Projects Dodge This - 1939 Dodge Southeast Gasser Build

Hahah Tyler is our Tyler - not a guy at Wiseco. This isn't CP Wiseco Not letting those turkeys back on the pistons now. Tyler is starting a machine shop business so he is up to the task. Or maybe Johnny Thomas will cut em I don't know yet. I need to run a punch down the valve guide to mark the center of the valve before taking the engine apart.

The valve does need clearance on the top of the bore on my big aluminum heads - the iron heads are fine but at this point - if its coming apart - the aluminum heads are going on it. Just need to notch the top of the cylinder a little and whack out the valve pockets .010 more than the iron heads.

But yeah - Wiseco didn't miss by .090 or something - they missed by .250 +

 

Tony, it would be helpful to Wiseco, if you, or your guy who ordered this pistons, called Wiseco, and informed them that, either there info on that engine/cyl. head is incorrect, someone slipped when writing the order, or the program writer for the CNC, goofed. It'll keep them from making the same mistake. Try not to be too hard on them, I've made my fair share of mistakes too, but as I've explained in the past, nobody at these parts manufacturers wakes up in the morning thinking to themselves, "wonder who I get to piss off today.., yipee"!
PS. If your gonna throw the alloy heads on now, better clay the dome, and make sure the radius is ok for those heads. One more important tip for everyone. NEVER assume your custom parts are correct!, check, check, & check again! Always good to put one piston in and check all fitment, before screwing the short block together. Scary part is, there are plenty of people who would have put the heads on, and if everything rotated, would have tried to run the engine & broke a bunch of parts.

 

Damn it did not register with me it was our Tyler. Well in that case F Wiseco .

 

Hi Tony
Building a unique engine is always a challenge
You may think you moving slower with the build than you should be.
But in fact your going at a good pace just look back at the thread to see.
Time spent getting things right now will only improve your chances of successful runs at the track.
Keep up the good work.

 

I have to agree with ya Ric - I should have seen it when I first got them. It was Christmas break and I was bored so I bolted the bottom end together and covered it up. All I had to do was try a head back then. Johnny buys a lot of SBC pistons from them so he will talk to them. I got myself backed into a short schedule now. Makes me afraid to let them out of my sight. If I calculated right the new heads will drop the compression 1 point but save 70lbs. Plus solve my roller cam spring / valve issues. And flow better.

 

Since the alloy heads flow better, you pick up pumping pressure, because the cylinder is filled more, so even if you lose a point of static compression, you could still end up with the same,or more pumping pressure. You gonna dyno this week thing, or stick it in the car and "Street Dyno" ala Dale Wilson style.

 

Last two sbc I built where with Wiseco pistons I got from Johnny. I had no issues and where quality pieces but again it was for sbc. I'm interested to see how this is handled. Hoping this will be a minor set back.

 

For a minute I thought those piston domes were for the 426 hemi... but I'm pretty sure those had the entire combustion chamber tipped inwards - making the head gasket was much closer to the intake valve than the exhaust valve (to narrow the engine overall width)... Or maybe they are a 426 style piston to be installed with the wrist pin offset in the opposite direction??? Regardless Ric is right: check, recheck, and recheck again - especially with custom parts! These are not belly button engines, LOL

 

Luckily the club went in on a butt dyno a while back. It stinks because everyone uses it at least its not at my house.

 

Well that's another good point - did they think it was the new 392 Hemi ? The piston sheet doesn't say 1958 anywhere.....

 

I wondered the same thing, but yours have the old school dome? One of the piston making terms many of us use is "center line out". With valve pocket locations, center line out, refers to how far from wrist pin center is the cutter when you start cutting the valve pocket. If that dimension was say 1.950 & and the guy entering the numbers had a finger fumble and hit the 6 under the 9 on the keypad, it'd be off .300. Just now thinking, I bet they got the locations screwed up with a 241/270/331 type Hemi

 

Ya cause our spec sheet would say "1958 Chrysler 392 Irrigation pump" that way there'd be no confusion as to which engine.

 

Ha ha ha Ric, but that's urban legend...

The ONLY place Chrysler ever used the 392 was in 1957 and 1958 Chrysler cars - specifically the New Yorker and Imperial - well the 'real' 392 that is, LOL.

All Chrysler Industrial engines (irrigation applications included) and Marine engines that were hemispherical head were 331's or 354's.

The CP spec sheet for pistons for my dragster reads 1955 Chrysler 331 Orchard Sprayer, right?

 

Nope, those were smudge pot starter motors.

 

Still has the sticker for the "Sodium Cooled Valves" on the valve cover.

 

I'm going to enjoy watching this build. What's the ceiling height in your shop?

 

Its like 12 foot 4 inches and the lift needs 12 foot. You can't even get a socket between the ceiling and the top . I actually considered strapping it to the ceiling studs

 

Here we go - the math of it all. Went to Johnny's before calling in sick from work He is damn old school and he mailed - like the Mail Man type mailed - the pics I printed on paper for him, off to Wiseco. They should get them by Tuesday . He called yesterday and they said "No one has complained before" Ok fine. Whatever.

He lent me the Burette to CC the chamber. It comes out to 70cc

Ha! snapped a selfie at Johnny's If you see me at Greer congratulate us for fixing this shit



Here is the CC test :


Damn wish I could get clear valve covers

So here goes the math -

Volume = Pi * W * L
I used an online calculator - which says 49.82 cubic inches per cylinder. Makes sense for a 392. So far so good.
70cc = 4.2717 Cubic Inches
49.82 divided by 4.2717 = 11.6 : 1 compression - yes ?

 

I know the selfie was the last picture taken. I will look forward to seeing how the pics from the new camera turn out

 

Or the 3/4" reach plugs required sticker...

 

Almost but not really.

Compression ratio is simply the volume at BDC divided by the volume at TDC. The volume at BDC includes the combustion chamber too.

A stock Chrysler 392 displaces 49.08 cubic inches per cylinder (the swept volume). If you have 70 cc's (4.27 cu in) at TDC, the math becomes 4.27 + 49.08 = 53.35 cubic inches. 53.35 / 4.27 = 12.49 so your compression ratio is essentially 12.5:1 with that combination.

 

49.82 cubic inches per cylinder means you are .030" oversize. That increases your compression ratio slightly to 12.66:1 because you are compressing slightly more into the same volume at TDC.

 

Nice! Then Wiseco got that part correct because Johnny asked for 13:1 and I had a 104cc chamber at the time (now its 111cc) You made my day

 

Happy to help. You can square up with me at the Meltdown Drags, I take Miller High Life as currency, LOL

 

The math with 104cc gives more than 13:1 CR.

104cc is 7cc's less than 111cc. 70cc at TDC minus that 7cc gives a new TDC volume of 63cc, which equals 3.84 cubic inches. The CR with a TDC volume of 3.84 inches is 13.97:1 so they didn't get it right after all.

 

No Georgia shine ? Ok High Life it is!

 

Too bad this Nov '57 issue of Speed Mechanics won't help much nowadays. Found it in a stack of my Dad's magazines this morning. It made me think of your build. Keep hammering on it brother

 

AHHHH Shhhit!, that selfie broke my bifocals!

 

Come on Ric I know you have Palm Tree Rats to get rid of

Scot - I need that "Step By Step Do It Yourself " no kidding.