But

Norm isn’t the only one. Another company, AFR, has just released

their own ’Cuda package. Both obviously are based on late model

Challengers and both are similar in several respects but also differ

in some important respects. Which is better? Both packages are

top drawer qualitywise, so the answer will depend on your own

personal preferences.

STORY

By Al Dente

PHOTOS By TheBruntBros

ABOVE: AFR debuts its first “’Cuda”

offering. The company’s background

is in manufacturing high quality Viper

parts, primarily for racing applications.

We like their ’71 ’Cuda-style grille a lot.

BELOW: Mr. Norm has come out with

numerous “’Cuda” packages based on

the late-model Challenger since 2008.

The GSS King ’Cuda conversion is his

latest and greatest.

MOPAR ACTION 55

AFR ’CUDAPaul Swanson is into Vipers, and that’s

all he would have, that is, if he didn’t also have kids. Where to put a couple of kids in a Viper? Bungee them to the rollbar? Paul thought not. Gotta have a back seat, so he bought a 2012 Challenger. Paul had bought all kinds of Viper stuff from Steve Dreyer at Autoform. Steve has built Viper racecars from the ground up, starting with the bare chassis. His company built the Viper GT-R Club Racer, and also the first removable “double bubble” hardtop for the Viper roadster. Steve helped form the Viper Racing League, and he road raced the snakes as well as building the spec racecars.

Looking to expand on his Viper busi-ness, Steve saw an opportunity of “’Cuda-izing” late model Challengers. He fab’d his own parts and put them on his website. When Paul was mousing around the site for Viper stuff, he picked up on the Challenger conversion and liked what he saw—a supercharged, shaker hood modded Chal-lenger with all the ’Cuda goodies. Steve put the package—the AFR ’Cuda—together and trotted it out to the Mega Mopar Action

show in Martin MI where TheBruntBros were roused from their nap, hiding under-neath a Ram pickup, to photograph the car. It’s the first AFR Stage III Super Shaker

’Cuda Tribute Edition built, so new that Steve hadn’t had time to install the custom interior that Paul wanted when these photos were taken.

The AFR full Monte Stage III kit includes a fiberglass functional shaker hood, Mag-nuson supercharger (may not be 50-state legal, no advertised HP numbers), grille, tail panel, retro rear bumper, AFR stripe package, fender gills, MP lowering springs, Zoomer exhaust and AFR Track Attack rear spoiler. It’s priced at $18,500. A starter (Stage I) kit for $3500 gets you the grille, gills, taillight kit, retro rear bumper and simulated shaker hood. A functional shaker adds $600. Steve offers a variety of kits and options, and he also sells his components a la carte. You can see it all on his website www.autoformgroup.com or call him at (616) 392-4909.

MR. NORM’S GSS KING ’CUDAIn contrast to AFR’s first “’Cuda “ pack-

age, Mr. Norm has been cranking out late-model Challenger ’Cuda-themed packages since 2008. He’s come up with all the ’71 ’Cuda cues that would work on the Challenger, plus the optional tried and

56 MOPAR ACTION

ABOVE: AFR gives you stripes and stick-on gill covers. Pretty clean profile.

Both AFR and Mr. Norm offer lowering kits and suspension upgrades.

Norm offers original-style billboards as an option. Hurst wheels also are optional in the interest of keeping the base package more affordable. Norm’s die-stamped fenders come with OE-style

gill inserts. The Challenger was provided for our photos by Fairfield Auto Group, Muncy, PA.

, Fish Fight

AFR (top) can give you a fully functional fresh air shaker hood, or a simulated one for less dough. Norm (above) offers a very detailed simulated shaker hood that fits all 2008-2014 Challengers.

true 50-state street-legal 2.8L Kenne Bell supercharger for a little spine-compressing oomph (650 HP at the flywheel, stock engine). Mr. Norm cooked up all kinds of fancy names for his various ’Cuda pack-ages, the latest being “King ’Cuda,”(no connection to a ’60s drag car of the same name). The name was picked around 2011, just at the time when Chrysler encrypted their engine management software which stymied all the aftermarket supercharger companies from adding their go-fast hard-ware to the Gen 3 Hemi. So Norm put the name on ice. When the cyber wizards

cracked Chrysler’s codes last year, it was “happy days are here again.” Blowers were back. To quote Mr. Norm, “a ‘King ’Cuda’ has got to be badass, not candyass” (we, on the other hand, would never use such language).

The King total package will set you back around $11,890 including the Kenne Bell blower which costs about 7 grand. ’Course you can scale back with lesser kits, but then you wouldn’t have a “King.” A starter kit, sliding in at $4900 gives your Chal-lenger essential ’Cuda cues—highlights of which are new fenders die-stamped with

’71-style ’Cuda gills, functional hood pins and lanyards, grille, tail panel, Katzkin pre-mium leather interior, carbon fiber handle pistol grip shifter, serialized dash plaque and Hotchkis lowering kit and swaybars. You can scale up to more extensive pack-ages (that include a simulated shaker hood) or buy components a la carte. The vaunted Mopar Action marketing dept. suggested that Norm name these inter-mediate kits “Queen ’Cuda” “Jack ’Cuda,” and maybe “10 of Spades ’Cuda,” but Norm politely declined (we can’t under-stand why).

MOPAR ACTION 57

RIGHT: AFR uses a

Magnuson super-charger and functional

shaker hood.

FAR RIGHT: Norm goes with the

2.8L Kenne Bell blower that is carb-certifed

50-state legal and simulated shaker.

Both AFR and Mr. Norm ’Cuda compo-nents install with no modifications required to the stock Challenger. The kits can be installed by any competent DIYer or a local shop. AFR can handle the Magnuson blower install at their Holland, Mich. location or they’ll refer you to one of their dealers. The KB supercharger can be installed by the customer or a local shop with KB’s tried and proven instructions. Mr. Norm’s contact info is www.mrnorms.com. (813) 789-6179.

CONCLUSIONComparing the two

offerings, our own per-sonal preference goes for the visual appearance of AFR’s larger ’71-style saw tooth grille over Norm’s. Both simulated shakers make the grade as far as

realism and are on a visual par with AFR’s functional fresh air unit. Norm didn’t use a functional shaker due to the placement of the KB’s large air intake tube which creates a ram effect to the throttle body.

AFR’s stripes are cool but visually no match for Norm’s painted billboards if you’re not into a stealth look. ’Cuda tail panel treat-ments appear to be an even match. When it comes to fender gills, an important ’71 ’Cuda cue, Norm’s punched fenders and

original-style repop gills win hands-down over AFR’s stick on gill covers. The tail panels differ and we like the Norm version as it closer resembles the original. But you may prefer AFR’s treatment with their slightly more aggressive “Track Attack” spoiler. The “Plymouth” badge on the tail panel and decklid is not our taste, but was requested specifically by Paul Swanson. It would not be included as part of the package.

58 MOPAR ACTION

, Fish Fight

AFR gives you a Zoomer exhaust system and a unique Track Attack spoiler.

Norm’s snazzy Katzkin leather interior feature

seats embroidered with special logos. You

also get logo’d floor mats and a serial-num-

bered dash plaque.

Both conversions give you a ’Cuda tail panel but with differing details.

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There are few components more important to your engine buildup than those alumi-num slugs we call pistons. They must take

the sky-high instantaneous pressure created by the combustion event and convert said pres-sure into downward motion in the cylinder bore. Then they must, just a few milliseconds later, push the burnt gasses out the exhaust valve, then suck in the fresh fuel air mixture, then squeeze it tight against the cylinder head and bore walls readying for the next big bang. They must do this as quietly as possible, while seal-ing (with the aid of the rings, of course) tightly against the walls, allowing almost zero escape of the combustion products down into the crankcase (blowby) or lubricating oil up into the combustion chamber (oil burning, detonation).

As if this isn’t enough to ask of a chunk of light alloy weighing about a pound, each pis-ton must do this thousands of times a minute, typically traveling up and down in the bore a distance coming close to the number of miles you’ve traveled. (Yes, you drive one mile, each of your pistons was just dragged, effectively, through a bore nearly a mile in length.) It also must reverse direction twice per crankshaft rota-

tion. It must continue to perform well for a mini-mum of 100,000 miles, or we rate it as “junk.”

Of course, down through the roughly 150 years since Nikolaus Otto laid down the basic parameters for the four-stroke reciprocating pis-ton engine, thousands of design improvements have come forth, many pertaining to pistons. Suffice to say, the old joke frequently heard at the filling station half a century ago: “Hey, boy! Fill the oil, check the gas...”, has become a fast-fading memory. Piston manufacturing is now a mature process, but there’s still fairly frequent incremental improvements.

Today’s Detroit (or Stuttgart, Nagasaki, etc.) engineer is faced with many decisions. Beyond the requirements outlined above, he’s got the bean counters breathing down his neck (read: make it cheap), and, for the last few decades, also faced an even more daunting require-ment: Exhaust emissions. Without getting into the finer point of emission controls (we’re talking encyclopedia now), we’ll just say that the pistons in your new Hemi had their design influenced, to a fairly large extent, by pollution control standards. There are two key areas (and several more) where the slugs affect smog. First is the chamber shape/flame travel. Everything’s gotta burn as completely as possible, lest a tiny amount of unburned hydrocarbons make it out the exhaust to be breathed in by you and I. Following that same “burn it all” mantra, engi-neers discovered, a few decades ago, that both valve clearance pockets (eyebrows), and the area just above the top piston ring, are effec-tive hiding places for molecules of pump 93. This has forced engine designers to minimize both areas, producing pistons with just barely enough valve-to-piston clearance for the stock camshaft, and an extremely thin area above the top ring, which, in extended hi-po use, can be prone to cracking. Both of these design limita-tions are well known in the 3G Hemi engine, and have become more and more of a poten-tial trouble spot with each sub-generation’s

60 MOPAR ACTION

Pisstoned Off Dept.

Swapping pistons on a 3G Hemi for

durability and power.

Fatal flaw in the new Hemi? No. When used in 100% stock configuration, it’ll last as long, probably way longer, than Mopar engines of the ’60s. Having said that, the pistons, due to emissions requirements, do have one design parameter that was compromised to meet emissions. We’ll address that.

1. Fresh from the crate: A brand-new production-line 392 Hemi, P/N 5038292GB which we bought from monicattichrysler.com. This baby comes with a dual-disc clutch (unusable in most muscle-era swaps), all manifolds, a TBW throttle body, wiring, etc., but no alternator, PS or A/C pump, idler/tensioner, etc.

STORY & PHOTOS By Richard Ehrenberg, SAE

upgrade: 5.7L, 6.1L, 5.7L VVT, 392/6.4L. (We

know little about the internals of the new 6.2L

Hellcat as of this writing).

Typically, “California” piston manufacturers

have solved our slug problems by supply-

ing pistons make of forged, rather than cast,

aluminum. Back in the ’50s and ’60s, these

pistons were made from an alloy with so

much thermal expansion that they required

huge skirt-to-wall clearance numbers, result-

ing in lots of slop, noise (and wear) until they

came up to operating temperature. (Detroit’s

castings, by comparison, had invisible steel

slippers cast in, designed to force the slug to

expand at the same rate as the iron block, so

they could be fit to the bore extremely tightly

– under 0.001ʺ in many cases.)

In recent years, aftermarket (and some

OEM) piston suppliers have begun to use

hypereutectic aluminum alloys. These high-

silicon-content pistons have much lower rates

of expansion, allowing them to be fitted, even

in the forged (no slipper) variant, can be fit-

ted to the bore at relatively tight dimensions,

making this type of piston the preferred

choice for high performance real street (daily

driver included) applications.

Recently we bought a new in-the-crate

complete 392 (6.4L) Hemi for an upcoming

project. Never content to leave well enough

alone, we decided to yank the heads and

remove at least one slug. What we found

was a bit scary: Cast pistons with a very

highly placed top ring land. While we have

no doubt whatsoever that the OEM pistons

meet, if not surpass, all Chrysler’s demand-

62 MOPAR ACTION

, Slugfest

3. We were anxious to get the heads off to find out

what was up with that. Rockers come off first.

4. [Photo: The Demon] Then the head

screws, which must be removed in a

very specific sequence to thwart head

warping – see the FSM. The large

screws are TTY, cannot be reused.

5. This was the intake valve that leaked

like a sieve. But why?

2. We decided to do a cold leakdown

test before tearing into it. Seven holes

were all in the 2 to 3% range, near-race-

quality, especially for cold. One, however,

registered close to 8%, though the intake.

6. We Prussian Blue’d the seat and valve,

and found nothing amiss, even though

a pre-disassembly liquid test had con-

formed the leak. Conclusion: Must have

been a spec of tortilla chip on the seat.

Not really a sign of good Q.C., but noth-

ing major, either.7. We decided to swap slugs one hole

at a time to avoid any mixups. We

also marked the piston caps (see line,

circled) even though it is pretty hard to

assemble the cracked caps incorrectly.

Note that rod screws are also TTY (not

re-useable), and have no nuts.

“ So that brings us

to the purpose of the fine piece of prose you’re perusing at the moment. Yup, we’re gonna rip apart the brandy-new 392 crate engine for a

piston swap.

”

MOPAR ACTION 63

ing and rigorous durability tests, we won-

dered what would happen should we decide,

at some later date, to ramp up the power

level, either though head and valvetrain

mods, nitrous, or forced induction.

After a bit of investigating, we learned

that the OEM supplier of the pistons to Ma

Mopar, Clevite/Mahle, has introduced a line

of drop-in hypereutectic forgings for all 3G

Hemis Yeah, you can lead a horse to water,

but can you make him drink? Maybe not,

but we sucked up the new slugs like a baby

at the teat.

So that brings us to the purpose of the

fine piece of prose you’re perusing at the

moment. Yup, we’re gonna rip apart the

brandy-new 392 crate engine for a piston

swap. And we’re gonna, of course, show you

how, and what pitfalls to avoid. We’ll also

pass along a slew of tips and tricks that are

useful in any slug-fitting.

One important detail, of course, bears

hammering home: If your engine has more

than, say, a thousand or two miles, the cyl-

inder wall’s crosshatch pattern is likely no

longer able to correctly break in new rings. If

your new slugs have the same ring configura-

tion as the originals, you can probably get

by with a swap of the old rings to the new

pistons. If not, or if the mileage is up into 5

figures, you’ll want to, at a very minimum,

dingle-ball hone it. Ideally, you’d have it cor-

rectly honed at a machine shop (Sunnen

CK10, etc.), and the bore measured for size,

taper, and out-of-round. If it needs more than

that, your only real choice is an overbore to

the next standard size.

OK, girls and boys, let the wrench-twisting

begin!

8. To avoid scratching or gouging the crank journals, they must be protected during both dis- and re-assembly. We did this by cutting the heads off a pair of rod screws, grinding the unthreaded end to a bull nose, and....

9. ...hand-threaded them into the rods, slipping plastic tubing over them.

10. Thus protected, we removed the first slug with no drama.

11. The stock cast pistons were obviously high qual-ity castings, no surprise since they are also sup-plied by Mahle. The cross-hatch pattern was flawless looking. Note the cooling oil jets at the bottom of the bore, a durability feature of all 6.1 and 6.4L engines, harking back to 2.4L Neon turbo mills.

12. A “white rag” test, unfortunately, came up quite dirty. Had this been a transfer of the moly coating on the skirts? Doubtful, but plausible. Truthfully, we’ll never know, but we cleaned to bores with lacquer thinner until the rag came up snow white.

13. After noting where the factory had placed the ring gaps (exactly where the FSM specifies, happily), we peeled off the rings (no tools needed) and slipped the com-pression rings, one at a time, down in the bore, using the stock piston as a squaring tool. 14. We then checked the ring gap, which was 0.012ʺ (top ring), against a blue-print spec of 0.0118 - 0.0157ʺ. On the money!

13 14

64 MOPAR ACTION

15. An awl, with the point rounded

off, made it easy to pop out the pin-

retaining circlips.

16. Next, a large brass drift (blunt-end punch)

was used to tap the pins out. 17. The OEM forged/powdered/cracked

conrod’s small-end bushings are

beautiful, seamless, with oil grooves.

18. The new Mahle forgings are seemingly configured

similarly to the OEM castings, until...

19. ...you put them

directly side by side.

Check the almost-

double distance from

the top to the first ring

groove. Frankly, this

is even more impor-

tant that the fact that

they are forged. This

keeps the top rings

much cooler and

makes the top ring

land much stronger.

20. The oil rings are super thin and

small, as are the expanders. This

stuff is super low tension. It takes

great care to be sure that the

expanders butt properly and the

oil rails are positioned correctly.

22. While the Mahles are sold

as direct drop-in replace-

ments, we, nonetheless, made

some careful checks. First was

weight, and this was a hic-

cup: The new forged Mahles

were, with pins, rings, and

clips, 15-20 grams lighter

than stock setup shown

here. This would have been

great were we “building” the

engine. Less reciprocating

mass is excellent. But we

didn’t want to re-balance. We

then learned that Mahle offers

some slightly 6.4L heavier pins (P/N 09855196) so that

the combo comes in at stock weight. We ordered a set.

21. The old man

used a jeweler’s

loupe for confir-

mation of this.

23. First, we

measured the

new slug’s skirt

diameter, which

we transferred to

a snap gauge...

, Slugfest

MOPAR ACTION 65

24. ...which we then checked in the bore. All good, but still, since our measurement equipment isn’t exactly state-of-the-art, we double-checked using...

25. A feeler gauge. The result was just a skosh looser: 0.0025ʺ, perfect for a hypereutectic forging.

Our Mahle slugs were designed to be 100% OEM-replacement drop-in components. This freed us

of the need, at least on paper, to measure a lot of the parameters, clearances, and dimensions you’d nor-mally be well advised to pay heed to. Here’s a checklist (by no means is this complete):

• Piston to wall clearance. We did, of course, check this. Most aftermarket pistons are designed for a specific, precise bore size, and the correct clear-ance is built into that spec by the manufacturer. EG: Your pistons are cast, and the box indicates 4.000ʺ bore. If you measure the skirts at the largest OD area (careful, here, most pistons are barrel shaped), you might find 3.985ʺ or so. Still, if the engine being assembled is destined for some extra heat and pressure (nitrous, blower, etc.) you might want to loosen this up a thou or more.

• Piston to head clearance. If the piston’s dome or head is above the top of the block deck, you have to watch this carefully. Maybe the gasket will add clearance, maybe the head’s chamber will. If clear-ance here is too tight, and piston contacts the head, you’ll have instant junk.

• Rig gap. We, of course, measured this. You should, too. Always.

• Ring side clearance: How tight (or loose) is the ring in the groove? Check it.

• Skirt bottom clearance (to counterweights). This is only a factor, usually, on stroker engines, and a visual inspection is typically ample.

• Compression ratio. This is a multi-step measurement process, but one you shouldn’t neglect. Nothing’s worse than building your street engine, then finding out you can only fill up with Av-gas at $8/gallon.

• Piston to valve clearance. This should be checked anytime the slugs or the cam is swapped. Typical procedures involve modelingy clay or very weak “checking” valve springs.

• Pin fit: With pressed pins, the pin is pressed into the rod’s big end, and floats in the rod. Floating pins are a “light thumb press” in both the piston’s bore as well as the rod’s bushing. All these dimensions and the clearance (or interference) should be measured and conformed.

• Weight. Affects balance. if you’re doing a stock rebuild (i.e., no rebalance), the piston/pin/ring set should be within a few grams of OEM

FOR GOOD MEASURE

A= Diameter. A+ Clearance=Bore

26. We also com-pared the overall piston/righ drag, OEM vs. Mahle forged. As expected, we found a tad less drag from the slightly greater clearance of the forging (cold).

27. We made a small plastic tool to install the wrist pin circlips. They come out easier than they go in.

28. While we’ve had nothing but total success over the years with a wrinkle-band ring compressor, the super-narrow ring pack on the new Hemis made us rethink our old way. In the end, we shelled out for a bore-diameter-specific tapered compressor, which made installation child’s play- they virtually drop in with this setup. Nice toy.

29. Installed in the bore, you can see the valve clearance difference instantly. We used new OEM Mopar (SPS) rod screws, P/N 6509243AA, torqued to 30 ft-lbs. plus 1/4 turn. This was after finding two different specs in the FSM and consulting with Chrysler engineers, who told us both numbers in the book were wrong!

30. A final step, we wanted to confirm the rod side clearance, even tough we made no changes to the rods or crank. We measured 0.004ʺ, right at the low end of specs. We then bolted the rest of the motor together, secure in the knowledge that our slugs were ready for anything we can throw at ’em.

Factory dimension spec drawing for a stock 318 piston. Note that stock pistons came in five incremental sizes in 0.0005 ʺ increments which allowed kind of a “reverse” fitment arrangement. You won’t find that arrangement in any aftermarket piston, even stock replacements.

aybe it was the New Jersey air. Or the water. Whatever it was, the Montclair, NJ Police Dept seemed to be wrecking a lot of its cop

cars back in the mid ’60s. Montclair was a suburban metropolitan community without any highways at the time, so the cop cars, Chevys, Fords and Mopars, were ordered with the smallest engines available.

Pete Harrington’s dad, a Montclair cop, would bring cars home during his lunch break and let his teenage son take ’em for a short spin. Pete remembers liking the Mopes best, and his father noted that they

66 MOPAR ACTION


Restorations Dept.

gR and heftSome like ’em big, so a Ruby red ’66 Chrysler 300 convertible fills the bill rather nicely.

auto

held up better in service than the Chevys and Fords. Young Pete was developing Mopar leanings through all this, but one incident proved a clincher.

With Montclair cops crashing cars faster than the department could replace them with new ones—a 6-8 week wait, the department bought a couple of cop cars from the New Jersey Sate Police. ’Course these cars had been ordered with big V8s and special police performance options that were available.

So it was in 1970, that Pete’s dad came home for lunch with a ’70 Plymouth Fury fresh from the Jersey state cop stable. He tossed young Pete the keys to “try it out,” with the

admonition to take it easy and not go too far. ’Course it’s not hard to guess what happens when a teen, used to driving econo Sixes, sticks his foot into a hot Police Package 440.

Pete swung onto the entrance ramp of Route 3 headed east towards New York and Clifton, NJ. Traffic was light and the Plymouth was willing. There were cops in the highway’s center grass median. First there was the cop with the radar gun. Pete blew by him at around 100. A quar-ter-mile down the road was the “catch car” cop who was radioed by the radar guy about the speeders. He would step

out and wave the cars over or give chase if they didn’t stop. Pete

saw the wave. He waved back and stuck his foot into the water pump. The cop

never bothered to give chase, and Pete became diehard Mopar then and there. The big Fury made a lasting impression, and Pete developed into a C-body man.

A few townships away, Doug Dressler was bummed out. His father had wrecked Doug’s ’60 Chevy, and you couldn’t get a date in New Jersey with no car. Seems snobbish local girls declined to walk to drive-ins. To make amends, Doug’s dad offered to replace the bat-tered bow-tie with Doug’s car of choice. OK, make that a Chrysler 300—red with a white interior, Doug’s dad uttered a phrase that would become a famous slogan: “You want fries with that?”

A shopping spree to all the Chrysler stores in the north Jersey area turned up nada. No red 300 ragtops in stock any-where. Chrysler was on strike at the time

1966 was the first year of no 300 letter car although the halo effect of the letter cars was carried over. The big Ruby red

with white interior C-body attracts gawkers wherever it goes.

MOPAR ACTION 67

so no one knew when new cars would be

delivered. The Dresslers did manage to find

one ragtop 300—yellow with black interior.

So Pete settled, and still has the car to this

day (or at least until last Tuesday when we

last checked—stay tuned for updates).

Years later, when Doug was driving

up Route 17 in Tuxedo Park, NY (a noted

speed trap), something caught his eye.

There sitting on four flat tires at the back

corner of the Hilltop Gulf station was a

red ’66 Chysler 300 with a white interior.

Doug hit the brakes, yanked the wheel and

broadslid into the station. When the station

manager emerged from under a car where

he had ducked for cover, Doug asked

him if the car was for sale. Considering

68 MOPAR ACTION

, Grand Heft Auto

1966 was the first year for the 440 which replaced the 413. This was the hot 365 HP

version. Pete has a ’67 pie tin air cleaner decal as his ’66 is being freshened.

Restored Chrysler has had one repaint in ’94.

You couldn’t ask for a better (or is that

bigger?) classic cruiser.

“300” emblems

are everywhere

including the

hood and spin-

ners on the

wheelcovers—a

nod to the blades

attached to

Roman chariot

wheels to cut

down the

competition.

that Doug was the fourth such person to broadslide into the station to ask about the Chrysler, the owner figured maybe he ought to sell it while all his body parts were still in working order.

Doug hauled the car home to join the three other 300s in his collection, and he eventually restored the Ruby red 300 (we won’t bore you with the details—we leave that to the other Mopar magazines. It’s just like restoring an E-body, only with bigger parts. ). Suffice it to say the body was in good shape except for typical minor rust in the quarters, and the rest of the car was all there. As luck would have it (lucky or we wouldn’t have a story,) Doug and Pete ran in the same Mopar circles and became buds. Doug asked Pete to give him a hand with some mechanical work on the red 300 and Pete kept the car for a while. Dur-ing that time, Pete’s wife drove the car and fell in love it with it. A big red car with white interior and the top goes down—what’s not to love?

Doug’s research showed him to be the car’s third owner. The original owner lived in Tuxedo Park, but Doug believes he died. The second owner was a young mechanic—just a kid getting started in the

business. Apparently, under the original owner, the car had a bad engine and they had to change blocks and Doug believes that was covered under warranty. The mechanic also told Doug that the timing chain went after that and the original owner got so disgusted that he told the mechanic “I’ll just sell you this car to you and buy another one.” The mechanic probably had intentions of restor-ing the Chrysler but never got around to it. So there it sat on four flat tires.

Doug had a few projects going at the same time and he mentioned to Pete about selling the Ruby 300. Pete passed that tid-

bit along to his wife who looked him dead in the eye and cooed, “you’d better buy me that *#%&**# car.” Pete, always a sucker for his wife’s endearing whisperings imme-diately cut a deal with Doug.

Pete freshened up the resto, repainted the car the original color in 1994 and he drives the wheels off it. He’s just careful not to bring home anymore cars for his wife to try.

MOPAR ACTION 69

Console-mounted “Performance Indica-

tor” (essentially a vacuum gauge)

indicated whether you were getting bad,

terrible or simply awful gas mileage.

If you just drive your Mopar off the trailer and onto the show

field, or a few miles to the local cruise night, you might never

notice. Notice what? The seats, when compared to virtually

any production car made in the last twenty or so years, simply

suck. Of course, they look nice, and why not? They were designed in

keeping with the rest of the interior trim. They, basically, grew there.

Factory bench seats are, well, benches. Not much more to say.

But back in the day, even the buckets were only fair. Some were

worse than others, the ’66-’67 variety were really little more than

individual benches, and the Dodge-division late-’60s versions, in par-

ticular, were almost convex! The ’62-’65 seats, which were based on

the high-zoot ’60 Chrysler 300F, weren’t half bad, and the high-back

’70-up seats were improved to some extent.

70 MOPAR ACTION

Cool Seats For Hot Mopars

SEATTIME

Our original ’69 Plymouth B-body seats

(left) had been reupholstered by Leg-

endary circa 1980s (in the parking lot of

a motel in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the

Nats), and have held up well. They were

as good as any of their contemporaries.

But one look at a more modern seat –

this (r.), a junkyard specimen from an ’00

Jeep Cherokee – reveals large design

and construction upgrades.

New millennium seats for ’60s Mopars.

STORY By Richard Ehrenberg, SAE

Photos by Matt Kierstead unless otherwise credited

1. Disassembly is the first

order of business. Step one

is the pivot bolts, effectively

splitting the seats into the two

major subsections: The cush-

ion and the backrest. Then

everything that bolts on – the

tracks, the side shields, and

the rear panel – come off.

2. Next, pry off, or snip, all the

hog rings

around the perimeter of the

fabric cover.

3. Pull up the outer flaps and

you’ll expose the hog rings

holding the listing wires down

– these are what give the

seats their shape. Snip or pry

off all those rings.

1

2

3

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Legendary’s seats will

make you feel like a king,

or at least a knave.

Still, get out of your classic Mopar, and

into, say, an ’84 Daytona or Laser, and vive

la différence. The MA winter beater, a well-

used ’00 Cherokee (not Grand), has what

are virtually Recaros by comparison to the

’60s/’70s stuff.

OK, enough bitching. You know, unless

this is your first time to the rodeo, that we

have a fix up our sleeves. That’s the good

news. The bad news? The upgrade only

applies to ’68s and ’69s. It comes from, as

do most good things related to the interior

of your Mopar, from the fertile mind of Marty

Beckenbach, CEO and cloth-and-vinyl

genius behind Legendary Auto Interiors

(legendaryautointeriors.com), located on

the banks (literally) of the historic Erie Canal

of New York state. Marty has built a cottage

industry, which started in a small converted

fire station, into a multimillion dollar busi-

ness with almost 100,000 square feet of

factory floor space and an employee count

approaching triple digits. While Marty has

innovated many procedures which allow

him to make exact re-pops of your original

interior soft trim, he’s also cognizant of

72 MOPAR ACTION

, Seat Time

4. Remove all burlap and whatever other fabric

you find. The object is to get down to....

5. ...the bare steel frame.

Nothing else will be re-used.

If it is rusty, you should

clean it up (sandblast) and

paint. Ours wasn’t heavily

corroded, but did seem to

be somewhat warped.

6. It took some stomping, and a wood

block, to get the twist out. Thus straight-

ened, all four mounting points sat flat.

7. The original latex

foam rubber (right) had

decomposed. We’ve

seen worse – sometimes

it crumbles to dust. The

new Legendary product

is polyurethane, which is

far more durable.

8. Legendary’s high-bolster

bottom cushion foam bun

(right) is designed to be

an exact drop-on replace-

ment for the OEM low-boy.

It utilizes the stock springs

and frame (but redesigned,

unique upholstery).

9. This shot really illustrates the

bolster difference.

the shortcomings we’ve discussed. Better

still, he’s stepped up to the plate and done

something about it. Home run!

The innovative seating upgrade Marty

devised takes a standard ’68-’69 bucket

seat frame, but totally re-engineers every-

thing above the steel stampings and wire.

Primarily, this involves new foam cushions

(“buns”) with some real side bolstering, and

vinyl covers to match. This may sound like a

fairly easy redesign. Without belaboring the

point, let’s just say it isn’t, involving untold

hours of engineering, experimentation, and

prototyping, and a huge financial investment

in tooling and manufacturing processes.

The benefits, however, are instantly visible,

and feelable, the moment your buns touch

Tooling AroundThe only special tool you need for a reuphol-

stery job is a hog ring pliers (far right). You’ll

also need a stash of the hog rings, which

are best described as HD manually-installed

crimp-staples (once crimped closed they form

a ring, hence their name). Legendary offers

both as an adjunct to any order.

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the new vinyl. And yet, to an untrained local-show spectator’s eye, these seats are 100% correct, visually and stylistically, for your ’68-’69 A or B-body. In essence, they look like they grew there. And that’s the whole idea.

Yours truly has now logged almost 2,500 miles in Legendary’s humbly-named Sport Seats, and I’m here to tell you they live up to their billing. On a ten scale, they’re an easy 11.

OK, back to the rodeo deal: Unless you’re about to be thrown by the bucking bronco, you know the drill: We’re gonna spill all of Marty’s installation secrets in the accompanying pictures and captions. The installation is something anybody with a

basic hands-on skill set, and some patience, can do in his or her garage. All you need is a large flat work space that won’t snag, dirty, or cut the components – think, a large chunk of clean carpet laid out on your garage floor. Or even in your living room.

Except for the vinyl-clad cardboard cover on the backrest, the installation of the cush-ion and backrest covers are nearly identical. Whatever procedure works on one, works on both, so we show them interchangeably for the most part.

Marty’s manufacturing secrets are abso-lutely mind-blowing, and you can get the scoop on this deal on our website (www.moparaction.com).

MOPAR ACTION 73

10. First to go on the frame is a layer of ordinary burlap. No technology improve-ments in this material in a hundred years!

12. New HD fabric-covered wires are

installed to hold the bun’s wire recesses

into place.

16. Hog the lower edge

of this fabric securely into

place.

13. Then the new “Sport” buns slip

right on. Use a blunt instrument

to press the listing wire channels down

into position.

11. Next up: an outer perimeter of felt, assuring that the springs can’t tear the new vinyl. Kinda like a rub strip.

14. With the buns installed, you should be able to see the “receiver” wires thought the slots in the buns. If the slots are not quite through the buns, slice ’em open.

15. Add a scrap of fabric at the front of the bun (spray glue) to wrap around the lower front of the springs – more anti-wear protection.

17. The backrest’s foam requires

some sub-pads to be spray glued

into place....

“ OK, enough bitching. You know, unless this is your first time to the rodeo, that we have a fix up our sleeves.”

74 MOPAR ACTION

, Seat Time

18. ...as well as a bit of trim-to-fit. Legendary uses an electric

knife for this, a bread knife also works fine. (Inset) Glue some

fabric scraps over the seams for extra reinforcement.

19. Here’s the new

backrest listing-support

wires hog’d onto the

outer edges of the

springs, this is a Leg-

endary-designed add-on

necessary to create the

backrest bolster setup.

24. E-Booger,

clearly

impressed,

takes a time-out

to pose with

a completed

cushion.

20. Legendary

supplies die-cut

upper backrest

rear trim sup-

port cards – they

snap right in like

OEM.

22. Flipping the

edges and corners

into place does

require some mus-

cle. Don’t sweat

it, the covers are

plenty strong.

21. The foam buns fit right over the frames with no drama,

but there is a trick to installing the covers: Basically, turn

the edges inside-out. This allows better fitment and easy

access to the listings (inset).

23. As you pull

all sides tight

and add the

rings, most

wrinkles will

disappear.

MOPAR ACTION 75

25. The backrest nears completion. The few remaining wrinkles come right out with a bit of heat (hair dryer, sunny afternoon, etc.)

26. Legendary also supplies new precision-cut fiberboard and vinyl for the rear backrest covers. They are also tooling up for new steel parts (the lower L-channel and the oddball clips). All that’s needed now is to bolt the hinge pivots in and the tracks (sliders) on.

“ All you need is a large flat work space that won’t snag, dirty, or cut the components.”

27. A red setup finished and ready to install, looks like it should have looked in 1969. Comfort? Oh, yeah!

Don’t Tread On Me Dept.

You restored your classic Mope in 2002, and you put maybe 1,000 miles a year on it. With only 12,000 miles on the tires,

the tread depth shows almost nowear, and you’ve kept the them

sheened in tire dressing. In fact, they look essentially brand new, and you wouldn’t give a second thought to hitting 80 mph on the highway. But just then is when the dry rot devil will spring out and put you into a double-gainer-with-pirouette hard enough that the coroner has to sort out your parts using dental records.

Dry rot is real, and a surprising number of people don’t know a thing about it. What happens is that ozone, ultraviolet light, temperature, and heat cycles cause an inescapable degra-dation in strength that can produce full-on catastrophic blowouts or tread

76 MOPAR ACTION

AHHH! What could be nicer than a beautiful day, the open road and a classic Mope convertible. The last thing you want to worry about are your tires.

FAR RIGHT: Not a pretty

sight, but it gets downright ugly when you bend

sheetmetal, too.

RIGHT: Don’t forget the rubber

on your car trailer. This can happen with

a new-looking tire that has not been over-

loaded or exceeded service limits.

Visually, your rubber may look

like a million bucks. But hidden dry rot can put the

greasy side up.

DON’T PLAY ROULETTE WITH THE TIRE DRY ROT DEVIL.By Scott Longman

Scotty Lachenauer

TheBruntB

ros Photo

MOPAR ACTION 77

separations. The tire pictured recently blew up on someone we know. The tire was 12 years old, and had less than 4,000 miles on it. Lucky for our bud, he had just slowed down from a highway blast when it blew on an exit ramp.

NHTSA and others have tested what happens when the dry rot devil gets his due at highway speed. Even profes-sional test drivers, knowing that they were about to have a failure, often end up losing control of the vehicle. And in the real world, that often translates to making all your various life member-ships look like bad investments: One attorney in Corpus Christi, Texas, has an entire warehouse full of shattered wrecks, every one of which killed occu-pants. (You can search it on youtube under “20/20 tire age.”) The bottom line: this issue matters.

The second potential tire issue affect-ing us is flatspotting. If a radial tire sits, loaded, for many months, it will become “D” shaped, even if not very old. Sometimes this will work itself out in a few miles, but sometimes not. This will become obvious from vibration, which can be extreme. If driven at high speeds, the tire can (and often will) blow out in the same manner as the ones in the photo. This happened recently to our tech editor, driving the MA parts-chaser B-van at high speed. He used the old “no brakes, hold the wheel straight” method to coast to a safe stop.

So, how long is a tire good for? Ma Mopar herself, along with a passel of other carmakers, tire industry groups and NHTSA all come down the same: six years. One European industry outfit and some others say ten years. There are, of course, enormous variables in storage (dark and cool is better), use, and abuse that interact with the dry rot devil. But our take on it: if you do any high-performance driving, replace all the shoes—including the spare—at 6 years even if they look like an Armor All ad.

For more on tire aging, check out our website: www.moparaction.com

Nothing beats NOS rubber on a pristine restoration—for looks and judging. But they’re way over the hill for driving—that’s what repops are for.

W hen it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire

Identification Number (often referred to as the tire’s serial number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tire was produced.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administra-tion (NHTSA) requires that Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturer’s code, along with the week and year the tire was manufactured.

TIRES MANUFACTURED SINCE 2000Since 2000, the week and year the tire was

produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured since 2000 with the current Tire Identification Number format:

While the entire Tire Identification Number is required to be branded onto one sidewall of every tire, current regulations also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tire Identification Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall. Therefore, it is possible to see a Tire Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tire’s other sidewall to find the entire Tire Identification Number.

The use of a partial Tire Identification Number on the one sidewall (shown in figure 1.) reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician that would have to install the weekly date code on the top sidewall portion of a hot tire mold.

TIRES MANUFACTURED BEFORE 2000The Tire Identification Number for tires produced

prior to 2000 was based on the assumption that tires would not be in service for ten years. While they were required to provide the same informa-tion as today’s tires, the week and year the tire was produced was contained in the last three digits. The 2 digits used to identify the week a tire was manufactured immediately preceded a single digit used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured before 2000 with the earlier Tire Identification Number format:

While the previous Tire Identification Number format identified that a tire was built in the 8th year of a decade, there was no universal identifier that confirmed which decade (tires produced in the 1990s may have a small triangle following the Tire Identification Number to identify the decade).

And finally, hold on to your sales receipt. Most tire manufacturer’s warranties cover their tires for four years from the date of purchase or five years from the week the tires were manufactured. So if you purchase new tires that were manufactured exactly two years ago they will be covered for a total of six years (four years from the date of purchase) as long as you have your receipt. If you lose your receipt, your tires’ warranty cover-age will end five years from the week the tire was produced (resulting in the tire manufacturer’s warranty coverage ending only three years from the date of purchase in this example).

In the example above: DOT U2LL LMLR 5107

51 Manufactured during the 51st week of the year

07 Manufactured during 2007

In the example above: DOT EJ8J DFM 408

40 Manufactured during the 40th week of the year

8 Manufactured during the 8th year of the decade

figure 1.

HOW OLD ARE YOUR TIRESCourtesy of tirerack.com

The

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Hemis Rule! Dept.

By Pete Haldiman P.E.Photos by Blair Alderton, Blair Alderton Photography

T he Chrysler Corporation utilized Hemi engines in Dodge trucks and in Chrysler, De Soto and Dodge

cars in the 1951-1959 time period. For the most part, each Division used engines of their own design with almost no inter-changeability. The Generation I Hemis were eventually phased out to be replaced by wedge-head designs. These heads were a little simpler thus somewhat less costly. However, an even bigger cost-saver was the fact that Chrysler chose to develop a set of basic corporate-wide engines. The engines that replaced Gen I Hemis would be used by all the different Divisions and the economy of scale would result in even more savings.

THE BEGINNINGFor 1963, both the NHRA and NASCAR

limited engine size to 427 ci for “Stock” cars. In that year the Chrysler RB engine reached 426 ci and it became obvious that any new horsepower gains would have to be found somewhere besides more cubic inches. At the behest of Chrysler President Lynn Townsend, Chrysler Engineering began a new project, numbered A864, to investigate a new hemispherical head which could be used in all forms of racing. By the end of 1963 the engineers had developed new Hemi heads and a pair of intake manifolds. A “Track” version used a single four-barrel carb as required by NASCAR. A “Drag” version continued the Max

Wedge legacy with two four-barrel carbs on a crossram manifold. The Gen II, 426 Hemi was introduced to the public at the Daytona 500 of February, 1964. Richard Petty won the race and proved that the new Hemi heads were an improvement over the 1963 wedge designs. With the Track version experiment a success, Chrysler then decided to halt production of its Max Wedge engines and start build-ing enough Drag versions of the Hemi to satisfy the NHRA’s requirements. For 1964 then, Dodge and Plymouth made the new engines available as both a regular engine option (70 all steel cars built) or as a whole “package” car for serious drag racers (110 aluminum-nosed cars built). What is notable here is that Plymouth, considered to be Chrysler’s “low-price” Division, never got a Gen I Hemi. Because Chrysler chose to add the 426 Hemi to its line of corporate-wide engines in 1964, the

Plymouth guys were able to make use of it. Bottom line, 1964 was the first year for a Hemi-powered Plymouth.

RACE HEMI DEBUTS Drag versions of the 426 Hemi

equipped Plymouths didn’t start rolling out the factory doors until very late in the 1964 model year, about May/June. Total Dodge and Plymouth production was around 180 cars. The Hemi was only offered by these two Divisions and then only in the interme-diate-sized B-bodies. The drag race “pack-age” cars were simply one-step up the evo-lutionary ladder from the 1964 Max Wedge cars they replaced. The aluminum front ends of the Max Wedges were enhanced with the addition of aluminum doors. The lakes-pipes setup (removable caps to open the exhaust system) was retained as was the trunk mounted battery. New weight reduction features were made to the car’s

HEMILANDJourney Through

THE HEMI, PLYMOUTH AND THE NHRA IN 2014

From a 6-cylinder/stick car to a street/strip machine to the first NHRA-approved single 4-Bbl Hemi. Steve Hagberg’s ’64 Plymouth has run a 10.07. He needs to have the car re-certified by NHRA and go through all the red tape in order to run in the 9s—which the car will do.

78 MOPAR ACTION

MOPAR ACTION 79

interiors and five pieces of thin Corning glass or plastic replaced the standard laminated stuff. As was done on the Max Wedge cars, the rear axle was relocated 1ʺ forward on special spring packs resulting in a new wheelbase of just 115ʺ for the Plym-ouths and 118ʺ for the Dodges.

NHRA SETS THE RULESIn 1964 the country’s major drag rac-

ing sanctioning body was the NHRA.They set up 25 classes for “Stock” cars based on shipping weight and advertised horse-power (NHRA adjusted). They defined “Stock” as being 50 produced. The fastest class was called Super Stock or S/S for a manual transmission car or S/SA with an automatic. Just below those were classes A, B, C etc. To fit the S/S class a car had to weigh between 0 and 8.69 lbs. per horsepower. Dodge and Plymouth each produced the necessary 50 carefully engi-neered aluminum-nosed vehicles and sent a list of Hemi car owners to the NHRA in June, 1964.The 1964 Hemi cars became legal Super Stocks later that month and were immediately the quickest factory cars on the planet.

For the new year beginning Jan. 1, 1965 the NHRA’s “1965 Drag Rules” left the maximum engine size for stock cars at 427.2 cu in. However a new sentence was added which said, “No car will be accepted for Super Stock class competi-tion with a weight-to-cubic-inch factor lower than 8 ….”. Page 4. This meant that for 1965 there would be a new minimum weight of 3418 lbs for a 427.2 engine. Since many regular production cars could weigh this little, the net effect was that aluminum or fiberglass body parts, or other extreme lightning measures, were not needed. Six months after they were built, the aluminum-nosed Hemi cars were legislated out of the stock classes as too light. (An example of the weight of the aluminum cars is Dick Landy’s 1964 Hemi Dodge. Dick removed the front torsion bar suspension and installed a straight front axle from an A100 van. He then com-peted in the A/Factory Experimental class weighing around 2780 lbs.) In the winter of 1964-1965 the owners of the 110 alumi-num Dodge and Plymouth Hemi cars had a decision to make. What to do with their no longer-legal machines? Of course drag racing was still an option in formats such as match racing. The Hemi engine could be relocated to a legal 1965 body. The ’64 car could be cut up to resemble one of the new 1965 altered wheelbase machines, etc. Chrysler would eventually build

around 10,000 Hemicars over the eight years 1964-1971 but 1964, with only about 180 built, was by far the lowest production number. Factoring in the legality issues of 1964 -’65, when many of the cars were cut up or junked, and 50 years of attrition, the best guess of the number of 1964 Hemi cars existing in 2014 would probably be fewer than thirty.

TODAY’S NHRA RULES In 2014 then, as we celebrate the 50th

anniversary of the 426 Hemi, we know that real, “they rolled out the factory doors” cars are rarer and more valuable than hens’ teeth. Could one assume that the ’64 Hemicars are therefore simply irrel-evant museum pieces ? In a word, no. Some more background. First, the NHRA conducts their events on private property where VIN tags are not required. VINs are not necessary on any of the professional class machines, for any of the home-built stuff or for your ’64 Plymouth. The NHRA does not care if your ride originally came

with a slant-6 or a 361. The NHRA knows that 426 Hemi Mopars were built in 1964 so they will allow that combination to run as a “stocker” today even though the VIN shows it to be a 318 car. They are big believers in the saying “If it looks like a duck…”. But be warned, the NHRA has years of experience and technical inspec-tors waiting to tear all the feathers off your duck to verify that it is correct in every way. A second factor that has kept ’64 Hemi cars in the game is the NHRA’s Rule Book. Even though the ’64 Hemis were killed by the 1965 Book, they were allowed back into the fold in later editions. By 1968, for example, there were 34 stock classes with A/S being the top and the weight to hp fac-tor of 8.00 to 8.49 looking pretty much the same as in 1965. What was also available by 1968, though, were twelve additional classes labeled “Super Stock”. SS/A was

80 MOPAR ACTION

Steve runs either a single 4-Bbl or dual-quad crossram in NHRA competition. He builds his own engines.

Rear suspension is Caltracs. Up front are 6-cylinder T-bars with Santhuff shocks. Body is all original. Steve Runs A/SA with the single 4-Bbl on an 11.0 index.

, Journey Through Hemiland

MOPAR ACTION 81

rated at 0 to 5.99 lbs/hp and SS/B was 6.00 to 6.99. (The ’68 Hemi A-bodies at 6.00 lbs/hp were SS/B). The 1964 alum-inum-nosed Hemi Mopars were built with the 1964 NHRA Rule Book in hand. It would take a couple of years before subse-quent books reflected reality and allowed the lightweight ’64s back into the fold.

Drag racing is interesting for those with a mechanical mind because of the fact that a racecar has hundreds of parts or “vari-ables.” From a statistical point of view, the number of possible combinations of those variables would be close to infinite. But hey, the 426 Hemi has been around for 50 years. Early on people like Ed Iskendarian, Keith Black, Don Garlits, the Ramchargers, Maurice Petty and others took at a stab at examining several million iterations. Race teams with mechanics like Jake King, Walt Ulrich and Austin Coil tried another million possibilities. That’s not to say that there is only one good combination. The weather, the track surface, driver attributes and many other variables will still effect a race outcome. The 426 Hemi engine was an excellent design in 1964 and 50 years of trial and error have only made it more potent. So in 2014, not only is the ’64 Hemi car a legal NHRA contender, but years of refinement have made it even more awe-some than it originally was.

If you want to see how a “NHRA Stock” ’64 Hemi Plymouth fares today in the world of drag racing you have to look no further than the silver car of Steve Hagberg from Berthoud, Colorado. Steve dropped a 426 Hemi into his two-door post about ten years ago and used it as a street-strip car. In 2006 he decided to get serious and made the car a dedicated NHRA-legal Stocker. Following the pattern of the original 1964 Track version of the Hemi, he built a single four-barrel engine to NHRA specs and went racing. He still competes occasionally with this set-up in the A/SA class. However, in 2012 the NHRA finally approved the Drag version of the Hemi that Chrysler originally developed for ’64. With two four-barrels on a crossram, this combo runs in CC/SA, one class above A/SA. (Previously the cross-ram was only allowed in Super Stock). The NHRA now recognizes both versions of the 426 Hemi engine as Stock.

By testing his Plymouth with several dif-ferent induction systems, Steve has made the following interesting observations:1. Consider the Chrysler single four-barrel

set-up as a base.2. The Chrysler inline, dual four-barrel set

up, as used on the ’66 and later Street Hemis will produce about 45 more hp up than the single four in 1. above.

3. The 1964 Chrysler aluminum crossram with the two Holley four-barrels pro-duces about 20 hp more than the inline dual-fours in 2. above.

4. The Chrysler aluminum crossram being sold today (The top is a separate piece which unbolts. PN P5007534) produces about 25 more hp than the ’64 cross-ram in 3. above. This is the NHRA-legal replacement for the one piece ’64 crossram. Per Steve’s dyno results, this Chrysler crossram is about 90 hp better than a single Four.So today Steve can race his 1964 Hemi

powered Plymouth in two NHRA Stock classes by swapping engines. He has survived several NHRA teardowns that confirm the car’s compliance with the rule book. See the sidebar for some of the vital statistics.

Steve Hagberg is a Hemi guy. He is the original owner of his 1966 Hemi Bel-vedere, which he still has. He likes racing in the A/SA class because it gives him the opportunity to face off with other high powered machines of the past. The NHRA class system is the closest thing there is to a real test of a car’s performance. All the competitors are using original factory stuff (Or NHRA approved replacements) and the races are “heads-up” (no timing delays. On a green light both cars go.) The quality of your car is reflected in your timeslip. You don’t have to refer to some bogus test done by a magazine 40 years ago or look to a goofy “shoot-out” staged to sell something. Do the magazines do teardowns or even have competent inspectors?

Below is a short list of the cars that the NHRA currently calls A-Stock. If you are still dwelling in the glory days of the past this is the class to watch. Hemi versus Thunderbolt! WOW!

CARS CLASSED AS A/SA BY NHRA 2014 / NHRA HP• 1964 Ford Thunderbolt with 427 ci / 2-4v 420 hp• 1964 Plymouth Savoy with 426 Hemi / 1-4v 434• 1967 Ford Fairlane with 427 / 2-4v 410• 1969 Chevy Camaro with 427 / 1-4v LS-1 435• 1969 Chevy Camaro with 396 / 1-4v 399• 1969 Chevy Nova with 396 / 1-4v 405• 1969 Chevy Corvette with 427 / 1-4v 434• 1968-9 Ford Cobra Jet with 428 / 1-4v 380• 2010 Dodge Drag Pack Challenger with 5.7 & fuel injection 421

82 MOPAR ACTION

, Journey Through Hemiland

A few notes on the NHRA’s classifica-tion system. The “NHRA Weight Factor” is based on the “shipping weight” the manu-facturers supplied back in the day. Likewise the “NHRA hp Factor” was originally based on the manufacturer’s advertised hp. If the manufacturers fudged their numbers the NHRA adjusted them as they saw fit. Note that Ford advertised the Thunderbolt as having 425 hp. The NHRA has adjusted that to 420 hp. The single-four-barrel Plym-outh was likewise said to have 400 hp. Today it rates as 434 hp. Bear in mind that these hp numbers are “Factors” and not real-life hp. All of today’s engines are much more powerful than they originally were. Note that Steve’s A/SA engine has been dyno tested at 658 hp although his NHRA hp Factor is only 43 4 hp. The NHRA could just as well use a scale from 1 to 100.

STEVE HAGBERG’S ’64 SINGLE 4-BBL HEMI PLYMOUTH SAVOY

Steve’s Plymouth started as an old man’s 6-cylinder stick car. The guy used the car to go fishing, taking out the back seat throwing a sleeping bag back there and sleeping in the car. He wasn’t happy with the gas mile-age so he made his own “MPG improver.”

The engine had a casting core plug in the top with a pipe plug. The old guy rigged up something with a hacksaw blade and a cork. At speed, vacuum would lift the cork and lean out the mixture. He supposedly got 25 mpg. Steve drove the car before taking it apart and recorded 23 MPG.

The Plymouth was straight and rust-free needing only a paintjob. Steve stripped out the car, added a roll cage and built the first NHRA-approved single 4-Bbl. Hemi.

At the U. S. Nationals last year, Steve posted the second-quickest qualifying time of 10.07 @130+ MPH in a field of 21 cars. Interestingly enough he had the only carbureted car in the bunch, all the others were fuel injected.

When the NHRA approved the Hemi dual-quad crossram in the fall of 2011, Steve was the first to build one of these (NHRA-legal) engines. He ran the car at Badimere

MOPAR ACTION 83

In single-4-Bbl trim, the Hagberg-built 439-cube Hemi dyno’d 658 HP @6600 RPM.


84 MOPAR ACTION

Custom ’Cudas Dept.

’73 PRO-STREET ’CUDA is a real visual appetizer backed up with a hearty 635 HP 528-cube Hemi. Yum!

FISH DISH

WE ALWAYS APPLAUD THE BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS (CLAP! CLAP!) that a builder puts into creating a Mopar that he wants to be different from all the others out there. Then, for whatever reason, the builder decides

to sell it so the next owner can enjoy a Mopar that’s different from all the others out there. Occasion-ally, we’ll see a cool Mope after it has changed hands, but the new owner doesn’t know all of the car’s background details, so the story comes up a bit short. Not the way we prefer, but in the case of a really cool ride, the eye candy appeal is the over-riding factor, especially when the workmanship is a knockout.

Such as car is the “Pro-Fish” ’73 ’Cuda now owned by Butch Rosetti. Butch picked up this ’73 Cuda from a contractor who was in dire straits—that’s someplace in Rhode Island. He says the ’Cuda was about 80% done after the owner had spent 5 years building the car before running out of dough. The body had been painted, the motor was bolted into the engine bay and the interior was mostly done. The rear had been back-halved with a Chris Alston ladder bar setup, but the front end was loosey-goosey. Butch decided to fix that with a Con-trol Freaks tube front end that works with coilovers (Why do this? Yeah, why?). The trans didn’t shift just right, so Butch sent that out for a rebuild/beef up. The ’Cuda came with no bumpers and the inte-rior required finishing. The 528-inch Hemi with Indy heads had zero miles on it when Butch bought the car, so it took some tweaking to dial it in.

MOPAR ACTION 85


’73 ’Cuda was picked up about 80% complete by current owner when the seller ran into hard times and couldn’t complete the project (especially the behind-grille black-out). The car was listed on eBay.

Butch has now owned the ’Cuda for 3 years, and

he and his son worked together to finish it up. A lot of

custom pieces, such as the billet window cranks were

packed in a box—one of many that came with the car.

One of the coolest touches that Butch came up with

is the 100-year-old Redwood console and trim. Butch

planted the tree as a young child and nurtured it to

maturity before cutting it down and putting his wood-

working skills to the test to fab the ’Cuda pieces (Butch

is 127 years old but is as spry as any 40-year old. He

says reading Mopar Action has kept him young).

Butch says he’s been into Mopes since he was 16

(must’ve been a 1914 Dodge). But it was a ’68 383/4-

speed Charger that got him hooked on Mopes. His last

car was a pro-street Belvedere, 400 CID, with an 8-71

blower. So we guess he knows what fast is. He sold the

Bel when he got the itch for a Hemi, and was actually

looking for a B-body, as tearing the Belvedere apart

and installing a Hemi wasn’t really cost effective. Butch

found the ’Cuda on eBay, and he says it had been up

for sale for quite some time.

The ’Cuda obviously plies the show route, but Butch

says he drives it on cruises and intends to run it down

the track. Planning to keep his ride for a while, Butch

is making provisions for a redo, if necessary, down the

road. He’s planted another Redwood tree for another

batch of 100-year-old wood for the interior. Stay tuned

for the update.

86 MOPAR ACTION

, Fish Dish

RIGHT:

Spoiler adorns

decklid while

TTi exits the

gasses. Trunk

holds a15 gal

fuel cell.

BELOW:

Body wears its

original sheet-

metal except

for AAR-style

hood and tubs.

528-inch Hemi

stomps along on

635 horsepower.

The 12:1 motor

runs Indy heads

and a Demon

1050 carb on an

Indy intake.

Pro-Fish third brake light lets folks

know what they’re following when

Butch hits the Stop pedal.

Billet Specialty

wheels carry

the custom

charcoal over

2007 Chrysler

Tangerine

painted bod.

MOPAR ACTION 87

Interior is très upscale

with leather everywhere

including the Kirkey

racing seats. rear seat

is sacrificed for those

big tubs and 8-point

cage. Butch hand-fab’d

the 100-year-old

Redwood trim pieces

and console that hides

ignition switch, start

button and power

window switches.

Custom fab’d steel dash from previous owner is a real eye catcher. There’s more Redwood trim here along with a Flaming River tilt column and wheel. 7ʺ Double DIN screen is for audio-visual/nav, Blue Tooth and rear cam.

1973 Pro Street Barracuda

“PRO FISH”

ENGINE

• 528 cu in Hemi 635 HP built by Nat’s Racing

Engines, Connecticut, 12.5:1 compression

CP forged pistons.

• Comp Cams Solid Roller 0.612" lift.

• 4340 Eagle forged steel crankshaft.

• Eagle forged rods.

• Indy Legend cylinder heads with Norris.

roller tip valvetrain.

• Indy intake with Demon 1050 carburetor.

• 7" Super Damper.

• Twin Holley fuel pumps with 5/8" stainless braided

fuel line, 15 gal fuel cell.

• Milodon external oil system, Ray Barton 7 qt pan.

• MSD Pro Billet distributor, MSD box.

• TTI 2¾" tube 3.5" collector ceramic coated headers.

• Full 3.5" Flowmaster exhaust.

TRANSMISSION

• 727 race built with Kevlar bands, welded sprag.

• Coan 11" 3500 stall converter.

• Turbo Action full manual valve body.

• B&M deep pan.

• Hurst Quarter Stick shifter.

CHASSIS

• Chris Alston ladder bar back half.

• 9" rear w/ Strange axles, 4.11 gears & Afco

coilover shocks.

• Complete frame tied.

• Control Freaks IFS tube front suspension,

tube adjustable A-arms, Afco coilovers.

• Flaming River rack & pinion steering.

• Wilwood 4-piston calipers, drilled & slotted

discs on all 4 corners.

• Mickey Thompson 29 ̋x 18.5 rears / 26ʺ x 7.5 fronts

• Billet Specialty wheels.

INTERIOR

• Full steel custom fabricated dash Autometer Gauges.

• Push-button start.

• Hidden light switch, fan control.

• 7" Double DIN audio-video system / navigation /

Blue Tooth / rear cam.

• Kirky racing seats wrapped in leather & suede /

Pro Fish tach, speedo pod, console, armrests &

audio trim hand fabricated using 100-year-old

growth Redwood with high-gloss lacquer finish.

• Flaming River polished tilt steering column & wheel

• 8-point roll cage with swing-out bars.

BODY

• All original steel.

• Custom charcoal over Chrysler 2007 tangerine paint.

• Steel painted bumpers with hidden fasteners.

• Painted grille to match body color.

• AAR hood, rear deck spoiler.

• Custom CHMSL in billet “Pro-Fish” emblem.

88 MOPAR ACTION

solid stems. For reference, 1G Firepower

Hemi V8s and all A- and B-series wedge

V8 stems measure 0.372 inches, LA Mag-

nums are 0.312 inches, the 4.7L PowerTech

eight’s are 0.281 inches, and the current

3G Hemi V8 series has 0.315-inch (8mm)

valvestems. The 1964 A864 circuit Race

Hemi was assembled with silicon-chrome

(Silchrome XB) steel intake valves and alu-

minized 21-4N chrome-manganese steel

exhausts. The ’64 A865 drag Hemi versions

used SAE 1041 carbon steel intake valves

and aluminized 21-4N chrome-manganese

steel exhausts. When early 426 Hemi test-

ing revealed valve stem scuffing, guide

clearance was loosened slightly and all

production valvestems came through

chrome-plated. All 2G Race Hemi V8s also

employed Max Wedge-style “Perfect Circle-

type” (banded Teflon) positive valve stem

oil seals, but with appropriately smaller

inside diameters.

VALVE SPRINGS

As in all 426 Hemi engines, the original

valve springs were duals with a flat-wound

surge dampener between the inner and

outer coils, intake and exhaust. Steel spring

retainers and single-bead valve locks with

an eight-degree plunge angle were installed

on assembly. Race springs were wound

from larger gauge wire than street springs.

SPARKPLUGS

During early (1940s) Hemi development,

Chrysler Engineering learned that a layer of

stagnant gasses formed “off” the surfaces

of the combustion chamber walls, so they

went to a deep 3/4-inch reach centrally

located sparkplug that extends through

the dead zone. This plug location compen-

sates somewhat for the chamber’s no-swirl

characteristics and permits optimum flame

propagation that consumes increasingly

more mixture volume as the burn travels

outward from the plug. The even mixture

burning reduces the residence time of

end gas pockets, thus reducing heat and

the tendency of those hot residual gasses

to detonate and limit the engine’s ability

to accept the degree of spark advance

required to generate maximum output. The

arrangement also limits carbon buildup

to further enhance the domed chambers’

combustion qualities.

CYLINDER HEAD

PRODUCTION/ASSEMBLY

At the Campbell, Wyatt and Cannon

Foundry in Muskegon, MI, the 2G Hemi

head’s ports were shell-molded to produce

exceptionally smooth, fin-free interior pas-

sages, as cast. Combinations of oil sand

and green sand cores were also used to

mold the more fragile sections of the iron

head. Large open areas in the Hemi’s

ports and combustion chambers and the

complicated coolant jacketing around their

exhaust valves called for exceptionally

deliberate mold treatment and handling

plus regular detailed inspections of the

castings, inside and out. These earliest

Race Hemi heads are easily distinguished

from later Street Hemi versions by their

smooth roofs; a noticeable lack of screw-

in cleanout plugs and bosses outboard of

their two intermediate rocker arm stands.

On assembly, the iron cylinder

head sealed to the block via a

0.020-inch-thick embossed stain-

less steel gasket. But when early

dyno testing turned up difficulties

sealing the large water passages

at each upper inboard corner of

the heads and block, those areas

were initially patched with rubber

cement when bolted together.

Later, it was determined that

torqueing-down the intake mani-

fold’s two corner screws actually

lifted the cylinder head away from

the block. So the tightening spec

on (only) those (eight) fasten-

ers was reduced from 6-ft.-lbs. to

4-ft.-lbs. This assembly tweak and

a revised (but unspecified) bead-

loading pattern eliminated the leakage

problem.

Designed and developed right after

the 1964 cast-iron cylinder heads were

finished, an aluminum 2G Hemi head was

also produced. Weighing approximately 30

pounds less than a 69-pound bare-iron ver-

sion, the lightweight castings came stan-

dard on all 1965 A990 Race Hemis. Stress

analysis of the cast-iron head lead to cru-

cial section thickness increases in the alloy

head to 0.400 inches in both their combus-

tion chamber roofs and the deck face. The

diameter of the eight head bolt bosses

between bores was increased from 0.88

inches to 1.0 inches, and 0.18-inch-thick

steel washers were added under the out-

board head bolts on assembly. Threaded

holes in the head were all drilled deeper

before being tapped, and the radii of most

of the castings’ internal and external transi-

tion fillets were increased. The use of soft

aluminum called for cast-iron intake valve

seat inserts and steel exhaust inserts, all

installed in by heating the parent-metal

head to 300ºF, cooling the inserts in liquid

nitrogen and driving them into place for

a secure shrink-fit. These seat inserts,

in turn, dictated a couple of hundredths

smaller valve sizes in the 1965-only alloy

heads. Cast-iron valve guide inserts were

also fitted, as were steel shims underneath

the valve springs. The aluminum heads

were produced by a number of smaller

Midwest foundries and installed on the

A990s along with copper head gaskets on

the Hemi decks.

VALVE COVERS

With a row of sparkplug wires sprout-

ing prominently along each’s center, a

Hemi’s way wide valve covers are perhaps

the engine’s most distinctive features.

Doesn’t take more than a quick glance to

know what kind of motor you’re looking

at. What isn’t easily seen under a 426’s

valve covers are their 0.040 inches of

sheet steel construction and welded-in

internal baffles. Each has four holes up

top for O-ringed aluminum sparkplug

tubes, 10 holes along the rail for 1/4-20

attaching studs, plus the usual oil-fill and

venting provisions. A864 circuit race 426s

had extra tall breathers and filler tubes in

their valve covers—all painted a low-gloss

shade of Omaha orange. Drag race cov-

ers (A865 and A990) were chrome-plated,

while later Street Hemi covers (A102) were

finished with (273/235-style) black-crackle

paint. Valve covers for the 1964-65 Hemi

V8s’ iron and alloy K-heads are inter-

changeable. But they won’t fit later (1966-

’71) Street Hemi heads, mainly because

of a “notch” in the more-common later

heads’ outboard-front corners. OE spark-

plug tubes also fit either early-only Race

Hemis or only later street versions. Seals

for these tubes work in all 2G covers, but

sparkplug cable boots are specifically

configured for either early or late versions.

Next issue we’ll cover the 426 Hemi’s

RB-based cast-iron block, its reciprocating

assembly, manifolding and other systems

and hardware.

Engine/ 1964 A864 1964 A865

Spring Intake/Exhaust Intake/Exhaust

Installed Height

Outer 1.83-1.86-Inches

Inner 1.64-Inches

Valve Closed Load

Outer 80-90-pounds

Inner 38-43-pounds

Valve Open

Load @ Height

Outer 280-pounds 272-pounds

@ 1.32-inches @ 1.32-inches

Inner 94-pounds 92-pounds

@ 1.10-inches @ 1.10-inches

Surge Damper Steel; flat-wound spiral inside outer,

Material/Type outside inner


Continued from page 33

MOPAR ACTION 89

, Journey Through HemilandContinued from page 83

in Denver (5000 ft. elevation) in the spring of 2012, and clocked off a 10.29 @128 MPH—about a second under the index.

In conclusion we should note that the 426 Hemi was last available in Dodges and Plymouths of the 1971 model year, and that the entire Plymouth line was discontinued by Chrysler in 2002. At present the NHRA is still alive and well though, and still provides a place for the vintage iron to compete. On

its 50th anniversary, not only is the Hemi the only engine used in Top Fuel and Funny Car, but it also has a formidable presence in the quickest Stock classes. Steve Hagberg, and a couple of other guys, are actively run-ning the old 1964 Plymouth and Dodge 426 Hemicars which continue to be viable in the NHRA—700 horsepower! Hopefully we won’t be hearing the fat lady sing any time soon. Hemis rule!

Steve Hagberg’s 1964 Plymouth Savoy Statistics• Weight: 3650 lbs. with driver (All steel car with roll cage and ballast)

Weight distribution: Front 49% Rear 51%• Wheelbase: 115"• Rear axle: Mopar Dana 60 with 5.13 gears• Rear wheels: Bogart 15" x 8.75"• Rear tires: Hoosier 30 x 9.0 x 15 (Tread about 10")• Transmission: 1964 Chrysler automatic (Push-button activated. Manual valve body. 727 case with 904 parts) Torque converter: ATI 9" Treemaster with 5800 rpm stall speed• Engine: Chrysler 426 Hemi (Bored 0.060" over for 439 ci) • Block: Mopar Performance cast iron (PN 2468330 M)• Heads: Mopar Performance aluminum (PN 2531110 M2)• Compression ratio: 12.6:1• Cam: Bullet 0.520" lift, flat tappet• Headers: Performance Welding 2" x 2.5" step• Fuel: VP/Sunoco 112 octane gasoline Max rpm in race situation: 8100 rpm

Race Configuration A Race Configuration B

NHRA Class: CC / SA A / SA

NHRA Index: 10.60 11.0

Carburetion: Two Holley 4 - v no. Holley 4- v no. 4235 / 4236 4781 (850 cfm)

Intake: Chrysler alum. crossram Chrysler magnesium (PN P5007534) (PN 2468043)

NHRA Weight Factor: 3310 lbs. 3305 lbs

NHRA hp Factor: 450 HP 434 HP

NHRA Weight / hp Factor: 7.36 7.62

Dyno results on engines built 749 HP @ 7000 rpm 658 HP @ 6600 rpmby Steve Hagberg 613 ft lbs @ 5300 rpm 590 ft. lbs @ 5000 rpm

Quarter-mile times: 9.60 (Sea level corrected) 10.07

Race Hemi interior is all repop—the

work of Gary Ball. The Bostrum-copy

seats were scratch-built using marine-

grade aluminum tubing. They’re lightweight and

comfortable.

Rear is a Dana 60 packed with 5.13 gears.

90 MOPAR ACTION

, Back To Racing

With track temperatures hovering near 120

degrees, Don captured the lead for good on

just the 49th lap and drove away from the

field in front of almost 25,000 fans. It was

the first ever Dodge win in a stock car race

at Milwaukee and the second time Nichels

Engineering had accomplished such a feat,

as they also owned the first ever Pontiac win

at “The Mile.” It was Don’s first win at Mil-

waukee since 1963, moving him from ninth

to third in USAC championship points. For

good measure, White won the next USAC

race at Grand Rapids on July 22nd. Don was

now clearly back in the hunt for the USAC

season championship, chasing defending

champion and Plymouth pilot, Norm Nelson.

Two weeks later, Paul Goldsmith, not to

be outdone by McQuagg and White, pro-

ceeded to win the fourth stock car race in

a row by Nichels Engineering. Goldsmith

systematically stalked the field until the 496th

lap to finally pass Richard Petty’s Plymouth

(being driven by Jim Paschal) to win the Sixth

Annual Volunteer 500 at Bristol. Paul over-

came falling a couple of laps off the pace

after running out of gas by relentlessly work-

ing his way back through the field on the

one-half-mile track. By the time he caught

Paschal, both Mopar pilots proceeded to

run side-by-side for several laps, bringing

the 18,000 fans to their feet. Following the

stirring victory, Goldy’s third of the 1966 sea-

son, Stock Car Racing magazine writer Jim

Hunter wrote: “The coolest thing about Paul

Goldsmith is his nerve; it’s about the same

as the color of his car: ice blue.”

THE ANDRETTI FLIP

Nichels Engineering, seemingly unstop-

pable at this point, headed to their next

USAC challenge, the Saturday, July 30th,

event at Canada’s racing hotspot Mosport

Park. For this race, Nichels took on a new

driver to run alongside Don White. Joining

the Nichels stable for this contest was ris-

ing young racing star and USAC defending

Indy car champion Mario Andretti. Nichels

Engineering provided both White and

Andretti with identical Hemi-powered Dodge

Chargers. The 2.459-mile road course, with

alternating uphill and downhill runs, was a

unique challenge for any driver. It was with

that in mind, that before Friday’s practice,

Ray Nichels asked the young Andretti to

go out on the track (in the No. 31 Nichels

Charger) behind the seasoned veteran

White (in the No. 3 Nichels Charger), and

follow Don for some practice laps. White

had raced stock cars at this venue before

and knew the hazards hidden in this unique

racing venue. Nichels reasoned that Andretti

could see White’s preferred line through

the course and get used to idiosyncrasies

of the heavy-bodied Dodge Charger. Send-

ing both drivers out onto the track, Nichels’

crew waited to see the Dodges perform

before making the final setups for qualify-

ing later in the day. After only a couple of

laps, Andretti, supremely confident in his

ability, decided to pull away from the stock

car veteran White. On the third practice lap,

Mario promptly flipped the Nichels Charger

four times, damaging just about every major

component on the car from the roof to the

suspension. Over the next six hours, the

Nichels crew performed a Herculean task

putting the Andretti mount back in racing

trim, barely in time for qualifying.

White, whose Nichels crew was now at

the top of their game, took pole position for

the first heat. As with earlier USAC contests

the competition was keen as ever. In the first

heat, White clearly proved to be the fastest

car on the track in the 50 lapper. But that

didn’t stop Norm Nelson and Mario Andretti

from pushing White hard during the early

laps of the race. In the end, though, White

finished with a comfortable 30-second lead,

telling his crew that he made every effort not

to abuse his Dodge late in the race, saving

his car for the second 125-mile heat. And it

looked as if Don’s logic would capture him

the overall race victory. However, on the

46th lap of the second heat, White’s strategy

came apart, just as quickly has his Hemi

engine, when he broke his crankshaft in half.

White’s DNF appeared to enable Nelson,

Andretti and Canada’s own Billy Foster to

battle for the victory. Andretti charged into

the lead, only to suffer a broken sway bar

finishing his day. Unbelievably, Billy Foster’s

ignition then gave way, finishing his effort.

Then, seemingly coming out of nowhere,

with just over a lap remaining, Chicago’s own

Salvatore “Sal” Tovella raced into the lead

capturing the checkered flag. By virtue of his

fourth-place finish in the first heat, Tovella, in

his 1965 Plymouth, was named the overall

winner of the Kawartha 250, his first victory

in USAC competition and clearly his biggest

day ever in his stock car racing career.

With the racing season in high gear,

Chrysler Corporation was dominating the

nation’s stock-car tracks. By the start of

August, Norm Nelson was leading the USAC

season points chase and David Pearson,

driving Dodges for Cotton Owens, had

already won 11 times in 31 starts, and was

leading the NASCAR season title hunt. But

battles between the automakers, sanctioning

bodies and even the NASCAR and USAC

inspectors made for racecar chaos.

NASCAR BENDS THE RULES

What happened next during the race

weekend of August 7th’s Dixie 400 made

things appear even worse. The arrival of

Junior Johnson’s entry, a bright yellow Ford

Galaxie to the Atlanta track, was the catalyst

for controversy. Johnson’s entry was by no

means a normal Ford Galaxie. For openers,

Junior had completely restructured the roof

of the car. It was apparent that the roof had

been cut away, then substantial sections of

the roof’s posts were removed and the roof

welded back on. In fact, the car’s roof line

was reduced in height so much that driver

Fred Lorenzen had to lower his seat in order

to see out of the newly sloped windshield.

The front fenders of the car seemed to

almost engulf the tires and the rear of the

car was jacked up higher than any other

car in the paddock. Its odd shape seemed

to scream out for a nickname. It got one

in a hurry, the “Yellow Banana.” Not to be

outdone, Smokey Yunick showed up with a

black and gold Chevrolet Chevelle that had

also undergone some sort of assembly meta-

morphosis with the wheels off-center of the

car-body’s cutaways, a handcrafted front end

and a spoiler built into the roofline.

To the amazement and subsequent anger

of the other competitors, both the Johnson

Ford and the Yunick Chevy passed NASCAR

inspection. The cries of “unfair” could be

heard all the way to NASCAR headquarters

in Daytona Beach. In the meantime, Cotton

Owens’ Dodge was found to have a device

that allowed Pearson to lower the front end of

his car after the race had started. Owens, in a

defiant stand against what he believed to be

different rules for different race competitors,

refused to alter his No. 6 Dodge Charger as

long as Johnson’s and Yunick’s cars were

left as is. When told that NASCAR demanded

Owens car be “brought up to NASCAR stan-

dards” Cotton loaded up his Dodge and left

Atlanta in a staggering display of defiance by

a team in the hunt for the NASCAR season

national championship.


The Hemi on the dyno at Nichels Engineer-

ing’s “Go-Fast Factory” in Griffith, Indiana.

MOPAR ACTION 91

Mopar Or NocarEdited By Phil DePages

Want to see your car, dog, parakeet, or windmill (for Netherlands readers) on this page? Send good, sharp photos, or hi-res digital images of your toys, along with some information that we can bizarrely distort into a story, to: Reader’s Rides and Today’s Cat Juggler Dept., Mopar Action, Harris Publications, 1115 Broadway, New York, NY 10010, or, even better, submit online at www.moparaction.com. Add 15% gratuity for better service, or invite us to dinner. Don’t want to see your ride here? Even easier: Don’t send us nothin’.

Dave Dengel, former owner of Green County Speed shop

in Greensburg, KY knows how to keep busy, and he knows a thing or two about building a cool street machine. His 318 Challenger was picked up by a friend about 8 years ago and brought to Dave. Out came the stock drivetrain and in went a ’68 .040-over Hemi that Dave found at an Atlanta speed shop. He sold the iron heads and installed Indy heads and their Mod Man intake topped by a pair

of Ed’s 750s. Inside are Ross slugs swinging on stock rods. Dave built the custom all-steel hood by slicing the stock hood, raising it and adding a 3-inch wide strip. That alone was a 2-week job. Back to the drivetrain, the Hemi is backed by a reverse-pattern 727 beefed with Hemi internals and a 3500-stall PTC converter. The rear is a 3:91 Sure-Grip 8-3/4" which has been narrowed enough to

run the widest tires possible with-out cutting the frame, although Dave did end up notching it. The tires are the biggest widest drag

radials that were available at the time: 33x18x15. Stopping power is aided by front discs from a Cordoba. Ricardo wondered where they went.

“Beautiful Brute” is what Jim Maiani calls his

’62 Chrysler 300H. He says it’s one of 435 hardtops (123 convertibles)made that year. Everything is original, except tires, radiator cap and battery. It has 126,140 actual miles on the 413 dual-quad motor that’s never been out or apart. Jim says that he is getting ready to rebuild the carbs. Jim has owned the H for 7 years

and he puts about 800 miles a year on it starting out from his home in Houghton Lake, Michigan. The Chrysler was sold new in Walla Walla Wash-ington and lived most of its life

there. But for the last 7 years it’s been parked in a heated garage. It usually wins Best Unrestored Survivor at shows he goes to. But to Jim, it’s “just an old car.”

Jerry Bailey bought this 2010 6.1 Challenger on July 12, 2010,

the same day he turned 55 years old. Jerry had a copy of

Motor Trend April 2008 on his desk for 2 years and he told all

his co-workers that he was going to buy that car that was on the

cover. After buying the 6-speed SRT 425 HP beast, Jerry pur-

chased the chrome TSW 20" Montage wheels and then added

Flowmaster 40s. Jerry added the stripes himself, changed the

hood to the functional T/A hood, added a Mopar CAI and low-

ered the car 1" with Eibach Pro Kit springs. On the highway,

Jerry says that he

averages 22.8 MPG.

Two passes down

the strip netted Jerry

a best of 13.03/109

MPH, making the

car, he claims, the

hottest Challenger in

Atlanta, GA.

Kyle Giesbrecht from Williams Lake, BC Canada is in

the process of getting his ’71 Dart Swinger ready for

pro-street drag racing. Originally a 6-cylinder, the car was

built by Barry Esser in Kelowna, BC. Barry did almost all

the work on the car except the engine which was built by

K&S Machine in Kelowna. Barry then sold the Dart to Kyle.

The Dart runs a 430 HP, 497 TQ ’70 440 Magnum 4-Bbl

backed by a 727 with a 2800 stall and a Moser 83/4" rear

with 3.91 gears.

Hot In Atlanta Pro-Go

Retired, Not Tired

“Just an Old Car ”

Eric:

Steal wheels, huh? Those are the new

ones, from midnight motor parts, I take it?

Anyway, I think there’s plenty of clear-

ance, I foresee no problems.

WATERY CAMCan I put hydro lifters and cam in my

318A poly (’61 Dodge Phoenix)? If so, from

what motor?

— Dave “Mopar” Knox, TN

Dave:

If you mean some other OEM/stock

hydraulic cam, none that I’m aware of

(the order if I/E lobes was changed in LA

engines), and I see none in any aftermar-

ket cam grinder’s catalog. In fact, these

days, I think you’ll really have to shake the

trees to find any camshaft for the poly V8.

FASTER PLANEIn my ’71 Duster I currently run a

1970 stock compression 340 with ported

J-heads, a Comp. XE284H cam, an Edel-

brock Airgap intake, Ed 800 CFM carb,

3500 stall TCI, and 3.91:1 gears. I only

street drive it but usually pretty hard,

always redline. Would a single-plane and/

or double-pumper carb add much power or

just change the power band? I also oversize

fuel lines, sender, and pump to install. (P.S.

I just ordered an MSD to replace the MP

distributor I bought in 2001.) Also, I love the

photos of your cars at Derham’s alignment

shop [Newburgh, NY - ed.] I have known

them for years.

—John Stanco, Poughquag, NY

John:

A big single-plane will definitely pick

you up some power and would be an

excellent match for your converter and

gears, eventually you might want a bit

more cam duration, too. The DP carb,

though, might improve the launch a tad

but would do nothing for power and really

trash fuel economy and fuel wash (trash-

ing the rings). Double-pumpers are suit-

able for drag-only cars only. Remember, if

the car sees any street time, your distribu-

tor must have vacuum advance.

Poughquag! I spent many happy after-

noons at Poughquag Auto Wreckers in

the ’70s. I remember the owner, Charlie

(?) was a real pistol, his kids wandered

barefoot and nearly naked amongst the

wrecks, mud, and parts. His driver was

a ’69 Road Runner. One day his ’Runner

was suddenly out with the wrecks. Seems

his wife had broken all the glass out of it.

Every single pane was gone. He must’ve

pushed one of her hot buttons.

THE SQUEAL DEALMr. Ehrenberg, I have a ’74 Fury with

a 400-4 and A/C. Recently, I changed the

alternator and compressor belts, and now

they squeal. I know you have a fix!

— Steve Taylor, Atlanta, GA

Steve:

Your ’74 used two belts in tandem to

drive the alternator and compressor. Back

in the day, Mopar replacements were a

matched pair, the lengths were identical.

Today, you must insure that the belts you

install are from the same lot. Check the

code numbers on the belts to insure a

matched set. If they aren’t identical, the

shorter one will take most of the load,

and it will squeal.

Tension is also critical. Chrysler pro-

vided two tension-checking methods. One

involved a belt-slack gauge, the second,

more practical, simply had you measure

the torque on the item being adjusted. In

your case, there’s no way to tighten the

alternator accurately without the factory

tool, C-3841A. Luckily, a Mopar guy by the

name of Brian Kapral is making a better-

than-OEM repro of the original, contact

him at [email protected]. Once you have

the tool (see photo, above right), you can

simply snap your torque wrench in and

set the tension to specs, in your case: 120

ft.-lbs. for new belts, or 80 if used.

BRAKEOUTYour tech columns have been invalu-

able to me in my build. The route I’ve taken

with my 1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite, built

451ʺ, from day one is improved handling

while running 15ʺ wheels/tires. I currently

run MagnumForce 2ʺ drop spindles with

AR Engineering caliper adapters, 11.75ʺ x

1ʺ rotors, Wilwood forged Dynalite calipers

and Wilwood BP10 pads on the front end,

with the stocker 10ʺ drums in the rear,

and a Wilwood adjustable proportioning

valve with an 8ʺ dual diaphragm vacuum

booster and 15/16ʺ bore Raybestos blue

box (midgrade) disc/drum master cylinder.

Pedal feel is pretty good, but I feel like

stopping power could be better. In the MA

June, 2013 issue tech topics Q&A “Drum

Beat” you explain the details of a rear drum

upgrade to finned 11ʺ with reduced diam-

eter wheel cylinders and other improved

internal components. If I were to do nothing

else other than reduce my rear wheel cyl-

inder size while keeping the 10ʺ rear drum

setup, would I still realize some noticeable

improvement in stopping or only if I upsized

to 11ʺ with all of the other details outlined in

the article? I’m somewhat resistant to a rear

disc upgrade due to bang for buck.

— Dwayne Bell, San Jose, CA

Dwayne:

The rationale behind juggling wheel

cylinder bore diameters, vis-à-vis caliper

piston bore, rotor diameter, and drum

diameter is to get what I have taken to

calling “natural proportioningʺ as close

to ideal as possible. Prop valves all have

a cut-in pressure, below this point, typi-

cally 300-500 PSI, they have no effect. This

is by design, because, as you increase

pedal (and, therefore, line) pressure, the

car sees more weight transfer (a “harder”

stop), so needs less rear line pressure (as

a percentage of the front). What I’m trying

to dial in (via wheel cylinder swaps) are

those low-pressure stops think rain, etc.

where the car will swap ends if the rears

lock first.

Of course, this perfect F/R proportion-

ing is a constantly-moving target, this is

why height-sensing prop valves and RWAL

were invented. Still, on a basic build,

there’s no reason whatsoever to not do

the best with what you have. Whether this

would give you the braking improvement

you are seeking is open for conjecture, I’d

need more detailed info to even hazard a

guess. What problems, exactly, are your

experiencing, and under what conditions?

Frankly--and it took me many decades

to come to this realization: the Bendix duo-

servo drum setups on all our muscle-era

Mopars are so hard to modulate on even

a moderate stop that RWAL is the only

real answer, other than a rear disc swap.

And, yes, that’s why rear discs are such an

improvement, fade resistance is not really

a factor.

RELUCTANT RELUCTOR1972 Duster, now with 360. I am replac-

ing the pickup coil in the distributor and

need to know how to remove the spring clip

inside the hollow shaft that keeps the reluc-

tor in place. I can’t seem to find info on it.

Most articles just say to pry off the reluctor.

— Bill Jerold, Lynbrook, NY

92 MOPAR ACTION

, TECH TOPICS


Brian Kapral is repoping the alternator

belt-tension tool, handy to have.

Bill:The articles are correct. A simple

screwdriver will do it. The spring clip (under the felt wick) doesn’t need to be removed unless you are removing the stop plate. The reluctor is retained only by friction and gravity. Don’t lose the roll pin (which may come loose when you remove the reluctor), and replace the reluctor clocked as you found it (mark it prior to removal).

TORQUED UPThat “Get a Grip” story was excellent,

and gave me the courage to tear into my spare 3.55 pumpkin. Everything is going as you instructed so far, but I’m not certain about the carrier bearing preload spec. I did as you said, but to get to the .006 min. I had to really crank down on the pass side adjuster quite a bit, then even more to have the lock align with the holes. I’m guessing I tightened it to about 35-40 ft.-lbs. The ring gear still turns with some drag, but it doesn’t feel overly tight, I think? Does that sound excessive? It has new carrier bearings.

— Joel Langdon, Inverness, CAJoel:

Sounds totally OK, all will be good. Usu-ally the torque required is even greater, the specs on the later axles (9¼ʺ) was 75 ft.-lbs.

FOUR GEAR FURYRick, I bought a ’66

Sport Fury a few years ago. I have the broadcast sheet, fender tag, Certicard and a copy of the IBM punch card from Chrysler. The car is a factory 440 4-speed car. The motor is non-matching, but the four-speed looks like the original. I got a number off the extension housing and called Brewer’s, they told me it was a ’66 trans. But they didn’t know if it came with a 18 spline or 23

spline from Ma Mopar. I know I can take it apart and find out what trans is in there, but my question is what trans came in it from the factory? Was there ever a 18 spline 4 speed put in a Cbody? Thanks for all that you do and continue to do for the Mopar community.

— Ryan Healy, Ellenville, NY

Ryan:There was, but not in ’66. Remember

that the 375 BHP 440 did not appear until ’67. Your original 440 was the small valve, mild cam “station wagon” engine. The only cars to get the 18-spline “Hemi” A833 in 1966 were Hemis, and they were all in B-bodies.

Having said that, with any kind of decent 440 build, in a heavy C-body, yours truly could shuck the teeth off one or two of the speed gears, and the countershaft gear, in a few hours. Reading between the lines, you know what to do. If not, just read Mopar Muscle.

CONNECTED BRICK

I really enjoy your magazine and espe-cially the tech info. I am building a 416ʺ smallblock 1970 Duster. My question is ... On the “Green Brick”, with 500+HP power, what rear suspension setup did you use?

— Joe Pfeiffer, Shepherdsville, KY

Joe:It was (and still is) pretty basic: De-

arched Mopar Perf. S/S leaf springs and quadrashocks (were from Rancho, clones now made by Firm Feel.) A few extra spring clamps added on the front spring segments to prevent windup on braking. And that’s it!

CARB-U-RATINGSo a co-worker gave me 6 carburetors, 3

Motorcraft two-barrels, a Quadrajet spread bore two-barrel (never seen one like that),

MOPAR ACTION 93

Electronic distributor reluctors pry right up and off – no trickery involved.

Ryan Healy’s 440 4-speed ’66 Sport Fury awaits restoration. Looks like it received an intake manifold and carb swap at some point. A very cool and rare ride.

a WCFB, and a T-Q. After running the num-

bers on the T-Q its off a 1973 440. Is that

too much Carb for a ’71 360 that’s .030ʺ

over with 10:1 compression? My second

question is there any value in the WCFB to

someone doing a restoration?

— Nathan Cook, Yakima, WA

Nat:

The TQ you describe is a 850 CFM unit.

A stock ’71 340’s TQ was 800. The only

significant flow difference is from the

850’s slightly larger primaries. One of the

TQ’s best attributes is the “adjustable-

for-demand” secondaries, even cop

318s used an 800 CFM carb. At worst,

you might need to do a small amount

of primary tuning, possibly a tad larger

pump shooter nozzles. And, the WCFB?

I’m sure, that somewhere, some poor

slob is searching for that exact carb as

we speak.

OVER DRIVEN TO PERFORMI have purchased an A833 tranny OD

unit, 1980 model year, my plan is it to install

it behind my 440 (’73 E-body). I know that

there is not available a big block bellhous-

ing to accept my front bearing retainer of

5.125ʺ. Any ideas to make the swap?

— Ben Acevedo, Anthony, NM

Ben:

Any competent machine shop can

enlarge the pilot dimension, but if you

have this done, there’s 2 caveats: First,

when you bolt the reworked housing to the

block, be sure to check the concentricity.

Use offset dowels as required. Second,

the enlarged pilot hole may impinge on

the fork pivot mounting stud holes. If this

happens, you’ll need to either re-engineer

a fork pivot, or go to a hydraulic clutch

release setup. The fine-spline A833 will not

be a long-term solution behind a 440. See

reply to reader Healy on this page.

SPECIAL KMr. Ehrenberg, Could you help me iden-

tify the car in the attached photo, from a

crime scene surveillance camera? I believe

it may be a K-Car. If it is I’d like to narrow

it down some (year, make, etc.) The perps

are bad dudes who have been stealing mail

and then identities.

— Detective James Sutton, CID

Southlake, TX

Detective:

It is absolutely NOT a Kcar or any other

Chrysler product, those cars had basically

“flat” (non-curved/no-wraparound) back

glass, see: http://tinyurl.com/kcarpix .... this

is a typical K-car. My guess, and on non-

Mopars, I am NO expert, it might be some

’80s Nissan or Mitsubishi. Good luck!

BRASS ONESHey Richard, I’m about ready to drop

a 360 in my ’70 Swinger, but I still have to

install the brass freeze plugs. My question

is how to seal them, I’ve heard everything

from Loctite for bearings, RTV and even

pipe dope to even dry install. Please help

me with this, too many choices, and I’m

sure not all if any are good

— Denis Rivet, Socorro, NM

Denis:

It is totally noncritical, I usually use ordi-

nary gasket cement.

PLUGGED UPMr. Ehrenberg, 1978 440RB motorhome,

stock heads, trying to install new Champion

sparkplugs that were suggested and they

won’t thread in. Help!

— Aaron Hackleman, Greenfield, IN

Aaron:

Most likely your engine is a HD 4403,

and the heads take the tapered seat pea-

nut plugs. These are 5/8ʺ hex, 0.460ʺ reach,

P/N RV12YC (or 406). Standard 440 plugs

(J-series, 3/8ʺ reach, gasket) can’t be used.

JUST BUSHEDHello Richard, Are the lower control arm

shafts different from A/B/C? We are talking

about the ’60-’70s models. Is the bushing

the same on all models or they different

between A-, B-Body and a C-body was the

shafts bigger on the C versus the B or are

the same. I want to put urethane bushings

on my C-body lower control arms but all I

can find are ones for a B- body.

— Don Weber II, Kansas City, KS

Don:

Virtually everything is different.

B-bodies use some components that inter-

change with As, and some with Cs, but Cs

use larger shafts and bushings than B- or

A-body cars.

CRACKED UPHi, I have a 1964 Valiant with 273 V8. The

block is cracked and I am not having much

luck finding a new/used one. I read that the

’64/’65 Valiants having a unique bolt angle

on the intake manifold. The heads and

intake from my 273 are in very good condi-

tion. My question is if I can’t find a 273 can

I use a 318 block with my 273 heads and

intake?

— Dale Gartner, Calgary, AB

Dale:

The short answer: Yes, any 318 through

’91. You can also use any 273 block, includ-

ing the ’66-ups. The longer answer: If you

are looking for any kind of power increase,

and don’t mind visual changes underhood,

there are much better ways to go. My

choice would be a ’92-’01 318, retrofitted

with a carbureted intake manifold (alumi-

num aftermarket), or, even better, a ’93 ’02

360 (same manifold swap). The 318 would

be nearly a total bolt in, for the 360 swap,

you’d need to address a minor leftside

mount issue (easy solutions available), and

be certain the external balance issue is

address (also easy, just gotta be aware).

OFF CENTERDear Master of Mopars, I read your

Rebolting Situation article in the August

issue a few days ago. I checked TDC accu-

racy on my 360 a little differently. I turned

the crank CW to the top of the piston travel

on the compression stroke of cyl. #1 using

94 MOPAR ACTION

, TECH TOPICS

The Southlake, Texas cops are after

the guys in this Nip clipper. Yours truly

enlightened them that the bad dudes

arenÕt Mopar guys!

Heads off (shown) or heads on (tool

through plug hole), a positive stop is the

surest, most accurate way to find TDC.

Ph

oto

co

urte

sy S

ou

thla

ke, Te

xas P.D

a dial indicator. I noted the timing mark on the damper read 1° ATDC. I then turned the crank CCW so the #1 piston went all the way down and back up to the top of travel. The damper mark then read 2° BTC. If this is correct I have an error of 3°. For timing this should mean that TDC will be shown as 1½° BTDC. Is all of this correct? If so, any-thing else I should be aware of? The engine is a 1975 360 with stock heads (for now), a mild cam, aftermarket intake, and a 650 carb. Will be a weekend driver.

— Mike Todd, Denver, CO

Mike:Your method is incorrect and invites

inaccuracy (not huge, but errors nonthe-less). This is because of a phenomena called “TDC dwell.” For a few degrees on either side of TDC, the piston is very close to stopped. The crank can move a few degrees either way with no appreciable piston movement. Also, if, in both CW and CCW positions, the piston is truly at TDC, the damper readings should be identical, proving the inaccuracy inherent in your methodology.

If you insist on using a dial indicator, measure with the piston a certain distance down the hole, say, 0.100ʺ or thereabouts. Check at this same dimension both before and after TDC, halfway between is true TDC. If the heads are now installed, the positive stop method can still be used either a dedicated TDC stop tool (screws into the 14mm spark plug hole), or a homemade version, fab’d from an old sparkplug.

MOPAR ACTION 95

NEED MORE TECH?Love tech Q&A? Can’t get enough?

Check it out: There’s new Q&As post-ed weekly online at www.moparaction.com! That’s the best place to submit your tech question from, too.

Heads up! You can now browse and search a super tech-article index, order back issues and the awesome 7-volume Tech Special CD-rom, at www.moparaction.com

pitman, and center link. When the ’71 B-body came along, it used these same components.

Mixing and match-ing these parts results in increased bump-steer.

RATTLE-EMr. Ehrenberg, I have disassembled a ’70

Barracuda Gran Coupe, 383, for restoration. The seller, the son of the original owner, assured me that, although the car is pretty well “used up,” it was never in an accident, and the paint all matches and seems origi-nal. Yet, when I removed the fenders, on the left side I found a homemade-looking chunk of angle iron holding the fender on and a very amateurish-looking “patch”. Is there any explanation that would make sense, other than the fact that this was collision damage repair?

— Curt JacobsonCalgary, AB

Curt:In a nutshell: Yes. 1970, and early ’71,

E-bodies suffered from a fender-attachment weakness at the cowl area, this manifested itself on cars that were driven on rough roads. If the original owner complained about rattles and flapping fenders at the dealer, they would have performed the TSB-mandated repair, which instructed them to fabricate pretty much what you describe. Curiously, this TSB never appeared in the US that I’m aware of. Perhaps, in the early ’70s, Canadian rods were rougher?

TRANS TRAVESTY?Hi Rick, Thanks for all your help in the

past. You are the only real Mopar guru I know, with your detailed knowledge of so many mechanical areas Mopar.

My question is: in what model year did

big-block V8 Chrysler cars have the first 4-speed manual trans? I do not mean the French Pont-A-Mousson rig in the 1960 Chrysler 300F.

I’m aware that Chrysler’s own A-833 4-speed came out for model year 1964. But I also know that no 1962-63 max wedge cars had a 4-speed, only the TorqueFlite auto trans or a 3-speed manual trans.

I find it interesting that Chevy was the first with a 4-speed for their big and smallblock V8s in model year 1959, followed by Pontiac in 1960 and Ford in 1961 [although with Ford, the 1961 4-speed was only available for their hi-po 390 cubic inch engines. It was only in 1962 that Ford had a 4-speed avail-able across the board.].

I’m almost willing to bet that Dodge and Plymouth cars with 383 and bigger engines did not have an available 4-speed until model year 1964. But I’ve been wrong before, and you are ’the man’ — therefore, this question.

— Phil Brown, Somersworth, NH

Phil:You lose on this one. 1963 Mopars

offered the B-W T-10 4-speed on cars with 383 cu. in. and smaller engines.

96 MOPAR ACTION

, RESTO TOPICSContinued from page 96

The February 2015 Issue Of

ON SALEOCTOBER 21, 2015

Early E-bodies, when driven on

rough roads, were subject to upper

fender attachment point failures (at the cowl), reinforcement

for which was out-lined in a Canadian TSB. This involved

reinforcing the OEM bracket and fabricat-

ing a second one farther inboard.

MOPAR ACTION 97

Cool Stuff Edited By Phil DePages

SUPER SUPERCHARGERKenne Bell, the leader in late model Hemi supercharger kits, has come out with the industry’s largest displace-ment, most powerful Twin Screw Kit. Most supercharger kit manufacturers and OEMs use the same low-cost small 2.3L 4x4 lobe rotors for superchargers. By comparison, the popular higher horsepower Kenne Bell Mammoth Kits all use the larger displacement/higher horsepower 2.8, 3.6, 4.2 Twin Screw with the more efficient 4x6 lobe rotors. Dodge also chose the Twin Screw for their new 2015 Challenger SRT8 Hellcat, the first Musclecar – except for the infamous Ford GT – to step up to the more efficient Twin Screw.

KB’s new BIGUN is designed to take over where the popular Kenne Bell Mammoth Kits leave off. The blower is designed for maximum horsepower competition Hemis and supports 1200-2000+ HP. It includes the 2350 cfm (168mm) BIGUN inlet system vs. the 777 cfm (81mm) stock Dodge part. The huge unrestricted rear inlet design allows high pressure cool dense air to be pulled from the cowl area like they use in NASCAR and were popular on many of highly desirable muscle cars of the golden era. Like all Kenne Bell superchargers, the 100% billet 4.7LC supercharger features exclusive Patented Liquid Cooling and Seal Pressure Equalizer for a cooler air charge, higher RPM and more HP. Also new is the case injection port which allows for the injection of alcohol, water and nitrous for additional air charge cooling. For more information on the BIGUN, check out the Kenne Bell Superchargers website www.kennebell.net or call 909-941-0985.

TWO MASTERSStrange Engineering now offers two different bore size master cylinders that can be mounted either on the fire-wall, like most OEM configu-rations, or to the frame rail via the side mounting holes that are cast into the body. The Strange dual inline master cylinder is ideal for vehicles requiring four wheel braking. The 1.032ʺ bore master cylinder (B3360) is recommended for vehicles using OEM brakes, or, a combi-nation of 4-piston rear brakes and single-piston/two-piston front brakes. The

1.125ʺ bore master cylinder (B3359) will allow optimum volume and pressure for vehicles using 4-piston cali-pers on the front and rear.

Rebuild kits and services are available for the Strange dual inline style master cylinders. Strange Engineer-ing offers adjustable pro-portioning valves, residual

valves, and pressure test gauges to optimize your brake system. For more information visit www.strangeeng.net or call 847.663.1701.

END GAMEMetro Moulded Parts, Inc. has revealed their new Door End Cap Filler Seals for 1975 to 1979 Chrysler 2-door

B-body models. Produced in the USA from soft but durable closed-cell EPDM sponge rubber, these seals are designed for long-lasting

service in your car. And they have galvanized steel cores, for firm, rust-resistant perfor-mance. These “Gold Series” seals are backed by Metro’s 15-year full replacement guarantee. Applications: Chrysler Cordoba (S, 300); Dodge Coronet (Custom, Brougham) / Charger (SE) / Monaco (Brougham, Special) / Magnum XE; and Plymouth Fury (Custom, Sport) / ’75 Road Runner. For more info, visit www.metrommp.com or call (800) 878-2237. Ask about part number ALP 7017.

BILLET OIL FILTERSLAT Professional Series high perfor-mance oil filters are designed for Top Fuel and Pro-Stock engines requiring extremely high oil flow volume and immediate access for purity examina-tion. The unique LAT filters are equipped with a 35 micron, “Dutch Weave” filter element that is easily removed for inspection, cleaning and long life. Additionally a high temperature magnet captures engine destroying metal particles and other contaminants. Filter bodies are machined from 6061 billet aluminum and fit with a quick release, spring loaded pin for quick removal of the canister body and access to the element and magnet. LAT filters are

designed to operate without a bypass system so that 100% of the oil is filtered prior to recirculation through the engine. Contact LAT direct at 714-585-3247, on-line at www.latracingoils.com.

98 MOPAR ACTION

440 Source, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Advertising Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

Aerospace Components . . . . . . . . . . .53

Antique Auto Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

AR Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

ATI Performance Products . . . . . . . . .69

Auto Body Specialities . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Auto Metal Direct/AMD . . . . . . Cover # 4

B/E & A Restoration Parts . . . . . . . . . .15

Brewer’s Performance . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Brown & Miller Racing Solutions . . . . .82

DRC Race Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

DTS—Drive Train Specialists . . . . . . .52

Edelbrock Performance, Inc. . . . . . . . .47

Extreme Mopar Sportswear . . . . . . . . .58

Fairfield Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep . . . . . .83

Firm Feel, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Goethe Enterprises, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .75

Graphic Express, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Harbor Freight Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

HotwireAuto.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Hughes Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Indy Cylinder Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Inline Tube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

ISC Racers Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Kenne Bell Racing, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Layson’s Restoration, Inc. . . . . . . . . . .39

Legendary Auto Interiors . . . . . . . . . . .49

Liberty Classics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

March Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Master Power Brakes, Inc. . . . . . . . . .51

Mega Mopar Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Mega Mopar Race / Bakersfield, CA . .31

Mopar Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Moparaction.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Mr. G’s Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Muscle Motors, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Passon Performance Transmissions . .32

PEAK Antifreeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Phoenix Graphix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

PST, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover # 3

Ratech, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Rock Auto, LLC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Schumacher Creative Services . . . . . .41

Schumacher Electric/DSR . . . . . . . . . .61

SMR Transmissions/Converters . . . . . .81

Specialty Fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Springs ’n Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Stephen’s Performance . . . . . . . . . . .53

Strange Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Summit Racing Equipment . . . . . . . . .13

Superior Design Concepts, Inc. . . . . . .29

System One Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

The Right Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Tony’s Mopar Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Tube Tech, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Turbo Action Transmissions . . . . . . . . .49

We Find Parts.com/Cars.com . . . . . . .43

Wheel Vintiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Year One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover # 2

MOPAR ACTION December 2014 Advertising Index

moparm action - december 2014 usa

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