My 72 340 ralley

[nick68]

I have been working on on a numbers matching 72 ralley 340 for about 6 years now. During that time I have replaced so many rusted out parts I hate to sum that up here.

In later posts i will show old progress pics that I have to organize.

But here is the engine that is bored .030 over and aligned honed and decked.

I put the motor back into the freshly painted engine bay on xmas eve a few years ago. Thanks Santa !

[Street_Challenged73]

It looks like you have a very nice project underway!

[femtnmax]

Great to hear you have a good start on your cuda.  Did you build the engine to the old higher compression??   I had a 73 340 low compression.  It ran well, but I could imagine the older high compression would have been an even better performer.
The color looks great, would like to see pics of the car when its painted.

[nick68]

With the exception of a small amount of decking the block to get it square,and the above mention boring and the addition of a edelbrock intake and carb, I rebuilt the engine to factory specs.

If I was to do it today now that I have a good job, it would look stock on the outside, but inside, well,,,, hmmm I would say a 416 stroker kit with 64cc combustion chamber so I can run it on the street would be a good start. 

Mostly I tried to rstore the entire challenger to factory specs, with few exceptions,like the subframe connectors i put in for example.

I started finding old pics, heres the original dirty nasty engine i pulled.

[Katfish]

Is it my monitor, or did you paint the engine violet?

[nick68]

Is it my monitor, or did you paint the engine violet?

No it is factory blue, The camera I had then was as cheap as they come, Thats actually a "Good" picture   LoL

[nick68]

Amazingly, The master cylinder and booster were original and still worked when I drove the car

[nick68]

Well the engine bay did not start out so great looking

[nick68]

So, I had to cut out the inner fender

[nick68]

Installed new inner front fender. I made sure to take measurements before hand

[femtnmax]

hmmm I would say a 416 stroker kit with 64cc combustion chamber so I can run it on the street would be a good start.

I'm the same way.  I found a great deal on a 360 short block, but 2 years later with time to ponder, the idea of a stroker sounds better and better.  Building a whole car, I'm having so many cost overruns there is no room in the budget to change crank and pistons now.
These days 1 hp per cubic inch is relatively easy to reach.  Either a 340 or 360 putting out around 400 hp is real close to the OEM specs of the original big blocks back in the day.  So we are not doing too bad.
Cylinder heads and their port flow is one of the 3 "power producers".  If your running OEM heads, did you have them ported?  Would still look stock on the outside.

[nick68]

working on the rear

[wagesofsin]

looking good nick!!   

[quapman]

Holy schmomboly...........there's no side on that car!

Nice looking project. Six years, eh? Sounds like one of my rides....LOL.

Welcome to the board.

[nick68]

Thanks guys. I learned alot on this board.  Hopefully I can post some more pics tonite.