Mickey Thompson Challenger engines

[landman]

I just bought a set on eBay.I know they're Pontiac but which? 421?

[landman]

I just bought a set on eBay.I know they're Pontiac but which? 421?

I found it, they were 389s

[astroracer]

It really doesn't matter when it comes to replicating them. Any Pontiac motor will work. The blocks, cylinder heads and intake manifolds from 389 thru 455's are all physically the same size. The only real differences are internal.

Mark

[GaryR]

What Mark said, they all pretty much look the same.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Everybody is sorta right. But not exactly.

All the Poncho V8 engines in 1/25 scale can pretty well pass for each other because the real ones look so much alike.

There are exceptions though. The BIG one is shown below.

EARLY engines ('55-'59) had coolant passages coming out the front ends of the cylinder heads because they were "reverse cooled". Like zo.

From 1960 on, the Pontiacs had a normal cooling system, and big 'ol freeze plugs in the heads where the coolant lines used to come out.

The 301 engine built from '77-'81 (and the '80-'82 265) has a shorter deck and is slightly smaller physically, though really probably not noticeable in 1/25 scale.

Blocks had two freeze plugs per side through '66, later 3 per side.

Engine mount bosses appeared on the sides of the block in '59. The engines in the Challenger kit do not have well-defined mount bosses on the sides of the block (the real Challenger was built in '59 using ex-Pontiac factory test engines), so if you want to represent later engines, you'll need to add the mount bosses. It's easy to modify the blocks to look about right.

From '64 on, blocks had provision for starter mounts on the LH side of the block. Prior to that the starters all bolted to the bellhousing.

FYI. The engines in the Challenger kit are very similar to the engines in the old Revell parts-pack engine kits. Parts interchange, as it's much the same tooling.

 

Edited September 29, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy