How To Tell A Mopar Normal 340 Head From A TA Head? What Makes A Cuda AAR Head Unique?

[@aulduronsmith5577]

I came here, because of Jaime's mention of this channel. Be sure to thank him.

[@rocketresto]

Appreciate you coming over. Hope you like the channel.

[@aulduronsmith5577]

So far so good.

[@craigcontofalsky4387]

My buddy and I raced AHRA Super Stock Dusters back in the early 70s. His was a 4 speed and i ran a 727. He got one of the first set of W2 cast iron heads with the removable rocker stands. His class was H/S. He had a single plane W2 intake and ran a Dominator 1050. His car was all tricked out front to rear and ran 10.40s @ 130 mph. My automatic car was a basic NHRA engine except for the 850 Holley. It ran 11:20s @ 122 mph. Those were great days. I think my whole car cost $4,500 to build. He probably had $10,000 in his mostly for the engine.

[@rocketresto]

That’s quick!

[@beljames1563]

Never been a small block guy. But between Jamie and personal experience I'm coming around. And the sound of a good sb is almost.... almost as nice as a bb.

[@rocketresto]

Same

[@timmotel5804]

Good Day. Cool & educational.

[@PlymouthOnPlywood]

Once again thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

[@edsmachine93]

Nice parts find for sure. Some real pieces of history. Thanks for sharing. 👍

[@rocketresto]

Thanks for watching!

[@Darryl-69SE]

Love the sat videos

[@JeffMiletich]

It's Saturday , 11:28 AM & I was just about to take a nap, but then I get notifications that You And Jamie have dropped videos, so I have to watch. I hope you're pleased with yourselves...

[@scottsmith1897]

I was going to rake leaves but........... they can wait maybe the wind can blow them into the neighbors yard.

[@rocketresto]

Sorry not sorry

[@samuelgoodman2825]

Great info Tom

[@idaholineman5788]

Super cool love this stuff Tom!

[@rocketresto]

Fun deep diving into this stuff, didn’t know myself how to tell till I did some half arsed Internet research at the swap meet to figure out what the heads were.

[@JoeFilardi]

hi Tom great ep im glad you got a lot of parts to use at the swap meet.

[@allanperryman388]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@rocketresto]

Thanks for watching! Jamie is going to do a follow video on the race small block stuff I think.

[@danmcintyre9961]

Good info, nice work Tom.

[@noberet]

🤘thanks Tom!

[@EC-mc7vg]

I haven't looked through much of it in a while, but I still have some old Mopar stuff from my hotrod days. I know I have at least one X head and some J heads. A 1967 273 Commando, 1969 & 1971 340. Pretty sure I have a few parts from a 1968 S Package Barracuda. And parts from my first car, a blue 1969 Barracuda Fastback. Brings back a lot of memories seeing this video.

[@rocketresto]

All that stuff is super cool stuff and getting very hard to find. Have a 68 340 Formula s cuda we are trying to put together now.

[@EC-mc7vg]

@@rocketresto It is getting hard to find. I think I have the small power brake unit off a 68 S package. A guy I knew had a 68 S Package Notchback 4 speed. He wrecked bad on a rainy night I got some of the parts from it. Wouldn't part with the tranny, console or Hurst shifter though.

[@pcbullets8726]

Some pretty cool stuff. Even better when you get stuff for free.

[@rocketresto]

Free stuff is the best stuff

[@Legacy_Lou]

Great 411 here 😎

[@JeffLeblanc-xb7qe]

Good score

[@MidnightOilsRestoration]

Wow, that’s a great deal!👏👏

[@rocketresto]

I thought so

[@XenosagaEclipse]

The P in front of a part or casting number stood for I have heard 2 different stories) but either "performance" because they were sold through the Direct Connection program or "Petty" as most performance parts were run through Petty Engineering sometimes marked PE

[@rocketresto]

Believe its performance don’t think it has anything to do with petty.

[@XenosagaEclipse]

@@rocketresto Thinking back, I agree. I remember a local racer that used to buy heavy duty suspension items and such and they started with PE.

[@approachingtarget.4503]

The block you have is a commando mopar block. They came out with the w2 head and eventually the w9. They kept the blocks for commando crate engines. Still for sale today. They are normally sold as 440 ci combos.

[@rocketresto]

Never heard of a commando block, weird.

[@approachingtarget.4503]

@rocketresto i forget what location. But the Plymouth engine factory produced the super commando and commando engines. 340 was the only sb commando. Beefy blocks and higher nickle content.

[@dantupper1784]

With Chryslers' main focus on Hemi's and Big Blocks in Drag Racing and NASCAR, seemed like the SCCA Program could have been more successful had it started small in '68 when the much more competetive 340 came out, given more time and cash to work the bugs out. The late-start lukewarm SCCA effort, with traditional new racing series/engine/car teething issues, finally starts to sort intself out, then Corpirate decides to toss in the towel. Maybe continued SCCA development would have resulted in the planned W2 headed E58 police engine for The Little Red Express Truck being up to mass production standards for example. And greater success when NASCAR went smallblock in the '70's. Be interesting to see what that guy's trailer #2 has in it. Thanks for sharing some cool parts, Tom.

[@rocketresto]

Tried to get over to his house after the show but he ghosted me.

[@TheJagjr4450]

Nice block with roller cam bearings... all that glyptal and those D ports on the W2 heads look like circle track stuff from the late 70's - 80's.

[@rocketresto]

That’s what I could gather from talking to the guy, maybe kit car stuff.

[@autonomous_collective]

That 340 block is an aftermarket race block thats not in production anymore. Call KEN LAZZERI at Indy, they just got 35 of them in for a limited final run .

[@autonomous_collective]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHvCpJWol8aVmckfeature=shared

[@rocketresto]

They still make them? With the same part number?

[@autonomous_collective]

@@rocketresto They stopped making them.. Rare find. Make the call to Ken.

[@DPWheeler67]

Very cool, any plans to build the TA 340?

[@rocketresto]

Think Jamie @deaddodgegarage is going to do something with that performance small block.

[@josephkwapich6113]

I bought a 340 from a guy that had it in a clone AAR cuda and it ended up having T/A heads on it. The guy had tried to used stamped steel rockers on it and bent all the push rods and valves. I should have just sold the heads but I ended up buying rockers and had them totally gone through.

[@rocketresto]

They are really neat pieces and a very cool part of Mopar history.

[@OldcarsNmusic]

That block you referred to as a W2 block is probably an X block. It was an improvement on the T/A block in a lot of ways.

[@rocketresto]

Not sure the nomenclature on these.

[@ronaldrey8474]

Professor Tom teaching like a BOSS ! The blue heads exhaust ports look LARGE . Was that the port work or did video make them look different ?

[@rocketresto]

You talking the W2 heads? Everything I showed except the stock 340 O heads had been raced at some point so it has all been modified.

[@ronaldrey8474]

@rocketresto ty again for replying Tom. Yep, if raced then heads probably massaged ( a little)

[@MrTonyPiscatelle]

So in this video the TA valve springs look to be smaller diameter than the springs in the other head. Or is this just a color difference giving them that size appearance difference?

[@budlanctot3060]

The spring retainers on the AAR/TA heads he's showing are not oem AAR/TA. They are aftermarket retainers. The ones on the stock 340 head are the ones that come on the AAR/TA heads. Valves, springs, & retainers on AAR/TA heads are the SAME as regular '70 340's.

[@rocketresto]

Yep all that’s right!

[@larryhutchens7593]

You are missing a couple of things on the TA block. Primarily the main bearing web in the block is very beefy compared to the 318, 340, 360 blocks. On the heads: The pushrod holes for the intake pushrod is moved over to allow for a larger intake port. On the regular 340/ 360 heads the casting for the pushrod hole pinched the intake port considerably. Chrysler didn't have the finances to pursue TA racing, they were concentrating on NASCAR & NHRA drag racing instead. Besides, the TA thing didn't last very long.

[@aarvolaredonjunior1032]

79 this block won pro stock championship

[@haroldkellermier5502]

Call Herb McCandless he designed the W2 stuff 👍

[@rocketresto]

Know Herb and his son Mike, Herb is a national treasure.

[@ldnwholesale8552]

I knew what they were. Next problem though is they are probably cracked. J heads are accepted as the best castings and were from [here in Oz] 360s. But 30 years ago trying to find decent ones was near imposible.We never got the 340 engine apart from the few Chrysler Aust brought in [ both 4bbl and 6 pack] for development purposes. How many? Around 50, maybe. I know of a few 340s in VG and VH Valiants and saw the short Wheelbase VG utes being developed as Charger test pigs. A chap I knew worked around the edges of all thatat Chrysler and they came to visit a few times. Initially 6 pack 6s then later 340 and 6 pack 340s AFAIK the only 340s actually sold as low mileage used cars were all 'only' 4bbl engines and were all autos. The ones I have seen are all 4bbl. And were all autos. 340 TAs used mechanical adjustable rockers, one 273. And one from a poly engine to get the offset one. Parts bin special! You can use 273 rockers on all LA engines. With solid lifter cams.

[@rocketresto]

Would love to be able to play with some of those hemi Oz engines someday.

[@roycervantes1341]

Good afternoon,,,,,,,, Yeee Yeee 😊

[@rocketresto]

Yay yay

[@budlanctot3060]

I thought the MP 340 blocks were called, R2, R3, etc

[@rocketresto]

Not sure need to do more research on them.

[@budlanctot3060]

I always ASSUMED the "R" designation referred to "race". Don't KNOW the real designation or the reason.

[@annamckinney6622]

Exhaust ports look different as well. Shape and size (bigger).

[@rocketresto]

On the ta heads in the w2 heads? The ya heads were definitely on a race block so they have been worked over a bit.

[@Rick-S-6063]

I noticed the larger ports on the TA head as well, but I see the response below and that clears it up.

[@aarvolaredonjunior1032]

Mopar performance W-2 355 race block made from late 77-79 gonna be real expensive without them caps.

[@rocketresto]

Trying to get them

[@JeffLeblanc-xb7qe]

@@rocketresto hopefully he still has them

[@carebear2272]

But is it the size of the value or the design of the heads, or maybe the design the heads to take bigger values lol or both, interesting thanks, I always have to comment before finishing the video 😝

[@carebear2272]

Looks little and more compact

[@approachingtarget.4503]

The 1970 x head was made in small quantities. Not enough to qualify for factory equipment. The 1970 TA head for the AAR Cuda had much larger intake ports and exhaust ports. In addition, the rocker shaft pedestal was cut down. These heads were done by Mark Danhue. Those blue T/A heads are 1971 or later. The 360 T/A head is the later version. They only made approximately 350 1970 X T/A heads. To find a pure 1970 x ta head...your looking at $5000 plus for the set.

[@paulcraven4652]

You do not know what your talking about

[@pgmurray76]

What is gooderer!? A billet Indy!?

[@rocketresto]

Sure!

[@HelpingHand-ic4wt]

showing up is 38.292% of success

[@rocketresto]

Thought it was 38.293

[@smilsmff]

R on it from Resto block early models

[@rocketresto]

R for race?

[@jamesblair9614]

I predict more than a few nights of fitful sleep, thinking about all the things that went for scrap metal, all the treasures that you might have overlooked. How much money is the scrap metal guy going to give them for that pristine un-used pair of aluminum K heads anyhow.

[@rocketresto]

Evan and I went through pretty thoroughly but think he was going to scrap a bunch of stuff at his house too, but ya, I get it. Lots of good stuff went away.

[@coarsegrind]

Why didn’t Chrysler move the pushrods out on the big block heads?? Big mistake.

[@rocketresto]

Once the 426 Hemi came out in 64 big block performance was put on the back burner. Unless it was NASCAR or drag racing they weren’t going to do a big head redesign with expensive rockers for an out dated platform that was outclassed by the Hemi. Once the Hemi died in 1971 all the racing money went with it and the big block just hung on until 78 with minimal changes.

[@markwanc1103]

glad to verify that there are others with the same disease I suffer with LOL

[@rocketresto]

You are not alone

[@graydude4698]

👽 .... ..

[@scottnorris8571]

X

[@SixBarrel]

The 340 trans am heads are a real performance advantage , use special rockers and Is the original W head. This heads and the W2 Is the Hot modification before any aluminium head for Mopar LA engines . 🍻👍🏼

[@rocketresto]

Totally

[@mikedimaio1237]

I could take that dry sump system off your hands if you are interested.

[@rocketresto]

Not sure what I’m doing with it yet, contact me so I can get your contact info, no idea what it’s worth.