400/450 stroker....Cheap parts, lotta work.

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Dog gone it you can make me laugh!

A neighbor is coming over tomorrow to watch the engine run. Kinda interested to see his reaction as he's never see a dyno pull in person.

When I was in school, I took auto shop of course and our instructor was a super cool retired Benz technician. He had connections at Mercer University in Macon and we'd go down to the dyno room and watch pulls with him sometimes. We even were able to take a few of our own down later on. It was a lot of fun. I don't know anybody there anymore now and I wonder if they even have the dyno anymore. That kinda thing is out of vogue now unfortunately. We took a lot for granted back then. We were really fortunate to have had access to all that we did.
 
Days ago while I was changing jets on the 450 for another run a friend showed up who had never witnessed a dyno run. Had him stand just behind my left shoulder while we made the pull.

Afterwards I looked back to get his impression.

Not there...........he was twenty feet away across the shop hunched down some with big wide eyes.

"I thought it was going to blow up!"

I can relate, back in the early 80s I worked at a foreign auto shop. The owners were involved in IMSA racing and had a DATSUN sedan. I was the engine builder and we took it to a shop in our area that had a engine dyno….as the rpm went up I started backing up…good memories.
 
Days ago while I was changing jets on the 450 for another run a friend showed up who had never witnessed a dyno run. Had him stand just behind my left shoulder while we made the pull.

Afterwards I looked back to get his impression.

Not there...........he was twenty feet away across the shop hunched down some with big wide eyes.

"I thought it was going to blow up!"
I was wondering what caused the small earthquake that knocked my wife's vase off the shelf.
 
When I was in school, I took auto shop of course and our instructor was a super cool retired Benz technician. He had connections at Mercer University in Macon and we'd go down to the dyno room and watch pulls with him sometimes. We even were able to take a few of our own down later on. It was a lot of fun. I don't know anybody there anymore now and I wonder if they even have the dyno anymore. That kinda thing is out of vogue now unfortunately. We took a lot for granted back then. We were really fortunate to have had access to all that we did.

way cool , all our assbackwards schools had were wood working , and only one around here .
 
way cool , all our assbackwards schools had were wood working , and only one around here .
Wow, I just remembered that in grade school (7th & 8th grades) I took metal shop and actually made a go-kart. Drove it around the streets of Reseda, CA..........when Pop wasn't home. Yep............until he found out.

Yes computer skills are necessary, but we still greatly need construction and mechanical skills.
 
Wow, I just remembered that in grade school (7th & 8th grades) I took metal shop and actually made a go-kart. Drove it around the streets of Reseda, CA..........when Pop wasn't home. Yep............until he found out.

Yes computer skills are necessary, but we still greatly need construction and mechanical skills.
The trades in general are seriously in need of young people to replace the "old bulls" that are retiring. Too many snowflakes don't want to take a job that involves real work.
 
We're creeping up on it after we replaced the $900 dyno fuel pump that quit playing nice.

541 lb-ft @ 3,700 rpm and 533 hp @ 5,400 rpm
 
Earlier in the day I put a 1/2" open spacer under the Holley. It leaned the A/F out a little but made no appreciable horsepower difference.

The best readings of today came when I went from 38 degrees total to 39.5 degrees.

38 degrees..................39.5 degrees

528 TQ/517 HP.........542 TQ/536 HP
 
Earlier in the day I put a 1/2" open spacer under the Holley. It leaned the A/F out a little but made no appreciable horsepower difference.

The best readings of today came when I went from 38 degrees total to 39.5 degrees.

38 degrees..................39.5 degrees

528 TQ/517 HP.........542 TQ/536 HP
Interesting! A 1.5* made 14 more HP and almost 20 more torque. At what RPM are you seeing that timing come in?
 
Now will it go into the towing rig after the Ramcharger cap gets installed on the bed? Crew Cab x Club Cab x Ramcharger x 4x4.

towing rig 002.JPG
 
A few years back my son was looking at his 2011 Dodge Challenger that had less than 400 miles on it and said, "Hey, I got an idea." Two weeks later head had a twin turbo charged Challenger. Now in 2021 it has less than 4000 miles on it and he would love to get rid of it so he had some more space.

This 4x4 rig isn't something that would see neglect like the Challenger.

Because it isn't an 'Abody'..... well it isn't even 'a body'......more like a tri-body.......I'll post this and then drop it.

We have a bunch of junk stashed out in the yard. Four days ago the kid says, "Hey, I got an idea."

In four days he married a '77 4x4 Crew Cab originally a 400 2-bbl with a 4-spd manual, '76 Club Cab 4x4 360 automatic and '77 4x4 Ramcharger 318 automatic all to the Crew Cab frame. Now we need to install the 400/450 stroker or build the 500" stroker he really wants.
towing rig 002.JPG
towing rig 005.JPG
 
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A few years back my son was looking at his 2011 Dodge Challenger that had less than 400 miles on it and said, "Hey, I got an idea." Two weeks later head had a twin turbo charged Challenger. Now in 2021 it has less than 4000 miles on it and he would love to get rid of it so he had some more space.

This 4x4 rig isn't something that would see neglect like the Challenger.

Because it isn't an 'Abody'..... well it isn't even 'a body'......more like a tri-body.......I'll post this and then drop it.

We have a bunch of junk stashed out in the yard. Four days ago the kid says, "Hey, I got an idea."

In four days he married a '77 4x4 Crew Cab originally a 400 2-bbl with a 4-spd manual, '76 Club Cab 4x4 360 automatic and '77 4x4 Ramcharger 318 automatic all to the Crew Cab frame. Now we need to install the 400/450 stroker or build the 500" stroker he really wants.
View attachment 1715804497 View attachment 1715804498

very interesting , but I wonder what kind of gas mileage that will get , I wouldn`t be able to feed it !
 
I'm going to drag this one up with a question for IQ52.
How are you making the offset shims for under the rocker shafts?
Are you offset drilling them in the lathe, then cutting them to size?
 
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