79 Bob Glidden Small Block Pro Stock

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Super Sleeper

Super Sleeper

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Hello - I usually post over on the Early A-Body forum but I came across this crankshaft so I felt I should ask here. I have been cleaning out my brother's home after his death last year. He was a real Mopar guy and had couple of small block race cars, a 66 Valiant and a Duster Pro Stock chassis that he ran a 340 in Super Stock back in the early '80s. So I came across this crankshaft in his shed marked "340 3.250 stroke, 2" rod journal, Bob Glidden 79 Pro Stock" so I looked up Bob Glidden's successful '79 Plymouth Arrow that did indeed run a small block.

So I'd like to understand why he would run a de-stroked small block? Anybody know about his Mopar engine program? It's an interesting piece, in any case.
 
Maybe the weight of the car was based on cubic inches.
 
Another member on this site has one of those cranks. Just a destroked crank, to suit building a smaller cube "340" I think they ran a lbs per cubic inch rule, so the smaller the displacement, the lighter the car was allowed to weigh.
 
Bunch of smart guys realized that and engine was just an air pump. If I remember right what was the cubic inch rule back then? 355 if I remember right and those engines did put out some rpm so they probably had some pretty crazy rod and piston ratios.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Bunch of smart guys realized that and engine was just an air pump. If I remember right what was the cubic inch rule back then? 355 if I remember right and those engines did put out some rpm so they probably had some pretty crazy rod and piston ratios.
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It was based on CID and weight. The lighter the car, the smaller the CID.

They all tried to stay at the 331 CID range because that was the most favorable weight break. IIRC (not in the mood to do math) a 4 inch bore and a 3.25 crank is close to 331 CID.

Ok, I did the math and with that crank and a 4.020 bore is 331 CID.
 
A friend built a 331 for his Camaro drag car. I always thought it was a 327 based engine but it was a strange combination of block, crank, 6" rods and some short pistons. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him my 273 was a 6" rod motor! LOL
I know it's a Chevy

 
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Back in the early 70’s I raced a G gas Camero which was 9 lbs per cu. in. With 265 cu. in. engine. If my memory serves me right.
 
8.60's at a buck fiddy. Has to be a small motor. Not a hemi for sure.
 
NHRA went to 500 in. engines in 1982. Destroked 396 Hemis were popular, but John Hagen was making news by setting the MPH record with a low deck big block modified to accept Hemi heads before that. Charlie Malyuke was behind the mod. Don't know off hand how small they went with that.

I believe Paul Gentilozzi got Gliddens Arrow and parts after he went back to Ford.

With a pound-per-cubic inch format, a smaller engine is more efficient. In other words, it's usually easier to make more HP per cubic inch.
 
I got pictures of that small block in the Arrow from Ontario Motorspeedway 1979......

bob had the camero covered.....looked like his just stuck his nose out on him...did not want to win by too much...aka more weight...lol

8.65 to 8.74.....
 
The original T/A’s and AR Cuba’s ran destroked 340’s as part of the class requirement. I believe this is the crank dimensions used.
 
TA rules requre 305 engines.....stroke was more like 2.96 inches..
 
Locomotion said:
NHRA went to 500 in. engines in 1982. Destroked 396 Hemis were popular, but John Hagen was making news by setting the MPH record with a low deck big block modified to accept Hemi heads before that. Charlie Malyuke was behind the mod. Don't know off hand how small they went with that.

I believe Paul Gentilozzi got Gliddens Arrow and parts after he went back to Ford.

With a pound-per-cubic inch format, a smaller engine is more efficient. In other words, it's usually easier to make more HP per cubic inch.
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The records set w/ those oddball combinations didnt last long, many were reset the next race.
I wonder if bob glidden was using nitrous back then too , he used it on most everything. His son admitted it ------------
 
famous bob said:
The records set w/ those oddball combinations didnt last long, many were reset the next race.
I wonder if bob glidden was using nitrous back then too , he used it on most everything. His son admitted it ------------
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I've never heard that. His sons used it because the NHRA said there was no way to get through tech without it being found. They proved the NHRA wrong and pointed it out after qualifying. Bob was at the same event but his car didn't have it. IIRC his son (Rusty?) was banned for life by the NHRA for doing it.
 
70aarcuda said:
TA rules requre 305 engines.....stroke was more like 2.96 inches..
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Yep, and they used a special, longer, "Hemi footprint" rod. At 6.36", people confuse them for "B" 383 rods, but they are .984" pin eyes and 2.125"-bearing big ends. I think they may have used a regular 340 piston cut down a tad, but positive deck to enter the combustion chamber of the T/A heads.
 
AMC we started out with 305 mules
then 360 blocks 4.060 bores with short stroke 4 bolt main hd blocks arrived shortly
then hd 401 blocks with 4.165>4.1875> 4.25> 4.315 bores and strokes under 2 3/4
rods connected the crank pins and pistons together
NASCAR progression was similar several versions = 427
love those small bore 273 guys me- I'd run the largest legal bore
thanks bighead
 
He got a weight break that I think they took back, and put the weight back on trying to slow him down. I’m betting he had a bigger engine later in the season. Everyone was trying to break the 8.50 barrier I watched him run I think 8.58 off the trailer, he parked it. Won the event at Martin, MI
 
12swinger said:
He got a weight break that I think they took back, and put the weight back on trying to slow him down. I’m betting he had a bigger engine later in the season. Everyone was trying to break the 8.50 barrier I watched him run I think 8.58 off the trailer, he parked it. Won the event at Martin, MI
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I think the weight break originated to favor Jenkins in the Vega chassis with a oversize 327-sounding combo, but I think Grump was less than 3.25" stroke too. When Ford adapted their Boss/Cleveland to lighter chassis (Pinto) and there was a 4dr weight break too I think (Maverick and Comet), and Chrysler dominated with Bob, the Hemi stayed outlawed and they brought 500" rules back in favor to put Chevy on top again! Bob Glidden was running the also-ran 429 Boss "Crescent" Hemi when the Dodge Boys were forced to run B1 wedge heads (and nitrous-lol). Never understood that one!!!
 
An engine is just an air pump? Hardly. An air pump is a piece of driven equipment. An engine is a driver. There is a world of difference in those two.

How many air pumps do you know that have an ignition system? A fuel system? A tuned exhaust system? How many air pumps are supporting internal combustion?

I'm gonna go enter a Dachsund in the Kentucky Derby. Dogs? Horses? They're all just four-legged animals after all.
 
A piece of information about the Glidden 1979 Engine Program.....
So before that (those) engines ended up in Glidden's Arrow, they were developed and run by Ted Flack and Howard Comstock for the RAMCHARGERS Team. They ran small blocks in their 1976 Dart Sport E-Gas car. The engines ran a multitude of cubic inches. But the most successful were 288 and 298 cubic inch versions. They would shift these things with a 5-Speed manual trans @ 10,000 rpm!!! THAT's why they destroked them. So they could run a lot of RPM. Also, less cubic inches = less required vehicle weight.
In 1978 Chrysler removed all Sponsorship Support from any Drag Racer not named Bob Glidden. That was the killing blow. Ted Flack actually had just ordered a 1979 Plymouth Arrow for the 79 Season. That would have been the next Ramchargers race car. But with sponsorship from Chrysler being gone, the money to compete just wasn't there. So the Arrow was canceled, the Dart was sold and the engines were returned to Diamond, where Flack and Comstock assisted in their development.

Those engines were then given to Bob Glidden for his 1979 Pro Stock Arrow. The rest is history!
So.... When you look at arguably the most dominate race car in pro stock history.... it secretly had RAMCHARGERS power taking it all the way to the Championship!!

(P.S. this information was given to me directly by Ted Flack himself)

dart.jpg
 
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