Laying around in the Hot Rod Garage arena was one particular 400 cubic inch Mopar big-block. And it had a sad tale: it was in the truck that Freiburger originally bought to use as an engine donor for the General Mayhem project, but depending on who you listen to, either the engine shook like a chihuahua that really had to pee or Freiburger developed a conscience about hacking up a fairly straight 1970s Dodge truck. You believe what you want, but what we know is that Tony Angelo wound up with the truck, and he yanked the big-block out for a Cummins swap a while back. Fine and good…but that leaves a Chrysler 400 homeless. That isn’t good…lots of people like to write the 400ci B-series motor as a smogger lump, but with a stouter-than-necessary design, stock 4.342″ bore and plenty of room to hog out the cylinders, plus the wide availability of stroker cranks, making stout power out of the 400 is pretty straightforward: punch the cylinders, beef up the moving parts, get heads that will actually flow and have a good line of fuel ready and you’ll be in torque dreamland. In this episode of Hot Rod Garage, Tony and Lucky will give the cast-out 400 a new lease on life, and give it a great new home: a 1965 Plymouth Fury III station wagon that is California black-plate awesome!
After installing that stroker crank and the new carb I hope they upgraded the cooling system, the brakes and suspension or this could be a 512 cubic inch death trap whose engine could fry itself at any minute.
Neat job though – now give it a classic Ramchargers paint job and run it on the strip where it belongs..
If it is still running the original radiator to the car there is no need to upgrade the cooling system. It is a massive unit that keeps my big block at a constant 190 all day everyday even in the desert heat. The car would have had the same big drums that would have been there to stop an optional 413, 440 or 426 so….realistically…if they are not driving it every day or racing it…it will be fine. Not optimal by any means but…suitable……Stock heads, low compression and a stroker crank…nothing crazy going on here. here to go ape shit crazy….KISS…Keep it simple, stupid. It’s this kind of thoughts that keep people from driving or building cars because they feel they have to modernize every damn thing….
You really should investigate a Prius.
They’re very safe.
Funny you should mention that…
Last night I investigated how long a Prius could withstand the heat from a gallon of burning gasoline I accidentally poured over it.
These guys are actually cooler than Mike and David,cause they are tryin to do it right!!
You should have sat in the Prius to see how well it weathered the fire.
This made me drool and pee my pants a little….someone send me a winning lottery ticket so I can stroke mine!