426 Max Wedge

[Sewie]

I just bought a 1969 Road Runner for 500$ it has an air grabber hood that has 383 on the side I ran the numbers on the motor I came up with a 426 not a hemi but I dont know what max wedge it is the numbers on it are

side of the block 2406730-1
R&L
on the pad on top it says V42 hp

Heads are 2406518
Please help I dont know what of the many max wedges it is stage 1-2-3 street or what or is there any numbers some where else that I dont know where they are

Thanks Mopar Fans

[ehostler]

I think that was most likely V426 HP

V = 1964
426 = CID
HP = High Performance

As it is a 1964 unit, it is either a Stage II or Stage III. The 518 heads are standard 1964 Max Wedge heads with 2.08/1.88 valves.

2406730-1 confirms that this is a 426 Wedge 1963-65. The -1 tells you that it is the first casting in the mold.

[Maxwedge]

did you check the vin numbers for the original engine type?
and an Honest question..some of what I am about to say might be bad information!?!??!?!?!?!
are you sure that would be a stageII or III, they still made 426 Wedges until the early 70s for motor homes and such.
The reason I ask that is that I thought the stage II and III were race motors, just because its a 1964 motor doesnt mean that its automatically a race motor does it?

[ehostler]

I'm just going by the MOPAR engines book that states the 1963 & 1964 426W was the max wedge at either stage II or stage III. The 426W engines after 1964 were just wedge engines. There were many differences between the wedge and the max wedge. Thats why the later engines were called 426W and were not called max wedge or given Stage identifiers.

It is possible taht the book is wrong or that I have mis-interpretaed the book, however I don't think so, based on the engine stampings, the block castings and the head castings.

[Maxwedge]

Ohhhh
I didnt know you looked the numbers up, I thought you were just assuming that all blocks from 64 were stage II or III....My bad, cool find then!!take the block out and sell it for more than the car is worth. Guys kill for those blocks.

[ehostler]

Keep the engine. It's a great engine. I had a friend that built one to stage III specs and put it in a Factory race car that had never been used (the original racer/owner took it's engine for another car and kept the shell, just in case).

[Sewie]

I have been having trouble getting on here thanks for the info it helps so this motor can get a full interior road runner 69 in the 12's I was wondering what kind of horsepower does either of the two produce what kind of money would I see if I went to sell it and I checked it is a 383 car originally so thats that how can I find out if it is a stage 2 or 3 is there any kind of numbers to look for?

[Maxwedge]

well the factory 13.5:1cr cars did mid 11s in race trim. Id tend to believe that a similar engine, less radical with modern car/intake/cam/ower compression/modern ignition and heads can do that for under 5k.