Has anyone on this board ran an A-8 sprint block and/ or w-9raised ports in their drag car. I have found a good deal on a block with oil pan and pump, and a set of complete heads with rockers. Also tracked down gear drive and all of the hardware for the block. And I have found a cam core and a source for lifters. This stuff seems like it would make a pretty solid piece for a bracket motor. I am just wondering if there is anything I am overlooking that is going to make this dificult to do. Any advice is appreciated...thanks.

I am not sure which bell it uses.
It would definitely make some power , but I don't know what your options would be for a transmission or adapters.

Block has standard small block chrysler bellhousing pattern i believe. Also I am pretty sure it would take a stock 340 style crank.

IIRC There is no starter provision on the block. Where all other blocks curve in towards the pan for starter clearance the Aluminum block doesn't. I have pics of my old one, I'll see if I can find them. If you run all sprint car stuff it will be fairly easy to put together. If you go with LMP stuff good luck. It will be very hard to find the right parts since the LMP stuff has been sent everywhere around the world.

I'll search for some pics......

Ok I found and uploaded the pics...




Here is the Aluminum block. See how it is square where the starter goes?



See how this one has the block radiused for the starter. These are the best pics I have I hope you can see what I'm talking about.


Also if you are using the LMP stuff you will need a special oil pan like this for your dry sump pump.





And the correct front drive setup



a closer look




I hope this pics help. If you would like any more pics I have some other ones, just let me know....

The stuff I'm looking at includes the pump, pan, and front drive assembly. However it does not look like the one in your pictures. It is just the small gear drive cover, then a mandrel pulley for the dry sump. Not like the wide billet piece you show. The starter may be an issue. I will take my ultra bell and mock it up. What is LMP? Also, besides headers and motorplates...what issues would I be looking at to put in stock A-body K frame

LMP is the Le Mans Program, when chrysler ran in it pretty heavy. They had lots of very cool exotic parts, too bad it had to go away....

The 6 bolt mains also create a problem with oil pan clearance to K frame. Even though you may be running a shallow pan, the pan rail is about 2.5" lower than a stock rail. So you will end up modifying or building your own pan. Or making major changes to your K frame.

The motorplate is really just two plates that bolt on right next to the timing cover with two 3/8 bolts I believe. These can be very easily made however you want them.

I forgot to mention, the positive side to this block is it weighs 89 lbs

I believe this block only has 2 bolt front and rear...4 bolt main centers. PN# on block is P4510051. Here is a pic of the main cap. One piece billet. A standard 340 crank should work in this correct?

Block 9.000 deck 4.125 bore

Ok you have the one piece main cap. You still have the rail 2.5" lower than the stock block. This is the new style, all the old ones had 4 bolt and 2 cross bolts on 2, 3, and 4.


All the old aluminum blocks had 2.500 mains.


EDIT:

I thought the A8 blocks came with just caps?? Someone must have made that main cap for your block.

The Aluminum race block has the 6 bolt, the A8 has 4 bolt mains and uses a huge cam 2.125 vs the 50mm cam the Aluminum race block uses... It's starting to come back now....

Also if you have the timing hardware and cover there should be a special snout where a manual starter tool will engage on the front of the crank it screws to the front of the crank. Thats how these engines are started...

Do you think that a stock style 340 crank will go in this block or am I going to need billet? Also, they had no starter at all on this. Sprint car push started.

I use the same block and w8 heads! Must use a remote waterpump and a midplate for the starter. Blocks require a lot of machining! Use a billet crank but not the lightweight version. Plan on spending a lot of money!

We race these motors in our sprint cars.
1) The A-8 is the newest version. The bottom end looks like a standard Mopar SB. The older blocks had a Hemi style cross bolt bottom end.
2) They have no haraminic balancer. You can't use the sprint car front cover with a balancer.
3) The sprint car front cover only has provisions for a dry sump pump and KSE water pump.
3)The sprint car cranks has a "generic" (Cheby)crank flange. Some have 6 bolts and super lite cranks have 4 bolts. Our aluminum u-joint only use 4 bolts.
4)Mopar Dirt late models mount the dry sump pump and starter on the bellhousing. They use a front cover that looks more like a stock one.
5)These aluminum block are NOT heavy duty. They just have enough meat in them to last a few races. They have have a short life in a sprint car. They develope cracks. Beware buying a used block.
6)A sprint car must pass the scales at 1375 Lbs or DQ. Put one in a 3800 Lb car with a clutch or high stall converter and it'll rip the the block in two at the starting line. I've allready broke off the front mounting ears in a crash.
5)I've throught of converting one of my old motors to a Carb and putting it in a 1600Lb street rod. One of these days I'll bolt up a 727 and see how the starter goes.
Don

So aside from the flange the crank is the same? I would want a normal 6 bolt chrysler flange anyway so my JW wheel would bolt up. I was planning on mocking starter and everything else up in car to check clearance and see what Im going to run into. Thanks

I used to work at Mopar Performance and did the sprint car engines. There appears to be some mis-information on these engines.

The stock 340 Crank & bearings fit these engines. Most sprint car racers make the crank w/ a special rear flange to fit the U-joint that bolts to it.

If you want to run a damper, you need a special timing cover available from Gary Stanton at Stanton Racing (this timing cover also has room to fit a special water pump.

The small Denso style starter fits most small block transmissions & bolts to the transmission - same as all small blocks.

The bell-housing bolt pattern is the same as all small blocks.

Thanks,

Jim