Dodge first big block was 1958 the biggest Dodge engine before that would have been a 354 used in a truck. The "wedge" big blocks of the Mopar muscle car era started its production in 1958 with a B block 350 & 361 followed a year later by the B block 383 and the RB (raised block) 383 and 413. The RB block "wedge" 426 came out in 63 and RB 440 finally came out in 1966 along with the release of the RB "Hemi" 426. (*race only 426 Hemi's were being used in 64 and 65 but not released to the public til 66) The last of the big blocks to be released was the R block 400 in 1972.

So if ol' John Lee Pettimore volunteered for the Army on his 18th birthday because they draft the white trash first anyway. Based on the way he says "They draft the white trash first,'round here anyway" says to me they had been drafting for a while so the U.S. involvment of the war had been going on for sometime and wan't new. So say it was 67 or 68 when he turned 18 and to be old enough to understand and remember his dad buying a squad car, shotting it in primer, rebuilding the engine and "still remember that rumblin' sound" I would say he would have to be 12 or 13 so it is more likely than not that his dad bought a squad car with a big BLOCK.

I grew up in a car family and my pops ran a bodyshop. We used the terms shot or shooting for pain and primer as in "I shot the first coat of primer last night" or "I just finished shooting the first coat of primer".

"he looked inside" followed by "Well him and my uncle tore that engine down" clearly means he looked under the hood to check the engine and then rebuilt it.

My pops used to buy cars at city and county auctions and all cop cars, fire trucks and school busses I saw at auction always already had the logos painted over with black or gray primer.