Thank God for Rich people.

It's hard to hide money ain't it! LOL

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

That's Howard Davis from Bedford, IN. He races a Dart Sport called "Hillside Six". Really nice guy.

He's helping me get my Challenger back together and on track. I'm heading to his place this weekend for the initial fire up with the rebuilt motor in the Challenger.

I'll see if I can get some more photos of his car while I'm there.

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

What is meant by a 'CNC' head? Does that mean a head milled from a block of aluminum as opposed to casting?

The single biggest obstacle in that is you're very limited in how to create water jackets....on a cast head - iron or aluminum - the jackets are running in places you can't reach with a machine tool. Most milled heads I've seen are dry heads meant for very short term use....not what you'd want on a Slant Six, most likely.

There could be a two piece - or rather multiple piece casting. The main body or "bathtub" would have open potholes for water - also used as access for cross drilling for additional cooling. Before it is machined sheet metal is welded over the coolant pockets. Simpler castings with lower scrap rate. The combustion chambers and rough ports could be cast. Present the design to some well known Mopar engine guru and get them to endorse the project so you could have some legacy built-in - not that they'd contribute very much to the design, but if the 5.7 wasn't a "hemi" with the names associated with the past, would it be as popular as it is? Some Mopar DNA would be great to get coverage and free promotion.

CNC'd heads could mean either a solid head machined from a chunk of aluminum, or a cast head that is finish machined using CNC equipment. The two piece head has been done before with custom Flathead heads for Bonneville, but is going to be dicey because of having the stresses of valve springs twisting and flexing the two pieces. That has also been done before, and it had those gremlins plaguing them.

The best scenario is by far a cast head with all the 21st century improvement bells and whistles added to it.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

Yes, by my use of "CNC", i intended to mean produced from a billet, as for any run of heads likely beyond one in a casting, they would also likely include a CNC program for the finish work to the casting.

I had a Mopar guru oficiando use one of my Slant 6 products in a Mopar magazine article....does that count! LOL

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

I just talked to my buddy. Real numbers right now are he is over a year and $82,000 into this project and they have yet to get 1 marketable block. They can not find a foundry in the US that can do the casting at any kind of cost that they can make money. He also said that right now if they started getting good blocks he will have to sell 100 to break even. He also said that IF he could get blocks he could sell 100 today.

So, if he's having those kind of troubles when he has a market, just think what you'd be up against trying to get castings with a total market of maybe 100.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

That is useful information, Zilla.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

that is because there has been a terrific decline in the number of foundries in the US over the past 30 years, that means the US foundries remaining can pick and choose what jobs they want to take.
All that work from the closed foundries had to go some where. Some of the work went over seas, some of it filled available capacity here.
And considering the number of US foundries that can mold a block, the number of options in the US really shrinks. ( sorry for the foundry pun,,, shrinks,, get it,,)

if your buddy really wants to get blocks cast he needs to open up the possible site window.
There are many iron block casting options in Mexico and Brazil,,
I have contacts, so if he is really serious, has the money,,,

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Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

I've gotten a lot of my intakes cast in Brazil. The options here in the US are getting slimmer and slimmer for aluminum foundries. My head patterns are there now. Australia and New Zealand are also good sources for aluminum foundries. World Products has used foundries in England in the past too. Sometimes you just have to look and think outside the box.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

Can a Slant head be divided into 2 identical 3 cyl castings, that right there would double demand.

Can a Slant head be divided into 2 identical 3 cyl castings, that right there would double demand.

I'm joking.

Most of the alloy flathead heads are mostly for looks. I heard of a two-piece head for a Packard straight 8 that was cast very rigidly to enable 1/2-inch head studs to be used. I think they had 12:1 cr - often the L-head head gaskets fail above 10:1 cr.

I was thinking of something like welch plugs that would be located to enable cross drilling for cooling. Oil drillers do horizontal drilling, machinists have control in drilling precisely. If I strike oil, I'll pay for it