KB and the Aluminum Hemi

Words: Roger Meiners

KB stands for Keith Black, a California engine builder who was ahead of his time, not only for being widely known in performance circles by his initials—a fad that came in long after his death—but also by his ability to build quality engines that made race-winning power.

Black established Keith Black Racing Engines in 1959 as a marine engine race shop, but soon added wins at Southern California drag strips in hot rod roadsters and coupes under an informal Keith Black Racing Team banner. His reputation as a top-flight race engine builder quickly attracted attention from drag teams.

His success was because of his feel for engines and his ability to learn the tricks that set him apart from others. He worked on flatheads and then on the new overhead valve engines from several General Motors divisions including Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Chevrolet. But, according to “High Performance,” Robert C. Post’s highly-regarded text on drag racing history, KB “concentrated on the Chrysler Firepower, whose HEMI® head design he regarded as far superior. ‘Reverence for engineering’ had always been Chrysler’s talisman.”

In early 1962, Tom Greer and Black bought a Kent Fuller chassis and installed big KB HEMI horsepower. They hired Don Prudhomme, a promising young man who had just won the U.S. Fuel and Gas Championship at Bakersfield, Calif., the premier race for fuelers. The legend was about to be forged.

Starting in the summer of 1962, on mostly California tracks, the Greer-Black-Prudhomme team (G-B-P for short) was virtually unbeatable in week-to-week competition and in match races against the likes of Garlits, Ivo, and Karamesines. They reportedly won 270 individual races in two-and-a-half years, an astonishing 90 percent of their total runs.

When the G-B-P project had run its course, another opportunity arose. A well-off drag racing enthusiast named Roland Leong wanted KB’s talents on his team—and Prudhomme as the driver of Roland’s Hawaiian top fuel dragster.

Keith Black Racing Engines made the transition to the new 426 HEMI and continued building their legend. But, by 1972 Chrysler was running out of cast iron 426 blocks. Somehow they had lost the tooling, so there was a need. Holly Hedrick, KB’s general manager and PR guy, called ex-Chrysler engineer Bob Tarozzi into the office and asked, “Can we build an aluminum block for the HEMI?”

Tarozzi took on the task of redesigning the engine. He had long experience with racing engines at KB. Tom Hoover, his old boss at Chrysler got him into the shop under contract to do work on the Weslake HEMI cylinder head for Chrysler. Then Tarozzi moved to other Chrysler projects under Hoover. “He was the best boss anybody could have,” said Tarozzi. “He’d say, ‘What do you think,’ and then let you figure it out on your own. I was his ‘do it’ arm.”

He started fresh on the KB aluminum block. “You couldn’t just use the drawings to make tooling, because the properties of aluminum are a lot different from cast iron. So I got a set of drawings and marked them up,” he said. He also made some original drawings and then went to the pattern shop and massaged the patterns until they were what he wanted.

“We cast six or eight blocks and machined them at KB’s. But they just sat around for a couple of years. KB was concerned about the project,” said Tarozzi.

Finally Paul Candies of the Candies & Hughes top fuel team offered his dragster as a test platform if KB would provide an engine with the new aluminum block. “We did some testing and neither of us were satisfied at first,” said Candies. He said there were problems with core shifting and sleeves staying in place. After these issues were worked out, the Candies & Hughes dragster won the 1974 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla. “As far as I know, this was the first national win by the new KB block,” said Candies. The engine was the first one used in competition. It had serial number 002 stamped on it according to Candies. “KB kept the first one in his attic,” he said.

According to Tarozzi, “The Keith Black aluminum HEMI is still very close to the original 426 HEMI. The basic rocker configuration is the same; the pushrod is the same, though they moved the camshaft up for crank clearance, and to get better angularity on the pushrods. All subtle changes to the basic design.”

The Keith Black aluminum HEMI is still available from Keith Black Racing Engines. See the company’s Web site (www.keithblack.com). It says that, between 1975 and 1984, all National Records in the Top Fuel category were held by KB Blocks.

Black passed away in 1991 from Cancer. Today his son Ken continues with the family business. Bob Tarozzi is an engineering consultant in Carmel Valley, Calif.

NEW! mopar Aluminum HEMI® and R/B Wedge Blocks

The HEMI® Evolution continues: Building on the KB legacy, Mopar is now offering an all-new, state-of-the-art Aluminum HEMI and R/B Wedge Block. (P5153864, HEMI; P5153868, Wedge). The blocks feature a 4.500" finished bore, cross-drilled 4-bolt main caps, reinforcment ribs in the valley, oiling system upgrades and Mopar and other make bellhousing bolt pattern. No drilling or aftermarket oil pump is required to use external oil lines on this new engine block.