Chris Thompson, via CarCraft.com: I was going though some back issues a couple of weeks ago, and I came across something that didn't interest me at that time. It was a short article about an engine block manufacturer making a Gen 1 SBC able to accept the Gen III cylinder heads. I don't recall the company, perhaps either Dart or World. This interests me now, and I would like to know who it was because nothing is listed on any of their Web sites. If it wasn't in your mag, I must have been dreaming, and what a sweet dream that must have been.

 

 

Like all muscle-era Mopars, '66-'71 Street Hemi B- and E-Bodies came equipped with torsion-bar front suspension. But those supplied with the Hemi (and some 440 cars) featured larger 0.92-diameter bars to better support the Hemi without sagging while also providing excellent handling. Here's a tip: They're all marked with part numbers on the ends. The odd number goes on the driver side (LH); the even number goes on the passenger side (RH). Don't mix 'em up-they can fail.

 

Jeff Smith: Your memory is better than you think, Chris. The company was Dart Machinery, and Dart's Jack McInnis told us that while owner Richard Maskin has run into a couple of snags with the project, Dart is hoping to have a prototype block available for everyone to see at the Performance Racing Industry convention in Orlando.

 

It's long been accepted that the power of the Gen III small-block engine series is all in the cylinder heads. It also seems that many enthusiasts really don't want to mess with the new engine architecture even with the promise of more power. So Maskin decided that if he could create a cylinder block that would combine the advantages of the knowledge base of the Gen I short-block with the superior airflow of the Gen III cylinder heads, he'd have a winner. According to McInnis, Dart originally configured the block as a reverse-cooling design, where coolant would pass through the cylinder heads first, then travel through the block before exiting the engine. This was going to require a one-off water-pump design, so that configuration has now been dropped, and the system will operate the same as the original small-block design with water passing through the block first and then the heads. The entire system will then be less complicated and therefore less expensive.

 

The Gen III heads start with a 15-degree valve angle, and with big heads experiencing intake-port flow of 300-plus cfm at 0.600-inch lift, the promise of big-time power is almost too good to be true. What makes us salivate is the idea of building a 420ci or 434ci Gen I-style short-block with a set of big-flow heads. It would not be difficult to achieve over 600 hp normally aspirated. Dart has its own selection of excellent Gen III/LS heads that includes 205cc- and 225cc-intake-port versions. This is just another example of the kind of thinking that makes being a car crafter so much fun. The next few years will be very interesting.