Projects My first hemi car

Wasn't Quaker State....

 

Could’ve been I just always heard pennzoil was famous for gumming up engines for a while

 

Considering that virtually all of the oil in the 50's was non-detergent I don't think the brand made a huge difference. And yes, Penzoil did have a heavier paraffin base than most others.

 

?

 

Most of the goop I’ve found in the engine has been grey sometimes a little more solid than goop too

 

The valley looks amazingly clean. My Dad used Quaker State exclusively on his new '65 Galaxie. When we tore it down at 90K the valley looked like it had been paved!

 

Thanks, that was a fun car but to rough a ride for my old back. Sold it about 10 yrs ago

 

The early heads had round exhaust ports - all of the later ones were more of a bathtub shape (oblong). Luckily you have the manifolds for your heads.

 

Ahhh I see what you’re saying now. Yeah lucky I guess but I’d rather have some headers. I wonder if anyone has flanges for the round ports or maybe I could make some so I could make my own headers

 

Referred to as oval....

 

Got my one year only “wet” 4 barrel intake that i probably paid too much for . Just need an adapter for a big base 4 barrel carb now and a way to clean loose scaly rust outve the intake ports. Any ideas? I tried with a wire brush on a drill a bit but I really need to get way into the ports just to make sure I get it all. I know I could’ve bought an aluminum 4 barrel intake for 600 from hot heads but I’d rather save for a blower intake because that’s my plan eventually

 

You definitely have your hands full ! Stay the course!

 

If you have a compressor, a cheap siphon sand blaster and a bucket of sand should get the worst of it.

I have one of those manifolds (the original from the engine now in my race car) and plan on using on my '56 dump truck 331. Carburetor adapters are generally a bad thing, so I am rebuilding the Carter WCFB that came on it. It's easy to over-carburate these old engines.

 

Yeah I have a lot of work and welding ahead of me, I know. But I love welding is the good news! Been trying to focus on getting my hemi to run first!

 

Not planning on putting 750 Holley or anything that big on her, just something a little easier to find and that I’m more familiar with tuning

 

HH has a squeeze plate adaptor that you remove the carb studs, install longer ones & an Edelbrock bolts right up. You can straighten the airflow up by running the right size bit through both the adaptor & intake. On my '55 331 I found I had to add a phenolic spacer to keep things right in the Florida Summer (crappy gas).

 

I will have to check that out. I assume the adapter is under intakes on HH website?

 

or carbs or adaptors

 

Haven’t posted anything on here in a while. Life has been tough this winter. The excavation business has been very slow and my funds were gone and my motivation with them. But as of last week I finally started working on the ol gal again. Funds are still limited but hopefully spring will be here soon

 

Set my 54 intake on the engine. Still need to get an adapter for a standard base 4 barrel and some intake bolts and a carb . Had my starter gone through for 75 bux by a local starter shop and finally picked it up yesterday. Still have to get some nickel rod to weld a crack in the lower bell. Am I going to have to put a 12v set of points and condenser to run this engine on a standard 12 volt battery? I know the starter can take it.

 

Started re constructing the floors today. Have a couple floor support brackets to rebuild and some bad areas in the frame. I really need a 220 mig welder. I’m tired of my Clarke 110v flux core. Also had to cut a couple holes in the top of my frame to shop vac two giant mouse nests out of the rails but I was able to weld them up no problem with my 220 stick welder

 

I removed the hump in the drivers floor for the power brake booster to I can mount my free bucket seats in the car. Planning on removing the whole system and possibly going with a cheaper front manual disc brake conversion

 

You can open up the holes in the intake a bit by using the modern gasket as a template, or get the HH squeeze plate & use an Edelbrock carb and longer carb studs. The Edelbrock is drilled for the OEM bolt pattern. You can drill through the squeeze plate & into the intake or just use the squeeze plate & OEM bore holes. With today's crappy gas here in Fla. I had to add a phenolic plate to keep it from crapping out at stoplights in the Summer.

 

that’s the plan is an edelbrock although I’m more of a Holley man as far as tuning goes. But edelbrocks are cheap

 

Main thing is the Edelbrock has the OEM bolt pattern, so if you used the carb gasket for the Ed. carb & opened the holes up enough for the butterflys to clear it would bolt right on w/o the adaptor that would be needed for the Holley.

 

Got ya I will try to pick one up as soon as I get the cash

 

Been a long time since I posted on my car. Have barely been able to work on it due to lack of funds thanks to winter. Maybe looking for a new job here soon. Welded in some fresh metal on the drivers side. Still haven’t fired the hemi up but I’m very close !

 

Aquired some cool parts that I would like to use in my build from my ol lady’s dad

 

Also got some handles from a 49 merc with the bezels (I guess you could call them)from him and a steering wheel that I’m going to use. Have quite a few extras if anyone is interested

 

Glad it's still moving along.
For cleaning the intake, I'd go with a bath rather than blasting. Do some searching for 'evaporust', 'molasses' and 'citrus bath'. They all seem to work at getting rust cleaned out.