My First Hemi 331 need parts and advice -

I just picked up a 331 Marine Hemi. It still has all the gear on the front.
I need to find a good (auto) crank, timing cover, healthy street cam (juice), etc. I would like to convert the water pump, and build my own motor mounts, exhaust and intake manifolds. Not too sure about trans as it will be going in a Rat Rod - once again open to suggestions. It will be hooking up to a Nova 10 bolt. Are those new ($199.00) cast finned aluminum valve covers on e-bay any good? What kind of plug tubes do they need?

 

Good to see anouther hot rod with a hemi in the area

I belive most of the stuff like crank and timing cover is usually the same for car and boat sometime boats have adjustable rockers for solid lifters and decent breathing heads too

What year 331 is it, long or short bellhousing??

 

Short. Stil has al the gear drives and such on it. No id tag so not sure which roatation. Would distibutor gear be a clue and what do I look for?

 

For rotation you could check the direction of advance on the distributer as for the gear i dont know if there was a different one

 

I think you are correct sir. Lez see, a chebby dis sits to the left of the cam, rotates clockwise and the engine is a RH, the vac modulator pulls against the rotation. So, the Hemi dist sits to the right of the cam. Does it then rotate clockwise or counter- clockwise on a RH engine? Well, there is no vacuum advance as you probably know, it is a full centifugal with dual points. I appears as if it also rotates clokwise. The point gaps follow the pivot and bump tab clockwise. Does this mean anything? The distibutor hs a number. 1BB4102A1M -2k14555
Also re: fresh or heat exchanger? I am worried as I read "if it has been run on "River water", it will decompose when I introduce antifreeze to the system". This is major scare! It has fittings on the lower block, both sides, into the water jackets with copper tubeing remnants. It also has a drain pet**** on the intake. Other points - it does have adjustable rockers, and the heads have rectangular exhaust ports. Two, 1-bbl. intake with the carbs and air/flame arrestors.
Any thoughts?

 

One call to Bob Walker at Hot Heads will answer all your questions. 336-352-4866.

 

Put a post on the normal board that'l help

As for the water, you could get the block sonic checked when it's apart

Sounds like depending on what your planning it's a good basis though, a lot of the old racers used marine motors because they came with adjustable rockers and were pretty buildable I still need to get some adjustables for mine

Anouther thing is the center crossover p***age on the intake and heads is probably different than car intakes may cause problems there

Also with the shortbell transmissions are much eisier to adapt