Lunchbox 305 cubes and Weslake W1, Garlits Crower C-500, D200 too

[aerolith]

I assume that '305 found' is REALLY found?

Had some good times at the Spring Fling and Mopars at the Strip too!
We were very surprised at the 'lack of Charger 500's' in fact none...

I had just bought my C-500 and my Limey friend bought his too, from the same guy in LA.
Then we were all staying in a hotel near Van Nuys when we had a 'wild night' with some local lads!
We managed to upset quite a few folks in the Hotel, including the staff of MCG too...

So in the morning we apologised to all concerned and got down to 'talking Mopar' to Rob Wolf and his MCG mates.
We told him some tall stories of lost and found Mopars when he asked us about our Charger 500's.
He was surprised that both our cars were from Florida and how did they get to LA?

Then he said ''he was searching for the infamous Don Garlits car and had a few leads''.
So we said jokingly, ''what if it was one of ours''?

My Limey friends car had already been restored and the restorer said it wasn't his.

My 4-speed C-500 was knee deep in a ''coat of many colours''!

Some red, some black, some pin-stripping and some other colours too...

All in all, nothing concrete but who knows, if it hasn't been found it still could be mine?

A famous car maybe, but only important 'to Rob Wolf, me' and Don Garlits lol...

[aerolith]

MCG a great Mag indeed!

[aerolith]

To think of all the engines Mother Mopar tried to build around the hemi platform.

To end up with a 305 smallblock was strange indeed.

A925 1964 twin cam hemi and the A148...

Wonder what designation the Ovalport heads got?

Me I'm happy with W1 aka 'Weslake ONE' lol'...

The valves you had 'made-up' Tim were 'stock length' 440 size.

This turned out to be a 'quarter inch short' for the Weslake heads!
I did run them like that with DC smallblock springs, but they run outta steam at 5500rpm's...

[aerolith]

OOPS, I forgot the A117 404cubes for 1966 too...

I suppose some folks liked 'em up until 1968?

These 'NON-aero' cars looks strange indeed...

Much better with a flush back window...

(Only three cars running back then in the late 60's,1,2,3)

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

MCG a great Mag indeed!

Yep. I've been a subscriber for years.
I like Mopar Action the best for their tech stuff by Rick Ehrenberg. Their stories can be a little corny at times. But I also get tired of Mopar Collectors Guide stories of "Numbers Matching/ One of a Kind" cars.
Plus,... I've been on them for years about my truck and its history and antics for almost 47 years now. And they continue to ignore the unique story there.  

Love the story about your 500's up there. ^

I haven't been to Spring Fling in a few years now. I want to go again soon. Here was the last time in April 2015...

[aerolith]

Nice picture Kurt!

It really was a great pleasure to meet Rob Wolf and his fellow Moparmen.

It was a different time back ten plus years ago with everyone wanting to 'make that find'!
But once you have 'purchased 'your dream' you have to do something with it lol...

But for 'Truck Guys' like me and you, we is more 'grounded' my mum would say?

Nice to have a dream car, but the reality is 'trucking is for life', not just for weekends...

My biggest love is the 50 or so 'drag trucks' built by mother Mopar.
1962 to 64 D100's and D200's with the infamous 426 (non hemi)...

My D200 is a 413ci-5-speed model, which will soon be a 'one of one '426 Max Wedgie'...

Lets see what MCG Rob thinks about that?

[aerolith]

There is just something about a 'crossram' or a 'bathtub'...

Painted, Polished, or Au natural...

Where is my 'time machine'

I want to go back to the SIXTIES...

CHEAP GAS AND NO SNOWFLAKES...

[KurtfromLaQuinta]

Nice truck you got there!
Yep. Those Cross Rams are cool... especially in a truck!

I like my Six Pack though. And I'm willing to bet... I put more mileage on my Six Pack than anyone else...

And Rob will continue to ignore me... even though I have a compelling story... https://www.ramchargercentral.com/threads/my-74-power-wagon-i-ordered-from-dodge-on-8-73.162259/

Sorry to hijack this forum page. Maybe we need to go somewhere else with our truck stories.  

[aerolith]

I think anyone running a Six-pack or Six-barrel, is allowed to Boast on an Aero site lol...

My Moparmate in Cali has a Six-barrel Birdie and he has given up with the set-up!

New carbs, old carbs its all the same, if you don't drive 'em everyday, you is in deep doodoo's...

I had a six-pack 69 Superbee back in the 80's and I couldn't afford to run it 'back then'...

Gas is the equivalent of £6 a gallon here now! (£1.30 a litre).

Which is $8.20 to you guys but your gallon is only 0.83 in size to our gallon.
Which probably puts it back somewhere near $6 a gallon, clear as mud...

In theory though, a Six Carb set-up is the best of both worlds!
500cfm around town and a 1000cfm everywhere else lol...

What is a 438?
underbored 440 or an overbore 426...

[aerolith]

Back to the 305 lunchbox.

As you can see from the picture it has a fairly stock looking 'dual-plane' intake.

Can this really take a 305ci small-block up to 10,000rpm's?

Was this a clever 'hoodwink' to make the other drivers/owners laugh...

look at the choices we have now...

Did they all run 'stock' bellhousings too?
Surely a 'bulletproof' bell, was more likely?

[aerolith]

I think anyone running a Six-pack or Six-barrel, is allowed to Boast on an Aero site lol...

My Moparmate in Cali has a Six-barrel Birdie and he has given up with the set-up!

New carbs, old carbs its all the same, if you don't drive 'em everyday, you is in deep doodoo's...

I had a six-pack 69 Superbee back in the 80's and I couldn't afford to run it 'back then'...

Gas is the equivalent of £6 a gallon here now! (£1.30 a litre).

Which is $8.20 to you guys but your gallon is only 0.83 in size to our gallon.
Which probably puts it back somewhere near $6 a gallon, clear as mud...

In theory though, a Six Carb set-up is the best of both worlds!
500cfm around town and a 1000cfm everywhere else lol...

What is a 438?
underbored 440 or an overbore 426...

Twin shock set-up too, just like Buddy baker's Daytona...

[odcics2]

The Rossi 305 ran an LD340 intake
with the center divider cut out.

[aerolith]

Thanks for the info Greg!

I had two LD's and sold them both, cos they is 'old hat' lol...
Who knew they could turn 10,000rpms...?

[spyder]

That's right Tim!

The stock length valves you had made were a 'TAD short' for these heads.
They are still in the heads when I took those pictures, with small-block DC valve springs...
This restricted the cam to a 0.509 purple-shaft old DC grind, OK for street but not for big HP!

I ran them in the infamous 76 Dodge Aspen at the Pod, but with little Joy, (last century).
So a few months ago I got some longer valves made up from Ford/Chev blanks.

2.250 intakes and 1.80 exhausts.
I can now run a decent sized camshaft somewhere around 0.650 lift 'roller' probably.
Got some very trick Arias 13 to 1 pistons and some nice 'h-beam' rods too.
Hard to find the 'old school' parts now for 60's Mopar 'open chamber' race engines...

Hope to make around 600hp like they were projected to make, 'back in the day'...

These pics show the valves you had made, back in the 80's I guess?
As you can see they have been run at the 'POD' but not anywhere near their full potential YET!

I assume the extra 'water passages' were developed on these castings in the late 60's?
Only ever seen some very late '440 Motorhome' heads with this type of arrangement...

One might even go as far to say ''Smog heads'' from 68 onwards...

Did anyone ever put these heads on a flow bench to get some airflow numbers ??

[aerolith]

Good question Spyder?

Many times in the past they were tested and the results are now lost, boohoo!
Was this by accident or on purpose?
The other 'closed chamber set, featured in the old 'Mopar performance' book were a failure, so the story goes.
Even the Ovalport W2's were never received that well either...

I did arrange for a few sets of Mopar Big Block heads to go onto a flowbench for comparison tests back some 20 years ago.
But life got in the way and it didn't get done...

Its not as easy as it sounds here in the UK, as this stuff just isn't done anymore...
Guys aren't porting Mopar heads and have set-ups etc.

Well saying that, I have been 're invigorated' and will be porting again!
Once my stock of Mopar IRON heads are re-invented again, I will pursue the 'numbers' once and fo ALL!!!

[spyder]

That would be great, hopefully you plan to test them "as-is" to get some comparative flow numbers to contemporary heads.

I had a conversation with Bill Hancock (about 35 years back) about the W-2 style, heart-shaped chamber big-block heads that were mentioned in Atherton's book. He intimated that the writer was mistaken and that the heads had worked really well, IIRC he mentioned it being more a matter of finance than performance that cancelled the program...

[aerolith]

Many thanx for the interest Spyder!

The guy in the UK I got the engine from was a regular visitor to the USA.
He spoke to several 'high-up' peeps in the Mopar World about Weslake engines.
(Names withheld) for now lol...

That was the early 80's and he was 'dismissed' as a 'bit of a flake', as Weslake engines were not good...

I suppose its my duty now after 40+ years to prove the 'naysayers' wrong, once and for all...

Its tricky on a budget, but where there's a will, there may be a way?

Athertons publication approx 1978?

I wonder who that GUY was porting W2 heads?

No chair and NO Cushion, they was TOUGH back then...

[aerolith]

A lot of things changed in the early 70's and Big blocks were 'devils work'...

But 50 years later folks are still using them 'gas permitting'?

Harry Weslake was seen as a HERO, here in the UK...

[spyder]

The Rossi 305 ran an LD340 intake
with the center divider cut out.

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[aerolith]

Nice find Spyder!

OLD W2 parts are supercool

That would be a great start to my 'Lunchbox build'...

Need those headers too at that price...

[aerolith]

Looks like the Speedway Museum in Nebraska has some good stuff too?

Ultra ported Smallblock heads on this engine.

After the 'Lunchbox' race the Keith Black engines ended up in drag cars and circle track cars too?

[aerolith]

Once the 'Fuel crisis' hit the World economy in 72/73, Weslake went back to its Rootes (roots) lol.

Harry Weslake was a motorcycle-man at heart and his love was Speedway!

Fed up with Jawa ruling the roost he redeveloped his own Speedway engine and won the World championship in 1974.

But in 1978 at the UK Wembley track, Jawa retook the Worlds and the 'shock was too much' and Harry unfortunately died at the Reception Party...

In a strange twist of fate the UK has become World Champions again after 30 long years...

GM aka Jawa engine now (middle pic).

But my all time favourite is the Weslake Indy engine!

Wouldn't that look supercool in a 21st Century DayCloner...

(You would have to change the covers to Dodge though)

[spyder]

Looks like the Speedway Museum in Nebraska has some good stuff too?

Ultra ported Smallblock heads on this engine.

Funny, those are what I've always considered "W-1" heads. They were T/A head on the intake side with a raised rectangular exhaust port. IIRC, they were used on the first generation 318 Indycar (replaced by the Westlake) & on the SCCA Trans Am cars. I remember buying an NOS set from Diamond racing maybe 40 years back, they had a pallet of 'em.

I believe the LD340 W-2 intake is what they used on the Rossi Daytona.

[aerolith]

Please say you still got THEM Spyder!

A PALLET OF S/B INDY HEADS, WoW that's mind-blowing to hear this stuff...

If I can find some early T/A mega port heads I will start a LUNCHBOX build...

I was referring to 'my heads' as the W1's lol...

The 'W' was for Weslake and the Big-block 'W1' set was cast in 1968.

The W2's were not until 1971...

Probably cast at the same foundry as the Max Wedge heads, that was 'burnt-down' by Chevy and Ford Sabo's...

This is original Valley tray from the Weslake Dyno engine. (big holes) lol

I think the valley tray limited the porting of the heads lol...

Just think what developments went into Nascar engines...

[odcics2]

Note the word "Edelbrock" on the intake used on the 305 at Daytona.