My Dyno fetish

I'm a sick man. I lay awake at night thinking of off the wall kinky things to do on my Dyno. I've tortured stroker Hemis, big blocks and small blocks. My depravity has reached new heights, I bought a set of Chrysler short rams. The test mule will be my unmolested, original, 74 440 Ramcharger motor. 79,000 original miles, I can't wait for the screaming and moaning to begin.

Well, since you obviously can't control your carnal desires, may I suggest you at least wear protection? I don't want to hear you catching tetanus from rusty header pipes or something. And why must you torture a virgin 440? You're a dirty old man.

Gotta tell you I miss our weekly "Hi Rich, how are you doing? Where the heck is my block?" discussions


Now that you got your block and your "Pleasure Room", you never call, you never write. What the hell, man.

I'm too busy listening to your Blues Rich while doing unnatural things to motors!
50 shades of Race Hemi Orange.

You two are sick!!!!

Used and tossed to the side.

quickD, you going to try thermoquads on those rams ? how much can a guy learn about long rams from the shorty's ? i'll be watching close !

I don't know yet, I would love to see what the Thermoquads would do but I am unsure if I want to cut on these manifolds to do it. Time will tell. It will probably be a couple months yet before I will have the free time to start on it. Potato harvest starts for me on Monday, it's work and sleep with little time for much else.

A local once dynoed a Hot Saw chainsaw engine.

Hey, I think I might have ALL 50 shades of race hemi orange on the rattle can shelf. Which one dynoed the best?

The shade I had custom mixed at autovalue.

Jeff weren't you at dragweek with Joel?

We are on our way home. Just outside of St.Louis right now.

Been wanting to put my Eddy-headed 496" longrammed engine on the dyno for some time now, but ever since I 'updated' the engine with a solid roller cam it tends to ping.

It would be real interesting to try testing all three versions, lengths, of those early manifolds on the same motor on the same dyno on the same day with the same carbs jetted the same

I very got my buddy beating the bushes for a set of cheap long Rams to do that very thing Cab. I also have an old 413 single 4 intake.

I miss several opportunity to own several early 300 letter cars with those motors in them
I had two early 300 cars, one 1957 C hardtop that was our family car when I first got out of the Army in 1968 and later a 1958 convertible D car, I whup them dual quad 392 Hemi motors regularly
On the C car the first long trip we took in that car it blew a hole in the top of #6 piston due to a garage that had done a "valve job" on it shortly before we bought it for that trip, they hadn't torque all the intake bolts down properly and it suck water into #6 coming out of south western Utah into Arizona coming home to SO CA, what a mess
We limp it home using reclaim oil in it, it would go through several quarts per hour. I ended up using a intake and carb off of a 1957 New Yorker on the 300 motor, that woke that lazy rascal right up I also used a piston out of the same New Yorker motor with the original rings from the New Yorker with no honing in that 300 cylinder
It was our only car back then so it was fix it as quickly as possible or walk

Its funny about the rams, in 82 I went and bought a aftermarket low profile 2x4 intake from the local newspaper ad and he had a set of long rams on the wall, asked if id give $20 for them. My reply was "why".

My squeenter (SP?) muscle still cringes every time I hear one of my motors on a engine dyno going to WOT against the water brake before starting the pulls
Good luck on all your testing

I like the oddball dyno stuff.

Scott Harms built and dynoed a long ram 413 on here a few years back and that was interesting. I liked your post about the 318 junkyard turbo you did awhile back and your Hemi with the tunnel ram and thermoquads. And just to be sure, you have the "long rams" with the short divider right? (I think they're 16"?). If you could find a long ram with the long divider to compare to and a stock 4bbl that would be icing on the cake. I always thought the long rams would be good for a towing application

They are the short rams, the long Rams have the runner dividers the full length. I am well aquainted with the ram manifolds. An old friend of mine collects the Letter cars and DeSoto Adventures. I have him beating the bushes for a ratty set of long Rams too.
Sometimes it really pays to be in the right place at the right time. There were many stories of how mechanics hated working on the ram cars. More than one talked an owner into ditching them for a single four barrel. They'd throw the rams in the dumpster.
Cab I always laugh when I Dyno a friend's motor and I see that expression of dread and horror on their faces when the dyno loads their motor the first time. I tell them if the motor is built right they have nothing to worry about. If it's a bad one we'll know shortly.

When I got my chassis dyno setup, I played with 3 carbs on my old 4x4 with a moderate build 440. The thermoquad made quite a bit more power than the 2 edelbrocks on a performer intake. The bowl eventually cracked and I had to run the edelbrock 750, it never made the same steam. I think this is part of the issue on my dog of a ramcharger current project, is the edelbrock carb just doesn't breathe deep enough, or the performer intake and edelbrock carb combo just doesn't work that well together.

Yep the Thermoquad is my favorite carb. I don't think it will like an adapter to work on the ram manifolds though. For what I had to pay and because of their scarcity, I really hesitate to start hacking on them.
In previous Dyno tests I was never able to make any spread bore to squarebore adapters work real well.If I can get a set of long Rams cheap enough I won't hesitate to open them up for Thermoquads.

What are you going to do to the 440? Cam change? Headers?

I ll start dynoing it bone stock to get a baseline and then go from there. I've got a new set of 1-3/4" headers coming tomorrow. My old set finally gave up the ghost and just plan wore out after 40 years.

LOL

i want to use t-quads on my long rams for my humpback, and i'm not afraid to mod the carb bases. they already have the dividers cut out [by a previous owner] and the exhaust heat chambers need repaired as well, due to blow through. at one time, i thought about making some 2" spacer/adapters.

Well I got the short rams home, got the 440 mule on the engine stand. I started pulling the motor down to see what Ive got. The 74' Ramcharger was rated at 225hp&350ftlbs. at 8.2-1. The heads had 2 burnt exhaust valves and after measuring things up it's true compression comes out at 7.94-1 which is better than I expected. The cylinders look very good, the cam and lifters will survive a few Dyno pulls but if I was going to put the motor back in the truck they would go in the garbage. If the bearings look alright all I'll replace in the short block will be the timing chain and gears.
I measured the cam and it's got me a bit perplexed. The intake is .429 lift but the exhaust measured .469.5. The intake is 206@.050, the cam has a 116 Center line. The motor doesn't look like it's ever been apart. Anyway, it is what it is. I'll grind the valves and bolt it up to the dyno and see what it will make in stock form....then the fun begins.

Any idea how many miles on it?

78,000 and I am the second owner. I bought it from the estate of the original owner.

Just joined. Bought my first car winter of 1959. I was 18, soon to be 19! A satin white D 500 Dart convertible. Never beaten by any stock Brand X! Raced it all through the early 60's until I bought a new Coronet 500 426. Anyway, today the convertible is a Day 3 stock looking car with a built 440 and the original long Rams. Runs terrific, very fast! Being a person with an incurable disease, ( I can't leave well enough alone ), I am seriously wanting to build the 60 Dart Dodge never did, i.e. a D500F! I too have a set of the rare short long Rams that the 300 F's used to set the Daytona speed record. So, I am thinking of screwing with (again), my sweet running D500 and putting the short Rams and a compatible cam on the car this winter! So, you are not the only sicko out there! I have been one for more than 60 years!

Any updates on this?

Sorry, the motor is together on the stand. I have to finish up a couple minor details. Short ram balance tube, throttle linkage, ect.
Just haven't had much free time to work on stuff. My regular job has kept me running pretty steady.