i found this valve cover in the junk yard. i've searched this site and google and i can't find any info. what the hell is it??
Personally I think the Dodge Polys are super cool - you never see them, unlike their hemi counterparts, and those scalloped valve covers are ***s.
red ram was the poly, and Super Red Ram was the hemi I thought.. I have a red ram in my '55 dodge. Runs great.
I believe the 1956 and 1957 Polys (315 & 325) were called Super Red Ram - the low block 241-270 polys (1953-1955) were called Red Ram.
When there were hemis only, they were Red Rams, when the Poly showed up the Polys were Red Ram & the hemis became Super Red Rams. Red Rams/SRR were silver.
241 Hemi was a Red Ram(valve cover was embossed) the 270 Hemi was a Super Red Ram (valve covers were embossed and decal).. The 315 and 325 didn't have names on the valve covers..
...one more attempt to hide a poor choice..I have seen Cad, Olds Rocket, and a DeSoto Hemi cover fitted to 'those' engines so it was only a matter of time before they tried another angle to obtain some cool factor. Pretty sad, actually...... Several years ago I was at a show-n-shine and the entrants were asked to keep hoods closed if their shiverlay engine was in anything besides a gm body. Soon after that I saw a magazine article promoting the adaptation of the Hemi cover. . .
Here's a little info from Hemmings on the '55 & '56 Red Ram and Super Red Ram engines, and a pic under the hood of my '56. The paint and decals on the valve covers are original. For 1955 the Super Red Ram Hemi V-8 displaced 270-cu.in. In the top-of-the-line Custom Royal V-8, the Hemi was standard and rated at 183hp. The standard engine in the Royal V-8 and the Coronet V-8 was the Red Ram, rated at 175hp. This engine used the same block as the Hemi, but was topped with poly-heads, which used only a single rocker arm shaft on each bank of cylinders and placed the valves diagonally across from each other in the combustion chamber rather than directly opposite each other as on the Hemi. On all V-8 models, buyers could upgrade to the Hemi Super Red Ram V-8 "with special power equipment," which replaced the two-barrel Stromberg with a Carter four-barrel and added dual exhaust. A 230-cu.in., 123hp L-head inline-six was also available in the Coronet. For 1956, the L-head six-cylinder engine's horsepower rating grew to 131hp, and the base 270-cu.in. Red Ram V-8 was rated at 189hp. The Super Red Ram's stroke was lengthened by nearly a half-inch (bore x stroke: 3.63 x 3.80 inches), bringing its displacement to 315 cubic inches. This engine used poly-heads with two-barrel Stromberg carburetion giving it 218hp at 4,400 RPM or 230hp when topped with a Carter four-barrel. The Super Powered Super Red Ram was a 315-cu.in. Hemi with a single four-barrel pumping out 260hp or 295hp when equipped with dual four-barrels
Like most manufacturers, Dodge played with the names of stuff, in this case the engine nomencalture, and it got kind of confusing. ESPECIALLY in '55, 56, and '57. Even the guys who own these cars have trouble keeping it straight. I'm serious!
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