Old Race 340 Teardown

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No .. it was what Glidden ran on his W2. Only available for Chevy small & big blocks and Mopar W2s.

The reason I said that was because everything else on that engine is cutting edge Mopar for the era. It may be class rules prohibitted tunnel rams ??? Can't say ... Or his builder just preferred the Strip Dominator.
 
mbaird said:
No .. it was what Glidden ran on his W2. Only available for Chevy small & big blocks and Mopar W2s.

The reason I said that was because everything else on that engine is cutting edge Mopar for the era. It may be class rules prohibitted tunnel rams ??? Can't say ... Or his builder just preferred the Strip Dominator.
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Wow, thanks, I didn't know. Google told me the rest. But I was mistaken about his class, it was super gas. Don't know what those rules said in 1980. But it may also have been a left over piece from the Valiant, which he also ran as a 340 with a Paxton supercharger in the 11.80 bracket. The reason I think that might be the case is the doublers welded into the mounting flanges of this Strip Dominator. Would there be any other reason to do that?
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Rat Bastid said:
So he we be better off selling the X block and starting over with a production block? I hope he doesn’t do that. So far, all I see that needs to be changed is the cam and pistons and rods. I would probably throw a 4 or 4.125 crank in it while I was in there and run it. My quick calculation on cost to do the crank kit is 2300 dollars. That takes care of the pistons and all of that. A cam is 400 or 500 dollars. I figure 300 dollars to balance the crank. That’s under 3500 dollars and he keeps the X block and the heads and valve gear. It’s pretty hard to replace that stuff.
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Now that I see you're possibly using basic pieces for a different type of race engine, you absolutely want to keep what you can! Again, good luck with build.
 
That duster ran super gas class, not super stock
Saw it many times in Vegas running the southern cal super gas series. Very nice car and talked to the driver too.
 
One thing I see different on the 810 castings from mine is the dual mounting holes for exhaust flanges, mine only has the wide spread holes.Can you show the adapter plates for the headders please ?
 
70aarcuda said:
That duster ran super gas class, not super stock
Saw it many times in Vegas running the southern cal super gas series. Very nice car and talked to the driver too.
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Cool! Do you remember if it was Jim Meyer or Bob Harris at that time? I know Bob raced at Las Vegas cause I have some of his timing slips but probably Jim Meyer did also before he sold the car to Bob. You are absolutely right about it being Super Gas class. That's what happens when I write things from memory!
 
I think OP is refering to the brackets welded in between the runners.
 
mbaird said:
Not sure what the "Doublers " are for .
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I guess it's hard to see in the photo but there's and extra 1/4" plate of aluminum welded on top of the original mounting flange to the heads so that each bolt passes through a double thickness of aluminum. The mounting flanges are about 1/2" thick now. I just wasn't sure if that was common practice.
 
Those are so they could port match those huge ports without breaking thru .

At second glance I don't think so ... maybe that was an LA manifold converted to W2 bolt pattern ?
Odd...
 
Great piece... loved taking apart my 1990's vintage dirt motor and finding a Mopar billet crank, ported W-2's, etc. The new to me 340 block I picked up recently was already tubed in the right lifter bore, modded oil passages, etc. Neat stuff.
 
mbaird said:
Show a pic of the intake flange.
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See how there's an extra thickness of plate welded on top of the original cast flange, under the bolts? It looks like it's meant to stiffen the whole flange. I thought the same thing about port matching the W2 ports but since the manifold was specific to the W2 (as shown in the original Holley box picture) I am not sure that would be necessary.

I think this manifold is a carry-over from his 340 that was in the Valiant, which had a Paxton supercharger. Maybe it was insurance that there was enough clamping pressure to keep from blowing out the gasket? I know he was developing enough pressure to crush brass floats. The carb was inside a pressure box (on the Valiant, not the Duster, which was always normally aspirated).
 
I believe the reason why the doubler plates were welded on was they had to cut so much OFF the manifold to get it to fit that it looks very thin in some areas. Is anyone else seeing this ?
 
If it was an original 340 manifold the bolt holes would have been closer together than the W2. Holley did make a W2 Strip Dominator starting in the late 70s. Seems improbable that after sparing no expense on the rest of the engine he would go cheap on the intake. Probably only 110$ back then ?
 
EdsWelding said:
I believe the reason why the doubler plates were welded on was they had to cut so much OFF the manifold to get it to fit that it looks very thin in some areas. Is anyone else seeing this ?
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That’s exactly what was done. I’m betting those pistons are .060 out of the bore. I have read about that I the NHRA stock rules. Not the same class, but you can run the piston out of the hole that far and still be legal compression wise for a 10.5:1 stocker. I would suspect they milled the decks a bunch and then did some milling of the heads and to get the manifold to fit that had to add to the flange. Very cool as I’ve never seen that before.
 
mbaird said:
If it was an original 340 manifold the bolt holes would have been closer together than the W2. Holley did make a W2 Strip Dominator starting in the late 70s. Seems improbable that after sparing no expense on the rest of the engine he would go cheap on the intake. Probably only 110$ back then ?
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Go back to post #25 - that is the box it came in. EdsWelding - I see what you're saying. Could be. I will know more after I can measure the deck height. Is there a way to tell how much could be shaved off the heads?
 
It’s some kind of custom trickery that’s for sure. I like the angle milled heads idea.
 
Rat Bastid said:
That’s exactly what was done. I’m betting those pistons are .060 out of the bore. I have read about that I the NHRA stock rules. Not the same class, but you can run the piston out of the hole that far and still be legal compression wise for a 10.5:1 stocker. I would suspect they milled the decks a bunch and then did some milling of the heads and to get the manifold to fit that had to add to the flange. Very cool as I’ve never seen that before.
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About 0.063" above the deck, as far as my dial gauge can read. OK, I am not sure what angle milling the heads is or what it is used for? Can y'all enlighten me?
 
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