Lookey what I got for a project!! (Hyfire Poly!)

When I was a kid, I had a 57 Dodge with a 325 poly. Replaced the head gaskets and drove the car around for a year until the transmission went out.

Probably the closest I'll ever come to owning a hemi.

 

Just thought you would like to see my 39 Ply.Gas Truck w/ 270 ci 56 Dodge Poly. It will have a flip front end. The cab is 39 Ply Truck. The front end sheet metal is from a 36 Ply. Coupe
Bob

 

Love it! That truck is the heat! And the 3x2 Offy on the 270 is awesome. What a beast! I love those old Poly valve covers... so cool looking!

 

We mowed the grass, scooped poop, and vacuumed the entire basement and downstairs... just so we could go catch some time in the garage. I knocked out a little prep work, and then the BEvERage fetcher's "little friend" (who happens to be a girl - hmmmm - 9 years old and he's already got chicks hanging on him... you figure it out) came over to hang out and eat pizza. We let her watch as Jack finished spraying the exhaust manifolds. He was so funny to watch - not wanting to take any pointers or screw up because SHE was watching. I had to turn away and walk out into the alley so they wouldn't see me laughing. Anyway, got it all done, and as a reward, I threw them in the car to take them out for ice cream... and that's where the fun stopped. I think I burnt up my starter. It started turning really slow, like cold 6v's do, then smoke started curling out of the starter. Uh-oh. I threw the kids in the truck and got them their ice cream. When we got back, I went out and fiddled with it some more... and it's pretty much toasted. I pulled out the "rebuilt" one I had as my spare and tried to fire it up with jumper cables... to no avail. I guess it wasn't so rebuilt. Great! Looks like I'm adding a starter to the list of things to fix on Blue!!!

 

Great post!!! Love the way you include your son in the story. I would rather read a post like yours than some high end big name shop build story.
Keep it coming.
Bob

 

Cool having the crew member out there painting and showin his chick friend what its about. My kids are all grown up but I have a young man on my pit crew, Rob Lee's son Robbie, (aka Crash on the H.A.M.B.) is an official wrench on my Suburbans, he has a great mechanical apptitude learned from his Pop. Nice repair on the exhaust manifold, proving again what "good karma" will do for a person!! Rock on dudes!! ~Sololobo~

 

Great project!!! Got a question, I've got a line on some 331 Hemi heads I can get for free... will those bolt on to any poly motor??? Or just the 240/260/270 motors??? Reason I ask is I'm pretty sure I know where to get a 318 poly...

 

They won't bolt on any of those motors. They will bolt on 301 Poly (55 Chrysler) and other Chrysler blocks. Not Dodge or Plymouth blocks. Or DeSoto

 

There's some stuff here on how to build up a 318 Poly, but an A Poly will always be an A Poly. 331 heads will only fit '55 Chr 301( not the 57 Plym 301) 331, 354 & 392. If they have round ex ports they are the less desirable 51-3 2 bl heads.

 

This is indeed a great thread ! True homebrew hotrodding including the 'man-cub'.
Of course I am biased because of the subject car and engine..
...just noticed that this thread has nearly 7000 views, so it must be hitting home with folks, nice going Pete.

Gary

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Got the exhaust manifolds done today. The girls were out conducting retail therapy while we were in the garage pulling the burnt up starter. They got home and blessed us out for totally polluting the house. Yeah... seems that cooking manifolds in momma's kitchen (even when the girls are out) will gas out the whole house. Oooops! Oh well, they turned out alright.

 

Which is older; The stove or the car?

 

Actually, I think the stove is older than Blue, but probably not by much. Both are excellent examples of American postwar engineering - tough as nails and still going (with some occasional repairs) despite almost daily use!

 

OK... not much progress on the motor recently. I need to get the main bearings ordered, and it keeps slipping my mind. Well, today the young'un and I picked up a transmission! Gary - due to your influence, we went with the Dakota 5-speed! Drove up to Burien and picked it up this afternoon. Art was building a slingshot dragster in his garage (actually...2 of 'em), and the tranny didn't work for his application. He had to build himself a new dragster because, after getting a pace maker, the magneto on his old one was a no-go. He was a cool old guy, and he had a ton of parts and cars squirreled away in the back yard... Model A, Model-T, Deuce Coupe, and what looked like a '50's Ford/Merc under wraps. The PNW is literally chock full of hotrodders!

Well Gary - here are the pics of the tranny... hope you figure that flywheel thing out in the next few months, 'cuz this puppy's getting mated to the Hyfire, come hell or high water!

 

Not exactly the engine build... but I have to pass the time waiting for my main bearings (finally ordered them from Kanter), and you have to use a sunny day in WA whenever you get one! I got the 47 Plym rims from Zack (fellow Bishop) last week. The sand blaster cleaned them up fairly well, and I got them back yesterday. I read all the threads on the HAMB about painting steelies, and set off to do it right. I wire wheeled the sand blasting residue off, then sanded down as many of the rough spots as I could get. That took way more time than I thought it would, but everyone says to not skimp on the prep work. Next, I rubbed the wheels down with acetone to remove the last residue. Finally, I propped them up on the sawhorses in the alley and got busy priming. Two coats of self-etching Rustoleum went on first. Thank God I was out in the alley with loads of fresh air, because that stuff is POTENT!!! I was running out of daylight to finish the deal, so I only got one coat on the backs of the first pair of rims. So far, so good. At least they are all primed to keep PNW rust off 'em, and I can finish them off the next sunny day we have... which'll probably be in April!!!

 

This is GREAT! Getting the family involved! That's what it's all about! Neat-o!

 

I took the day off - I had it coming. I picked up the 12v generator that was stuck in the PO. Dunno why the postman didn't want to drag that 40lb beast on his route... would have been an excellent workout! I also got the rebuilt starter into Blue, and it makes all the difference in the world!!! She doesn't do that slow wuuhhhh-wuhhhh-wuhhh startup thing anymore. It's a royal pain getting the starter in there, but SO worth it to hear her fire again. As soon as it stops pouring rain (she needs a bath, but not like that), I'm going to go take her out for a shakedown cruise!!

My neighborhood welder stopped by to check on the progress. He said he has his HS shop class standing by to help fabricate motor mounts for the Hyfire if I need them. What a gem of a dude!

 

^&%*# all this wheel painting and starter replacement, we wanna see that poly in the car.

 

There is a 55 Plymouth with a poly engine in a junkyard in Hudson Mass, probably get it cheap. PM me if you need details.

Sorry if i alread posted this.

 

Hi did you get an answer on what to do with your harmonic balancer
i've built a 1957 dodge 325 poly to go into my '55 desoto diplomat using 56 ply poly mounts Kinda sounds weird but with a miniaml amount of welding I have facorty style mounts that outr road inspections guys are happy with
Any rate where I was getting to was I used a 62-66 318 Poly harmonic balancer - cause it was in the parts shelf and the build funds were low. The modification was to enlarge the woodruff key way - i.e make it wider for the early poly key to fit the slightly narrower Ply poly one - once done the rest of the sizing is spot one and it fits on as it should
I've done this many times inc a 330 desoto hemi and agin works atreat
there was a part of this thread earlierr that talked about snapping cranks and yes the answer was to use a good harmonic balancer - there is nothing wrong with the rest of the engineeering . These engines were designed as grocery getter/ suburban beaters and were not overly engineered or modified like a hemi or later big block stuff.

cheers Brett

"are we there yet"

 

Sorry meant to also say was that to make the woodruff key way wider the machine shop took equal amounts off each side of the "cutting" and it still allowed me to use the 0 degree in the timing marks. The cutting needs to be precise cause if it aint tight then it will knock like hell and you will think you have run a big end or something!!!

Brett
"are we there yet"

 

Where you at on the Buildup?
Just saw this thread!
I will be rebuilding a 425 nailhead when I get back, so I might need insight when I return!!
It's gonna be sweet when your done!

 

Thanks for the info, Brett. I have heard of/seen 318 and 340 balancers used on Poly blocks before, but your bit of info seals the deal. I talked it over with my friendly local machinist just this past week, and he thinks he can make it happen for me with relative ease. I have my eye on a few balancers out there, and I'll just take one and the crank down to him in the next few weeks and see what he can do! I do want to make sure that this motor is bulletproof when I get it back together... and putting a Harmonic Balancer on it will lend a lot more life... especially if I decide to put my foot in it once in a while.

 

Tex Smith's Hemi Book(sometimes wrong) says you only need a longer center bolt to put a LA damper on an A. Seems like it's the hemi based Polys that you have to mess with the key.

 

Thanks George. I have a book on building Hemi/Poly engines squirreled away somewhere...may be the TS book or a later version. I'll pull it back out and look at it again, but that's why I planned on taking the dampener and the crank back to my friendly, neighborhood machinist. With both of them in his hands, he can't possibly screw it up...right??!?!?!

 

I'll offer what I know about dampeners...not what I've read...

All of the EarlyHemi and Hemi based poly engines use a .25" key. All of the LA, B, and RB engines use a .187" key. You can rebroach the donor hub over the existing keyway or select a new location. If you have a milling machine (or access to one) you can make a stepped key. Machine shop 101.
Unless the engine you are working on and the donor engine have timing marks/pointers in exactly the same place then the timing marks/pointers for the new assembly will require some fussing. This part is not rocket science...
The depth of the 'new' hubs vary slightly, apparently depending on year/application. I have rebroached many of the post 67 hubs for Hemi use and found them shorter but never longer than the Hemi hub. The variance has never been more than 0.125". Maybe I found only the odd-balls, maybe I have just been lucky.
For those building welded stroker assemblies, a cast-crank balancer can be used to good advantage for balancing the rotating assembly. Typically, we machine/remove the 'egg' shape so we can start with a 'zero' balance unit.

Late dampeners have a slightly different bolt pattern for the sheave. Get out the rat-tailed file.

Here is the important part. Inspect the donor part throughly. Do not soak the balancer in solvent or a hot tank. Duh...(yes, people do this)
'Dry-Clean' is best, as in blast cabinet.
If the elastomeric shows alot of cracks or is no longer supple, don't use it. If the dampener is drenched in oil, don't use it. If the outer ring has been beat on, don't use it.

No doubt I've glossed over something, no doubt someone will correct me.

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The hemi flywheel landed today...going to replace that beast of a flywheel I had to coax off the block months ago. Piece by piece, the project takes shape! With any luck, I'll get my main bearings from Kanter sometime soon. Maybe I'll have the Veteran's Day holiday to work on the engine?!?!?!

 

Nice score on an aluminum wheel !! BTW, if you are having issues getting bearings let me know...


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Still waiting on my bearings from Kanter. I'm not really happy with them right now... their customer service REALLY stank - kept offering excuses and didn't ship for 3+ weeks. I finally have a FEDEX tracking number, but the stuff won't get here until after Thanksgiving... another lost weekend! Setbacks, setbacks, setbacks.

 

Don't it figure when your hot to do something it's always waiting on the other guy. Just got my air bag kits today after waiting a month!