1971 DOHC 426 HEMI CUDA (?)

[TECHMAN]

Took the grandson to the Corvette Museum (Bowling Green, Ky.), and across from the Vette Museum was ART'S AUTOS.......  okay, some cool looking stuff from the road, we decide to have a look.....   Outside, 1971 Cuda, sublime green, nice.  Closer, second look, HEMI stripes, nicer!!!  As we were standing there admiring the car (and noting the "NOT FOR SALE" on the windshield), the curator comes out with a group of people from inside, and opens the hood.....  A Hemi is cool, BUT.... The second I saw pulleys at the end of the heads, well, HAD MY UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!!!!!!  Curator only told that it was a DOHC and car was NOT for sale....

I remember, a few years before selling my racing engine shop, getting some literature on some DOHC heads that would 'convert' the Hemi (and seems like the RB also} to DOHC, seems like was MOSER that offered the heads.  Wonder if anyone can shed some light on the car, heads, or whatever....  (am "reasonably knowledgeable" on Mopars, but NOT a "walking Encyclopedia", grandson asked some questions I couldn't answer....)  Built quite a few of them over the years, but mostly Chevys & Fords......   ANY help appreciated.

DJ

Would post pictures, but not set up (sorry)

 

 

 

 

 

b

Edited Monday at 03:15 AM by TECHMAN
addition

[NOBLNG]

Not sure what years this may have been available?

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-dohc-hemi.1166038/

[TECHMAN]

GREG, 

From what I remember (and have read) this engine never really made it past the development stage, as NASCAR had banned any OHC engines (1965) so Chrysler Corp. just halted any further development....  Shame they didn't follow thru, would've given the Ford SOHC 427 a "rough way to go"!!!!  THANKS for the info.

DJ

[Mark]

The engine pictured was never made available, and never actually ran.  One was turned at high RPM using an electric motor, to test the valve train, but that's as far as it got.  Chrysler only publicized it in order to get NASCAR to step in and stop the escalation taking place with experimental engines at the time.  The Moser conversion was an aftermarket thing that apparently didn't get off the ground.

[magicmustang]

There are parts to make one in the AMT 1970 Coronet Super Bee Pro Street kit.

Edited Monday at 01:07 AM by magicmustang

[BIGTRUCK]

40 minutes ago, TECHMAN said:

Took the grandson to the Corvette Museum (Bowling Green, Ky.), and across from the Vette Museum was ANDY'S AUTOS.......  okay, some cool looking stuff from the road, we decide to have a look.....   Outside, 1971 Cuda, sublime green, nice.  Closer, second look, HEMI stripes, nicer!!!  As we were standing there admiring the car (and noting the "NOT FOR SALE" on the windshield), the curator comes out with a group of people from inside, and opens the hood.....  A Hemi is cool, BUT.... The second I saw pulleys at the end of the heads, well, HAD MY UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!!!!!!  Curator only told that it was a DOHC and car was NOT for sale....

I remember, a few years before selling my racing engine shop, getting some literature on some DOHC heads that would 'convert' the Hemi (and seems like the RB also} to DOHC, seems like was MOSER that offered the heads.  Wonder if anyone can shed some light on the car, heads, or whatever....  (am "reasonably knowledgeable" on Mopars, but NOT a "walking Encyclopedia", grandson asked some questions I couldn't answer....)  Built quite a few of them over the years, but mostly Chevys & Fords......   ANY help appreciated.

DJ

Would post pictures, but not set up (sorry)

 

 

 

 

 

b

Posting pics for TECHMAN (DJ Moore).

 

[THarrison351]

55 minutes ago, magicmustang said:

There are parts to make one in the AMT 1970 Coronet Super Bee Pro Street kit.

How I built mine

[TECHMAN]

COOL!!!  Good looking models!!!!  Thanks for sharing!!!!

Still trying to find out info on that 1:1 car....  Whether would happen to have ended up with a "prototype" engine (of which only TWO were reportedly built), or if in fact, would be a "converted" version with something like the Moser Heads used....   Any MOPAR Gurus out there?????   Any help appreciated.

DJ

[TECHMAN]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

.  The Moser conversion was an aftermarket thing that apparently didn't get off the ground.

There was a local car collector/business owner who has (when I left East Texas 4yr ago)  a 32 Ford Roadster with the DOHC heads on a SBC, (many of his cars have been featured in various Hot-rod type magazines),  and as memory serves, was reportedly "pretty healthy"......  Only thing I really remember about it, was a set of valve-cover gaskets ate up a $100 bill back then!!!  So I would expect a complete conversion kit would be rather "cost prohibitive".....  Would have limited the "buying market" to a very select few....

DJ

Edited Monday at 03:17 AM by TECHMAN
spelling

[gtx6970]

Looks like a 3rd generation hemi

 

Must be some kind of aftermarket head conversion 

[TECHMAN]

Was kinda my thought, that the intake port configuration looked like the 5.7 hemi, (flat on the mounting surface) rather than the angled port-mounting area of the 426 Hemi.  Have to go back down that way Wednesday (my once a month bank trip) so think will take another C L O S E R look at exactly "what's there".  The heads (ports, etc.) really kind of favor the old ARDUN heads that fit the flatheads of old.......🙄   Just one of those "oddities" that can't let go of!!!😉

THANKS GUYS

DJ

[TECHMAN]

BILL

Your post "got me to lookin'", EDELBROCK builds a 2X4 intake that looks JUST LIKE the one on that engine!!!!  Will have to look, but now I think was looking a some sort of "surpentine" belt system.....  and the person doing the "explaining" was either misinformed/embellishing some/ or one of the "used-car-salesman" that use to give the good ones a bad name.....😉

THANKS Again y'all

DJ

ps- still gonna stop and take a better look if they'll let me  😉

[TECHMAN]

Went past there today, no Cuda out front to inspect.......

Kind of a let-down....  Would have loved to gotten another lookie-see.......  If it was some type of "limited-production" conversion kit, would have been a pleasure to learn more about it and been able to share with our group here, but, no car, couldn't verify anything......

As BILL said, (after a bunch of searching-the-web on 3rd Gen Hemi engines), I really believe it is a 3rd Gen Hemi, and really, with an aftermarket intake/carbs/front cover-with distributor and aftermarket/custom valve covers, the car would still be desirable as a fairly unique Resto-Mod, I mean, Hemi with 2-4's, come on!!!!......  And IF, it actually has some type of OHC set-up, would be even more desirable.  If it is, in fact a 3rd Gen Hemi, is the first one that I've seen WITHOUT all the "valve cover mounted coils" , fuel-injection intake system, computer stuff, etc.......  Am still pretty "well-versed" on the "old stuff", but NEED HELP when it comes to a LOT of this newer stuff. (Makes me feel like all the old "flathead" dudes did about OHV V8's, back when I was young, and now that I wear their shoes, I understand how they felt.......)  ☺️

SPECIAL THANKS to GREG, MARK, KEN, and BILL for trying to help an old "points & condenser" guy that's trying to get by in a "computer-controlled-electronic-ignition-fuel-injected world"  😉😎

DJ

ps: at least now can answer my grandson's questions with a reasonable amount of certainty   

Edited Wednesday at 06:27 PM by TECHMAN
addition

[LDO]

I wondered if it could be something by Pete Aardema, but I couldn’t find anything of his on a 426. He did lots of wild conversions, including a big block Chevy with Porsche 928 DOHC heads. He had to get a custom block to get the bolts holes to match the Porsche heads. I would guess the DOHC small block Chevy was his. 

[TECHMAN]

1 hour ago, LDO said:

 I would guess the DOHC small block Chevy was his. 

The heads on the roadster were, in fact, Moser built (I had to chase down the HIGH dollar valve cover gaskets), but those that you mentioned are something that REALLY grabs a person's interest!!!!  So, what was the BBC engine built for, road-racing, drag racing, salt-flats speed records,....???????  Would love to know more about those.  Thanks again for trying to help shine some light on all this.

DJ

[LDO]

1 hour ago, TECHMAN said:

The heads on the roadster were, in fact, Moser built (I had to chase down the HIGH dollar valve cover gaskets), but those that you mentioned are something that REALLY grabs a person's interest!!!!  So, what was the BBC engine built for, road-racing, drag racing, salt-flats speed records,....???????  Would love to know more about those.  Thanks again for trying to help shine some light on all this.

DJ

I really don’t know much about it. Info is pretty scarce. 
 

https://www.vettemod.com/threads/dohc-heads-on-a-bbc.6544/

https://www.hotrod.com/news/hot-rodders-pete-aardema-kevin-braun-create-scratch-built-12-cylinder-behemoth

 

[Mark]

There were a number of exotic conversions back in the Sixties: the Moser small-block Chevy heads, the Leo Lyons Hemi heads for the small-block Chevy (only one or two sets made), and the Mickey Thompson Hemi heads for Pontiac and Ford engines.  Not to mention the Arias big-block Chevy Hemi heads in the Seventies.  

Just an opinion, but none of them sold in any numbers because the conversion would have put you in the hands of one, and only one, vendor for replacement or additional parts.  And if that vendor fell by the wayside, you were stuck with an orphan engine for which you'd have to make replacement parts.

The M/T Hemi Ford heads supposedly used an articulated three-piece pushrod to make it work, which didn't help.  Back then it would have been a lot cheaper to just start with a Chrysler engine, for which you could get speed equipment from any of a bunch of vendors who had to compete with one another on quality and price.

[Chris V]

Though the car has obviously been extensively modified, I just have to point out that this is not a 1971 Barracuda/'Cuda but a 1972-74 model - the most obvious giveaways being the square side marker lights (The 1970-71 models had countersunk oblong lenses) and the squarish headlight surrounds (The 1971 models had dual headlights as a one year only design feature). 

It appears to have been fitted with modern aftermarket heads. As @Mark stated above, the real experimental DOHC "Doomsday Machine" supposedly never ran under its own power.

Nice and clean build!

[TECHMAN]

CHRIS

The more that I attempt to find out about this Cuda, the MORE that I'm prone to believe that it's a "builder" type of Resto-Mod......   Looked like a flawless builder, but different things just didn't seem to "fall into place" for me......  Like the side stripes, WERE NOT what I remembered on the 71 cars when new, did the proverbial google image search, and still didn't find those type of stripes on the 71 Hemi Cuda......   Guess that will just presume that it is, in fact, a Resto-Mod and not some sort of a "one off piece of history".....  Still, was a pretty slick looking old Mopar.....

THANKS to all y'all for helping me clear up some questions....

DJ