UFC Street Fighter

Good.

Hey, welcome to the horsepower shop, which today is getting decorated with one of our favorite Mo

Bar muscle machines.

Yeah, it's a 1971 Dodge Challenger RT, the R of course, stands for road, the T for track. And

back in the day this baby was at home on both. This one's got the original lime green paint scheme set off by a signature 71 RT stripes.

It's sitting on a set of Combo Pro wheels and the owner gave it some attitude with a five inch cow hood

underneath. It is one of the most powerful and most popular power plants in Mopar history. The 440. Now, this one's been modified a little bit with an aftermarket intake shot a mattress and a new 750 CFM car. Today, we're going to start the build up of our own version of the Fabulous 440. And in weeks to come down in the muscle car shop, our buddy

going to drop it into a freshly redone Plymouth Barracuda

and it's going to be an ultimate street fighter. And for a good reason

you see we're building it for Dana White, the man behind the ultimate fighter on Spike TV.

Talk about a knockout match up the power block home of the baddest vehicles on TV.

And the UFC home of the baddest and toughest fighters

to jump start. This engine build, we had to find a good solid use block that we can machine and use as a foundation for a big block. 440

took a while to find it, but there it is in all of its greasy glory,

an old 440 short block that we bought for about 350 bucks

ready to load onto the truck

along with new parts for a long journey to Florida.

Well, it's a good thing, buddy still has his machine shop up and going and another cool thing we get to check out some of his awesome project cars from his past. Oh, yeah. We got everything we need here to clean and machine that old block and

get it ready to build one fine 440 Mopar.

Now, here's somebody we hope we don't need today. This is Bob.

Anytime you're having a bad day in the shop, you just take it out on Bob.

I

think we better start tearing down that block.

Yeah, I did.

That was a little tougher. Yeah, it was

all right, buddy. What do you think this cranky keeper? Yeah. Don't look too bad. Once we got the bearings off, this doesn't show a whole lot of wear, but we'll put it up on the bench and check with a Myer

just to make sure. All right.

Ok. We'll check our rods first.

Uh, that appears to be standard.

That's good.

Go to our mains

and that's also standard

after a good hot bath and buddy's spray washer and a thorough rinsing

our 440 crank shaft gets a good coating of WV, 40 to prevent rust.

And since we're going to reuse the connecting rods,

Mike gives them a good throw of clean up in the blast cabins.

Then the caps need to be cut to make the hole smaller for resizing,

followed by a little tampering in the bolt holes

and smoothing down the edges.

Then a RP ROD boats can be pounded into place.

This is where we, uh,

resize the big end

and how do you know exactly what size you're going for?

Well, once we get to a certain size, we're gonna check it on our competitor here right now. We're about 7000 is too big. So we need to keep honing this.

But another 7000 will be right on the money.

Well, after finding the lightest rod, you match the other's weight to it by grinding off material for balancing calves that are on each end.

This is the boring bar. So we're gonna go ahead and set it up, get it with the self centering pins

and then that centers the cutter head right up in the center of the bore

and that just makes cutting so much simpler.

Ok. We're gonna go ahead and put a champ on the cylinders to help the rings go in.

Now to create counterweights, you fill cylinders full of shot to precisely the same weight of the rods and the pistons.

Now, we can load each bob weight onto the journal of the crank shaft to represent the rotating mass.

Finally, our freshly machine block is clean, dry and ready for some paint before the riot homes.

All right, we're gonna go ahead and finish this motor up when we get back to the shop. But on a road trip like this, it's not always all work and no play with us guys. You got that right. Buddy's got a backyard full of toys and

gonna have a little four wheel foot before we hit the road.

Hey, we made it back to the shop and it's a good thing, Joe didn't have to drive that tractor all the way back from Florida.

Yeah, I'll say now after machine in this 440 block down at buddy's shop, we're ready to start our build up. But there's one thing we need to point out

when we tried to balance the crank, the piston was a little on the heavy side, which would have meant adding a lot of weight to the crank something we didn't have time for.

So we rushed our balance sheet to eagle so they could grind us a new one and here's what they sent us. It's a cast steel piece with a 3750 stroke

and a six boat rear flash. Now, before we can drop this thing in place though, remember we got a bear block so we got to install some cam bearings using this installation tool that uses a guide cone and five different sets

of these expander assemblies that are wrapped with washers. Now, here's how it works. You loosen the nut

place, the bearing over the washer,

then tighten it,

make sure it stays in place.

Then we slide the bearing in place, making sure the oil hole of the bearing and the block line up.

Then using the guide cone to center things up.

We could drive the bearing in place.

Ok? No skipping on the loo for these bearings

and no trying to drop in this heavy monster by myself.

There she is,

by the way, the torque specs on the main cap boats is 85 ft pounds.

Next, we got to fill these holes up with new Speed Pro pistons,

original connecting rods. How do we get them together?

That's buddy's job.

First, I put some heat into the pistol

then heat the rod in until it's red hot.

Now, the pin easily slides through the piston and the heat expand a rod.

After they cool down a bit, we can install the rings.

Ok? Our next step is go ahead and check a rod bearing clearance. If you don't have enough clearance, you'll end up with bearing failure and you'll end up with a broken rod

to do this. You first measure the rod journal diameter with a micrometer

then with the bearings installed and the rod torqued

measure the inside of the connecting rod to see what your clearance is.

It should be between 2 to 3 thousands.

Since buddy got a head start on oiling up the pistons, I can give him a hand knocking them into the block.

After that, we're going to install the rod cap and apply some assembly lube to the bolts

to finish it up. We can start the A RP nuts and torque them down to 50 ft pounds.

During this process, we got a special delivery from our Mopar buddy, Andy Mays. He brought us a couple of small but important pieces. We need to install our rear main seal,

the rear main seal cap on the 440 seals to the crank shaft and to the block. Now, we have an original Mopar seal kit that actually lays in this channel. Now, what you wanna do to prevent any leaks

lay down a pretty thin beat of silicone in the channel here and on the top of the cap as well,

then place the seal into the channel leaving some of the seal hanging out of the bottle.

Now place a small amount of silicone on the outer edge.

Now drop in the rear main and start the bolts, push the seals down into the channel and you're ready to finish tightening the cap.

One more thing on this 440 block, we have to install six freeze plugs using lock tight retaining compound for press fits.

All right. With that done, it's time to fit this block with a good suitable cam shaft. In our case, it's a power

max retro fit from crane

with a low pattern that's designed for a balanced input and exhaust.

Notice how we're just putting a little oil in the journals since it's a hydraulic roller and being careful not to nick those bearings we just install. Oh, notice how also I'm using buddy's trick of employing the camp sprocket as a handle for better leverage

the timing sets, a crane double roller installed straight up.

And before going any further, we're gonna give this big block, a shiny coat of duple color engine enamel.

Finally, we can install the timing cover. We got from

Mopar Man black on chrome has always been a pretty good combination. Well, it's time for us to take a break. Stick around. We'll be right back.

Ok. It's time for more of our 440 build up when we get it finished this Mopar big blocks going between the frame rails of a pretty bad Barracuda

one that'll soon be known as the Dana White signature UFC Street fighter.

We got to do a good job on this motor because it's going to represent some pretty rough customers,

you know. The tough guys who compete on the ultimate fighter on Spike TV.

We think they'll get a kick out of it though, in more ways than one.

I think I'd rather lock up that motor than getting locked in the octagon with those guys. Anyway, moving on to the oiling system, we're going to use a Barroso oil pan and one of their pickups.

Plus this oil pump we got from seal power pick up goes in first

with some blue lock tied on the threads,

installs right here in the block.

Next, we can install the pump

with a gasket and four bolts. The cylinder heads we're using on the 440 came from Edelbrock. Now they're a pair of performer RPM s that have one piece stainless steel valves. They measure in at 240

on the intake, 181 on the exhaust. Now, they have an 84 cc combustion chamber which will give us a 10.5 to 1 compression ratio.

We're using fell pro gaskets in this project, including these to seal up the cylinders.

After installing our A RP head bolts, we torque them all down to 75 ft pounds.

Now we're putting our date press to use to remove an iron distributor gear from a stock oil pump shaft

and we're swapping it out for a silicon bronze gear from crane.

This way, the gear wears out before the cam shaft and it's a lot cheaper to replace.

Then we drop the shaft into the oil pump with the cam and drive gear seated properly together.

We're also using crane for our valve train including these hydraulic lifters. We install with plenty of oil.

We also want some lugo on the lifters too before the push rides, which are the old ball and socket type. You see in a lot of Mopar engines,

the roll of rocker arms mount on a shaft using springs and washers

and you wanna make sure that this oil hole in the shaft points down so that lubricates the friction side of the rocker arm

before installing though, check out how buddy is applying copper paint to the edges of our valley pan for better ceiling. So any water gets on the top and won't have a tendency to run into the bottom of the motor.

Then he covers the top side with black paint to prevent rust and well, because it just looks good.

Then we talk the assemblies to the heads

and with some silicone on the ends of the block, lay down the ballet pad,

it's held in place with two brackets on each end.

Well, as you can see that pan also offers gasket material for this

and it'll brought aluminum six pack intake manifold for big blocks. Now, this retro intake manifold not only gives the old fashioned looks but new age power in the 25 to 6500 RPM range.

Fortunately, Holly reproduces the 446 pack carb set up.

Now it comes

with a 350 CFM center carb

and 2 500 CFM outboard carbs. Now, the outboard carbs work as vacuum secondaries and they come into play at higher RPM. S when more fuel is needed. Now, we gave Summit a call and they sent us this adjustable throttle linkage and fuel line kit that's actually made by Mopar.

And after that finish on top with a set of traditional Mopar aluminum valve covers

then up front to keep our 440 cool, this polished Edelbrock water pump mounted inside AC housing

and to reduce crankshaft vibration and A T I super damper harmonic balancer.

This villa's accessory drive for Marx comes with the bracket for the 90 amp alternator we got from Power Master

as well as pulleys for the crank shaft

and the water pump.

This brackets for the power steering pump that goes on later when the engines installed.

And so will this race pumps makes this trick mechanical fuel pump that can be ran on either gasoline or alcohol. Now, it'll support up to 2500 horsepower and bolts right here to the side of the block and is driven off of the camshaft

right in there. Ok. Give it one good push.

There we go. It's in there

to help us fire off the 440. We're installing an MS D PRO built distributor and a set of 8.5 millimeter semiconductor wires held in place by looms that are made for you.

That's the brand name, by the way,

520 horsepower. Really? We, we gained some of that. Let me

pull the torque out of my throat.

Check out the hooker super comp fender well headers we're using for the exhaust.

Ok. Before we tell you what kind of power we made bear this in mind. Back in 1972 the last year of the 446 pack,

this motor made 330 horsepower, 410 ft pounds of torque,

buddy. Tell him what we did. We got 425 horsepower and a 502 ft. I found the torque. That's great. Good job. What do you want? F

five?

All right.

All right,

man. A fearsome 440 for a UFC street fighter. Great combination. Well, we gotta make a quick motor swap, get this big block on the

dyno

and see what kind of power we can make out of a mud racer machine.

Go wide open.

All right, it's good.

Hey, if you're ready for some real horsepower, this should fill the bill. It's the 588 cubic inch big block Chevy. We built a week ago for the Xtreme 4x4 Show. Now they're gonna shove this thing between the frame rails of one of their mud drag racing trucks. But before we fire it up, take a look at this flashback of the build.

It all started with a Merlin three block from World products.

A 4340 forge crank from eagle specialties

along with a set of their H beam rods and srp aluminum pistons

for a cam shaft. We opted for a lunati billet roller

and for a timing set, an adjustable cloys double roller,

lunati solid roller lifters.

And we're using Edelbrock Muy

Victor series heads

plus a Jessel competition series rocker kit

for an oiling system. We used a wet sump pump and aluminum pan from steps for cooling a moroso billet electric high volume pump

and for induction, we used a Super Victor single plane manifold topped by a quick fuel technologies. 1250 dominator carburetor

to fire off this 588. We dropped in an MS D pro built distributor and a set of their wires. Now to make the motor exhale efficiently. We're using a set of hookers super competitors that feed down to a 3.5 inch exhaust pipe.

That big block has a 13 to 1 compression ratio.

Hey, quiet. We're trying to do TV. Anyway, we don't want any detonation. So we're gonna use some of VPs 110 octane race fuel when we make those runs

open all the way

more.

Yeah, that's good.

Popping.

You hear popping through the exhaust.

Oh

boy, it's reaching here.

Eyes are burning

here on the floor.

All right. 821 horsepower, 702 ft pounds of torque. Now, that's pretty good power, considering we're only running 32 degrees of tim and on the motor and we had some pretty restricted mufflers. At least most of the way through the run.

What do you think? Enough power for your mud racer? I'm more worried Joe, that, when I hit the gas, the truck's gonna do a barrel roll off the line. That's ok. If it lands on its wheels then we'll have some real fun. Well, you got your work cut out for you now,

just make sure you keep the exhaust on. Ok, I'll try. All right.

Yeah.