[quote=Streetwize]Great comments, but I wonder who was the very first to correct the 59 Poly to allow the W2 to rev. I suspect it must've been back in the Trans-am days. Paul Rossi's 305 was keeping up with the Hemis and Boss 429's in the 71 Daytona 500 I'm sure he was turning well over the sub 7500 or so the 59 degree geometry would endure for very long.

To get an idea of the oscillation that goes on with a 59 degree lifter I would liken it to wiggling a drumstick between your fingers, LOL It's oscillating on both ends,

The best solution for the W motors (if you had a clean sheet of paper) would have been to properly offset the lifter bores (fore and aft as well as the pushrod angle) and cam lobes/lifter bores in order to straighten the path in BOTH directions and also reduce the severity of the rocker arm offset. This is actually what they did on the GM DRCE (adapted from the BBC) and it was a big reason the GM's would rev so high. This would spread the center to center distance between the exhaust and intake lobes for each cylinder.

Also, I suspect that Bob (being very familiar with the 9.2" deck height of the Ford Cleveland) had particular rod lengths and piston compression heights that he felt comfortable with for high RPM that he directly adapted to his Mopar.

I would love to see what parts and oiling mods he actually ran in the bottom end of that 315" motor, I can still remember the sound of that car through the traps when he ran it at Englishtown.

Somebody has to put those heads on a flowbench..Please! [quote]


Correct on the lifter bores, Glidden had special cams made to use those changes he made, he was a good welder of cast iron and not afraid to ‘cut and paste’. See his later work on the Cleveland and the Boss. He would change the ladder setup on new cars because the angle didn’t suit him then once he completely re-welded (tig) the chassis because it had developed cracks. He put together his engines sitting upright on the flywheel, said engine stands created abnormal stresses, warp and torques. It worked for him!
Also no one made the tunnel ram for the 340 so he got one that was for the Chevy, then cut and welded to fit his engine!