THANKS MOPAR MUSCLE!!!

Hello everyone, I have yet to post anything since I joined. But I did write a little email to the crew here at Mopar Muscle, asking why The Canadian Young Guns were not recognized. To my surprise, instead of an email response, today my June 2009 issue showed up, and there was my email in the Bench racing section, along with a picture of my car I send in.

I wanted to thank you guys for doing that, I would have never thought I would ever get into the magazine! Customers have been comming into Dad's engine shop just shakin' with excitement holding the magazine in their hand! haha.


A little bit about Me and my car...

My name is Kenny, and I am 22 years old. I have had my 1976 Dodge Aspen since I turned 15. My parents bought it for my 15 birthday for the mighty price of $200. It was a 225 slant 6 bench car with bare bones options. With only 17 901 miles on the clock, the car was rust free. Unfortunetly, an elderly lady owned the car most of it's life, and it had been dented up a little, and filled with bondo (as I found out when I decided to paint it.)

We test drove the car once before we bought it with the slant six. That was the last time the slant 6 powered the car down the road. Once we had the car, We started on a 1970 340, 727, and an 8 3/4 conversion. I called the car "The Spare Parts Bin" because the first time around, majority of the parts were parts Dad had collected over the years. We picked away at the car after work at the my parents shop. The Dad had the 340 since 1978, and the 727 was given to me from a family friend when also raced with Dad, and the 8 3/4 was out of Dad's 1962 fury, when he went to the Dana.

At My parents shop the majority of the engines that come out, are pump gas street strokers. To get me started, we rebuilt the 340 with .040" forged pistons, stock rods and crank with ARP rod bolts. The final compression was 10.8:1. The top end was the factory "J" casting heads ported with 2.05" int. and 1.60" ext. Manley valves. Again, the camshalft was a mistery solid flat tappet cam that another family friend and racer gave to me. It turned out to be a .540/.560 lift 110 LSA 252/256 .050"(I think). This was topped off with an RPM Air-Gap intake, with an old 800dp Holley. The converter was an 8" TCS that stalled around 4000 rpm on this engine, and was not too bad for street driving. Out back was a set of 5.13's with stock guts in the b-body housing.

This set up netted a 12.32@111mph at thst strip in 5000 ft. air. It was an awesome start for me! and no one at school had a faster car  

Unfortunetly, the 340 block was not the best casting, and some perosity started to show itself in number 5 cylinder, and anti-freeze started to seep through the wall. I then went to college, got married, and had no time to mess with the car, nor any spare cash to throw at it.

This last year we were able to bolt a new/R&D power plant for the car. We started with 1969 318 block. It is bored to 4.030" (this 318 was thicker than my 340 block) and a 4.250" stroke crank, netting 434ci. It still wears the "J" casting heads for now, with a Super Victor intake, and a 1050 dominator. The valves are opened by a solid roller comp cam (.575/.575 lift, 110LSA, 262/262 @ .050") To keep things together, I drew up a custom 1/2" mild steel halo girddle that conects all 5 main caps together. This may be the biggest 318 stroker out there, I don't know! We strapped it down on our chassis dyno, and it put down 448rwhp@5900rpm. sometimes the peak power would come off at 6300rpm, the curve was one of the flatest curves we have had on the dyno. AND STUBBORN! we were very happy with the power numbers, but it seemed any tuning we threw at it, it would not respond. We tried timing from 25 deg, to 42 deg total, and changed jet sizes 10 sizes.

So we loaded the car up, and took it to the track. I still had the 5.13's in the back and a 28 tall tire. I put a 7000rpm chip in the msd box, and decided to take it easy the first pass. Of all the people I could have gotten lined up with, I got lined up with my buddy in his 401 powered '67 AMC American. When I had the 340 in the car, he was always half a car ahead of me! SO we line up, and I just held the pedal on the floor, and sat on the limiter for the last 300 feet, but I beat him. haha. The car went 11.42@112mph. Long story short, I fender raced all day with an 11.65 dial in (no roll bar) once I got knocked out, it was fairly late, and there were only a few cars left. So I didn't even shut off my car, I just reached down, pulled the 7000rpm chip out of the box, and went for a test and tune. I ran an 11.42 again at 117mph, shifting at 7000rpm. I came back around, no one stopped me for having a bar in the car, so I lined up again. Shifted the car at 6500rpm, and ran an 11.18@118mph. turning the mighty little "318" to 7400rpm at the big end of the track. We decided that was a good place to stop, not having a bar in the car.

So this year, I am saving up for a 10-point cage, and a set of 4.10 gears. and gunning for the 10's!

 
434ci. "318" N/A Small Block. Street Driven Pump Gas Racin'

awesome combo you have there- i didnt realize you could bore the early LA 318's so far...nice tidbit to find out.

dig the Aspen build as well- you dont see near as many of them it seems.  


"I didn't get where I am today worrying about how I'd feel tomorrow..." - Ron White

I own a 1970 coronet 440 model with a 318 motor, my question is how do I know if its a LA engine. Thanks 70coroneter  

as long as it's the stock engine, it should be the LA version of the small block, although i dont know if your block would be as thick as his. if i remember right, the Poly 318 was phased out in '66- anyone care to confirm or correct?  


"I didn't get where I am today worrying about how I'd feel tomorrow..." - Ron White

Thanks, also what does LA stand for.  

i honestly dont remember, but im pretty sure the polys were A engines, and the revised (273/318/340/360) were called LA's for whatever reason.  


"I didn't get where I am today worrying about how I'd feel tomorrow..." - Ron White

I believe you are correct. the small block family is the "A" engines, where as the big blocks are "B" engines. the "A" engines, poly headed engines, were replaced by the "LA" (possibly standing for "late model A engine"???) I think the castings are fairly similar, and the big difference is in the cylinder head design. The "LA" engines still have the 59 deg lifter angle that they used on the "A" engines. If you order a race block, such as an R3 block, or an XR1 block, you can order them with the stock 59 deg lifter, or the 48 deg. which fixes the goofy stock "LA" push rod angle.  
434ci. "318" N/A Small Block. Street Driven Pump Gas Racin'

Nice to hear a great story, but better to hear one from someone who didn;t sell his car after getting married like so many shoulda/coulda stories I hear. I enjoyed your story a lot, Thanks  
<--Stroke Me, Stroke Me-->

Thanks! I don't think I will ever sell my car. In fact, my wife tells me I am not allowed to sell it. haha. She comes from a family that is into cars aswell, my father in-law is a pontiac fan... we put our differances aside, and we get along great!  
434ci. "318" N/A Small Block. Street Driven Pump Gas Racin'

Nice Aspen.

BTW: LA stands for "Light A". The original poly A engine was a larger heavier engine (that's why alot of guys called them the big block 318) and replaced in 67 with the LA 318 which is smaller and lighter. The 1st LA was the 273 made in 64.