Mopar Small-Blocks

Book excerpt: The LA-series small-block Chrysler engine is a powerful, efficient, and quick-revving engine that has dutifully powered millions of Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth cars and trucks from 1964 to 2003. And it's also a power unit for many renowned Mopar muscle cars, including the Charger, Barracuda, Challenger, Dart, and others. The LA designates the small-block as "Lightweight A," which was a huge improvement over the previous Ageneration engine. With its compact size, 50-pound weight savings, thin-wall casting, and polyspherical heads, it cranked out a lot of torque and horsepower, which made it ideally suited for the street and a formidable opponent on the track. Although this venerable small-block has delivered impressive performance in stock trim, it can be easily modified to produce much greater power for almost any application. The LA was offered in 273-, 318-, 340- and 360-ci iterations, and a full range of aftermarket products are offered for these engines. Mopar engine expert and author Larry Shepard identifies the best parts and clearly guides you through the specific techniques to extract maximum performance from this platform. In particular, he delves into the heads, cams, and valvetrain products and modifications that will achieve your horsepower goals. In addition, he provides in-depth build-up instruction for other essential components: blocks, cranks, pistons, rods, ignition systems, intakes, carburetors, and exhaust. If you own an LA small-block–powered Mopar car or truck, this invaluable guidance and instruction will allow you to optimize performance and maintain reliability. Whether you're building an engine for street, street/strip, or racing, this vital information saves you save time, money, and delivers results. Add this to your Mopar library today!