The Supermang is back! In this fresh episode of Carnage, Scotty gets back into the L67 build for our VN Berlina, finishing off the short block.

Because we’ve been deep in Mopar content as of late on Carnage, here’s a quick recap on where the VN is at: the original L67 we fitted was running grouse until the factory timing chain snapped, which busted a few valves and pistons along the way.

That motor is currently at Top Torque, where it’s slowly being built into a 4.2-litre stroker that will be dropped into the VN down the track. Scotty found a new L67 to repower Supermang in the meantime, which he’s been rebuilding to cope with a fair bit more boost.

In this latest instalment of the new L67 build, Scotty finishes off the bottom end. After lots of measuring and some machining help from our mates at Top Torque, we reused the original rods, pistons and crank with some fresh bearings, rings and a set of ARP rod bolts.

The boys at Powerhouse Engines took care of refreshing the heads, treating them to a port job as well as some beefy valve springs and bigger valves.

The refreshed heads got bolted on with a set of MLS head gaskets from Mace Engineering and some ARP head studs, which had to be wrapped in thread tape to stop the water galleries leaking. Scotty also fitted a new set of genuine lifters from Precision, because he found the engine originally had some cheapo ones fitted and a few had collapsed.

To make sure we don’t suffer another timing chain failure, Scotty upgraded to a tougher Crow Cams single-row unit. Ideally we’d run a twin-row chain, but the work required to fit one isn’t worth it for this particular engine – so we’ll save it for our all-in 4.2-litre stroker.

We also upgraded the pulley system with the addition of a new SFI-spec balancer, which has an eight-rib section on the front to better match our Mace Engineering supercharger pulleys as we crank more boost into this thing.

Finally, Scotty installed the standard manifold with a pair of metal intake/valley gaskets from Mace Engineering, as the OEM plastic units tend to age and crack over time.

And with that, the short block is done! Next episode, Scotty will bolt the blower on and he’ll be ready to drop the L67 back into the VN. Then we’ll hit the dyno to see what this new engine is capable of.