Mopar Iron Head lovers!

[500Jon]

Hi Charger Folks,

Here's a quick rundown on a one-off pair off Bigblock Mopar Ovalport iron heads!
Unknown 'casting' and sent to the UK for development work at Weslake Engineering.
Complete 1969 440 engine with Sixpack pistons, SP crankshaft and unique 440 length 'hemi' rods.
Topped off with a Street tunnel ram with a 1050 Dominator.

Lots of miles on the engine both on the dyno and on the road.
Reputed to make in excess of 600hp, not bad for 1969 wedge motor!

Intakes are almost 2.260 and 1.810 exhausts.

[heyoldguy]

Interesting them oval ports.  

[PRH]

Any pics of the intake manifold?

Too bad they kept the open chamber.

Be interesting to see how 1969 technology compares to something like an ootb edelbrock rpm head on the flow bench.

Cool pieces for sure.

[500Jon]

Nice Port avatar there PRH!

Cleverly modified Edelbrock STR converted to form the oval runners!

[500Jon]

More STR pics.
The porting plate from Weslake had W2 440 written on it?
Where's the W1's...

[500Jon]

D-port exhausts look very much like the hemi D5.

Extra thick deck surface and taper seat plugs?
Extra cooling for the sparkplugs ala Motorhome engines of the mid-70's.

[ACUDANUT]

 One of one ? I wonder why Chrysler sent them the UK for development work at Weslake Engineering. 

[heyoldguy]

Another iron headed engine from years gone by.

Working on it...........sigh...........

[alfaitalia]

Another not so flashy iron headed engine from years gone by.

http://[url=http://s1081.photobucket.com/user/heyoldguy/media/Muscular%20Mopar%20002.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j351/heyoldguy/Muscular%20Mopar%20002.jpg[/img][/URL]

Linky ...no worky.

[heyoldguy]

Okay, try this............

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/where-did-my-son-get-his-porting-talent.372194/

[500Jon]

Not one of one, but one surviving pair of many experimental Mopar heads sent to Weslake.
Its now unknown how many OVALPORT variants there actually were?
The heads I have here are the same in essence but very different castings under scrutiny!

In 1978 the 'MOPAR PERFORMANCE' book by Larry Atherton has pages 92 and 93, on the RB 'W2'.
It clearly shows a 'closed chamber' Ovalport head with supposedly disappointing results.
If they were so good in a smallblock design, why were they so useless on the Bigblock?

Someone somewhere made the castings and I suppose after Mother Mopar tried and tested them thought, lets send them to the Limeys as they are not 'up to SNUFF'.
As well as the Ovalports they sent D-port hemi heads too...why's that?

Weslake engineering had designed and redesigned many poor head castings in the 60's and made them great!
Mopar had made many hemi variant heads and not many Bigblock heads after the glory days of max wedge.

[PRH]

I have only dyno tested an edelbrock str once.
It had a dual 4 bbl, staggered top plate, and there was a fabricated spacer plate to raise the top plate up from the base......I'm thinking it was about 1" thick.
The motor was a 446 running TRW dome pistons with rpm heads ported by Nick at Compuflow, and it had a smallish Herbert roller cam.
I ran it with the str and 2 x 600 Ede carbs, a weiand tr with the same 2 carbs, and my modified Holley SD/4500 with a 1050 on it.

I don't really remember the numbers that well, but the str was the clear loser of the 3, with the tr being the best.
I might still have some dyno sheets kicking around.
The motor was kind of an underachiever...... And this series of tests were done as the motor showed up at my door.
I think the best it made was around 565hp, with the tr........ Maybe like 20hp or so less with the str.

To me, those D shaped exhaust ports look a lot like W2 ports.

Any idea of the runner volume of the intake ports, or what they flow?

[aerolith]

Hi PRH,

The shop I was going to get the 'Weslake' heads flowed has gone outta business unfortunately.
I had arranged with another shop up North about 400 miles away, but it hardly seems worth the cost and aggro now?
I have been toying with the idea of sending the whole engine to a USA museum, probably Don Garlits.
Originally it was going to Dick Landy back in the 90's but it didn't happen for several reasons.
I had arranged with Tom Nelson in San Fernando to see Dick whilst he was still with us, but that never happened too.
The Golden era is fading fast now, so eventually they will be melted down along with all the other 'old-iron' and made into washing-machine weights...

I was talking to a KB-hemi drag-racer last weekend about me running an iron headed 'Donovan' 417ci motor and he said ''why bother''?
''If you ain't using ALI, then you is a Dinosaur''...

[ACUDANUT]

 I'd use them. 

[odcics2]

Good thread!

[odcics2]

Here's the carb that was used by Weslake for the W2 440 Program. It's an early hand made sand casting.  Has the brass boosters...

It's been reworked for 426 Nascar hemi use on a bathtub intake for the 200 MPH engine
in the #88 Daytona.  Vintage photos from the Woodward Garage taken March 1970 document it.

[kent]

Interesting read guys. Thanks.