(Engine revving)
- Dulcich and I are here pulling our 318 small block mopar
out of our 70 Dodge Challenger off-road car
because we destroyed it with
the sand.
This thing is completely ruined with sand.
So you'll see us in an upcoming episode of Roadkill Garage
fixing all that.
But I thought I would take it as an opportunity
on this Roadkill extra to give you just a little bit of
background on what the small block mopar is.
This was an engine that came out in 1964.
It was called the LA-engine.
Which is Lite A engine because there was an earlier
platform that was called just an A engine.
What's confusing though, is that there was a lot of
mopar guys who will now call this an A engine,
just really casually,
"Oh yeah, it's an A motor."
Well it's actually an LA-engine, whereas the earlier
ones were A engines, and there's not a lot of
interchange between the earlier small blocks
which would've been 63' and earlier
and these which came out in 1964,
and ran all the way through at least the late 90's
as a magnum version, right?
- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah and roughly 1992 93' they came out with what's called
a magnum engine, especially in Dodge Pickups and Durangos
and things like that.
The difference being,
it's the same basic architecture,
but the cylinder heads are a little bit different,
and they oil through the push rods
meaning that the oil comes from the camshaft
up the push rods to lubricate the rocker arms.
Whereas this engine has a rocker arm shaft
and passages in the cylinder head where the oil
comes up and fills the shaft to oil the rockers.
- Which one do you like better?
- Oh, I like the original engine better.
- Oh, me too.
- Yeah, but
- Hands down.
- There is some advantages,
like I think the edelbrock magnum head is better than
the edelbrock LA head, isn't it?
- It is marginally, yeah.
- Yeah. Just a little bit.
- Yeah.
- What's the other difference on the magnum engine?
They went to hydraulic roller cams...
- Right, but they also did hydraulic rollers
in the LA engines that were pre-magnum.
So, the big difference on that was just the magnum head
with the pedestal mounted rocker arms.
- Yep.
- And the oiling through the push rods
instead of the shafts.
- And the LA engine came in four displacements.
In 1964 it was launched at a 273
and then came the 318
which later was known as a 5.2 liter.
And then the 340 and the 360.
And the 360 was known as a 5.9 liter.
And the 273 and the 318 share the same stroke which is...
- 331 and so does the 340.
- And the 340, that's right.
And the bore of those engines is all different.
I forget what it is on the 273,
but a 318 is...
- 3.910
and the 340 is 4 inch 40,000th
And the 360 is 4 inches exactly.
- And the 360 also has a longer stroke of 3.58 inches.
And so,
- And bigger main barrings.
- Oh that's right. Well the 340 is in 73 have bigger
main barrings too.
- No.
- No?
- No.
- I thought there was a changeover where there was
two different 340s.
- Yeah they went to the cass crank but they still have
the small journal for the 318.
- Oh they did.
And that's something that hangs up a lot of people
building these engines, is you do have to know
what your main journal diameter is because it affects
the oil pan, right?
- Yeah.
The Thing you have to,
Yeah, the oil pan on the 360,
the 360 is kind of like the odd man out.
It's the only one that had the bigger stroke,
it's the only one with the bigger mains
and that had a different oil pan
because of the crescent on each end
is a different diameter.
- Different diameter because the barring diameter
is different. So that's something to know.
What else is like a bugaboo for people when they go on
rebuilding these things?
- Well, here's a good one for you.
- Huh?
- The early 273s had a different angle
on the intake manifolds than the 68' and later engines
where they revised it.
I don't know why they did that cause there was really
like mechanically no difference other than that.
- Well, the very early 273 also was available with a solid
lifter cam shaft and they came with factory adjustable
rocker arms, which I remember using on 340s
back in the day when you put a solid flat top cam on.
- That's a good one cause I've got a whole bunch of
sets of those 273 rockers saved up
when it really wasn't a cheap alternative
for adjustable rockers.
- Back then when were in like high school and stuff,
that was the trick,
I'll find a 273 in the yard with an adjustable rocker arm,
you could put a solid cam in your 340.
- There's a lot of things here.
Here's the thing that a lot of guys don't know.
- Huh?
- Is the 273,
most guys think it finished in like 67'
or 68' at the latest.
They actually had it in 69' as well.
- Oh really?
- Yeah.
- I didn't know that.
I thought that's when the 318 came in.
- My white Dart, the "don't hit the Dart" Dart,
- Yeah.
- It was a 273 car.
- Oh, okay.
- And they had both the 318 and 273 in 69'.
- The highest performance model was the 340
which came out in 1968 and then there's a variation
of the 340 which came in
T/A Challengers and AAR Cudas
in 1970
and those have a different valve train arrangement
where they move the push rod out of the port.
It's kind of like what you do on a aftermarket
port job head, right?
- Yeah, it had an offset rocker on arrangement and
it wasn't quite as much offset as the later race head, but
- Yeah, not at all.
The later race heads like W2, W5,
they're completely different, and use a different
intake manifold in the exhaust bowl.
- But the distinguishing characteristic of those motors was
3 all new two-barrels on the aluminum intake manifolds.
So basically
- 3 46 pack.
- Yeah.
- In the T/A and the AAR.
- I always wanted to have something like that,
but it was always out of my league.
- Oh, I know.
- Did you ever own one?
- Well, no. A friend had an AAR Cuda
when I was in high school and I remember riding
around in that and we crashed that thing really bad.
But that was when that car was worth like 3500 bucks.
- Yeah.
- Something like that.
As a matter of fact, here's trivia point for you,
When I was 15 years old, the very first car I went to
look at for sale was a
1970 T/A Challenger.
- Oh really?
- And the guy had just painted it,
it didn't have the stripes or anything.
And to me, that was a big bummer
because back then you couldn't buy
a reproduction tape stripe kit for a T/A Challenger
or for anything.
Like we're talking, 1982 or something, 83'.
- Right.
- And it was a four-speed car and I remember he had a four-
barrel on it and the six pack was in the trunk.
Didn't you see that a bunch when you found a six pack car
for sale? The six pack was gone
because people just got tire of fiddling with the
three carborators?
- You know, I looked at several of those things
back in the day when there were really like
cheap, undesirable, muscle cars that nobody wanted.
But even back then, they were, like you said,
in the 3500 dollar car for a nice one and
you know I was more like your 800 to 1200 dollar guy.
- That's true.
- So, it was out of my leauge.
- So, are you more of a small block guy or a big block guy
when it comes to mopars?
- You know what, I mean, I'll tell you,
I was 100 percent, you know, big block guy
through and through,
- Me too.
- I wouldn't drive anything
that didn't have a big block.
If it came with a small block,
- Throw it away.
- Yeah, I'd get a big block.
But, you know what, now I'm probably more
of a small block guy.
And there's one good reason for it.
- Stroker kits?
- That's part of it,
but even if you don't stroke them,
I mean, you can make
- RPM.
- You can make so much power with the small block
that's almost unusable on the streets.
- And they're lighter.
- Yeah. And they're lighter which I like.
- Here's a strange philosophical problem,
- Really?
- So, I think the small block is ideal for and A body,
which is like a Dart, Duster, Valiant, something like that.
- Oh I know where you're going.
- And there acceptable in an E body which is a
Baracuda or a Challenger.
They're absolutely unnacceptable in a B body.
Right?
- My 71' Satellite is a small block car.
I've got a hot 340 in there, but you know what?
- Did I just touch a nerve, is that it?
- No.
- Is that a sensitive subject for you?
- I know I feel so wrong and inadequate
having that small block in my B body.
- I know.
- No matter how much power it makes, it's just not right,
is it?
- Yep, it's not.
- Yeah.
So, I kind of retain that sentimate as far as
big blocks in a B body is the right combination.
- Yeah.
- But you know what,
- What?
- It's still better than a late model.
I mean one of these?
- Yeah.
For sure.
- So anyways, there's a little bit of history
and a little bit of philosophy and just a little bit
of tech on the engine known as the LA,
the small block mopar.
Which of course is available in Chrysler, Dodge and
Plymouth cars and Dodge trucks.
And I suppose Plymouth trucks too
cause they made Plymouth trucks in the 70's.
But that's another story for another time on
Roadkill Extra.