RAMM
Well-Known Member
Just like the title says I'm just finishing up some winter warranty work on a stock stroke hi-perf 360. A little background first. This was an engine I built last summer for a customer, a young guy with a '73 Duster and a very tired 340 under the hood. He wanted a 500 hp small block and at first wanted a stroker but the budget said otherwise. In my experience a stroker bottom end adds anywhere from $1500.00-$2500.00 to any type of small block build. Add to that the cylinder heads that you really need to do justice to the cubes and it just becomes a lose-lose situation IMO. So what I did was build a nice solid 360 bottom end (Magnum block) with Icon flat tops, stock crank ground 10/10 and put the money where it counts--cam and induction. In went a custom Comp hydro-roller 242/244 108 .640" and on went EQ Magnum heads with what I would call a stage II port job. In the interest of keeping his stock hood an RPM Air-Gap went on top and a Holley 650 hp went on top of that. Now it's important to note that I never guaranteed that I would get him his "magical" 500 hp mark, but I did say I would get him close AND keep it civil. Dyno day comes in July and after a handful of pulls the engine is running really nicely and he has a REAL 475 ft/lb and 478 hp @ 6200rpm. I can tell he's bummed but I assure him that it will be more than enough for him for a long time. He takes it home and takes the car and the engine to some Mopar installation "guru" where the car sits in purgatory until late September. A week after he takes delivery of it he calls me up and says it smokes from the breathers like "I'm doing a burnout". I scratch my head and the only reasonable diagnosis I can come up with is a pushed head gasket. I tell him to bring it in and I'll fix it. He brings it in and I pop the intake off and take the heads off without touching the distributor--I love Mopars for that. Sure enough the head gasket is gone between 3 and 5. He claims he did nothing wrong of course and I ask if the timing was played with. He says no the distributor was not touched--I always make a mark on the housing and block when I find best timing and I can clearly see that it is more advanced then where I left it @ 35 degrees.
Now he says I can take as long as I want as he needs it for the spring so while I have the heads off I take this chance to improve them with some of the things I learned while doing the EQ's for my EMC 2011 360. Well there is a lot more to this story but I had the chance to dyno it today and I am impressed with these heads to say the least. Like I said earlier I did not touch the distributor from when I received it back--I fired it up and it ran real choppy and rough and when opening the throttle just a bit it seemed to labor and fight itself. Out comes the timing gun and guess what? I stopped reading it @ 65 degrees total--and that was not all in! I twist it back to my marks and the guns says 35 degrees!! Who knew?? The net result was 470 ft/lbs and 501hp @ 6200 rpm. You guys are the first to know, and did I mention that all I am charging him for are the Cometic head gaskets and the intake gaskets---Nothing else!! Oh I also forgot to mention that this kid takes every opportunity to trash me on Facebook. So now I'm a little worried now that I have put in gaskets that WON'T act like a fuse--I guess I'll hear about it when rods and pistons start flying. Thanks for the therapy--just thought you'd like the results--I do. J.Rob
View attachment DSC01876.JPG
Now he says I can take as long as I want as he needs it for the spring so while I have the heads off I take this chance to improve them with some of the things I learned while doing the EQ's for my EMC 2011 360. Well there is a lot more to this story but I had the chance to dyno it today and I am impressed with these heads to say the least. Like I said earlier I did not touch the distributor from when I received it back--I fired it up and it ran real choppy and rough and when opening the throttle just a bit it seemed to labor and fight itself. Out comes the timing gun and guess what? I stopped reading it @ 65 degrees total--and that was not all in! I twist it back to my marks and the guns says 35 degrees!! Who knew?? The net result was 470 ft/lbs and 501hp @ 6200 rpm. You guys are the first to know, and did I mention that all I am charging him for are the Cometic head gaskets and the intake gaskets---Nothing else!! Oh I also forgot to mention that this kid takes every opportunity to trash me on Facebook. So now I'm a little worried now that I have put in gaskets that WON'T act like a fuse--I guess I'll hear about it when rods and pistons start flying. Thanks for the therapy--just thought you'd like the results--I do. J.Rob
View attachment DSC01876.JPG
