Bill Goldbergs 1969 Hemi Charger R/T

I was contacted by Bob Johnson from Atlanta GA . He is one of Bill Goldbergs Car Buddies and has been inlolved with Goldbergs car collection. Bill purchased this beautiful 69 Dodge Charger R/T and it had a stroker motor in it but the original engine came with the car. I was contracted to bring that matching numbers Hemi back to life.

While being a nice unbroken solid piece it was missing many pieces and needed everything. Bob Johnson told me from the start, Bill will not be shy about running the car hard from moment one so it had be ready to run and there would be no break in period . I decided to build a hot rod engine that looked like a bone stocker. I utilized a Callies 4.150 crankshaft , and I had to bore the block .070 over to 4.320 with a result of 486 cubic inchs. I sonic tested the block to make sure the .070 overbore would not be an issue, it wasn’t. A tried and true Herb McCandless design .572 solid bumpstick was chosen . I had to replace one cylinder head and luckily found a correctly dated virgin casting.

Bill wanted a little thump and race gas was no issue for him so 12 to 1 compression was the ticket. Actual compression was 11.99 to one . I installed a set of Norris stainless steel roller rockerarms with smith brothers custom pushrods and adjuster sqrews . I located an NOS original Hemi thick damper and a super cherry original chrome dome air cleaner . I finished the engine and test ran it , very crisp. Just like I had been told, when Bill picked up the car Bob Johnson told me he left at wide open throttle , leaving nothing but twin sticky black streaks as far as the eye can see .

Bob made the comment afterwards, if it was going to come apart , it would be apart right now. So I was glad everything worked out and I have been told Goldberg really loves that Charger R/T. Who can blame him , the car is very cool and very fast. It was very nice working for Goldberg and everyone I dealt with during the engine project spoke very highly of him as being a great human being with a big heart and my experience with him backs that up. Goes to show , sometimes nice guys can finish first.

Arruzza High Performance 119 Cardinal Crest Court, Pittsboro NC 27312 John Arruzza - 919-475-1840 www.ArruzzaHighPerformance.com