Here you go, Stu...
(If you want to 'kick it up a little'...
Old build from RB)...
'High-Torque Street Engines
Widely regarded as one of the world's best Mopar engine men, Ray Barton is famous for his NHRA record-setting Super Stock Hemis. The fact is, he and the crew at Ray Barton Racing Engines (RBRE) also work wonders with wedge-head Mopars. The stroked 451 low-deck motor outlined here sports a mere 10.5:1 compression, a streetable flat-tappet camshaft, and mildly reworked aluminum Indy heads, yet it produces an astounding 673 hp at 6,900 rpm and 527 lb-ft of torque at 5,400 rpm.
RBRE assembled this tall-torque heavy for a well-heeled street performance enthusiast, and the tab came to about 11 grand. But that's because the customer insisted on the ultimate in reliability, hence the inclusion of premium parts. Similar performance can be achieved for significantly less money if the builder uses items like stock forged rods and iron Indy heads.
The core of the assembly is a decidedly mundane cast-iron low-deck 400 block pirated from a '73 Chrysler Newport. The motor's deep-skirt crankcase design is very rigid and can withstand up to 900 hp. With the crankshaft and rods from a raised-deck Chrysler big-block wedge (413, 426, or 440) and custom pistons with the proper pin height, the low-deck 400 expands to 451 cubic inches. The only sticking point is that the main bearing saddles of all low-deck blocks (Mopar 350s, 361s, 383s, and 400s) are machined to accept a crankshaft with 2.625-inch journal diameters; all raised-deck cranks maintain 2.750-inch main journals. The obvious solution would seem to be to turn down the 440 crank to fit the 400 block, but this modification severely compromises the strength of the crankshaft.
Barton took a better route. He mounted the 400 block in a Sunnen CK10 align-boring machine and enlarged all the main bearing saddles to 440 size. The 400 lower end has so much beef that this reduction practically goes unnoticed. Naturally, the main caps must match the block, so Barton simply plucked a set of 440-size RBRE On-Trac billet-steel caps off the shelf and secured them with ARP 1/2-inch studs.
The next step is to enlarge the oil pickup tube to 1/2-inch Hemi specifications and use bronze bushings in the lifter bores to correct factory machining inaccuracies. This ensures the precise location of each lifter in relation to the cam and the crank. Barton has found that inaccuracies in some stock blocks can affect the cam timing of individual cylinders by as much as 15 degrees. To rectify the situation, a BHJ fixture attached to the block allows the lifter bores to be bored oversize and establishes a centerline and correct angularity. Then bronze bushings are pressed into place and honed to final size. This process is intended to ensure that each valve receives equal cam lift and duration, thereby balancing power between cylinders. It also enhances oil control by reducing bleed-off and enabling the block to maintain full oil pressure even if a failed pushrod allows the cam to bump a lifter out of its bore.
A stock forged-steel 440 crankshaft was treated to chamfered oil-transfer holes, careful polishing, and fully grooved Clevite 77 Hemi-spec bearings. However, stock Chrysler big-block connecting rods, while forged, are not very reliable at power levels beyond 500 or when the crankshaft speed exceeds 6,500 rpm. In their place, we find RBRE On-Trac 4340 forged-steel units prepared with shot-peened beams and ARP 3/8-inch Wav-Loc bolts. The small ends are bushed and receive big-block-Chevy-size (0.990-inch diameter) full-floating RBRE On-Trac tapered wall pins for a substantial weight reduction over stock parts.'
