I'm looking at an late 1980's Dodge D150 that the current owner represents having a 413 wedge motor. Any ways of identifying this type of motor? I don't have much big block history or knowledge. Is the 413 a reliable motor? What kinds of issues are common to the 413 wedge? I also understand there was a max wedge motor produced. Any difference between a wedge and max wedge?. Thanks..

.413 post

This is assuming it's not the heavy truck 413 which is a completely different animal. The passenger car 413 is just like any other RB. The early ones had the crank with the studs in the flange, the later ones have the typical threaded crank flange. The major caveat is that the year of the engine reflects the philosophy at that time, 4 bolt VC versus six, detachable rocker arm stands versus integral, details like that. The Max engines are another animal. I know some of the members have a lot of experience with them and I'll leave that to them.

the early ones, up to 62, i believe, and the 62 chryslers, have the extended [by 1" i think] crank flange, which can only be used with those years transmissions.
the 62 and onward 413's have the standard length crank flange, and can be used with most common transmissions a guy will run across to use. they have the standard 6 bolt, threaded flange and register diameter for the flywheel or flex plate needed.
4 bolt valve covers were changed to the common 6 bolt variety in late [?] 63, and the integral rocker shaft mounts were changed somewhere in that time frame as well.
the first max wedge heads were the "286" castings,4 bolt valve covers, no exhaust cross over ports, and have way bigger ports than the standard heads. i think the 63 stage 2 heads are casting number "209", [4 bolt valve covers] and the 64 stage 3 heads are "518" castings with 6 bolt valve covers. i believe all of the max wedge heads have 2.08 intake and 1.88 exhaust valve sizes, and closed chambers.
if ANY of this info is wrong, please correct me !
the spiders in my old noggin may have spun up some cobwebs in that section of my "storage unit".

All the RB blocks have the cubic inch stamped onto the small rectangular raise pad on the driver side of the block across from the distributor in front of the intake valley pan, 413,426 and 440 along with other hand stamp info on which year, HP and so on: scope:
The block will have a casting date and casting number cast on the sides of the block towards the rear of the blocks, the casting number will tell you which block also, the casting date tells you what year, month and date it was cast on: scope :

I don't know, I have a 413 out of an Imperial and IIRC the engine pad doesn't have the typical stamping like the later engines. By later I mean starting with the 1965 model year, the 'A' series.

I've never heard the term "A series" used with any Mopar B Bs
What does it mean: work:

My '65 Sport Fury engine pad was stamped A426 HP. '66 would be B440, '67 is C440, '68 is D440. This website explains it better than I can.

Engine Stamps

I was under the impression that Mopar didn't use the A stamp on the first production year of any of their motors, I was wrong

They can be identified by sight if you know what you're looking at. If you don't know what you're looking at then it will just be a mystery.

Not sure I understand your answer. Thought this forum was to help other Mopar fans with questions using knowledge and experience of other MOPAR fans to make informed decisions.

All the Max Wedge blocks had small exhaust valve notches machine into the top of cylinders walls to clear the 1.88 exhaust valves, they also had the oil pump pickup machined to 1/2-inch N.P.T. size instead of the standard 3/8 N.P.T. They came with a swinging oil pickup also, which was a serious design error as it would suck air when accelerating hard and deaccelerating. The stock oil pans only held 4 quarts in the sumps also, NOT GOOD
I have seen some of those M.W. casting number blocks use in passenger cars in late 1964 and some in 1965 B and C body cars with the street 426 wedge motors in them with no valve notches and the standard 3/8 oil pickup
I guess that was part of the waste not, want not thinking back then after switching to the race 426 hemi motors in the early spring of 1964 and stop making the race 426 M.W. motors

A friend of mine has a standard bore 11-1 cr '64 max wedge long block and we've spent a lot of time this summer getting everyone's opinion including Jerry Stein over this very subject. It doesn't have the cylinder notches plus it has the 3/8 pickup. Another oddity is the compression ratio works out to about 8 to1 with the small dome pistons. Had it for sale at Carlisle but no takers for 3600 bucks. It sold the other day, finally. If I had a early b-body it would been mine.