Poly head racers

[Chris Barnes]

I did race a 318 Poly for a season on a bracket car that was set up like a stocker. I eventually made it go 15.0 something before I gave up and swapped in a 440. I was trying to get it into the 14s without headers (Summit was out of Poly headers). That motor would take a beating like a rented mule and drive home every time.

The intake selection is interesting. We had a functional six pack set up at one time. I know where there's a Weiand aluminum dual plane on a dead wagon in the bushes somewhere. I eventually ran a factory iron 4 bbl with a super lean Holley vac sec. A couple of old timers told me about dual quad Polys but I've never seen one. I wonder if someone couldn't go through the books and find a police package intake deal somewhere.

I never even ran the valves to tell you the truth but it was a solid cam. It would be interesting to see what could be done with a good race cam and valve train components. A friend of mine ported on a set of poly heads and made some gains.

I think the main problem with the Poly program is that it's a very heavy engine. The power to weight ratio is terrible for a race car, especially a Stocker.

I just want to say that I have some affection for those old boat anchors. There are a few of them in my yard since they seemed to come in a lot of the '63-'66s. They are the Slant Six of V8s, if that makes any sense. They are pretty easy to resurrect because they are very hard to kill.

Chris Barnes
Wagons of Steel!
Stock 6621