Dealing and fixing problems with Max Wedge intakes

I now have a '62 Dart Max Wedge clone. I had an engine built for it. Its a '67 .040 overbored for 448 cubes, Edelbrock Victor heads ported to Max Wedge size, the original '62 Max Wedge intake, two 750 CFM Edlebrock carbs, a Hughes Engines solid lifter cam, their rocker arm shafts and rocker arms and pushrods, 3/8" braided fuel lines from the new gas tank to the new Carter 120 gallon per hour output at 7.5 psi (what you need for Carter or now Edlebrock carbs to run right), a 7 qt. Milodon oil pan, a Dvorak one way screen instead of a windage tray and a crank s****er that had to be hand-fitted to within .020 of an inch, a Mallory billit distributor, etc. On the dyno this engine made a "corrected" 572.5 HP at 5900 rpm and still at 571 HP at 6200 rpm and 562.5 ft. lbs. of torque at 4500 rpm and the test ended at 6500 rpm. The engine was tested on a cold February day when the barometer was at 28.03, the lowest the dyno man had ever seen, the air in the shop was 60 degrees and if I had the actual numbers instead of the "corrected" numbers I probably would have hit or surp***ed 600 Hp, especially if they would have used 87 octane gas instead of 93 octane gas because the lower the compression the more HP lower octane gas will make with no detonation problems. My engine only has 125 lbs. of cranking pressure so I'm lucky to be getting 8.0 to 1 compression. So it runs great on 87 octane gas, 87 is always fresh because everyone buys it but the 93 octane gas sits in the tank forever.

Now, here's the deal with the Mopar Max Wedge intakes, why they sometimes don't work like they should and how to fix the problems. First you must realize that all 62, 63 and 64 Max Wedge intakes with the short ram intakes were all the same except the 62 had smaller holes in the intake for smaller carbs. Drilling out the holes for the carb ****erflies took care of that. The 63's and 64's have the big holes for the carbs and are also reinforced where the end plugs are in the intake so you can take off the plug and get to the intake bolt. People were overtightening those bolts and cracking the intakes so Mopar reinforced those spots.

The Max Wedge intakes are sloped down from back to front. I have had people try to tell me that the whole engine is slanted when it is in the car correctly but those people I don't try to argue with. I have an original intake and its sloped. End of story. Some problems come when the car cranks for a while and the cranker starts pumping the gas pedal a lot and raw fuel gets into the front four cylinders. If the intake wasn't sloped all 8 cylinders would be affected (yes, I know if the motor is slanted the same thing would happen). The rear of the intake is so sloped that on the dyno, with a separate air cfm reader on each carb, the rear carb was ****ing in almost 5 times as much air as the front carb did. Not very many people know this and I wouldn't have known either if I wouldn't have seen it on the dyno sheet as a lot of dyno places don't measure the air intake from each carb, they just check the A/F mixture from the exhause and go from there. Both carbs together never went over a total of 700 cfm and I have 1500 cfm available. Carbs are way too big, no doubt they bog badly on the street, right? The heads ports are way too big, no doubt they bog badly on the street, right? That's what ALL the "experts" say. My car never bogged since I put the new engine in. You can stomp on the gas pedal all the way down from idle and it just takes off without the slightest hesitation. How can this be?

Some of the worst problems a Max Wedge intake will give you is not wanting to start, you pump the gas and you get a big backfire that might leave your carbs with flames coming out of them and even a fire down in your headers. This fix is easy. First, put electric chokes on your carbs. Most people run those carbs with no choke or with the chokes wired open. That's just asking for trouble. For some reason within two days the carbs resovers of gas leak out and the reason the engine doesn't start quickly is there is no gas in the carbs yet and it takes a lot of cranking to get the carbs full. An electric fuel pump would fix that but are hard to mount on a '62 Dart. So after you get the electric chokes installed, crank the engine and just push down far enough on the gas pedal so you feel it move. The cranking will continue until the carbs get gas and then the engine will start with no backfiring and idle much better. These engines are cold-blooded and I don't even move my car until the water temp. is up to 150 degrees.

Another thing is you need a lot of advance in the initial timing and a little in the distributor. The Mallory billet distributors give you three bushings for a little advance from the distributor after it starts and you can put 20 or 24 degrees of initial timing in and total timing of 36 to 37 degrees (remember, distributor degrees are two for every one measured at the crank. So if your initial timing is 20 degrees and you are shooting for a total of 36 degrees when the timing is "all in", then you need 8 degrees in your distributor's timing curve.) If you don't have an adjustable find out what works best for you on the initial timing, figure out how many degrees you need from the distributor and you can spot weld the slots in the distributor up to the correct slot run. You will need to have a distributor machine to see where that mark is before you weld it where you want it but they aren't hard to find.

Another misnomer I see it that people think because they had their engine was dyno-tested it is all jetted and timed properly and all they have to do is to put the engine in their car and its ready to go. Not even close. The dyno test was done with an open exhause and no air cleaners which, depending on the restriction those parts cause, the carbs have to be rejetted up to 10 times leaner, depending on how restrictive the air cleaners you are running are and how restrictive the exhaust is when its capped up. It won't be anywhere near what worked best on the dyno but it will work at the strip if you use the same jets as were used on the dyno, the exhause is uncapped and either no or very low restriction air cleaners are used.

I perfer the Edelbrock carbs to the Holly-type carbs. Too many adjustments to make and I don't see the good in taking off a fuel bowl so the fuel leaks right onto a hot engine. Edelbrock carbs are simple. I have two sets of Edelbrock carbs, one for the strip (haven't made it there yet due to a very sick father who I tend by myself) and one for the street. Its easier to change those carbs than to take them all apart to change all the jets. To make just the primaries on both carbs richer or leaner (track conditions may be much different than they were on "dyno day" and you may have to "tweak" the carbs a little). Changing the metering rods for the front (there are no metering rods on the back jets) will let you jet one hole on each front carb one step (.003) richer or leaner, if that works do the same thing to the other two holes in the front carbs. Remember, you can go too rich forever but you can go too lean only once. After that at least one of your pistons will probably have a hole in it from too much heat in the combustion chamber and it will burn a hole in the piston at full throttle.

Although my parts (carbs and heads) weren't like the ones from the factory, I found that the stagger-jetted chart I had found on the web but lost (I have the numbers written down in the carb book that came with the carbs) is pretty much "on" and only minor changes were made to the jetting to get it perfect (12.5 to 1 A/F mix at full throttle).

Chevy crossrams and Hemi crossrams are not tapered, they are as tall in front as they are in the back. But these tips should apply to you people too. I learned about the front four cylinders getting flooded on the day of the dyno test. They changed jets to try again, forgot to seat the top part of the carbs good and they leaked. Meanwhile, before the leak is spotted, the dyno man is pumping the throttle back and fourth repeatedly and the engine man pulled the front four plugs out and raw gas came out of each cylinder. Without doing that is where the big backfires come from. That and trying to run no chokes.

I do have a 3500 rpm torque convertor and run BF Goodrich street slicks with an 8.8" tread and very sticky and it doesn't matter how fast or how slow I'm going, the gas pedal can be floored suddenly and the engine never bogs when its warmed up, it just takes off like a rocket. I had to go 8 steps leaner on my carbs for the street because the air cleaners that would have fit the original heads won't fit the Victor heads because both the intake and exhaust ports are raised 3/8", taking room away.

So make sure you are getting a good spark, follow my tips and that should cure any problems with Max Wedge intakes on them and any "problems" with a dyno'd engine not running well after its put into a car with mufflers and restrictive air cleaners attached.

If anyone if interested in what factory jets were used on the original cars, let me know and I'll try to find them. Things got moved around a lot and I think I know where they are but if I'm wrong it will take a long time to find them. The front carb used (guess what?) smaller jets in the front carb than for the rear carb. I guess they had a good reason to do this (like I already told you). When they dyno'd an engine to see what worked best they were dynoing a race engine that wouldn't see air filters or mufflers.

No doubt I'll get back some replies that tell me I'm full of **** and all I have to say (in advance) that if your way works better than mine, if you even have a Max Wedge intake on your ride or a crossram and use it to drag race once in a while and on the street too you just can't find the "sweet spot" and leave it alone because its a pure race car, you have to adjust your ride for the conditions you will be using it for at the time. End of story unless anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them.

 

I know this thread is Old...but I am interested in knowing if you went 8 steps all the way around. Just front, just rear, or total?