Red Ram Hemi Rebuild

Started work on the ‘54 Red Ram hemi that’s going in my Dodge Wayfarer roadster. I figured I’d start a thread, since this is my first attempt at a modern engine (if you can call a 53 year old engine modern!). My previous experience was rebuilding a 1929 Plymouth </ST1four banger – at least no babbit bearings in this one.

This is the infamous redneck removal engine I posted about this summer.




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Diving into one of these things is like an archeological dig. You never know what you’re going to find – it could be treasure, or it could be a boat anchor. It was full of antifreeze and the guy I bought it from said he’d filled it up a couple of years ago. It tested good to minus forty degrees and came out clean, so I’m hoping the block is in one piece. I couldn’t find any visible cracks or problems, but we’ll see.

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Next I figured I’d drain the oil and pray it was all oil and not half and half water and oil. I couldn’t get the drain plug out to save my life. Rusted solid. Not good news – the bottom of this thing must have been sitting in water at one time. Still, the pan hadn’t rusted through, so I was still hoping.
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No drain plug – so I dropped the pan. The engine was tilted slightly forward and the thing was full to the brim. I had it supported, but once the bolts were loose and it began separating from the block, all manner of ugly liquids began pouring out of the front of the pan. The horror! It was water – lots of water. At this point I figured boat anchor city, but for $400 maybe I could get my money out of it by selling the heads and the perfect embossed valve covers.

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I got the pan off and was glad to see most of the rest of the gunk was actually oil. I’m not sure how the water got in yet, but I’m sure I’ll find out down the line. The car sat outside, but the hood was on the entire time. Any theories are welcome.


Once I had the pan clear I got my first look at the crank and rods. Surprisingly they looked much better than I expected. No rust. In fact, the crank was clean, light gray and the rods almost looked shiny. I still haven’t gotten to the journals, but it looked much better than I expected.

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Took one of the heads off after removing the front water pump and the manifold – a two barrel, dammit! Again, I was surprised. Some light rust and very slight pitting on the cylinder walls, but hardly any ridge and no blowouts or scored walls. I’m praying the other side looks as good. I'll check tomorrow to see if this thing has ever been bored out. If not, I think I;m in good shape.

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More tomorrow. I’ll have some pictures up soon, but I was just too damn greasy to monkey with the camera tonight.

 

Hello..I just finished building mine..If you have any questions pm me..
Good luck and most of all have fun..
Happy New Year..
Duane.

 

Welcome to the Wonderfull World of Hemis! If you don't have/checked the following, you might want to. Scooter McRads Hemi Tech Index (HAMB), Bob Walkers forum at www.hothemiheads.com Tex Smith's Hemi book, & thehemi.com Welcome aboard! Best of luck. They can take a fair overbore.

 

Looks like your going to have fun with that hemi, I've just finished mine and it came out real good. If you have any questions PM me. I also have alot of build pics too. Good luck! Danny

 

Great little Hemi! I had a few, back in the day. All 241's had 2bbl carbs, don't feel bad. A tip for when you start rebuilding it, 318 timing gears and roller chain for trucks fit perfectly. Same for all early Hemi's.What trans? Hopefully not the Gyromatic!

 

Don't give up hope!! The engine may still be usable. I just ripped this 392 down a few months ago. It had about 5 gallons of water-oil muck in the pan too. I took a sledge hammer and pulled the pistons. I took my time and didn't have to cut any rods. The crank looks great.

The block may need 3 sleeves. I still need to bore it. It just dosn't look that bad. I don't know about the '54 blocks, but the 392 used some good high nickle cast.
Jeff

 

I feel better already! This is what mine looked like tonight right after I pulled the head off. Carbon and some surface rust, but not too bad.








It's going into this.



And I just got my better parts car frame sandblasted and ready for repair and mounts. Mopars come boxed from the factory.



After seeing your engine I feel a lot more comfortable about this build.

 

Hell yes!! Looks like a good one from here.

 

318 car (is truck different?) timing set won't fit 51-55 Chr hemis w/o modification of the cam snout( not sure about Dodge & DeSoto), 56-58 fit if a spacer is used. You might want also yo check out Doc Fromaders 315 build on Webrodder, uses 241 heads. Some of the block work is aplicable also.

 

Continued tearing down the Hemi this morning. I left off yesterday feeling pretty good about things, thanks to your posts and suggestions but the euphoria quickly vanished when I pulled off the passenger side head. Lake Michigan in my cylinder!



The number 2 hole was full of water. Not a pretty sight. The fantasy of getting by without sleeving this block was rapidly evaporating.
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<Ogot the water out (the rest of the cylinders were dry) and did a little clean up to get a better idea of the damage. I was surprised to find the cylinder walls in reasonable shape - the lumps are removable crud - water and oil residue - not rust. Maybe I’ll be lucky after all. Until I get the pistons out, however, it’s still a total crap shoot.


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<OI also found out the reason the old girl was parked. She dropped a valve.


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<OThe back cylinder piston took a bit of a hammering, but didn’t disintegrate – so I hoping they shut it down quick and didn’t do too much damage. I’m really hoping this didn’t screw up the crank!


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She goes on the new engine stand tonight and I’ll be taking a look at the crank and rods this week. I have a feeling getting the pistons out is going to be a real job. Any suggestions would be welcome. They obviously will be replaced, but I like to save the rods if at all possible.

 

You got those cylinders soaking with any solvent/rust buster yet? I'd spray them down good and keep them soaking for a week or two before even trying to remove some of those pistons. First thing to do is pull the caps off of every rod of those pistons that look like they'll come fairly easily. Knock all of them out that you can. If you're lucky enough of them will come out to where you can remove the crank, making it a lot easier to get at the really stuck ones. Also, you need to knock as much of that crap off the cylinder walls as possible on the really rusted ones. An old ball hone works pretty good. Otherwise get after it with some coarse sandpaper and WD-40 or some other solvent that will keep the sandpaper from plugging up. I've got a pair of old 392's, one of which looked a lot like the 241 when I tore it down. It laid on it's side for years, and water settled in the lower bank of cylinders. It took some time and patience to get the pistons out of the rusted bank, but eventually they all came out. Bonus was a .030 bore cleaned then all up nicely. Just take your time with it, you'll have a great time with the old Hemi.

 

so i have an engine to pull apart that has been sitting for a few years, so my idea was to take a toarch and just melt any stuck pistons right out, could this work?

 

I've never done it that way, but I'm sure others have. I'd keep as much of the heat as possible away from the cylinders, as heating up a small area to "torch" temperatures will probably result in some cracks.

 

About 10 or 12 years ago a magazine article was published outlining the fitting of LA series bearings to these baby hemis, and theres a good chance the LA pump is easily adapted BUT only use the high volume pump as the ordinary LA pump has less volume that the little motor. It's also correct about the fitting of LA timing chain sets,the shim required for the cam snout is only a matter of thousands of an inch thick.
I always meant to get a custom made top pulley ( roll master chain sets are manufactured close to my home) with the smaller size bore but what I did instead was bore it out and press in a plug and bore and broach that out .

 

The 241 and 270 have 1.937 rod bearings and 2.3750 mains. Both smaller than the LA. The 315/325 Dodge hemi has LA size main journals, but the thrust width is narrower than an LA, so the LA thrust bearing cannot be used. The 315/325 rod journals are larger than the LA. 2.250 vs 2.125.

There is a bit more than just a spacer needed to adapt the LA timing set to a 51-54 long snout camshaft. Thrust plate, spacer, snout diameter, keyway thickness, and a way to tighten are just a few.

One of the first orders of business is to have the crank magged. They are prone to cracking due to the absence of a front balancer.

 

I wouldn't do it. It'll be about 1500 degrees and hot metal going POP! all over the place. Molten aluminum is a lot of fun, but you better have the engine in a sand pit, and wear something that will deflect hot metal.

Worse comes to worse, you could just play connect the dots with a drill...