My new buddy Josh is selling me a set of Bare W-2's A Holley single plane intake and a set of W-2 Rockers and billet hold downs. Gonna go back "old school" just like my old 340 Dart way back in the late 70's early 80's when big blocks used to scurry away in fear like cockroaches in the light from me.

This time instead of a 7800RPM solid cam 340 that only survived as long as there was Sunoco leaded 260 (Who remembers that?); this time around the 2's be on top of a 440" (360 based 71' block) that's already machined and ready to go.

I think that first set of W2's cost me close to $800 bucks in 1979, that'd probably be what about $3K in todays (nearly third world) money? This will be a pure nostalgia trip, I'll be looking for a 67-69 A body manual trans anything to drop it in once I get it all together.

for their time my W-2's were ported pretty well and once she got over 4500 it was like the little 340 did a 'jeckel and hyde' and started pulling like it had a full-time nitrous shot.

I have and had faster cars, quicker cars and built lots more powerful motors, but never had a more FUN motor than that old W-2.

The Max Wedges and Hemi of course made Mopar a legend, but the W-2 kept MOPAR a viable competitive player in the NHRA and particularly NASCAR after the age of Big Blocks were legislated away. You could argue the success of the W2 Mopar raised the game for all aftermarket small block heads, before them the idea of a bolt-on Race casting you could buy over the counter was pretty much 'non-existent' or 'exotic'.

Well said!

I really like the W2s I have an ancient set on my present 363 inch small block, and purchased a set of new econo W2s on here for my new R3 4 inch stroke (408) pump gas motor presently under construction.

w2's are an awesome head and they make good power. mine flow 285 @ 600 lift and it made 653 hp at 6800 rpm with 590 tq @ 4800 rpm.

Just picked them up, looks like the deck is much thicker then the original 70's castings, got enough meat to close up the chambers if I want to.

Casting Number is P4532693, looks like the casting Date is Feb 22 2001 as best Josh and I could tell.

The Intake is a Holley STREET Dominator W2, Looks about like the Strip Dommy but with a water passage right off the bypass tube. I've heard of them but never seen one before, Rather have a Strip Dommy but Hey, it's the one I have!

Rockers are Red anodized, they look like (and I'm assuming) they're Comps and they're in perfectly serviceable shape. The One piece Billet shaft supports and hold down hardware looks the same as on my Chapman Max Wedge Heads.

On a 4.06" bore I think you can go with a 2.12" intake, does anybody remember? I'll probably just go 2.08" but just wondering if anyone remembers.

Josh gave me a great "I know they're going to a good home" package deal

Got the block machined and the BPE 4.25" Crank all ready to go, once we get done with My buddies 442" AMC motor (should make about 570 horse and 600+ lb/ft) I'm gonna get cranking on the W2-440.

We found that an out of the box Victor W2 ( what I currently run ) was 12-15 hp better than the gasket matched/blended Strip Dominator on the dyno, the Indy 360-1 is supposed to be as good or better.

That's great info, Thanks!

On the oiling systems back in the 70's....man we were turning heavy OEM style bottom ends, Kendall GT-1 40 weight and home-made deepened (taking 2 to make 1) pans.

I don't remember anything specific we did to the small blocks except knocking down the casting ridges in the heads to speed the oil return, there was some debate over whether grooved #2 and #4 cam bearings and grooved journals were pumping too much oil up top I used to put the cam bearings in slightly off center to the oil discharge lines as a 'no buck' restrictor.

Of the motors I built and tore back down the bottom ends were all healthy, we ran Isky solid flat tappets back then and tached over 8K more than a few times...One could question the accuaracy of the electronic tachs back then though, but there was no mistaking that W2 pitch change when she got it the sweet spot.

With the high RPM I was much more worried about the flywheel coming through the floorboard than the bottom end back then, no scattershield but I did weld some thick plate in the floorboards...eventually.

Streetwise thanks for that piece of information

i realy like the oldschool way of doing things,seems like it worked very well for the most part and the old saying "dont fix it if it aint broken" often holds true!

i bet that big W2 smallblock will be alot of fun.just paint it to look borring and noone will figure out what you are doing,thats the good thing about W2´s..
i have long thought about doing a 416 W2 with a comp magnum 262@.050 and .575lift cam and try to make it look like something with just a manifold and headers added,should have good street manners live a farily long life and enough power to push an abody into the high 10´s while looking fairly inocent.

Just be careful of the SS right under the valve, ive heard they can be super thin there. I would try to sonic those things if possible all though the ports before grinding. But im with you, I would seriously love to do a good w2.

@ Hot 340

Copy that, buddy!

The great, simple amazing thing about the W2 port is the basic shape is so good as cast the porting is more or less intuitive, I remember Steve Dulcich's 'hard core' porting and I agree there's not much you can't do on your own with basic porting skills that doesn't improve an already good thing....just don't mess with the already good port shape; remove restrictions around the guide bosses and blend the bowls and smooth the rough "as cast contours" and that alone can get you 80% of what's available short of dramatically enlarging the port itself. Regarding the short side I've never really done much more than smooth and blend the bowl transition being careful not to alter the basic contour.

There are many heads where very relatively subtle changes in contours can dramatically improve flow or (in the wrong hands) make them much worse.

The W2 is also a good example (to me) that flow numbers don't really tell you the whole story, I've found that heads like the W2 can outpower and outpull heads that may flow even more air on the bench. In a running motor there is so much more to the NET amount of wet (fuel suspended in air) flow dynamically passing the valve than the flowbench alone can tell you. In a running motor the intake valve (or exhaust for that matter too) is open only about a third of that minute, the other 2/3rds it's shut, the charge suspended in the plenum for that other 2/3rds of the time has a lot to do with the power than flowbench air (measured in one direction at a static valve lift) alone can tell you.

Sorry for going O/T

I love W2's gotta love the old "it's just an iron headed small mopar, can't possibly be fast"

"BRE" Crank?

Bobby you're killin' me. lol

Rod

Typo...darn! BPE

My Magnificent and Expertly Machined 4.25" Stroke Crankshaft from BLOOMER PERFORMANCE ENGINEERING

I work in High Security Areas where they have many BRE's (Bullet Resistant Enclosures) , my fingers must have slipped up

Just messing with you, glad to see you moving forward with it. Keep us posted.

Rod

Interested in this as well....Thought about doing the same thing again as I had a very similar combo in 1982,but never ran the car.

Streetwize, I recently had the opportunity to compare the Strip Dom and the Street Dominator manifolds. One of my machinists years ago told me he had not seen much difference between the Street and Strip on the dyno. I understand why. The manifold plenum and runners are exactly the same, I did some pretty close measurements with calipers. The difference is what's under the plenum. The street manifold has the water passage to improve the street driving whereas the strip model has the air gap between the plenum and the lifter valley cover. I blocked the water off on my street unit and have been very satisfied with it.

Streetwize, please keep us informed how the W2's work on 440 ci. There has been much discussion on this forum stating that they're too small. I'm seriously considering the same thing which would be 449ci with a good set of W2's. I have a Procharger I'm considering sticking on it also. Keep us posted!!!!!

I used 15° W2's to make 665HP on this engine. I too love the W2's!!

Had Econo's on my duster for 5 years...BB guys didn't like my car much...!