22-year-old refrigeration mechanic and apprentice sparkie Joel Kostiuk and his epic VJ Valiant have made the Top 16 in this year’s Milwaukee Young Street Machine of the Year.
As you can see, the VJ has a rad old-school feel. Here’s what he had to say about the certified toughie:
“This 1973 VJ Valiant Ranger has been in my family for 12 years, after being found in a car yard as a trade-in, still completely stock with a 245 Hemi six.
After a lot of convincing – and buying some upgrades such as a TBS 8/71 blower and Holley Sniper EFI for his CJ Chrysler by Chrysler – I was finally able to pry the ranger out of his hands and begin my journey into building the vision I had in my head.
As the car was already in great condition with mostly original paint and immaculate chrome, I had the ultimate base to get cracking on the parts I’m more comfortable with, such as shortening an 8¾-inch Dodge diff, and stuffing in some Strange 33-spline axles, turned by a Eaton Truetrac.
With the diff done and the car half-painted underneath, I was cruising on a fresh set of US Indy mags and fat Mickey Thompsons to fill out those big Valiant guards.
Then came the part I was keen for; to start fitting all those go-fast bits to the little 360ci LA block V8 I had. Of course we threw in a Scat forged stoker crank and bumped those tasty cubes up to 410ci, coupled together with Scat H-beam rods and all the good stuff from ARP. On the other end of the rods we slapped a nice set of Wiseco flat-tops and JE Total Seal rings, gapped for a hefty shot of nitrous when I’m ready.
With the short block looking stout, I elected to go with a solid flat tappet drag race bumpstick driven by a Milodon gear drive, followed by CNC Performer RPM heads to bring my compression to 11.8:1. Then came the cherry on top, a genuine square-port M1 Mopar tunnel ram.
Even though I’d had a blast cruising the Hemi six and making it roar everywhere I could, it was time to install the slightly hotter V8 I had been staring at in the shed every night.
Once she was in, the wiring and plumbing got done pretty quickly as I was getting excited to hear it cackle. I opted for a tough TCI 727 trans and a chromoly tailshaft, as I knew how I wanted to drive it when it was going.
TTI headers went in, I built the stainless twin three-inch exhaust, and then it was time to turn the key. We ran the cam in, checked all the vitals, and went cruising with no bonnet as I hadn’t built up the courage to cut my mint bonnet yet.”
As you can see, Joel eventually worked up the courage to chop the bonnet and fit up that killer pair of velocity stacks. He’s even hit the mainland for a trip to Chryslers on the Murray 2023!
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