Block Braces

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Moparmonster

Moparmonster

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For a number of years, I ran Jim's Home for Wayward Chrysler Products. Every time someone locally had an unwanted or damaged engine, transmission, or axle, it ended up at my house. Sometimes, those things were still in the vehicles and had to be separated. I took everything apart and saved or sold what was salvageable and then scrapped what was not.

That all said, only once have I seen these, braces between the engine and transmission. As I recall, they came from a B200 Dodge Tradesman van with a 360/727 drivetrain that I parted solely for the engine and transmission.

Is there any real benefit to these for performance or towing applications?

20220318_210948.jpg
 
They are on my stock 67 273

My assumption is they would not have been on if they did not serve a purpose. Every penny saved is revenue to the company
 
both my 65's had these and even the 67 6 and 904 I got in trade of a 318 had them. Thats a lot of bell housing hanging under the LA pan rail, they dont weigh much. I think I ditched them only for headers. Heck I been tripping on 3 of them in the garage for 15 years.
 
pishta said:
both my 65's had these and even the 67 6 and 904 I got in trade of a 318 had them. Thats a lot of bell housing hanging under the LA pan rail, they dont weigh much. I think I ditched them only for headers. Heck I been tripping on 3 of them in the garage for 15 years.
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I'm thinking that I'm gonna use them, yes.

I assume that they'll work on my 340, right?
 
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Sure. Probably bolstered the AL bellhousing strength. I think every LA I had has the bolt bosses still for them
 
I would use them if you have them & the don't interfere with your headers. Like Dana67Dart said, the factory would not have put them there if they did not serve a purpose.
 
They were on my 340 and 318 both 68 fastbacks. I use them.
 
They were on the '69 340 Swinger I had back in the early '70s. Got rid of them when I installed headers and never had an issue after they were gone.
 
Over engineered junk that was used until they ran out of them. They are just in the way. I have never used them.

FWIW, lots of junk gets stuck on these cars because some engineer right out of college thought his book education was better than learning in the field so Crap like that happens. Want another example?

The “drip tab”. What a joke. Does nothing. But they used them.

The “oil slinger”. See above.

The bolt with the hole in it for the cam retainer plate on the small block. It does absolutely positively nothing. But guys loose sleep not using it. A 5 minute study of what hole it goes in and what it does would show it’s just useless.

That’s just a few quick examples of junk that gets stuck on these cars and such because someone wanted to fix a problem that wasn’t.

If you ever get the chance, read Yunick’s engine book where he talks about moving the rings up on the pistons. A classic example of the text book and the real world clashing, and the text book lost.
 
Most every small block I have seen had them. Most people yank them and throw them away. As long as they are not causing interference issues I leave them on. Cant hurt right?
 
Moparmonster said:
For a number of years, I ran Jim's Home for Wayward Chrysler Products. Every time someone locally had an unwanted or damaged engine, transmission, or axle, it ended up at my house. Sometimes, those things were still in the vehicles and had to be separated. I took everything apart and saved or sold what was salvageable and then scrapped what was not.

That all said, only once have I seen these, braces between the engine and transmission. As I recall, they came from a B200 Dodge Tradesman van with a 360/727 drivetrain that I parted solely for the engine and transmission.

Is there any real benefit to these for performance or towing applications?

View attachment 1715891803
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Practically every mopar that I've ever had had those braces.
 
Rat Bastid said:
Over engineered junk that was used until they ran out of them. They are just in the way. I have never used them.

FWIW, lots of junk gets stuck on these cars because some engineer right out of college thought his book education was better than learning in the field so Crap like that happens. Want another example?

The “drip tab”. What a joke. Does nothing. But they used them.

The “oil slinger”. See above.

The bolt with the hole in it for the cam retainer plate on the small block. It does absolutely positively nothing. But guys loose sleep not using it. A 5 minute study of what hole it goes in and what it does would show it’s just useless.

That’s just a few quick examples of junk that gets stuck on these cars and such because someone wanted to fix a problem that wasn’t.

If you ever get the chance, read Yunick’s engine book where he talks about moving the rings up on the pistons. A classic example of the text book and the real world clashing, and the text book lost.
Click to expand...
There's more useless junk on these newer vehicle's than ever before, phone, computer jacks, etc.
 
MoparMike1974 said:
Most every small block I have seen had them. Most people yank them and throw them away. As long as they are not causing interference issues I leave them on. Cant hurt right?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can run them if you want. They certainly don’t hurt anything.
 
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