Story of a swinger 340

[Dart Frog]

I thought I would go over a few of my favorite hot Street setups that I have ran over the last 35 years or so. I'm not a great poster like some on this form but I think this may be interesting to some . These are what most would consider to be old school builds but in their day they were hard chargers. . Number 5 : refreshed 1969 340 factory specs built and assembled by Honolulu speed shop. I believe the year was 1977.
Fresh rebuilt as cast xheads three angle valve job.
Crane fireball 300 camshaft.
Crane double springs.
Crane anti pump up lifters.
Aluminum retainers.
Some really cool stock style rocker arms. that had a dimple for the push rod enlarged.
LD 340 manifold.
AVS carburetor.
This combination was just solid throughout it was a little soft on the bottom end till I advance the camshaft four degrees and then it just kind of had it all. This was a popular combination in the late '70s add a set of 410 gears in a 4-speed and you really had something.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I have a Fireball 302 in the 400 in my 75 F250 right now. It pulls like a ***** in heat.

 

[Dart Frog]

Yeah Rusty, I still keep it wrapped in grease rags. Even an old Sprint car driver told me that cam is a good one.

 

[Dart Frog]

Number 4
Same bottom end and I didn't mention that all these combos have 1 and 5/8 headers.
This combo had
Direct connection Street hemi grind hydraulic camshaft.
Stealth weiand intake.
Holly 650 double pumper.
Dual point distributor.
Excel coil. Really I consider build 5 and 4 pretty equal.

 

[Garrett Ellison]

It's been years since I've heard of aluminum retainers. But I'm willing to bet that either build with the 4.10s and a four speed had explosive mid range power. RIP, Crane Cams. I wish we could buy parts of that quality again.

 

[Dart Frog]

It's been years since I've heard of aluminum retainers. But I'm willing to bet that either build with the 4.10s and a four speed had explosive mid range power. RIP, Crane Cams. I wish we could buy parts of that quality again.

Yes they were so very light it was like the difference between a quarter and a dime with chromoly. Kind of sketchy I guess but I will tell you that thing would wind.

 

[Dart Frog]

Number 3
After a head gasket change a deep gash was found in cylinder 8 from a broken wrist pin keeper which allowed the wrist pin to ride on the cylinder and a rebuild was in order.

A quality rebuild including a 30 overboard and stainless steel valves included in the Xhead rebuild .
KB 243 Pistons.
Chromoly rings.
Iski springs.
Chromoly retainers.
Mopar performance 509 purple camshaft.
Mopar performance electronic distributor. and Chromebox.
850 thermal quad with direct connection race manual tweaking.
M1 single plane manifold.
391 gear ratio with 25-in tires
By this time all reciprocating parts had been balanced to each other and then spun balanced. This combo was as fast as any I've ever had to that point and basically took no prisoners on the street at the time.

 

[Dart Frog]

I ran this combination for almost 15 years till I finally flatten the cam lobe just about the time they were taken zinc out of oil I don't know if it was related but it couldn't of helped.