Thanks for the info on the heads. I talked to my machinist/engine builder today. He said the cylinder walls are only .160"-.180" thick on a standard block and a quick check. I'm leaning towards using Hardblok, but sleeving a block is a more expensive option. I found some Melling 1/8" sleeves that would bring the 318 bore (3.91") down to the 3.66" range. My machinist suggested getting Darton or someone to make some extra thick sleeves and put them in a 340 block. Sounds like a very expensive way to go and this is intended to be a budget build.

I think you'll find that most 318 blocks have pretty thin walls.
Just fill it and run it.

If you are going to run a stock class, don't you have to run a 273 block from the model year your car was built? The PN on my original, as delivered, D/Dart 273 block is 2806030-3. According to an old Galen book (6th printing), it's listed as a 318 from 1967-1974 block. The Galen info is probably wrong.

If in fact it is a 318 block with a 273 bore, it would have thicker walls. Both of the D/Darts that I have/had owned had the same block number.

The NHRA approved aftermarket block is a a Ritter Racing Products XR-1 or XR-2.

DDartDude (D^3): I don't think it has to be the same year block. Some of the MW racers used to use the industrial 426 block, and that wasn't even a production car block. I don't want to spend the money on a Ritter or even the R3 340 replacement block. I have a small stack of 340 blocks in inventory already. That casting number seems to show up for the 273 and 318 blocks. I guess I'd better keep an eye out for one of those.
http://www.rosevillemoparts.com/reference_castingnumbers1.php

The question of what intake came up on Classracer about the D-Dart intake. Did they use the flat 273-4 intake that was used on the 235 HP version, or the LD4B? I looked in the old performance book and it just says it had the Holley carb, different cam and headers.

The D/Dart came with the 2536771 intake. They used an in-house made 1/2" aluminum spacer/adapter for the 4160 Holley carb, list #3778. It was a 7?0 cfm carb with 1 11/16" throttle bores. Not sure of the exact cfm. The aluminum adapter had the same throttle bores as the carb, it had to, but I'm not sure of the intake. I didn't measure the intake on the car that I sold which would have been correct. On Ted's old race car, the 771 intake measures 1 9/16". The late Paul Ceasrine said it was a high flow intake and thought it was also bored to 1 11/16".

I think the LD4B with the Chrysler part number came out some time in the 70's.

Thought Galen's book was wrong with just the 318 only listing of the block.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about the spacer, but that makes sense. Did the bores taper down to match the holes in the intake, or where they straight through and just there to clear the carb butterflies. I had one of the 273 AFBs and intake about 25 years ago, but can't remember much about it. I put the chrome air cleaner top on my 225 Barracuda coupe and somebody bought the car before I swapped the a/c tops back.

The spacer was not tapered. Here is the spacer on top of the 771 intake and a few shot of just the spacer.

OK ?????? Now I have to figure out how to post pictures on a reply.

Here's our D/Dart site. Some good info on it.
http://www.seriousviewers.com/d-dart/ddart.htm

Use the "file manager" function

DDartDude, thanks for all the info. That was interesting to see the list of owners and some of the cars and parts. Lots of good info on there, not just for the D-Darts.

Looks like I opened up a can of worms by sending you over to Class Racer. All that whining about the LD4B. I think anything we can do to get more Mopars involved the better. Way too many chebbys out there now.

I posted the photos of the D/Dart carb spacer on the 771 intake that is on my car. It is not tapered and looks like it was rough machined.

A little rant.... I hate reading 273 builds. Even though there is a reason a person is building a 273 motor for their car, everyone says to throw the little 273 away and put a stroked 360 in the car. And then they describe the 360 build that you "should" do. Arg.

Anyways...my D/Dart ran a best of 12.95 at 105 back in 66 while competing in D/S. Nationally, it wasn't competitive. The engine was blueprinted, as all engines were back then. It had the, as delivered in the trunk, Doug's headers on it. I believe they were 1 3/4" with 2 1/2" collectors back then. They used 7" M&H A140 slicks mounted on 4 1/2" rims -- wow --- and ran 5.33 gears. I'm not sure what they launched at but they shifted and ran through the traps at 6800-7000 RPM's. And don't forget the rosin burnouts.....for traction.

Yeah, Billy Nees got going on wanting to kill the LD4B. I can see wanting to keep Stock pure, but the cat is out of the bag or whatever the cliche is on that? Hopefully your post put the brakes on in the lights. I was going to kill the whole thread but some didn't want that and I couldn't find a way to delete it.

D^3, I can understand the big engine over the 273 build scenario. It doesn't cost much more to build the bigger engine and you don't have to wind the snot out of them. Stocker and SS racing under rules is a unique deal. I was hoping it could be a more of a "dime rocket" as they call it, but it's not looking like I can do that.

I didn't expect to get some much interest on Moparts or Classracer with the 273 deal. That little engine has some fans and a couple of new guys wanting to build a similar combo to mine. Thanks to all for your info and inspiration on this combo.

Nice photos of the spacer on the intake. Did they use a flathead screws to hold the spacer down? The throttle bores on the spacer look like they were cast rough, but cleaned up a little on one side. Kind of strange. So much for the idea that the manifold holes were opened up to match the carb bores. I guess the spacer provided clearance for the larger throttle blades and also go from the narrow AFB pattern to the wider Holley pattern. Thanks for posting these photos D^3.

Not sure why they got their panties in a wad, it still a bracket race, unless this Bill guy is in your class and runs heads up

The manifold is no different than piles of other parts that have been made legal through the years....... Like aftermarket rods, roller rockers, and edelbrock heads.

http://www.nhra.net/stats/pointsdtl.asp?...=N/A&pt=221

7 1188 V/SA Billy Nees, Wharton NJ, 70 Nova 14.898 15.80 -0.902

It looks like he also has a 1972 Nova with a 307 that runs in T/SA. I found him in 2014 in B/SA with a 1998 Firebird. It looks like he mostly runs the six cylinder Nova.

i have known Billy Nees for years he is generally a good guy and very knowledgeable on Stocker combos. About 25 years ago when he still had a shop and lived in N. J. I was living in a condo and could not do an engine swap on my Dart there, Billy let me do it at his shop and even helped and would`t take any money. As well as having several cars of his own he drives for other people also, the Firebird he drove belongs to Larry Pappas and it used to belong to the late Lloyd Mckay. Good luck with your Stocker combo, those old Darts and Valiants are cool. so is Stock Eliminator. Isn`t there a guy around Kansas that runs a Valiant S/S 273 stick combo that flies? Long time Mopar guy Billy Belafato from Westchester Cty. N.Y. built a 66? Valiant 273 stocker a few years ago that ran well ( low 12s) but i haven`t seen it in awhile.

I think Billy Nees just wants Stock to be the way it used to be. I kind of agree with that, but people have spent money on aftermarket parts now that were declared legal. I'm talking with Billy Bellafatto about his 273 parts. He's got a Diplomat or something else now and on to a new combo. Matt Steen at Victory Engines run the Valiant in SS.

http://www.victoryengines.net/

Billy B has had a lot of different Mopars and combos, how ironic you are talking to him about his parts, thats the guy Matt Steen I could`t remember his name.

i wish we could go back to the days without a set of heads costing 5k, transmissions and converters costing another 5k.

This cost factor will be the final nail in most people not going into this class.

I am trying to build a car that will run .3 under the index without all of these expensive add-ons.