Chrysler, one of the most dominant names during the early “Muscle Car” era, developed three basic series of engines which are still very popular in racing and performance today. Recently, the engineers at Chrysler added two versions of a new V-10. Both have become very popular. For our purposes we will refer to the 273-360 Small Block Chrysler engines as the “A” engine, the 383-440 Big Block standard head engines as the “B” engine, and don’t forget the ever popular Hemi. In these pages we have attempted to pass along some common “tips” learned during our many years of engine building, as well as the experiences of many of our customers. We will not attempt to cover all of the little things, only the more unique and aggravating trouble spots. If ever in doubt, there are many excellent reference manuals. (Mopar Performance) is one of the best. It goes into great detail about Chrysler engines.
Engine Types
Small Block, “A” Uses “20″ Prefix The basic 273-360 engines, produced since the mid 1960’s, have remained relatively unchanged as far as the valve train is concerned. The 1964-1991 engines used shaft type rocker arms which required some special changes in the camshaft design to allow oil to flow to the top of the engine and into the rocker arm shafts. Most of these early engines featured either grooved or offset holes in the third and fourth cam journal. In some instances a combination of both grooves and holes were employed. You must remember that if your engine has shaft type rocker arms there must be some groove or oiling hole combination on the cam journals. In 1992 The Magnum version of the “A” engines were changed to a pedestal style individual rocker arm design.

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