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

Bearings finally arrived... a month after ordering... and they're genuine Taiwanese metal. Really? $163 for Taiwanese bearings? WTF, people?!?!?! Is this what we've been reduced to? Is nobody here in the US making MOPAR engine parts any more? Ugh.

 

Pete, unfortunately, the short answer is no, as far as low volume parts like these are concerned. Occasionally, some NOS boxes turn up but they are getting fewer and fewer....
So far I have not had any complaints about the Taiwan pieces.


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I have a 16 year old Federal Mogul catalog, the only product they still have (had) listed for your engine is piston pin bushings.

 

I guess I should be happy the Taiwanese bearing factories still think enough of the '55 Plymouth Hyfire motor to make bearings for it! I just found out that, in addition to making the pistons for my mill, Egge has all the rest of the parts I need. I'll be asking Santa to make a trip to Egge for my Christmas needs, rather than spending my hard earned $$ at Kanter for slow/crappy service and attitude.

 

they use the same bearings as the 241/270 Dodge hemis, so there's demand to supply production.

 

Eureka - today I finally found my Victory Library book on Chrysler Poly Performance. I have been tearing the house apart for weeks looking for it... and it was at work the whole time! I found it tucked into a Rod and Custom on my desk. Time to get busy out in the garage... especially since Santa said she wanted the parts list I need to complete my engine re-build!!

 

HELLOOOO, What's going on with the Poly build.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Bob

 

It hasn't progressed much lately for many reasons. First - Santa Claus gobbled up a bunch of my parts $$. That SOB has expensive tastes! I've also been slammed at work... and then the Holidays landed (in-laws for 2 weeks ) and I haven't been able to spend but an hour or two in the garage all month. Mrs Claus gave me a torque wrench and a coupon for car parts... so I am cleared to buy the remaining bits I need. I plan to drive up to Marysville tomorrow to pick up a 3.55 geared 8 3/4" pumpkin and brakes to go with my Bill Scribner rear end. Hopefully I am ending the "collect parts phase" of the build, and am getting back to the "put those parts together phase." I have a goal in mind - have the Poly, trans, and rear in Blue by Billetproof NW. I may go insane trying to do it, but I have assurance from my fellow Bishops that, come crunch time, they will gladly turn wrenches and burn a little midnight oil(provided I buy the beer and pizza!). So... not much has happened recently, but I'm gaining momentum!

 

CAREFUL! When I was building my '48 Plymouth (with a Poly 318) street rod, I had the club I was in come over to help for the last bits and pieces to get it back on the road. Everything went great until lunch time. When the beer came out, I was on my own for the afternoon while they sat and drank!

BTW - this is a great thread! I appreciate you taking the time to keep us updated.

Marty

 

Marty(mrtc4w) - I'll be sure to serve the beer AFTER all the wrenches are down and the powertools switched off.

Today - we made some progress. I blasted the kids out of bed bright and early and we cruised up to Marysville to pick up a 3.55 center section for my rear end. Dave also had a spare drive shaft (nice and long, so it can be trimmed to size) and some brake parts for my 11" drums. I also got 6 qts of Brad Penn 30wt break-in oil for the Hyfire. Dave is quite a machinist, and I got a peek at his beautiful 'Cuda dragster. Yes, it's a little o/t for this board, but it was a honey! I'm trying to persuade him to scope out the HAMB - he has loads of MOPAR blocks, heads, and transmissions laying about, and he is handy with a Bridgeport (he's an aerospace machinist by training)! I'm sure that, in this economy, everyone could use a little business.

Anyway, I finished cleaning up the Strombergs and dug out all the little pieces that need to go back in there. Now comes the question - I have seen Stroms with black steel bases and a goldish green finish (?) on the zinc... is this the accepted method? Can you still find zinc dichromate spray to coat them, or would you have to take them someplace and have them anodized? Thoughts, opinions, constructive criticism? I have looked on the HAMB, but only found cursory discussions of zinc dichromate finishes - most say you should chrome the carbs. That's not my bag... so I ask the obvious question... how does a guy do it at home?

I also got the rear end mocked up, then took the center section out in the alley and had a go at the rust and grunge on it. I was almost done when (surprise here in WA) it started to rain. I hit it with compressed air to knock the last of the grunge off, then gave it a coat of penetrating oil to loosen up the stubborn stuff. I have tomorrow off, so I plan on going back out and hitting it again!

Slowly, but surely, Big Blue and the Hyfire Project (sounds like a 70's band) are once again inching towards completion.

 

Hey, wolfhound, talk to your "aerospace machinist" about the finish on the carbs.........Maybe give him a spare carb part or body, and ask him about " alodine", which is a "chromate conversion coating", and see if you like the results........Eastwood, and some others I have seen, make a "spray bomb" style coating for carbs, but I have no experience with it, or it's longevity and durability..........

 

Alodine may be the way to go... it seems to work well with the zinc bodied carbs (Rochester and Strom) that I have seen posted on this forum. I'll look around and see what I can find. The Eastwood carb paint is also an option, but it seems like the Alodine may be a bit more resilient than paint. Modern gasoline (with all the additives) is some pretty corrosive sh*t!

 

Alodine is not that easy to find! You would think that, with all the aircraft and marine industries we have here in the PNW, it would be a little more readily available. It looks like I'm going to have to order the stuff online and eat the HAZMAT charge. Any other ideas out there??

 

Poly mopars are cool! I haven't found too many people that have hot rodded em. I would be interested to see how it turns out.

 

Slowly but surely, we get closer to completing the Hyfire. Got some serious work done in cleaning up the Strombergs and painting the bases. Mac's solvent + carb cleaner + simple green and scalding hot water = pretty clean carbs! Now to finish them properly - I can't find Alodine anywhere (reasonably) so I may be exporting my carbs to get them done right. After the zinc bodies were all cleaned up and the bases painted, I just had to mock it up and see exactly how damned sexy they looked. I wasn't disappointed!

I even threw in a few pics of what the carbs looked like when I got them - strictly rebuildable cores!

Enjoy....

 

Lookin good man, lookin real good!

Did you end up getting that jet out?

 

Awesome man, getting a 9 year old involved building a hemi! You're the best dad ever!

 

It's a Poly actually, but still a good ata boy!

 

I finished my 94's with Alodine. They turned out great. I found the Zinc content varried between each carb. So I had to dip each one a little differently.

The finish is great, but it scratches easily, so take care when working on them. And keep your hands as clean as possible. You don't want to start over.

Alodine is available from Aircraft Spruce and it's about $35. All you need is that and couple 5-gallon buckets for strorage and dipping and rinsing and you're all set. And you can use it over and over.

Link:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/alodine1001.php

 

Thanks. Nope... that jet is still stuck in there. I'm about ready to drill the SOB out of there and be done with it. I have one last ditch effort afoot to dislodge it before conducting surgery... we'll see how that goes. I''ve tried all the usual tricks. Anyone out there have some secret tips on dislodging a stuck jet in a Stromberg? I'm all ears! Otherwise, it's coming out in pieces.

 

Great thread man, can't wait to see all the way thru!

 

You are really doing a great job bringing the Poly back to life. I would consider getting one for a project since I've seen what you have done with yours. Great stuff.

 

Thanks guys. It's encouragement like this that helps get me going when I hit the doldrums. I'm picking up steam - and I have a goal in sight. I want to have Blue ready to go for the Summer shows - specifically Billetproof!

On a side note, I'm going out to the garage to box up my Strombergs. They are going to Uncle Max for a chromate dip and a little "tweaking." I can't wait to get them back!! I promise to post pics of them in all of their glory.

 

Let's see... the Strombergs left yesterday for Uncle Max to work some mojo and change their color... and today, 3/4 of my shipment landed from Egge! Yup... 16 lifters, 16 pushrods, and an entire gasket set. The only thing on backorder is the oil pump rebuild kit! To my amazement, my parts landed in record time, and packed amazingly well. The gasket set (see pic) was shipped on a slab of 1/2" plywood. This is so Cleetus, my mailman, doesn't try and stuff it into my mailbox and bend up all the copper. Brilliant!!! Yeah for Egge Machine - customer service and a quality product!

 

Had a few hours in the garage today, between the BEvERage fetcher's indoor soccer game and the NFC Championship game. I did a good old-fashioned "layout" of everything I have (fastener wise) left to get after the engine rebuild. That's when I noticed a little something "out of whack" with my pushrods. I have 15 of one variety, and 1 oddball. Hmmm. As my wife will sing "One of these is not like the others!" I I guess I'm going to have to call Egge back and find out what's up. I was going to call them anyway about swapping for some adjustable pushrods (thanks for the tip Gary!) since we had the cam reground, but this pretty much seals the deal.

I also cleaned up some of the bolts to see if they were recycle-able, and I think some are. I am not so sure about re-using the head bolts or the bolts for the main bearings. I know the steel from the 50's was better than modern stuff, but even when I cleaned them up, the head bolts had some pitting on them. I don't think I'm going to use them again... too much stress and strain over the years. I would hate to spend all that good money on the rebuild, and then cheap out on the bolts. It would be a shame to grenade an expensive rebuild for want of a $1 bolt.

 

been watching this as I am a bit of a poly fan, more the later ones but lover these ones too.

I would consider using studs for the mains as a minumum, not that expensive, heads I would still be happy to use the bolts.

 

When I rebuilt my 325 poly engine some 4 years ago I went studs in the mains and in the heads. There are some stock lenght studs available in either grade 5 or grade 8 strenght that fit the polys real well. No one will have the listing for them - you have to do the spade work and measure what you need yourself yet they are out there. My memory is not what it used to be but check ford 351 windsor studs for the heads - I may be wrong yet something inside me says that where we were last time.. we went this route as the engine was not complete and was cobbled together over a 7 year period as parts were found yet the effort was well worth every minute and dime spent.

 

35Desoto - I'll take that info with me when I run to my two main fastener warehouses up here in the PNW - I am lucky to have Tacoma Screw and Hi-Strength Bolts within a few miles of the house. If those guys can't cough up some proper grade-8 head bolts, I'll eat my old steel toe boot. As for the mains, I found that Milodon sells studs in packets of 4. Now I just have to figure out if this is the way I want to go, and (if so) what size studs I need to order. Hmmmmm.

Thoughts out there? Bolts or studs for the mains? Go on HAMBers... lhit me with your thoughts.

 

What are the dimensions of the polysphere bolts? I can compare them to 351W bolts.

 

Sorry artfromabama i don't have the dims near me and the engine is elsewhere. All I did was confirm the thread size (!/2" UNC ??) and measured the depth of the block where the head bolts go added that to the shank lenght needed for the head boss and added about 3/4 to 1" in for the nut and washer on top. From there I went into the bolt catalogue and found some thing that was close - the threaded parts can be longer but the name of the game is to get the shank that goes through the head pretty close. With these mopars there is no easy way as all you can do is grab those measurements and and start comparing.
To answer the question over whether its worth while doing the same to the main bolts, studs and nuts will always give a more even loading yet bolts have done a magnificent job for years. If its a good street engine then bolts are great however for something more exotic or pounding horsepower studs are the way to go.