Help spec'ing out a new small block

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This is the R3 in my Challenger R3 48 degree,Siamese bore , 4.125 x 4 stroke 426 babbit 2 inch cam ,TTi headers ,Victor heads ,Super EFI intake ,Compstar rods ,Molnar crank ,smith bros pushrods ,Diamond 11:1 pistons ,port injection XFI Sportsman,Hughes Rockers ,Crane Ultra pro solid roller lifters, Cam Tighe cams,Head oiling through rear of heads pushed it to 9,500 RPM couple of times .
Send it in to have the lifter bores sleeved when he set it up in the Rottler mill he said the alignment was perfect & didn't bother apparently the block numbers that end in D were made towards the very end of production had all the refinements included had to take a lot out of the pushrod tunnel for the pushrods also the Victor heads are not drilled for 10 bolt they must be drilled to align with the inner bolt holes not that they are really needed,there is a pic of the Ritter engine run ok but could not get it to hold water pressure some misalignment in the cooling jacket holes have about 4,000 miles on it now
With the 2" babbit bearing cam i had a lot of problems finding a blank tighe Cams in Queensland had a few the had made.

R31.jpg


R32.jpg


Ritter.jpg
 
AUSA66 said:
This is the R3 in my Challenger R3 48 degree,Siamese bore , 4.125 x 4 stroke 426 babbit 2 inch cam ,TTi headers ,Victor heads ,Super EFI intake ,Compstar rods ,Molnar crank ,smith bros pushrods ,Diamond 11:1 pistons ,port injection XFI Sportsman,Hughes Rockers ,Crane Ultra pro solid roller lifters, Cam Tighe cams,Head oiling through rear of heads pushed it to 9,500 RPM couple of times .
Send it in to have the lifter bores sleeved when he set it up in the Rottler mill he said the alignment was perfect & didn't bother apparently the block numbers that end in D were made towards the very end of production had all the refinements included had to take a lot out of the pushrod tunnel for the pushrods also the Victor heads are not drilled for 10 bolt they must be drilled to align with the inner bolt holes not that they are really needed,there is a pic of the Ritter engine run ok but could not get it to hold water pressure some misalignment in the cooling jacket holes have about 4,000 miles on it now
With the 2" babbit bearing cam i had a lot of problems finding a blank tighe Cams in Queensland had a few the had made.
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Nice looking engine you have there.

Would you have a picture of the rear head oiling?
 
AUSA66 said:
This is the R3 in my Challenger R3 48 degree,Siamese bore , 4.125 x 4 stroke 426 babbit 2 inch cam ,TTi headers ,Victor heads ,Super EFI intake ,Compstar rods ,Molnar crank ,smith bros pushrods ,Diamond 11:1 pistons ,port injection XFI Sportsman,Hughes Rockers ,Crane Ultra pro solid roller lifters, Cam Tighe cams,Head oiling through rear of heads pushed it to 9,500 RPM couple of times .
Send it in to have the lifter bores sleeved when he set it up in the Rottler mill he said the alignment was perfect & didn't bother apparently the block numbers that end in D were made towards the very end of production had all the refinements included had to take a lot out of the pushrod tunnel for the pushrods also the Victor heads are not drilled for 10 bolt they must be drilled to align with the inner bolt holes not that they are really needed,there is a pic of the Ritter engine run ok but could not get it to hold water pressure some misalignment in the cooling jacket holes have about 4,000 miles on it now
With the 2" babbit bearing cam i had a lot of problems finding a blank tighe Cams in Queensland had a few the had made.

View attachment 1716183135

View attachment 1716183136

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This is exactly what we need; successful builds with the Ritter blocks. It sounds like this one required only normal machining processes and no major issues. Thanks for posting it.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Nice looking engine you have there.

Would you have a picture of the rear head oiling?
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i drilled into the last oil post on both sides then tapped a 1/8 npt into the oil ,tapped out the inner of the elbow to 1/4 drilled 2 grubscrews to .040 thou loctited into the hole took a bit started at 1/8" & worked my way down connected a T piece to the rear oil port ,Iused the front oil port to monitor oil pressure see below giving a test run with carby .1st 1 is R3 2nd is Kent Ritter



IMG_1210.JPG
 
Nice! I don’t know what a grub screw is.
We had a fella here some time back do that modification.
You drilled down the rear rocker shaft stand and opened it up?
Thanks
 
Bill here is a picture of the block I was trying to pm you. It doesn't say it's sold when you go to the link.

Screenshot_20231227_081841_Facebook.jpg
 
Know that a 9.2 deck uses a special timing cover.
& intake.
image.jpg
 
This is why I created this thread. The more I looked at these parts, the more I realized how different they are. Thanks guys. I feel more confident knowing what to look for.
 
Yea man! I’d hate to see you jump into a money pit that you didn’t know was going to happen and we all here are thinking your OK with it.

IMO, a Ritter block is probably what you really want know it or not. I say this because it’s a new HD casting you order to your specs so there’s no surprises and such things. Granted, there pricey and require a bunch of work as stated and also noted not really any more or less than brand C or F. It’s just a good bit to bite off of for most and even more so if your not racing and trying to make a crap ton of power where these blocks are suited for.

I knew a few guys that purchased the MP race blocks and made a whooping 400,450 hp because they said they needed it. I just held my breath, turned away and rolled my eyes. You just can’t people something’s sometimes. Let them spend away. There happy.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Yea man! I’d hate to see you jump into a money pit that you didn’t know was going to happen and we all here are thinking your OK with it.

IMO, a Ritter block is probably what you really want know it or not. I say this because it’s a new HD casting you order to your specs so there’s no surprises and such things. Granted, there pricey and require a bunch of work as stated and also noted not really any more or less than brand C or F. It’s just a good bit to bite off of for most and even more so if your not racing and trying to make a crap ton of power where these blocks are suited for.

I knew a few guys that purchased the MP race blocks and made a whooping 400,450 hp because they said they needed it. I just held my breath, turned away and rolled my eyes. You just can’t people something’s sometimes. Let them spend away. There happy.
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Funny this came up. Kent Ritter called me back half an hour ago. He is going to look at some stuff for me and let me know what he has I may need. Or not.

Anyhoo, we started talking about his blocks (again) and he says right now his blocks will take a 60 MM cam bearing (!!) and that’s what he is suggesting people go with.

And he has cam cores for the 48 degree blocks with the 60 MM bearings and a 4/7 swap. I didn’t get the actual price of the core, but he says he has them and they don’t cost more than any other core.

So that’s good news.
 
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My AMX runs 9.38 @ 144 mph. I believe that I can get 9.20's out of it. My engine specs are in the 9 second tread section. Rod Bloomer has the sister engine to mine for sale right now. Some of these engine combo's that people are recommending will cost well over 20k to build. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you can afford it. I always over build things on my braket car as well. Good luck with your build. I look forward to seeing and hearing about build.
 
Bobzilla said:
This is exactly what we need; successful builds with the Ritter blocks. It sounds like this one required only normal machining processes and no major issues. Thanks for posting it.
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I think you interpreted that incorrectly. he is running an R3 due to the ritter being a pile of scrap iron from core shift.
 
I know I’ll get a ❌ for this but maybe I’ll go big block with this engine my friend is selling locally…. lol

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I’ll follow suite since it’s a small block thread.

Now where’s the rope and tree?????

LMAO
 
-Boosted- said:
lol, I'm gonna end up with more red X's from this thread than I have received since joining the forum!
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Yeah, but they will all be in jest!

I’m enjoying your questioning of all alternatives and the responses from the knowledge base here. Many of the questions you’ve proposed are questions that I’ve had myself, but haven’t figured out how to group them in a coherent post! Blame it on Pittsburgh public education :p
 
We built our R3/W8 as the curtain was closing on most of this stuff. Actually ordered the block at work and was $2k…. That ship has sailed. Now you‘re faced with hunting one down and hoping you know what you’re looking at or is honestly presented as what it is. Then if you hurt it you’re stuck on the island of unavailability. Iirc we have 16k into the build…. and that was 2012. 2k block, 4K top end (W8 heads, jesel rockers, 598 intake), Molnar 4” crank, Molnar 6” rod, Crane cam (which slowed the build 4mos…. no cores at the time). Weber belt drive, Smith Engineering water pump spacers. Keep in mind I also had this mill built…. No hands on. While I did build my old big block, for the investment at hand I chose to have a pro take this on. While we have the parts with 1k hp potential, Brian at IMM chose a path for me that has resulted in a fairly quick, fun low maint combo. We’re only coming up on 300 passes after all these years. We really haven’t “raced” hard since 2016, and even then was only like 116 passes. Just an expensive hobby.
 
-Boosted- said:
I know I’ll get a ❌ for this but maybe I’ll go big block with this engine my friend is selling locally…. lol

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NOTHING wrong with a good big block! But again you'll want to go with an aftermarket block either way. Somewhere in the beginning of this thread you mentioned weight and it seemed like a low estimate IIRC? You can review "A-body's" blue duster to get a reasonable idea where things could be given a similar approach. All that said you'll want to target 800HP minimum which is pretty easy anymore either big or small block.
 
Turbosmblk said:
I think you interpreted that incorrectly. he is running an R3 due to the ritter being a pile of scrap iron from core shift.
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Sadly core shift affects all blocks. I got lucky my Ritter blocks hold fine, course had to drill out the cooling passages myself into the deck to match the magnum head passages.
 
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