Sooner or later, your Mopar's...
Sooner or later, your Mopar's engine will need a rebuild. Our '67 R/T's 440 has given 17 years of service and was driven to and from many events, strip tests, and bracket races.
If you've been driving, and quite possibly racing your Mopar, you'll eventually need to refresh your motor or even replace it with a more powerful propulsion device. Most Moparites tend to run their motors on the aggressive side. This adventurous behavior will, at some point, leave your motor tired with its tongue hanging out.
The faithful 440 in our '67 R/T has seen its share of beatings since a rebuild and balance job sometime in 1986. It has accumulated over 40,000 street miles and logged somewhere on the far side of 600 quarter-mile blasts. This well-abused wedge was competing back in the '80s at the Supercar Showdown and the Muscle Car Review Nationals. From 1996 to 2001, this same motor did some bracket racing and was strip-testing performance parts. Keep in mind this motor's longevity can be attributed to frequent servicing and the fact it never exceeded 6,400 rpm. Yes, this engine still performed well, but it had excessive blow-by and oil consumption. It was time to replace the old warrior-a time bomb that could explode at any given moment.
We loaded up the truck and...
We loaded up the truck and relocated the 440 to RBRE. Next, it was torn down to the bare block for cleanup in the hot tank. At RBRE, Magnafluxing is performed on all blocks, new and old. This ensures the block is free of cracks and damage before the work begins. Our RB block passed the Magnaflux test and was ready for its buildup.
We wanted a dependable motor with more power and decided to give Ray Barton Racing Engines in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, a call. RBRE has been building record-setting Super Stock Hemi engines for years, giving the same attention to detail on their street engines.
Our original game plan was to order a new RBRE balanced and blueprinted 440 with Edelbrock heads. RBRE's 440 and 500-inch wedge street/strip motors come complete, from intake to oil pan. Ray suggested we step up to the big arm wedge-500 cubic inches-because of the R/T's portly 4,000 pounds. RBRE normally utilizes the Mopar Performance 4.15-inch crank with its own rods but gave us the nod to try an Eagle crank along with Eagle's H-beam steel rods. RBRE fully inspects all cranks and rods for straightness, cracks, hardness, stroke, and balance. Instead of using the R/T's engine block or one of Barton's cores, we happened to have a good standard bore '70 block-a 9-8-69 casting. Before the fun began, the block was brought to RBRE, stripped bare, and cleaned and Magnafluxed to ensure it was free of cracks and damage.
In our next installment, this long-armed, E-headed, wild street wedge will see test duty on Barton's new DTS engine dyno. Following dyno testing, we'll drop it in the R/T-can't wait to feel the power!
Check out next month, when we put the Long Arm Wedge on the Dyno. We don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet, but would you believe we got over . . . ouch, OK, Randy, I'll shut up.
The deck heights and angles...
The deck heights and angles were corrected for precise block geometry before lifter-bore machining. Here, the lifter bores were indexed with the block on a special jig. Each lifter bore will be centered and the angle corrected for accurate lifter geometry. After the new lifter-bore bushings were installed, they were checked and honed for size.
Stroker motors need clearance...
Stroker motors need clearance notches ground into the bottom end of the cylinder bores to be certain the connecting rods have ample clearance during their travel. Pro-Gram Billet steel main caps were installed with ARP studs, and then the block was align-honed to ensure a free-spinning crankshaft. Ray recommends Pro-Gram caps for motors making over 575 hp.
Before balancing begins, the...
Before balancing begins, the crankshaft must pass a series of inspections in these areas: Magnaflux, hardness, straightness, and stroke consistency. Our six-bolt Eagle crank passed all inspections. The crank was then balanced by drilling lightening holes at strategic locations in the counterweights. Fortunately, expensive Mallory metal was not needed to balance the Eagle crank.
The JE pistons and pins are...
The JE pistons and pins are weight-matched to within 1/2 gram of each other box stock. The same can be said for the Eagle H-beam rods. The .030-over JE piston, pin, and Eagle rod combination was 446 grams lighter than the stock piston, pin, and rod. The balanced and lighter reciprocating assembly was stronger, would rev-up faster, and make more power than the stock parts.
Here is the boring bar with...
Here is the boring bar with its boring plate-jig setup. This is something you don't see at most engine shops. After the deck heights were corrected, the block was set up for boring with the deck plate. This indexed and centered all the bores exactly where they should be.
The boring machine's fingers...
The boring machine's fingers aligned themselves with the deck plate so the machine could cut the cylinder straight and centered. The first 0.025-inch cut was made in steps. Cylinder bore indexing is a proven horsepower helper and a standard feature on a Barton motor.
The Sunnen CK-10 is one of...
The Sunnen CK-10 is one of the best honing machines in the business. Though we went .030 over in each hole, finish honing only removed the final 0.005 inch that was not removed on the boring machine. (A) Before honing the cylinders, a torque plate was installed on the block to simulate an installed cylinder head. The main caps were also installed and torqued to specification; this simulated the stress applied when the heads and crankshaft were installed. The cylinder bores were measured many times while honing to ensure each cylinder was the same size with no taper.
The piston pins were measured...
The piston pins were measured for a precise fit with the piston and the small end of the connecting rod. All the pins fit the pistons with a 0.0007-inch clearance. A fit too tight or too loose can cause catastrophic engine problems.
During mock-up assembly, we...
During mock-up assembly, we found the piston-to-rod side clearances to be too tight. Here, you can see the top right side of the rod rubbing against the inside of the piston. (Arrow)