I just got off the phone with Nathan (Redfox) and explained to him that his original 426 from his maggie was taking up much needed space in my small shop. The solution, store it in my 67 cuda (the Bacaruda) till he can figure out what to do with it The amazing thing is Nathan was down with it Seriously, since 05 when I bought my first hemi engine my goal has been to install a new Hemi in my Bacaruda. The original plans were to take my 414 Hemi that I built in 07 and put it in my Partner at the time Scott's (beast2)'s 03 RC to go set some truck records with and once that was done put it in the Backaruda. Well as it turned out Scott was a thief and never returned the 414 or quite a bit of other stuff from myself and many others after I split with him and PR&D. So my dreams of a stroker big block in my 67 had to be put on hold while I worked on recovering from the losses of the previous few years with crooked partners. Well, in life there are some dirt bags and some good people and Nathan being the latter is letting me borrow his first 426 to put in my 67 Cuda till I can build my own. This is irony because 50 some hemi strokers down the road, this engine was the first Hemi stroker engine I ever built. It was also the first 426 Hemi in an LX ever and depending on how you look at it either the first or second 426 CI third gen hemi ever, so this engine has allot of history for both me and Nathan. Not all of it good as we had a couple of valve springs break while learning what springs and hardware were reliable with 0.625 lift cams and it broke a cam bolt on the way back from shindig in 07 bending yet more valves. But it also was one of the best high points of my hemi career when it powered Nathans 4700 pound magnum to the first ever 11's NA pass for an LX when it went 11.87 at Shindig in 07 also becoming the fastest NA LX in the country at that time. Now some 6x,xxx miles down the road and who knows how many hundreds of 1/4 mile and 1 mile passes later it's going to find a temporary home in some old school Mopar Iron. I've already ben working on trial fitting a blown up 5.7 block and heads along with the Viper T56 transmission thats going to be matted up to the Hemi with a modified lakewood scater shield. So I'm getting the fitment issues worked with the help of another bud, Dericks (05silverhemi)'s 5.7 block that he so generously put a rod thru so I coud use it as a fixture. I'll get some photos of the car and engine this weekend and keep posting as we progress. Les (TX Swim Dad) is concurently doing a 5.7 install in his Ruster so we'll have two installs to cover actually. But, In my current excitement I had to at least post something. Thanks Nathan and don't worry, I won't Scott it.
Actually Nathan (RedFox) was also smart. Since it was your first 426 engine build he is letting you break it in and get the bugs out. And maybe add a fresh rebuild before you gave it back. That would also be new parts for our engines that are improving every year. ..
The engine has over 70000 miles on it so by now it's bug-free The reason it's not in Nathan's car anymore is that Stu built a new engine for Nathan so this "old" engine was just standing around collecting dust. Better to put it in a car than in the corner of the shop.
Congrats Stu if anyone deserves something back it's you. Nate your a good man for doing this only downside is when will he ever have time to install it-Well you could pull a Scott and work on your own ride while your customers stuff sit to the side and "BORROW" parts off of theirs as yo need them, etc, etc...-JK/LOL...
very cool stu!!! i remember when i watched nathan run that first 11 sec pass at the 07' shin-dig!!! was some pretty cool stuff...... yeah, nathans a pretty good guy!
The color we were going for on the bacaruda was the same metallic copper that is in you neon pic. It turned out a lot more like UT orange though. Which I guess is OK since I'm in Austin. It would suck if I lived in OK though. Les, (TXswimdad) is helping me on the labor and I'm helping him with parts and stuff so hopefully I can get this done without my customers paying for it.
If you need some input you can check with Robert @ Blue Sky Dynamics.. he did 5.7 swap in his older 69 Cuda as well.. http://www.blueskydynamics.com/personalvehicles.html still a work in progress unitl he got his new SRT Chally..
