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Some of you may know I bought a new 09 SRT8 Every Option 6 Speed Challenger. I saved my money from the very day I saw the first concept at MATS several years ago and then I paid cash for that car. Anyhow, that car was BITCHEN. It ruled the freeway and I loved the Navigation and the sunroof and I loved the sound going through the gears etc...

BUT: It had extremely bad wheel hop and it also TOTALLY let me down at the track. Basically it was a dog. I have talked to a couple people that are "in the know" and they told me those cars are "all over the place". Performance wise. Needless to say I could not get a good start because of the wheel hop issue, but regardless, it only would run 101 MPH at Fontana. And, that was with the air filter out. At Irwindale it picked up 2 MPH in the 1/8th removing the filter. So I suspect at Fontana, totally stock with the filter in it might have only run 99MPH?? SHEESH! Sure it probably would pick up a couple MPH if I could get a better launch, but it is NEVER going to be 108MPH where it should be or even close. Me and Sloan talked about it in depth and he even asked the Guys over at Westech for me and no one could offer a solution. You can't just take it to the dealer and say "it only ran 101 in the quarter with the air filter removed. Something's wrong".

Needless to say, I SOLD the car after 4 months and 5700 miles of driving it every day. Lost $9500. I could not deal with it, so it had to go.......

Here is the BIGGEST [Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean] I have. I want to get another one. But I have no way of figuring out how to make sure I get a good one. Buy a used one that you know a Guy had been racing it? Do you think a dealer would guarantee the car's performance?

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Some of you may know I bought a new 09 SRT8 Every Option 6 Speed Challenger. I saved my money from the very day I saw the first concept at MATS several years ago and then I paid cash for that car. Anyhow, that car was BITCHEN. It ruled the freeway and I loved the Navigation and the sunroof and I loved the sound going through the gears etc...

BUT: It had extremely bad wheel hop and it also TOTALLY let me down at the track. Basically it was a dog. I have talked to a couple people that are "in the know" and they told me those cars are "all over the place". Performance wise. Needless to say I could not get a good start because of the wheel hop issue, but regardless, it only would run 101 MPH at Fontana. And, that was with the air filter out. At Irwindale it picked up 2 MPH in the 1/8th removing the filter. So I suspect at Fontana, totally stock with the filter in it might have only run 99MPH?? SHEESH! Sure it probably would pick up a couple MPH if I could get a better launch, but it is NEVER going to be 108MPH where it should be or even close. Me and Sloan talked about it in depth and he even asked the Guys over at Westech for me and no one could offer a solution. You can't just take it to the dealer and say "it only ran 101 in the quarter with the air filter removed. Something's wrong".

Needless to say, I SOLD the car after 4 months and 5700 miles of driving it every day. Lost $9500. I could not deal with it, so it had to go.......

Here is the BIGGEST [Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean] I have. I want to get another one. But I have no way of figuring out how to make sure I get a good one. Buy a used one that you know a Guy had been racing it? Do you think a dealer would guarantee the car's performance?

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I (or Ryan) will do a post on My new motor once I get all the major parts here. I kind of wanted to post some pics along with all the info. All the specs are finalized except the rods (source and material). I did tell Ryan "lets have some fun with this". And, I think we both are. He is free to say what he wants too.

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I (or Ryan) will do a post on My new motor once I get all the major parts here. I kind of wanted to post some pics along with all the info. All the specs are finalized except the rods (source and material). I did tell Ryan "lets have some fun with this". And, I think we both are. He is free to say what he wants too.

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either of you guys consider the Howards "ultimate duty" forged billet rods? forged and machined in the USA,
weight seems pretty decent, cost pretty reasonable, too. would be interesting to get some 3rd party feedback on these...

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I (or Ryan) will do a post on My new motor once I get all the major parts here. I kind of wanted to post some pics along with all the info. All the specs are finalized except the rods (source and material). I did tell Ryan "lets have some fun with this". And, I think we both are. He is free to say what he wants too.

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either of you guys consider the Howards "ultimate duty" forged billet rods? forged and machined in the USA,
weight seems pretty decent, cost pretty reasonable, too. would be interesting to get some 3rd party feedback on these...

http://www.competitionproducts.com/products.asp?dept=1793
http://www.summitracing.com/search/Depar...V8/?Ns=Rank|Asc

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Those are nice Rods. I have always liked the looks of them. But the 6.300 long rod is 670 grams. I am afraid we could not balance the motor I am building with that rod. So here are some things to think about.

I am using a SB chevy Small Journal (2.0) Rod to save weight. The rod is 6.300 long. Also we are right at the limit on what stroke and rod length that will work. We actually cannot even use a shorter rod because at BDC the piston will be pulled out the bottom of the cylinder and also the possibility of it hitting the Crankshaft counterweights.
We also literally had to go to a SMALLER wrist pin (.866 diameter) just to get the necessary long rod to fit without placing the wristpin all the way up "through" the oil ring on the piston.

So it's pretty much a high end custom Rod for this build. It will be a full on custom steel (300M) tapered H beam Lentz or Carrilo NASCAR type lightweight rod with 3/8" CARR bolts or a Titanuim Rod.

Actually, the rods are the only part we have not got a solid order on yet. Because Titanuim is our first choice. If we get what we want that rod at that size will be around 420 grams (I think).

If we have to go with a steel Rod I am thinking they will weigh around 525 grams.

I also think Ryan is going out of his way to help me and do this Motor the way that I want. He has been very gracious and he is hand selecting the R-Block to be able to get the bore we want. I probably should not say that because I am sure he is not always in a position to do that. We are very lucky that the R-3 Blocks have good availability right now.

I think the only way to build a bigger engine than what we are doing would be to sleeve the block with extra long sleeves that stick out on the bottom of the cylinder. I have seen that done in other engine makes. Of course at that point you would "have to" have the lightweight parts because you would have to cut the crank counterwights down smaller and the crank would not balance. I am using lightweight parts to get rid of static weight and because I LOVE a quick revving motor. My Demon motor was not quite this extreme but to sit in the driver seat and rev that motor was a lot of fun.

I saved my money for a while to be able to do this and I do not want to cut any corners. I told Ryan that I do not have to have this motor. So if I ran out of money it will just get put on hold until I get more. It can just stop and sit until I can afford to move forward. So far I think I will have enough. But I have not seen the final bill

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. I was just thinking a few minutes before seeing this latest post how I do NOT miss that car much if at all. And the MAIN reason is because I lost the "hots" for it.

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Yes I miss the Demon sometimes. But the Valiant is a better car in many ways. And I guess I do miss the Challenger a little (how could not?) but I am GLAD I sold it and I have no regrets. I know I might sound wishy washy about the challenger. But I did say I would like to get another one someday and I might if I could afford it at time. But I am afraid to get another dog. AND, I seriously considered getting a Camaro (OMG!), but after reading that thread I am not so sure. I have ALLWAYS liked late modle performance. I had an 01 Camaro SS automatic and it ran 13.44 @ 104+ completely showroom stock at Pomona. THAT car ran what is should. But I ended up selling it and investing the money.

Iggy (the guy I sold the Demon to) keeps in touch with me. The engine finally barfed a Lifter since he did not keep an eye on the valvetrain. So DAVE DUDEK was rebuilding/fixing the engine last time I heard. I talked to Dave a couple times because he had some questions.

I will 100% do an engine thread on my 501 if Ryan does not do it. I will take lots of pics and so on. Please be patient because there is going to be a long wait for some of the parts. I did push him to order the crank right away because they usually take 12+ weeks. It "is ordered" and they said they are not too busy so they gave us a time of 8-9 weeks. But then it is a WEEK UPS Ground to get to Ryan and before the first possible pics could be posted.

Thanks, Ron.

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Hey Ron, Iggy just picked her up at the Nats this weekend.

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Yes I miss the Demon sometimes. But the Valiant is a better car in many ways. And I guess I do miss the Challenger a little (how could not?) but I am GLAD I sold it and I have no regrets. I know I might sound wishy washy about the challenger. But I did say I would like to get another one someday and I might if I could afford it at time. But I am afraid to get another dog. AND, I seriously considered getting a Camaro (OMG!), but after reading that thread I am not so sure. I have ALLWAYS liked late modle performance. I had an 01 Camaro SS automatic and it ran 13.44 @ 104+ completely showroom stock at Pomona. THAT car ran what is should. But I ended up selling it and investing the money.

Iggy (the guy I sold the Demon to) keeps in touch with me. The engine finally barfed a Lifter since he did not keep an eye on the valvetrain. So DAVE DUDEK was rebuilding/fixing the engine last time I heard. I talked to Dave a couple times because he had some questions.

I will 100% do an engine thread on my 501 if Ryan does not do it. I will take lots of pics and so on. Please be patient because there is going to be a long wait for some of the parts. I did push him to order the crank right away because they usually take 12+ weeks. It "is ordered" and they said they are not too busy so they gave us a time of 8-9 weeks. But then it is a WEEK UPS Ground to get to Ryan and before the first possible pics could be posted.

Thanks, Ron.

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Hey Ron, Iggy just picked her up at the Nats this weekend.

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DANG Dave, that engine looks AWESOME!! Those pics brought back some serious memories. That thing took me 9 months to build. It looks exactly the same except I think the paint on the block is a lot better I bet you had fun working on it and I hope it was up to your standards. I also bet IGGY is happy to have it back so he can put it back in the Demon.

Thanks so much. I will save these pics for sure.

Ron.