Back in the '60's, I had a "T" bucket that started with a stock 241 hemi with a two barrel, it ran OK and I liked it, but it was kinda short on power. The next year, I found 60k mile '55 Dodge that had been wrecked. I pulled the 270 out of it and added a 4-BBL. It had a LOT more power. Probably mainly due to the overall condition of the engines, but WOW, what a difference.
I'm a fan of the low deck dodge hemi weight wise I'ts about like a SBC with an aluminum intake you around 550 lbs less if you run a chevy water pump. When looking for your hemi check the cam for bad lobes There are no new cores and only low deck hemis and polys work I also recomend using LA balancer. And one more point a 241-270 hemi and a SBC with rams horn manifolds are about the same width, hemi manifolds don't add any width to the motor.
???? virtually every post here said use the Hemi, even those of us who are small block chevy fans said to use the Hemi. I think the small block is the most practical choice for most rodders, will put one in my 50 chevy truck but will never get enough of nailheads, hemis, poly's, y blocks etc.
Thanks for noticing my post! I was beginning to think it was invisible.... I love tweaking the nose of SBC guys........so many have tunnel vision.......but you are correct that many endorsed the 241 Hemi Dodge. But even when they did, many posters did so with accompanying remarks that more or less said the Chevy was really the best choice, but for the "WOW" factor of the big valve covers. I guess that's how some gals must feel when guys go for the gal with the bigger 'headlights'... Ray
Haha. Love the remarks. Thanks fellas. As far as the engine goes, it's pretty damn clean and doesn't look like its Been ran since last rebuild. As I stated, I have most everything to get her running except for the manual transmissions adapter.
If it was a Chrysler, I would go with the Hemi but wouldn't use a Dodge or Desoto. I had the same choice for my 42 Dodge and after seeing how hard it was to get parts for the Dodge Hemi and with practically no after market parts, I choose the SBC. Compare the Dodge, Desoto and Chrysler parts cost and availablity here. http://hothemiheads.com
Use my solution. I put the 265 in my 29 pickup, and the Hemi in my 30 coupe. Nothing wasted that way. Except the bank account. But I'm not building cars to save money.....
Is a 265 considered a reliable sbc over a similar year hemi motor? The hemi will always be cooler to 99% of people too! I bought a wilcap adapter for my hemi and was very happy I went that route.
If it has "too be cool" means you have an underlying need to impress other people and seek their approval. An early 265 chevy with period correct hotrod parts on it would be awesome to have a 241 hemi ain't a 392
"Physician, heal thyself".......your pseudo analysis is BS! Post #23 was intended for you! Glad you showed up......... Ray p.s. and a 265 ain't a 400 small block.......so what's your point?
Maybe we should have a big group hug and come up with a compromise A 265 Hemi [they make 'em in 'Straya]
Hemi hands down. Love the Chevy but go to a cruise night and how many Hemis do you see? Heck even some of the Ford street rodders drop in the Chevy
Awesome. I was thinking of using a t5 because they are much lighter than the A833. I may consider that route
If this is a 'fresh' engine then give some consideration to swapping out the loooow c/r cast pistons for some 10:1 forgings. You'll not be disappointed. And, if you think that you need an O/D manual look at the Dakota AX-15. .
Gary, From the specifications I can find, a 4BBL 270 makes about 40% more power than a 2BBL 241 which I mentioned in my earlier post (193 vs. 140). I can't find the respective compression ratios, so do you think that accounts for the difference? Seat of the pants, it sure felt like at least 40% more. Tubman
Saying a 241 is not a 392 is more like saying a 265 ain't a 427 the Dodge and Chrysler hemi are a completely different animal
A well built Hemi will go toe to toe for reliability... Hemi is the timeless classic and not many run them. Who cares on displacement, its a damn fine motor that has stood the test of time.
Well, I guess I'll weigh in here. I had a '54 Dodge with a 241, and my '56 Nomad had a 265 in it the first 9 of the 25 years I've owned it. Both are fine engines. But the problem as I see it is not that you have a difficult choice to make but rather, you need to buy another HAMB-friendly vehicle so you can run both engines.
It seems to me that the 241 is physically a smaller engine. made for a hot rod. My problem has always been that for basic driving around I have always preferred the smallest and lightest motor that can produce torque enough to pull an old heap around. Arkie, That's just wrong man. LOL
I beg to disagree. The Dodge and Chrysler hemis are essentially the same design differing only in scale. And, even that depends on which engines you are comparing. Whereas, the SBC and BBC differ not only in scale, but have totally different head designs as well. I chose the 400 SBC as a reference because it is the same design as the 265 and is close to the 392 in displacement. Ray
The 241 c/r is an abysmal 7.0:1 and the 270 isn't much better at 7.6:1, assuming that they actually make that. If you can feel the difference between the two in relatively stock form then adding 40% more compression might be akin to cutting 1,000lbs from the car weight. Read through this thread: http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/f...d=58900&start=1&highlight=241&highlightmode=1 .
Ray you have to remember that the OHV guys were saying the same thing to flathead guys in the early 50's. When you could build a flathead for not much more than beer money and it cost a couple months pay to buy an Olds, Cad or Chrysler V8 out of the wrecking yard for guys in those days. Still the same thing though and that is the economics of putting the thing together. When you weight a years of Hot rod $$$ to buy the pieces to put together a "cool" engine as apposed to being able to put a small block together for spare change for most of us it doesn't balance out unless your pockets are extremely deep or you just spend that years build budget on engine parts. I've got a 330 Desoto in the shed that I traded some work for in the mid 80's that I still can't afford to rebuild and put in a car. 900+ for a rebuild kit then you get into intake and other pieces. That's just an OEM style rebuild kit with nothing fancy. We will probably put it in a 27 roadster some day as that has been the plan all along but I'll have to sell something to be able to build the engine. And right now I don't have a rig on the place with a small block Chevy of any size or year. 392 six for the 48, 254 Ford Flathead for the roadster, 8BA flathead for the Model A The 71 GMC has a 500 Cad in it and the 77 flatbed Chev has a 454 in it.
not to mention a big increase in part throttle fuel economy, more idle vacuum, better throttle response
I really don't see that reliability is the issue with (any of) the Hemi engines over any other mfgs' engines as they were powering vehicles in every walk of life throughout the 50/60's. To put the Hemi engines' reliability in perspective; they were used as a power source in a wide range of industrial applications, many of them running for long periods of time without being monitored. My feeling about these engines being unreliable (in some peoples' perspective) is because there are few people left that know the idiosyncrocies of them when it comes to machine work, assembly, and tuning. Parts costs and availability play a big roll also as people tend to cut corners in their cleaning and rebuilding (rocker assemblies for example), and assembly.
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