Doing the first start on a crate Hemi

[Paul G]

The Mopar club I am in has a tech session on a Saturday once a month. That was today. One of our members, Rick, is restoring a 69 RR, it was a 383 4 speed car. A while back he got a deal on a 472 crate Hemi. Last year the 4 speed was rebuilt, married to the hemi and installed in the car. Today was the day to get it started. We marked the position of the distributer, pulled it and primed the engine for a while, then put it back in. The spark plugs looked like they have been run before, but we were not sure if the break in was done or not. Fired it up and went through the break in procedure with break in oil anyway.

This thing sounded amazing. Open headers and a lumpy cam, the ground was shaking. Rick put a Holley 850 double pumper on it. The spec sheet called for 28° of timing. Prior to lighting it off, we had to mark the damper in 10° increments since no one had a dial back timing light. That would get us close.

Most of the guys like to restore, repair back to stock. They can rebuild the thermoquads, get it just right. Not me, I like to go for the performance stuff, modify and customize. I had the most experience with Holley's. So I was the chosen one to do the tuning. Set the timing a little on conservative side, a little under 28° rather over just to be safe since it is not my engine. Set the floats on the Holley, adjusted idle mixture, we got the beast to settle in to a 900 RPM idle and it ran pretty smoothly.

This engine just at idle makes the whole car vibrate. A beast puts it mildy. A blip of the throttle with the open headers, man, the sound of pure power. I can not say how exciting it was to get this engine running and tune it. The highlight of my week.  

It was an exciting day.        

[fy469rtse]

  pity you didn't film it Paul ,
Nothing like a open header big block

[BSB67]

I know the feeling, very cool.

[1974dodgecharger]

videos paul???  Come on man.....

[Paul G]

Bob took a some video. When gets them up I can link to them here.