July 2005

My neighbor down the road has a 1973 Challenger. It was his first car, and he's had it forever. His dad bought it for him. He doesn't have a very high opinion of the car, but he keeps it for sentimental reasons. It's basically rotting into the ground. He's not very interested in ever fixing it, but he also refuses to sell it.
He was having some problems with code enforcement for having to much junk in his yard. Knowing that I was playing with old Mopars, he came to tell me that he had 340 engine with a 727 trans attached (not from his car), and it was headed to the scrap yard unless I wanted it. I went right over and hauled it home. I wanted the small block 727 for my Challenger, and figured it wouldn't hurt to have a spare 340 laying around since it was free. Out of curiosity, I decoded the numbers to see what it was out of. I don't recall exactly at the moment, but I think the engine & trans matched each other and were out of a 1971 vehicle.

Not long afterward, I received a phone call from another old friend who is an engine builder. He was looking for a 340 block, and was having trouble finding one to build. I happened to have the one my neighbor gave me, and he asked me what I wanted for it. Well, I have this 70 Road Runner here, and I guess it's going to need an engine at some point. It's originally a 383 car. He had some 383 blocks that were buildable. He said he'd pick one out, build it to stock 383 Magnum specifications for me, and swap straight across if I'd drive the 340 block up to him (Florida to Kansas, so it was quite a drive). DEAL!
His shop helper painted it Chevy orange instead of Mopar orange though. Oh well, I can repaint it.

On the way home, I stopped by a Mopar junkyard and bought a 1970 aluminum bellhousing and a 4 speed manual transmission to go with it. Seemed like good things to round up into a pile.

After arriving home, I checked all the numbers on the new engine & trans. By some amazing coincidence, both were from 1970 cars built in St. Louis, just like my Road Runner. Judging by the VINs, they must have both been built several months before my Road Runner, but I figured that's about as close as I could possibly get to having the right stuff for the car.