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426 Max Wedge 13.5:1 streetable?

My one Savoy has 13.5 Compression ,and it is a lot more street friendly than I thought .I have a airport close by and use that fuel .That sound of that car running is worth it .
 
Its gonna be tuff at that comp as you will have to run a race gas which is not cheap. From what I read they dropped the comp from 13.5 to 12.5 in 1964 because they found out it could make as much power at 12.5 so they dropped it to 12.5 so the racers could use a lower octane gas as back then you could get 104 octane on the street at any Sunoco station. Myself I would do as was said and just build a nice 440 to look like the Max Wedge and build it to run on pump. You can build good quench in it and use the right cam to keep cyl pressure where it needs to be. Myself I run 10.6 comp with aluminum heads and a custom grind solid flat tappet and mine runs good on 92 pump with 38 degrees total timing. I have good quench also in my eng and it makes around 600 hp. Today we have the technology to build strong engines on pump gas. To bad the older combo's need to be changed to run on pump as they did not worry about it back when you could get 104 octane at the pump. Most eng back then had no quench and the cams were not ground to keep cyl pressure right for pump. Good luck with it. Ron
 
Mine runs at over 13 to 1 fine on the road... I have an automatic, manual brakes, manual steering, however..
I even run 93 octane from time to time. it does run on a bit when I shut it down after its warm when running pump gas (93 oct)....
Most of the time, I stop by the airport on my way home with a 5 gallon can.... It smells great too!!!
 
Max Wedge 13.5-1 on pump gas and Later on Nitro

View attachment 299054 20110624_29.jpg20110624_60.jpg20110624_65.jpg20110624_64.jpgmtr frt seat.jpgWhen I was 21 years old I bought a brand new 13.5-1 Max Wedge Aluminum front end car. All anyone had back then that you could buy for the car was premium leaded gasoline, which I did.
I drove the car on the street on occasion (just to show off)...kinda impractical because it had no heater, no defroster, no windshield wipers....but...when I went to the drag races I just used pump gas premium. We would try to find a Sunoco Station because it was perceived to be better...but I raced the car for 3 full seasons using pump gas leaded premium...then in 1966 I altered the wheelbase, installed a tube front axle, set the engine back 26", Installed a Crane Roller Cam, Vertex Mag AND HILBORN FUEL INJECTION AND RAN 80% NITROMETHANE AND 20% ALCOHOL....ALL WITH 13.5-1 PISTONS..raced it all during 1966-67-68 and never lost a motor.

20110624_29.jpg 20110624_60.jpg 20110624_65.jpg 20110624_64.jpg mtr frt seat.jpg
 
View attachment 299054View attachment 299055View attachment 299056View attachment 299057View attachment 299058View attachment 299059When I was 21 years old I bought a brand new 13.5-1 Max Wedge Aluminum front end car. All anyone had back then that you could buy for the car was premium leaded gasoline, which I did.
I drove the car on the street on occasion (just to show off)...kinda impractical because it had no heater, no defroster, no windshield wipers....but...when I went to the drag races I just used pump gas premium. We would try to find a Sunoco Station because it was perceived to be better...but I raced the car for 3 full seasons using pump gas leaded premium...then in 1966 I altered the wheelbase, installed a tube front axle, set the engine back 26", Installed a Crane Roller Cam, Vertex Mag AND HILBORN FUEL INJECTION AND RAN 80% NITROMETHANE AND 20% ALCOHOL....ALL WITH 13.5-1 PISTONS..raced it all during 1966-67-68 and never lost a motor.


Now thats cool to hear about ! Ron
 
What ever became of your 1963 Aluminum nose Plymouth ,?How long did you race it ?
 
I think that I am one of the very few people that have run a 13 1/2 car on the street. The original motor was pulled and run in a race car and then when the original owner was getting a divorce put the now replaced race motor (it is a factory Parts and Service 426 Max block), locked out TF, 4.88 gears and fender well headers back in the car. I was told by the second owner that it had a 509 cam and the 13 1/2 compression. There was a pair of Edelbrock 650s. In 1989 it was a $50 tank full between the Sunoco 94, the gallon of 104 Octane Boost and the lead substitute. Yeah, a gallon of 104. Anything less and it would ping like mad. I had it to the track once and he ran a best of 14.50 and it got worse from there. It broke up at top end, I still had the original dual point that wasn't set up very well and 28" tires too and it kind of ran out of steam at top end. I lived in Bristol, PA and one time drove to a show in Strasburg, PA on the PA turnpike. With the 4.88s I was at 4,000 RPM at 55MPH! And yes when you drive something like that the Adrenalin just pours out your ears!
 
I ran almost 14:1 on the street (13.9) with a large roller cam and very loose 8" converter. It's not the compression that makes something "un-streetable", it's the cost of the race gas. The converter, gear and valve springs (life) that have far more effect on "streetability" than compression IMO.
 
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i ran almost 14:1 on the street (13.9) with a large roller cam and very loose 8" converter. It's not the compression that makes something "un-streetable", it's the cost of the race gas. The converter, gear and valve springs (life) that have far more effect on "streetability" than compression imo.

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What ever became of your 1963 Aluminum nose Plymouth ,?How long did you race it ?

I raced it in 1963/64 and 1965. In the winter of 1966 I sold the aluminum fenders, hood and front bumper to Arlen Vanke in Ohio. (Note: This original front end is still in existance today as I had marked the inside of the fenders, etc with a special mark plus the aluminum front bumper had a little "dent" in it where I had a tow bar accident in 1964.
When I was at the Mopars at the Strip meet in Las Vegas 2 years ago I was talking to a guy who said he had bought his 1963 aluminum front end from a fella who said it had been on Arlen Vanke's NHRA class record holder car. I was standing right beside this fellas 1963 Plymouth at the time. I looked down and saw the dent in the front bumper and then checked the inside of the fenders and hood for my markings from about 50 years ago...wow...they were there and this was MY OLD FRONT END on this car.)
Back to what I did with the car....(and I did all this work myself in the shop at the back room of my Speed Shop) After I sold the front end to Arlen Vanke I replaced the front end with 1965 Plymouth Fiberglass Fenders, Hood, Front Bumper and stock front 1965 Grille. They bolted right up to my 1963 inner fender wells. I also bought 1965 fiberglass doors and 1965 fiberglass deck lid...they all interchanged also...so I made the car look like a 1965. I then altered the rear wheel base 15", altered the front wheel base 10" forward by installing two leaf springs and a CAE tube front axle with 40 ford front spindles. I then cut out the firewall,etc, and moved the engine back 26". Fabricated the aluminum interior, roll cage, shifter, steering gear, headers, etc, etc, I even bought a big piece of plexiglass and made a plexiglass front windshield using a little bottle torch to heat it and wrap in it. I drilled holes around the perimeter and screw it in. The car weighed about 2500lbs when done. I ran just a little motorcyle battery to power the gauges, I had a VERTEX mag so I didnt need a battery or alternator. We merely had the batteries on a pushcart and plugged them it to start the car. I had no radiator but ran heat heater hose from where the water pump normally bolted onto the front of the block back to the trunk where I had a 3 gallon Moon Fuel Tank with an electric water pump to merely "circulate" the water. We drained the tank on the return road after each run and put cool water back into the tank. We usually did 3 burnouts thru the powdered rosin and then refilled the front mounted Moon tank with a fresh fill on Nitro and were on our way...those were the days . Usually got paid between $250 to $300 for best 2 out of 3 win or lose.

Shifter pix.jpg b  body 65 bl windows.jpg start line 2.jpg Alt in process.jpg pixs 2 of parts.jpg
 
Mike - is this the car your front end was on at one time?



Union Grove '09 107.jpg
 
Thanks for sharing that about your 63 .I always love to hear from original owners .
 
I like that center shifter Mike!!

How fast was the AWB on nitro??


Ski,that looks FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!
 

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mike gaines

Mike, really enjoy seeing your pictures and hearing the war stories of the Golden age. I know many original cars were cut up and modified to keep up with the times, but what a shame with your rare car!
 
Yeah, those were the days! in 63 I was 12 and a yard mowing fool getting 2 bucks a pop and you could usually find gas for less than 20 cents. Love seeing the old drag cars vs the cars of today and the setups.
 
Seems like a number of original owners were very young when they bought these cars .The original owner of my Convertible was 22 at the time . I spoke with him and he said his car sat in the Showroom at Monicatti Plymouth in Utica Michigan while he arranged financing on it . It was sold new in Michigan and is a heater and radio delete Convertible car 13.5 compression T -85 stick car not to practical in Michigan .I always wish I could run across someone who remembers seeing the car in the Showroom back them ,I was 4 months old at the time .
 
I ran almost 14:1 on the street (13.9) with a large roller cam and very loose 8" converter. It's not the compression that makes something "un-streetable", it's the cost of the race gas. The converter, gear and valve springs (life) that have far more effect on "streetability" than compression IMO.


Thats the point. You cant pull into any gas station and get race gas so 12.1 or more comp is not streetable on pump gas. Now if you build the eng right and use aluminum heads you can push 11.0 to 11.5 on pump with the right cam , timing and quench. I built mine to run on pump and it has 10.6 comp and works great on 92 pump that I can get at any station in Md. Ron
 
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