jimmyray
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
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So, 2 years ago I bought a 73 Duster with 101k miles that came with the numbers matching 340 & tranny. The car had some modification to it, including a bigger cam, higher stall converter, Weiand stealth intake, Carter 750, a manual reverse VB, and 4.10 gears. However, there was no list of mods, I jsut pieced it all together. There was also plenty of rubber in the rears fender wells, indicating the car had spen some time at the track.
Since the motor was tired and smoked under full acceleration, it need to be gone through. However, I wanted more power (of course), but did not want to damage the 340 block so I picked up a 360 roller block, stroked it out, used Edel heads, and topped it with a M1 single plane, and went with a 3.73 dana.
Well, my choice of cam was a little small (236/242 .544), and the M1 may be too much for it, so I thought I would pull the Weiand off, install it, and see if it improved my 1/4 ET's. I peaked through the intake, before removal, and the intake appeared to have been gasket matched, which was a bonus, since the Edel Heads and M1 were as well. Now why had I never noticed that...
Anyhoo, I pulled the intake, and low and behold, looking into the intake port, it appears someone had been busy with a grinder some time ago. A niced blended approach, cut back and smoothed valve stem shrouds, and the bowl appears to have been cut a little as well! Well, now I had to pull the heads, and check out the cylinder wall, and the underside of the heads.
Cylinder walls were perfect, no ridge, and some valve-relieved flat top slugs filled the holes! Best I can measure with my caliper, they appear to be 0.020 overbored. The J-heads still retain the 1.88 valves, but the combustion area seems to have been polished, but it is hard to tell under all of the carbon.
A complete surprise, to be sure. I was expecting stock J-heads and worn cylinder walls. Now I'm wondering if I should have the heads gone through, put in some 2.02's, and try the iron heads to see if they work better than the Edelbrocks.
Thoughts?
Since the motor was tired and smoked under full acceleration, it need to be gone through. However, I wanted more power (of course), but did not want to damage the 340 block so I picked up a 360 roller block, stroked it out, used Edel heads, and topped it with a M1 single plane, and went with a 3.73 dana.
Well, my choice of cam was a little small (236/242 .544), and the M1 may be too much for it, so I thought I would pull the Weiand off, install it, and see if it improved my 1/4 ET's. I peaked through the intake, before removal, and the intake appeared to have been gasket matched, which was a bonus, since the Edel Heads and M1 were as well. Now why had I never noticed that...
Anyhoo, I pulled the intake, and low and behold, looking into the intake port, it appears someone had been busy with a grinder some time ago. A niced blended approach, cut back and smoothed valve stem shrouds, and the bowl appears to have been cut a little as well! Well, now I had to pull the heads, and check out the cylinder wall, and the underside of the heads.
Cylinder walls were perfect, no ridge, and some valve-relieved flat top slugs filled the holes! Best I can measure with my caliper, they appear to be 0.020 overbored. The J-heads still retain the 1.88 valves, but the combustion area seems to have been polished, but it is hard to tell under all of the carbon.
A complete surprise, to be sure. I was expecting stock J-heads and worn cylinder walls. Now I'm wondering if I should have the heads gone through, put in some 2.02's, and try the iron heads to see if they work better than the Edelbrocks.
Thoughts?
