Cross Rams and Tunnel Rams, Buddy Bar

A56 said

Based on that, I wonder what improvements should be made on the STR-12 340 cross ram if they were to be recast. Since the one that I have has never been used I would be willing to let them base the improved one off of it, and now we know why Edelbrock has pushed back on bringing them back. They didn't cast them in the first place.

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Chrysler already did that work for us. The modifications are diagrammed out in every Direct Connection Engine book (the result of hundreds of dyno pulls). At the suggestion of others, I had these mods made before I installed the STR-12 on my Dart 340 and have had nothing but good times out of it. That said, the cast tops are too weak. The original on mine was repaired three times. I found a billet one at the Mopar nats 10+ years ago - much stronger. The lid is reasonably simple so tracing it out with a CNC program and cranking out lids that solve that problem would be a breeze.

What I don't get is that Edelbrock reproduced a run of the STR manifolds for AMC 390 a few years ago. Why not an STR-12? I think that an AMC group got paid pre-orders for most of the run. I can't believe there isn't more demand for a sbm version than the AMC engines.