I am posting this just as information. I bought one from a drag racer. So a lot of things had already been taken care of or simplified.

These engines in 358 form only make around 575 ft lbs of torque. If the cam is big you are going to want a lot of gear and converter. My combination was a lot of gear a 6,800 converter and a powerglide trans. My car has plenty of tire and bite. It's 60 ft pretty weak. The MPH and ET not bad. 5.82@118 at 3,000 lbs in good air. A car with small tires and a torqueflite can really do well with these engines. A stick car would do very well also. There were some 3.5" cranks made for these engines outside of NASCAR. If you are lucky enough to find one with this stroke or buy a crank you have a great engine no matter what you put behind it.

Putting a Dominator on these engines is great for top end power. Most like myself would benefit by leaving a 4150 carb on it. A simple change to a front drive distributor like what was done with mine allows the engine to be set back nicely.

The adapter plates are expensive as advertised. The one I have is a nicer one from BOBSPROFAB but, I still made some improvements that were allowed with my JW Ultrabell. I would recommend if running an aftermarket bell to check on getting it plugged and redrilled to fit the bolt pattern of the R5. Have not been able to talk Reid into making a run of bells with the bolt pattern different than the standard small block. The material is there for the change. ATI also makes an adapter that allows one of their bells to bolt up. I would not get too caught up in the bolt pattern.

The flat bottom dry sump pans do not work in stock style front suspensions without running the engine high in the car. I have a Charlies pan that works nice. If I were to do one of these engines from scratch I would buy a single stage pump and build a wet sump pan. The only changes necessary is to drill oil passages in the cam tunnel for drainage. If you are a novice racer who wants simple oil system. A drysump is not what you want. There is little about this engine that makes it a requirement. From what I see a couple plugs and a few new holes in the block and a belt driven wet sump engine is fairly simple. While changing pans if you were buying a new drysump pump you could get by with a four stage instead of the six.

I have yet to see any advertisement for one of these engines that did not claim to make over 800 HP. The one I have has some very big heads and domed pistons. I have talked with many who built these engines for a living and say that there are a lot of happy dynos just like other engine's numbers. I would say 800+ is fairly common but the number 830+ I would say is suspect.

All in all you buy one of these engines after getting around the oil pan and mating it with your transmission you will be happy with it. They scream and make lots of power. They are not a torque monster but neither is Mopar's 340. HP wise the R5P7 is light years ahead. You can't be bashful, you have to turn it 8K or better.

I believe if the guys trying to get $950 for adapter plates would come down to earth and people realized the potential you would see these things running everywhere.

I am looking to go with a taller aluminum block with 340 mains and more stroke. The block is fair priced at $7,500 ready to assemble with the latest .937 keyway bushing and everything, the Bryant crank is $3,200 and custom. A real ring package so it is cold running temperature friendly. 467CID is possible with the aluminum block. Also looking to use some other more common parts that will make something that can stand a lot of power adder.

Everyone ran out and bought P7 heads and are all sitting on their hands over the XR2 blocks. EEi was having the aluminum blocks made in R5. It is a proven piece. You spend the extra $$ and get a block ready to use actually saving money if you stop and think about it. The custom crank is expensive but an extremely reputable company. For those who are still waiting on the XR2 I figure a couple thousand in extra cost tops to go the EEI route. Then you have a proven piece for racing. I have heard nothing but good things from those who have ran them. Just something to consider.

A local shop has built three SB2 400+ engines. The customers love them and they were not cheap. I talked with the shop about the matter. They said the P7 had more potential. So why are the chevy guys so more willing to build engines like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Mu7f0qMTs&feature=player_detailpage

made 40 more hp when takin to BES.Leon you are 100% right about the p7..the same dude who builds all these sb2,says p7 is little better.

I have tested 2 different heads on my bench, one was in the 370 cfm range and the other was right on par with my CFE w8 s, around 410 on my bench, with even better low lift numbers

I have some parts sitting on the shelf, and am waiting for the rest to be sent over from the US.
These heads have everything the Ford Yates and SB2.2 head have, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Toyota head is better again.
There are plenty of raw castings out there for a full effort engine, but I doubt there is really many Mopar folks preparred to build one. Anyone serious enough usually build a P5 engine, or are still running a W8 engine with a cast 4 barrell.
The adapters should be cheaper for what is in them, even at a 200% profit I don't think there is $950 in them. For a 1 off, sure.
Great post and great info Leon!

What blocks are the sb2 dudes using?

About the adapters. Bob came up with the one I have. It needed a couple adjustments. The centering is spot on. The 11/16 bolt that would go in from the engine side into the tranny needs to go into through the adapter and into the Mopar tranny. This hole was drilled and threaded 3/8", I simply drilled it 11/16" and moved on. The hole on the drivers side next to the starter was the same. The block cover this hole preventing an 11/16 bolt from going through. You have to bushing the threaded hole in your bell housing to run a smaller bolt from the back side into the adapter. My Ultrabell has the bolt hole like the clutch bell housing in the 12 O'clock position. So I drilled and tapped the adapter to use this bolt. This eliminated the need to have the overlapping bolts in the 10 and 2 O'clock positions. I simply countersunk a sockethead 3/8 to bolt the adapter to the engine block. No bolts in the bell sense I have the one in the 12 O'clock hole.

I have not had a chance to compare the drawings, but I really believe an adapter to go from a B engine bellhousing to the R5 may work better. Especially sense the dowels in the adapter to the A engine take some machining so they can overlap about .050".

Leon

A friend of mine has one of the Petty engines on the shelf and a tube chassis Shelby Charger sitting in his shop.I would think this combo would really work well with a 5 speed with a 3.20 low gear leaving at 8000 and shifting at 9500
These engines would really work in a high winding stick car with lots of gear and a big carb
Gus

Anybody see any of the new R6P8 stuff that was released to the Mopar teams in 2009? I heard the bore spacing was changed and the heads have a wider port which is easier to create large volume for big inch engines. I also was told that the new combo is about 35 lbs lighter. You would think some of these blocks & heads would be floating around now that Dodge is out of Nascar. Makes you think maybe some of the teams are sitting on this stuff in case ma Mopar makes a come back.

Post deleted by b1dartsport

Leon, if you don't mind me asking, if you had it to do over again would you have just stuck with your W8 program? I know when I spoke to you about the short block you sold you had mentioned that you didn't plan to make more power but to be able to find parts for repairs when carnage happens. I know you have had troubles with the new set up so I have to ask if you regret going away from the W stuff. Thanks much it's been a pleasure to watch and learn through your experience.

Great results Leon. I understand you're got a well set car, but sure impressive from that many cubes! Sure would make a great stick car
Thanks for posting. Some day I to shall have one, I think 358 will do for me

The swap to R5 in the long run will be good.

The W8 was a really strong engine, but as W8's go CFE claimed my heads were some of the best flowing he had done and for large bores a perfect combination. The oiling system extremely simple.

I dropped 60CID and lost 70HP. The P7 does not eat valve springs and the parts are plentiful. The P7 is not aggressive at all. When the power came in it was smooth. The only negative was the displacement. Get some stroke in it to make some lower RPM torque it should prove a great combo for a powerglide transmission.

I have had a little carnage. Simple a rocker arm broke. $100 to fix. Unfortunately a Ghost came in my shop and moved some stuff around. A titanium valve lock disappeared. All the Kings horses and all the Kings men looked for this missing lock and assured me the King that it was no where to be found. I looked too. Pulled the DS head and looked some more. It was no where to be found. Put Humpty Dumpty back together and set the valves. Bumped the squirters and proceeded to start the engine. Well you hear the rumble and smell the fuel you have to tap the throttle. Tapped and heard a lot of new noise. Long story short the keeper was either in the intake manifold or on top the carburetor's butterfly. It went into #5 breaking the ring land and splitting the cylinder wall. The block and piston are now junk. The head has a minor nick in the deck. Just some really bad luck. Nothing to do with being a R5P7.

Leon

That is the perfect excuse to build one with 3.8 stroke...

Here is some new videos from my R5P7. I think these was 9,6s runs. No record but best 60ft so far. 1.43s. 727 trans and leaf springs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xvrda81sg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVK7q_Vckuw

I need Mafo to make some slow motion video of my new offroad leaf spring system

Leon, this does look like a great alternative to the heavy BB stuff, if built right. What kind of Hp potential do you see in a stroked version? How big can they go and what rpm do you think they would have to run to get the most out of them?

They have the cylinder heads to make over 1,000 if you do a max effort with raw castings. The NASCAR stuff was limited to valve size and RPM. If you go to Ernie Elliot's website he says what say you can go ever 400 with a cast iron block. And I know of a 467 CID combo with the aluminum block.

My car with the low deck lightened R3W8 engine with really light internals was 2,950. With the R5P7 cast iron block, dry sump, adapter plate, and alternator the car weighed 3,000. I hope to loose 100 lbs with the aluminum block.

Leon

Thanks for this post Leon! Me and a buddy who loves Mopars and is looking to eventually get into one again were discussing these motors at the track...I don't know much about them, so we weren't getting technical, but we did discuss how they seem like an awesome affordable big power engine to go racing with, but unfortunately it seems like there isn't abundant info on them or how to do it.

This post is a great start though!

Great info Leon.

Does EEI have a website, how did you source that block?