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The Shelby 3.3L V6 and Shelby-Dodge Can-Am Race Car!

I have decided to include some information on this site on the Shelby-Dodge 3.3 and the Can-Am cars which used this engine because there are almost no information on this rare car on the net (Allpar did not even mention this car/engine existed until I wrote part of a page for them on it!) and very few people know this car exists, let alone the specs on it.

This car and engine is very significant to today's 3.x Mopar models for many reasons. First, it's a waaay-cool car! I'd sell my entire family for one of these;)

Also, the car uses the same 3.3 block found in many AC/AY's and today's minivans. Only a few things on this engine are different from the normal 3.3.

Anyone wanting to prove that the 3.3 and/or a pushrod engine CAN be a good performance machine, need only point out this car and engine

The Shelby-Dodge Can-Am! (Thanks to Brain Bennett for the picture)

In 1989, Shelby introduced the Shelby-Dodge Can-Am concept and the Shelby-Dodge Viper concept. Two cars which will forever be in the minds of those lucky enough to drive or own one.

Shelby designed the car using the 3.3L V6 engine as a base (note: in 1989 the general public had not yet owned the 3.3 which came out for the 1990 model year). He wanted a car which when used in a race, would show who the best driver was (not who had the largest pockets!). According to Brain Bennett (one of the few people on earth lucky enough to actually OWN one of these cool cars) Shelby originally planed to make two versions of these cars, a 255 hp and 500 hp model. Brain Bennett writes that "The plan as I understand it was to build 200 cars, each with it's own numbered Shelby 'dash plaque'. This would allow decent sized SCA Club racing fields, and still enable the Shelby PRO Series to run simultaneously….with the only alteration to the car being the swapping of a gnarly 500HP mill into the chassis and some aero tweaks."

The class that these cars were to race in were specifically designed so that these cars would only race against each other, and no engine modifications were allowed outside of gear ratios on the trans. These engines had special Shelby seals on them, and could only be repaired by Shelby! The idea is that since all the cars in this class are identical, the driver's skill would be evident by the way each driver wins/loses.

Only 100 of these 3.3L V6 Shelby engines were EVER built. Of these 100, 76 were put into the 76 Shelby Can-Ams (all that were ever made). The rest were kept as spares. No true "spare parts" were ever really made, and parts were not really offered to the public or racing teams (and since breaking one of the Shelby engine seals made it against the rules to race your 3.3, teams generally never wanted to buy parts and break the seals to do a repair).

The car originally sold for $35,000 (US) and would basically arrive at your door in a large box, and you'd have to build it yourself. This meant that many people did not want (or could) buy the car, as after the $35k, you'd still have to build the car (which took both time and money if you hired someone to build it).

Mr. Bennett said that more recently, 27 of these cars were shipped down to South America for a racing series down there. And many of the few spare engines/parts went with them. That makes it even harder for owners in the US to get parts, and impossible for non-owners to get the parts, for say, their 3.3 project.

According to a small article in the USA Today (in 1989), these cars were making 250 hp and hitting 160 mph. Doesn't surprise me, as my ~160hp 3.3 Dynasty has hit 120 before...

By 1990 only 42 cars were sold, generally 20-25 cars were raced at any given race during the first seasons, fighting for $15,000 purses, by 1993 that was brought up to $25,000.

"The car was made 150-200lbs heavier than it need be... that was for safety... and no one has so much as broken a toe nail in one yet" -Shelby himself in an ESPEN interview, c1993

It generally cost about $50,000 a year to race in this circuit, between fuel, brake parts, trailers, and other expenses, fairly cheap for professional racing.

The trans was a custom built assembly made by Shelby's shop, designed to take 200 to 700hp, the trans was a significant part of the chassis, perhaps why the cars brought down to south america kept using it with the chassis when they started using Nissan 3.5's in place of the 3.3's.

1989 Shelby Performance Catalog Pic of the Shelby Dodge 3.3

Note that in 1989 you could buy a complete Shelby Dodge 3.3L engine, as it is listed in the 1989 Shelby performance catalog, which is interesting given that the consumer 3.3 did not come out for an other year.

It is debated as to why the original Shelby Can-Am circuit died, if I were to guess it was a combination of poor marketing (not enough people heard of the car or the circuit), too small of a fan base, not enough sponsers and sometimes people won't watch a circuit where all the cars are technologically the same (no one cheering for say, the Dodge or the Honda cars- since *all* the cars are Shelby-Dodge models).

Here is a model of the Shelby Dodge Can-Am, preproduction, as displayed at a newsconfrence c1988/1989

 

The Shelby-Dodge 3.3 engine (made in the very early 90's) was making some ~110+ hp MORE then the "normal" 3.3 of that era. If you follow the evolution of the 3.3, you'd find that the newest 3.3's are only making just under 200 hp from the factory- that means that even today, the 10+ year old Shelby-Dodge 3.3 is making more then 50hp then the newest redesigned 3.3's.

So by now, you've got to be wondering "how they did that." It's a combination of mods, none of which were too extreme.

Engine Internals

Let's start with the internals. First, the cam is very close to a normal 3.3's. The pushrods are forged, as are the J&E Mayle pistons (which make 11:1 compression ratio). The crank is forged, and is very very close to the later 3.5L V6 crank (so much that one could get a 3.5 crank and use it in place of a Shelby Dodge 3.3 crank). With the exception of the pistons, these changes were made to ensure better reliability- which wasn't the best it could be on early 3.3 (remeber, the proto-type 3.3 Shelby Dodge 3.3 predates the Mopar 3.3's insofaras it was showed to the public in '89, unlike the Mopar 3.3 which were released to the general public for the 1990 model year). This higher compression ratio really helped the engine gain as much HP as it did.

Shelby Dodge 3.3 Engine, installed in a Can-Am car (picture from an ESPEN "blueprint of success" episode on this car series, c1993)

Electronics

This engine uses the same basic computer/electronics system as a normal Mopar 3.3. The main difference (besides the lack of the speed control, lol) is the rev limitor which was changed to 6800 rpm's (the normal 3.3 tops at 6,000- and at that point you come close to killing something!). Same basic DIS, although I suspect that the timing curves are slightly different (due to the compression ratio differences!). The injectors are low impedance (same impedance as the turbo 2.x injectors). Here's a triva piece for you... every wonder why the consumer 3.3s had three timing signals and the ability (in theory) to control the timing of each pair of cylinders? This goes back to the Shelby 3.3 which was better apt to fine tune the ignition for each pair of cylinders depending on the PCM's inputs (i.e. knock sensor...), the OEM cusomer PCM does use a knock sensor, however it uses the knock sensor to change ALL 3 of the timing signals, whereas the shelby 3.3 could change one and not the other 2 and so on.

I have been told by a few former owners that 100 octane gasoline is perhaps, not enough for this engine and ~110 is more reasoniable. No surprise there considering that some of the supercharged 3.0 guys (yeah I know its a different engine) run @ 93, a 3.3 built to these specs I can imagin would take way more than 93 to stay happy.

Intake System

On the intake side, you had a larger diameter throttle body, and a custom Shelby upper intake manifold. This manifold consisted of basically a round oval tube resting horizontally with runners running down to the lower intake manifold. The TB was on one side, sensors on the other. The runners appear to be about the same size diameter wise as a normal Mopar 3.3. The upper manifold is huge (tall wise) and would certainly NOT fit under the hood of a 3.3 car, let alone a 3.3 van. The cylinder heads consist of the normal 3.3 heads, only slightly ported by Shelby. The valves were kept all the same (except for the exhaust valves which were replaced with slightly larger Ferrea exhaust valves). If I were to guess, the lower intake manifold is most likely a OEM 3.3 lower intake manifold that has been slightly- and I mean slightly ported. If you ever get a chance to play with some machine tools and the lower intake manifold you'd find quickly that there is not much one can do with it.

The exhaust system is pretty much just a high diameter piping, low restriction setup. Fuel is 100 octane gasoline.

Now for some specs on this car w/Shelby 3.3 vs. Later Dynasty w/3.3:

Shelby Can-Am	Dodge Dynasty - stock
Engine Size: 3.3L 60 degree V6 -Cast Iron Mopar Block	Engine Size: 3.3L 60 degree V6 -Cast Iron Mopar Block
Ignition: DIS (with custom Mopar PCM)	Ignition: DIS (Mopar programed PCM)
HP: 255 @ 6800 RPM's	HP: ~155 @ ~6000 RPM's
Heads: Special Shelby Tuned (Mopar made)	Heads: Mopar made
Pistons: Mahle Forged. Engine uses 11:1 compression ratio	Pistons: Mopar Made (not forged). ~9:1 compression ratio
Car Wieght: 1820 lbs	Car Wieght: ~3200 lbs (give or take options, load, etc).
Pushrod- Carrillo steel rods	Pushrod- Mopar rods
Fuel Injection: Multi-port, TBI	Fuel Injection: Multi-port, manifold injection
Tranny: 4-spd stick, custom made by Shelby	Tranny: 4-spd auto (A604)
Manifold: Special Shelby upper manifold, lower Mopar 3.3 manifold	Manifold: Mopar upper and lower intake manifolds
1/4 Mile: ?!?!?!? Pretty Damn Fast	1/4 Mile: +/- 17 sec
Production #'s: Under 100	Production #'s: hundreds of thousands or more
Fuel: Unleaded 100 octane gasoline	Fuel: Unleaded 87/89 octane gasoline

Here's the engine. How many differences can you spot between it and the Dynasty's 3.3?
Here's what I noticed: Different upper intake manifold, different exhaust system, much larger TB and airfilter, no A604:)
Tanks again to Brain Bennett for the picture!

Here's the tranny. Again, thanks to Brain Bennett for this picture!

UPDATE on the South American angle: Aparently when the American Can-Am circuit dried up, 27 Can-Ams went down to South America for a new circuit down there. At which point, a few years later- the cars were taken apart, chassis's were reused and the body's were redesigned. The then-decade old Can-Am 3.3 Mopar engines were replaced with the Nessian 3.5L V6 engine's.

A couple years ago a guy emailed me saying he had about 20 compelete Shelby Can Am Mopar 3.3 engines and a lot of Can-Am parts. I wasnt sure if it was legit (having someone drop you an email from the gods saying your favorite engine is on the market is perhaps, too good to be true, or so I thought). Ended up the guy was just selling the parts the circuit doesnt use anymore!

What does this mean? Of the 76 sold Shelby Dodge Can-Ams- we now know that these 27 are no longer complete cars. The chassis's are still raced and the engines are most likely intact but sold to varrious buyers around the world (most likely South America buyers).

The current Shelby Can-Am circuit in South America has a website here

This brings the estimated # of surviving *complete* Can-Am's with the 3.3 engine to 49!

I have recieved threw email a picture from one of the guys who was selling parts from the scrapped Shelby-Dodge Can-Ams which were exported, he had several used engines from these cars and varrious other assorted parts. Sadly who knows their conditions or present locations.

Picture of some of the can-am engines (5?) which ended up on the open market

Here are some varrious related links to the Shelby Can-Am for anyone seeking further info & pictures:

Shelby Registry

Shelby Can-Am.com

Video of the ESPEN "blueprint for sucess" show on the Can-Am circuit (c1993) can be found here