Rapid D2

[Pink Dodge]

Howdy All !!  I am new to this forum, and look forward to some interesting chat....  Back in the mid 90's, an acquaintance ran the Carrera Panamericana twice in a '48 Dodge that was painted fluorescent pink. It ran very strong and fast.  He decided, like all gearheads, that he wanted to go a tad faster. I lined him up with an old friend, Ak Miller, who just happened to have one of the Holden Charger 6's just sit'n around. the deal was made, and I ended up with the D2 from Pinky. Another friend, who had a '34 Plymouth Pickup, was looking for a mill, so I gave him my newly acquired 6. This was still in the mid 90's, and as it turned out, the engine was never installed, and the truck went away. My friend passed a few years back, and I ended up with it. Here are a few details. 

D2-116860 (I'm assuming those are 1's)

Mopar big 4-spd tranny

Tattersfield alum head

Edmunds "script" intake

Chrysler carbs (2)

Phillips Performance cast iron headers

Phillips Performance side covers

 

The engine was "freshened" by the original builder before I picked it up, although I didn't know that for sure. Now, some 25+ years later, I decided to part with this critter. It has not been apart since I got it the first time. I went to a swap meet here in Idaho, with some of the parts and a description of the mill, and had quite a bit of interest, but it's not the best way to sell something. I had a couple guys want to see it, so I told them where I live and go take a look. They were skeptical, as the plugs had been out and it looked "dirty" inside. They wanted to pull the head and check it out, and made me a stupid offer, and I sent them back to Utah empty handed. 

When I got home later that day, I pulled the head bolts. They had been torqued, and were tough to break loose, but when the came out they were clean, with NO corrosion. I grabbed a mallet to persuade the head to break loose, and when I leaned on it for balance (I'm old), it moved. ****!  It popped right off. Turns out it had never had water in it, since the freshening. 

A couple of the cylinders have slight surface rust, and the rest are just as honed.. 

Okay, enough of the story.  In rummaging through the parts, I realized that there is no harmonic balancer.  So, did this series have a harmonic balancer, or simply a pulley with the timing marks??  It appears that either way, it is hard to find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated !! 

 

There was a problem posting photos, so I will do so as a comment to this post.

Thanks for reading, and please comment....   Bruce

 

[Sniper]

Vintage Powerwagons has the pulley type, you can usually find an NOS balancer type on Ebay.

 

Not sure what a Holden Charger 6 is in this story, the Holden is a GM product and the Charger didn't come out till the mid 60's and never had a flathead in it. 

 

D2 refers to a 1936 Dodge, so I am totally confused.  Maybe some pictures of the engine stamp?  Possibly it is D21, which would make more sense.

 

 

[Loren]

An Ak Miller joke

I was in Ensenada to participate in the La Carerra Classic race and it was drizzling. Ak Miller had his famous roadster parked near the entrance to the hotel and was chatting with other notables like Carrol Shelby. As I walked in he gave me the weather report, “Chilly today and hot tamale!” And you know he was right!

 

[Pink Dodge]

Hi Sniper,   I have been looking for the harmonic balancer since I noticed it was not in the goody bag with the parts....  People seem pretty proud of them....  As to the Charger, they are pretty interesting.  My mistake in that they were produced by Chrysler.  They used a variation of the venerable Mopar flathead 6 that had been produced since Christ was a corporal. They were produced up into the 70's and had an overhead conversion on the flathead 6.  As I understand, they produced around 300HP from the factory. 

I am trying to load photo's but they all seem to be too large.   I will continue to try. 

[Pink Dodge]

Hi Loren, That was one of Ak's favorite quips. H was a very good friend 'till the day he passed. Back in the late 80's I worked with him to recreate the El Caballo from the parts and pieces he had left of the original.  I vintage raced it for 10 years, several times with Ak, and I was there at the La Carrera when you talked to Ak.  He and Ray Brock, along with my wife and I, raced the critter in the Carrera Panamericana in '91.   Great fun !!  The "El Cabong" as he liked to call it, now resides in the NHRA Museum in Pomona. I donated it when we moved to Idaho from California..

[Los_Control]

Sounds like a interesting motor, never heard of it.

Welcome to the forum.

 

There is a photo size limit on the forum. Depending what you are using ..... I take photos with my android phone, then download them to my desktop pc.

I find it easier to go into settings on the phone & change the size there. Now when I want to load the photo it is already the correct size.

 

If you have photos already on you computer, then you need to open them with some sort of photo program and change the size of them there.

I just got a new phone last week .... first thing I had to do was change the photo size in the phone .... default settings are always too large.

 

 

[Pink Dodge]

Hey Los Control !!  Thanks for the info.  It had just occurred to me that I might be able to do that.  Maybe forthcoming if I don't get lost.....  Lemme know if tis comes up full sized.....

[Pink Dodge]

Another....  AHA !!! it works....  Thanks Control !!

[Pink Dodge]

And another...

[Sniper]

Interesting engine stamp, it appears to be D2-II6860,  eye eye not one one.

 

As for the Hemi 6 used in Australian Chargers, I am aware of them, the only thing I am aware that they have in common with the flathead 6 is the cylinder count.

 

Interesting though

[andyd]

Interesting story and I do like the pic of the mopar 6..........however if its the Oz Holden thats referred to they were originally body builders that were purchased by GM in the 1930's and from 1948 became the Australian manufacturer of GM's Oz cars until 2018/19 when GM ceased production here in Oz.........If the "Charger" referred to is the Australian Charger it was made by Chrysler Australia from 1971 till 1980 as the Valiant Charger, the "Hemi 6" was really just a marketing hemi in that the valve angle was longetudinal and was only a few degrees, the engine was not a crossflow as most normal hemi engines are......it was originally designed in the USA as a small truck engine but not used and was introduced into the Australian market in 1970 in the VG series Valiant as a 245 cube single,two barrel and a rare 4 barrel version.....from 1971 it was expanded to include a grocery getter 215 cube, the 245 and a 265 with a hipo 265 wearing triple DCOE Webers, headers and a few other tricks developing 302 hp in the Track Pack R/T Charger, the Webered versions were known as E37,E38, E48 & E49 versions and as sniper points out had nothing in common with a flathead mopar apart from the number of cylinders and maybe 1 or 2 bolts that may swap..........but I do like the pic of that flathead engine, seems like an Edmunds intake, finned head & headers, should go well..................andyd   

[Young Ed]

On 4/13/2023 at 4:21 PM, Sniper said:

Interesting engine stamp, it appears to be D2-II6860,  eye eye not one one.

 

As for the Hemi 6 used in Australian Chargers, I am aware of them, the only thing I am aware that they have in common with the flathead 6 is the cylinder count.

 

Interesting though

Mopar used I for ones.