7 Cool Hard-to-Find Parts for Third-Gen Hemis

If you're a fan of the third-generation Hemi, you're probably already familiar with the biggest aftermarket name brands in the third-gen Hemi parts business, including Edelbrock, Holley, Mopar, Arrington Performance, and Modern Muscle Xtreme. These heavy-hitters are the largest clearinghouses of engines and parts for third-gen Hemi V-8s, but if you're a serious Hemi racer, there will come a time when you reach for a specialized racing part that you just won't be able to find at any of the usual big-box players. A lot of pro race-engine builders are familiar with this scenario and simply fabricate their own one-off parts in the machine shop using the time-honored trial-and-error method.

But what if you're not a machinist with a room full of lathes, mills, or CNC machines, and having something custom-made is not in your budget? You might just be tempted to reach for the cop-out LS swap, but before you do that, you'll want to check out a small outfit called Stanke Motorsports of Little Canada, Minnesota. Proprietor Roger Stanke and his sons Jeff and Jim haven't plastered the internet with ads, but they have been racing fast Mopars in the NHRA for a half-century, and the company's line of parts and tools for Mopar engines—third-gen Hemis in particular—are some of the best-kept secrets in drag racing.

As a manufacturer who races third-generation Hemis, Stanke is sometimes the first guy to see a need and fill it. Case in point: A few years back, while developing a kit to support the rocker arm shafts on third-gen Hemis, Stanke was at an NHRA class race with fellow Hemi racer and engineer Don Garlits, who was elbow-deep in his Mopar Drag Pack valvetrain between rounds. Stanke identified the potential problem and offered his new rocker shaft stabilizer kit to Big Daddy, who installed it on the spot, curing a high-rpm stability issue he was having. Though many of today's third-gen Hemi machines live on the street and don't require severe-duty race hardware, some do, and the solutions Stanke Motorsports offers can save the day. Let's look at seven of our favorites, some of which we're using in our Junkyard 392 BGE build-up that we're currently building at IMM Engines of Indio, California.

Stanke Motorsports calls it a Gen 3 5.7-6.4 VVT Degreed Crank Hub, but we call it "Duh! Why didn't somebody think of it sooner?" Multi-keyway crankshaft timing gears offer the engine builder and hot-rodder the easiest, most direct way to adjust coarse valve event timing and has been a go-to part for all domestic overhead-valve V-8s since such engines came into existence. Perhaps because the Hemi offers electronically controlled variable valve timing from the factory nobody saw the need, but once you start playing with high-rpm engines with long-duration cams and high lift, the computer-controlled VVT function is typically locked out, meaning any baseline adjustments to cam timing need to be made manually. Stanke starts with a high-quality Melling gear, then has additional keyways cut, using wire EDM technology for its precision and resulting material hardness. The additional keyways provide reference for zero, +2, +4, -2, and -4 degrees of valve timing.

In many instances when V-8s are swapped, their oil filters are either too obstructed to service or physically interfere with the chassis. In the case of the third-gen Hemi, no oil-filter block-off/oil-filter relocation kits existed before Stanke Motorsports came to the rescue. The company's 5.7/6.4L block-off plate (shown above) is designed to be used with any remote oil-filter kit, but Stanke also offers a billet-aluminum version of their own here for $65 that accommodates a Fram HPR4 or HPR8 oil filter and employs -10AN inlet and outlet ports.

Stanke's billet-aluminum MDS block-off plugs are a step up from the injection-molded plastic pieces sold by Mopar (as part No. 53032221AA, $18.99 ea. ), and run about $23 more for the set than their plastic counterparts. They're reusable and can be removed safely with a 5/16-inch slide-hammer according to Stanke. If you're going with a billet-aluminum look and want to dress up the valley of your Hemi block (this area is visually exposed once an aftermarket intake manifold is used) these O-ringed pieces are good insurance against lube-circuit failure at a modest cost, and are a direct replacement for the OE-style non-VVT plugs.

On stock Hemi engines, variable valve timing (VVT) is controlled by pressure-modulation of the lube circuit that governs the range of camshaft timing authority. On high-performance Hemis with long-duration, high-lift camshafts, the Hemi's VVT control needs to be physically locked with a phaser lock-out kit, such as COMP's part No. 5760. Doing so moots the function of the VVT control solenoid which is just along for the ride and only functions to seal the lube circuit from leakage. Often, the VVT solenoid is damaged during removal, and rather than risk reusing it, it's better to replace it with Stanke Motorsports' O-ringed billet-aluminum VVT plug, which looks a ton better and is ironically about the same price as an OE-replacement VVT solenoid.

If you're using an Apache 6.4-liter block, a BGE 6.4-liter truck block, or a block from a 6.2-liter Hellcat, it will have been drilled for piston oil-squirters. (Note that the squirter design, spray pattern, and targeting results in a different squirter design for each application's OE pistons.) For some drag racing classes, it may be beneficial to eliminate the piston oil-squirters to save mass and reduce parasitic friction, and Stanke Motorsports Hemi block-off plugs allow for this option (factory oil-squirter shown for comparison, above on right). Note that this practice is limited to drag racing applications where heat-soak and endurance are not at issue; this is a move intended to eke out every thousandth of a second of e.t. in classes with strict engine rules such as NHRA stock eliminator.

Like other modern V-8 engines, the third-generation Hemi's many computer-controlled parameters make manual tuning processes obsolete. Armed with a laptop, software, and an interface cable for the factory or aftermarket engine management system, one can make changes in ignition timing anywhere, but sometimes the exigencies of operating in the field at a dragstrip or on the dyno requires fast and simple adjustment on the fly. In drag racing, seconds count, even when those seconds are spent in the pit or staging lanes. An ignition timing pointer isn't something the Hemi comes with from the factory, but it is a time-saver for drag racers under pressure. Stanke Motorsports' adjustable timing pointer is a godsend for drag racers in a hurry, but this one comes with a caveat: It will only work with an OE timing cover, so if you've got a Holley mid-mount accessory drive you'll need to fabricate something different.

We're saving the best for last with Stanke Motorsports' Hemi rocker shaft stabilizer and collar kit, which we mentioned in the intro. Although the third-generation Hemi's shaft-mounted rocker arm system is one of the best OE valvetrain setups ever put into a passenger car, every OHV pushrod V-8 engine has valvetrain stability issues at high rpm. It's just physics; every valvetrain has resonant frequencies that the factory avoids by designing the hardware so that resonances occur outside the normal range of operation. Once we increase the power and operating rpm range of an engine, these resonances are exposed and amplified. A rocker shaft stabilizer system dampens the engine-destroying resonance that happens at higher rpm, and the shaft collars capture the rocker arms to limit the lateral movement that can damage valve guides and valve tips.