3.9l V-6 ??????

[crackerg]

Alright this might sound crazy but I want to consider this idea and I am looking for others that may have considered it or done it.

I have been looking into building a 3.9 for a mod, while Iknow this probably is not the smartest thing. I want to give it a whirl.

I know the 318 piston can be used and will need to be special order for more compression and that there is no steel crank available. I also figured that I would need to use the w-2 style valve gear to make it adjustable for the heads.

The cam is where I have kind of been hitting a snag, I have a good relationship with a couple of cam grinders and may could get them to help, but I dont know if this issue can be tackled.

Oil Pan would be another problem but I feel I could probably make one if necessary.

Also does anyone know if there is a four barrell intake availbel for the 3.9 L ?

Please let me know if there are others that have tried or considered this idea, constructive please......

[I8URACING]

Jesse Lackman was involve with a imca mod that has a 3.9.

His web sight is http://www.revsearch.com.

I only saw the car run once but it sure did have a cool sound. I am unsure how much success they had with it.

[knuckledon]

Concerning your question about using the v6, we had a fellow use a left over Busch series chevy (yuck) v6 in his modified a few years ago but he had limited success.It seemed to lack the torque it needed to keep up with the v8 cars.

[AVENGER29]

In early december we hold the Miller Nationals here at Rio Grande Speedway in south Texas, and every year several imca modified using v6,seem to dominate. Never really paid much attention to them,except that the damn things seem to run upfront all the time. In fact so much so that they are forced to add a weight on right front wheel area. We normally get 130 to 150 modifieds for that big race and they come as far as Nebraska and Canada.
If they can do it with chevy,why cant we do with Mopar????
Possibly lack of parts may be an issue. Years ago i did brakes & tire management on a Cascar team in Canada, and all we ran was v6, on short tracks we were very competitive, but we were also somewhat at a disadvantage on larger track, where cubic inches was a most.
Good luck
avenger

ps. we use to have a guy locally that ran a vw engine in a modified, 4 cylinder, never won with it, but top 5 or 6 every week.
You could hear that engine over everything else and the damn thing was reliable....

[Jesse Lackman]

Jesse here,

yes we ran a 3.9L V-6 some this summer in IMCA Mod. What really killed it was the 2450 minimum weight rule that went into effect this spring. The car was started last spring (2000) and would have been more competitive because light wieght was the goal. I'm sure at 2450 there are no competitive V-6 IMCA Mods.

Any four barrel manifolds for the 3.9L engines fir the pre-Magnums and have 318 port sizes. I used a pre-Magnum throttle body intake with a Holley 4412. But using the Pre-Magnum intake on a Magnum is like putting a 318 intake on 360 heads. I ran out of time to fabricate a sheetmetal intake. Anyway it made about 240 hp with a .500 lift Hyd roller cam. It pulled -4" against the 4412 so it wanted more carb. We put on a Holley 650 two barrel with the engine in the car. That helped.

But at a car weight of 2450 it needed two more cylinders.

It will be back on the dyno this winter for a custom intake and four barrel carb.