What is LA

[jimynick]

Yeah, there's actually quite a few things that the old, heavier A and newer, lighter LA share as well. You can put a LA crank and rods in an older A, the cams are similar and the oil pump and timing sprockets are the same and I believe the distributors will also interchange. I think S.A.M. built a full race A (poly)for the Engine Masters competition. Check it out.  https://youtu.be/6WL35IBm2ws?t=2   

[HP2]

A engines are often referred to as the poly engines as they had a pent roof combustion chamber design in them, much like the new generation Hemi. None of their exhaust ports are siamesed like B, RB, or A engines. Some of the earlier, '50s era poly engines could bolt on 1st generation Hemi heads. By '60 their designed changed enough that this was no longer possible and in '64, the A engine was dropped entirely for the LA.

When Chrysler bought AMC in the '80s, the AMC cylinder head design found its way on to the mopar small blocks and created the the high swirl and tumble cylinder heads that created the Magnum engine family that was released in the '90s.  The LA block lost two cylinders to make the 3.9 V6 and gained two cylinders to make the 8.0 V10.

Through out the '90s, Mopar Performance released Magnum style Cylinder heads that would bolt to older LA blocks that incorporated all the Magnum head swirl and tumble characteristics but retained LA bolt patterns nd rocker arms. With 2.02 valves, mild porting and polishing, these heads would make almost horsepower as a stock W2.

The basic LA design found its way into the NHRA Pro Stoc Truck class. Small block powered powered mini-trucks running 7s was driving big developments in small block technology until NHRA killed the class in 2002.

[6bblgt]

the 318 A-engine "POLY" was still being factory installed in '66 (it was STANDARD in the Charger & some others)

[worthywads]

the 318 A-engine "POLY" was still being factory installed in '66 (it was STANDARD in the Charger & some others)

I had a 67 Fury with a poly, not sure how it ended up there, unless it was early production, or more likely someone swapped before I got it.  Wrapped it around a tree, drinking and driving 16 year old, 1978. 

[HP2]

Very true, the LA came out in '64 but standard A was still available through '67.

[headejm]

Great discussion! 

[tparker]

none of "OUR" e-bodies were assembled in DETROIT,
     most were built ~6 miles away in HAMTRAMCK, MI & a few (18.5% of 1970 e-body production) were assembled in LA ~2,280 miles from DETROIT

Hi Alan,
Tesla's plant is in Northern California at the southern end of the San Francisco bay area. I believe it is the old Toyota factory. I read about Toyota a while back but forgot the details. It opened a while ago but have since closed. Now Musk is talking about moving to Texas and I think there was talk about moving the plant. Though I suspect it is a bit more difficult than just packing up the U-Haul and heading south east. LOL.

[jimynick]

"Some of the earlier, '50s era poly engines could bolt on 1st generation Hemi heads. By '60 their designed changed enough that this was no longer possible and in '64, the A engine was dropped entirely for the LA." You're absolutely right about putting hemi heads on an A and some of the parts would also go the other way. My 58 Crusader with the 56 Plymouth 301 had a 4 bbl. hemi intake on it as well as the distributer, so I could get dual points. The early A's were different from the later versions and they had a lifter valley plate that my 58's did not. They were often badged as RedRam and the valve covers lower indentations were pointy-er. My 64 440 model had a oem poly. You see, Mother Mopar had a sense of humour! 

[MoparLeo]

The LA class of Mopar engines were manufactured/assembled in Detroit and sent to the various final assembly plants for installation. Chrysler Corp had manufacturing plants for doing various processes like castings, engine building, transmission manufacturing etc... and final assembly plants where the various components from the various plants were assembled into the final car or truck. They were not manufactured from scratch at one location. Sub assemblies is still how its done.