I'm going to give you a back story on my Mopars, I have always been a Ford guy but in 1983 I met John D.. Now John was racing a 64 Chrysler 300K and running 11.0s @ 120 mph, he built his motors, transmissions and rearends. That summer he had decided to repaint the 300and I talked him into striping the car before sending it to the body shop, so for a week or so he and I removed all the paint. I also took on the task of making him a fiberglass hood and front bumper.
Over the next thirty years we traded back and forth, body and paint for his motor, transmission and gear work on my Mopars.
John spent many months in the VA hospital in Iowa City in 2013 and 14 and past on 3/9/14. I had rounded up all the parts for 452 and was having Joe put it together as fast as he could ( I was on the road) this gave me something to talk with John about, it was cool I walk in his room or give him a call and there would be no hi Tom he would just unload his thoughts about the 452. He was building the motor in his head lying in bed.
My best buddy past away before I got the big block running and truth be told I didn't touch it for six months after his death.
One day in the fall of 14, I grabbed my collection of bits, stones and flappers and put about 8 hrs in the heads, the heads had been pocket ported to the templates back in the day, I just made them better.
Steve did a valve job on them, we finished assembly then I took it to work and gave it some good paint. The motor sat in the shop then 3/9/15 one year after John pasted, it was dyno time he would have been pleased.
One year latter we ran the 500", John would have danced a jig.
This is the kind of friend he was, back in 91 six of us halled our cars to a track little more than a hundred miles away. Racing starts at 5pm all my buddy's were out second or third round but not me, I won my class then they did something I've never seen before, all the winners had to race each other and guess what I won! The last race was a 1:30am and John stayed to the end, everyone else left after there loss, but not John.
It was a privilege to be a friend of JD.
Sorry for the long post, but it's funny how a Mopar can change your life.