strange qestion for you mopar guys, I never noticed it when i dissasembled the engine but when i dropped in the refurbished cranshaft when building my short block i noticed a iron cross, or maltese cross stamped into one of the counter weights. I have heard of chrysler stamping an iron cross into some of thier hp motors(early 60's i think) like the max wedge, but i dont know. Anyoneone know what the deal with that is?
I was told in the early 80's from a older machinist when I took motor in for cylinder boring. The motor is stamped on block tang(C440 Iron Cross X)with HP on a second line below it. C=1969. 440CI. Iron Crossed with nickle & X=.010 Oversized main journals. He said for the service duty HP engines higher nickle content was used in casting along with a beefier steel crank. He explained this in a unique way. He took a large wrench & smacked the block. walked over to another block & smacked it. Then asked if I could hear the difference? The 1st one rang & carried on, the other block was more like a thud. Kinda like the difference in sound if u drop a snap-on & a harbor freight socket. He said they used a maltese/iron cross stamp on the crank to show it was reground & during re-assembly +.010 oversize bearings had to be used to compensate the grinding. The crank from this motor is steel & it has no stamps on it. It also came out of a 4 door coronet or satelite something of the likes you wouldn't expect a HP motor to be in.
