1955 Plymouth and 472 Hemi??

I have this:



and one of these:



I want to get the two together.

Has anyone ever done this swap? Any tips would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks

 

Shouldnt be too hard, didnt those cars come with the early hemis in them? I know the motors are like night and day from early to late but the mounts should be close.

If I can put one with a blower and injection in a '67 Fairlane and make it look like it was meant to be there then I think it should be very doable.

 

Plymouth didn't get an early Hemi.

 

No personal expirence, but I'd start with the motor mounts from a late 50's/early 60's mopar that was equiped with a factort B-block.

Just going off memmory, but I believe the 361 came out in ~58, and I also believe the mopar frames are pretty much the same from the mid 50's up untill about 63.

 

Mounts to a 426 style late hemi are totally different from all others.

You might end up putting a rear sump truck pan on that motor, and i don't know if you can buy a 1/2" pickup for a rear sump pan.

If that motor was mine I'd be sure to make sure the push rods don't rub on the head gaskets before running it.

 

Just make it sound Bad man. God and his neighbor should hear that thing coming from the next state.

 

You know... The logical question is, WHY?????

You could assemble a nice 392 nemi, complete with bling, and about 400 hp worth of zing for about 1/2 the cost of a MP-472, and it would bolt in.

 

I'm not too sure about that.....I had to do quite a bit of "massaging" and fitting (like removing the heater box)to get a 440 in a '56, basically the same car. I ended up using the front part of a '78 New Yorker frame, kept the stock engine and trans mounts, disk brakes, power steering, etc. The stock front suspension didn't instill great confidence.

 

Drop a nasty small block mopar in her with less headaches and less work...or get a new 5.7 hemi and drop that in...imho a 426/472 hemi is a waste of a good motor in an anchor of a car like that...put the 472 into something else...

 

Is there a known issue with this?

Why? Because I want to.

Well, I guess if I wanted an easy project I would have bought a Camaro. The 472 will be injected and pump out 550 Hp it will move this "anchor" just fine.


Anybody ever put rack & pinion in one of these cars?

 

Neat project. Whatca doing for a trans, rearend, and rear suspension?

 

Thanks!

Trans will likely be a 727 with a Gear Vendors overdrive unit. I'm not sure about the rearend yet. Probably an 8 3/4 with leafs, but an independant rear would be nice.

 

Great project! Doncha just love some of the responses? Gee, a small block or a new hemi that you don't have and don't want would be nice and easy for somebody who hasn't built one...

Pull the doghouse off it, dangle the engine over the hole and start cutting paper patterns! Have fun!

Brian

 

Thanks!

I can't wait to get started.

 

Brian's got the right idea. For rack and pinion steering, I'd contact Fatman in Charlotte ( http://www.fatmanfab.com/catalogpage.php?page=6 ), they've treated me right and have neat stuff for early mopars.
Anchor? S**T, I had a '56 back in the mid 60's, tudor Savoy, should have kept it. These cars are no bigger or heavier than a '55 Chev! Only a T-bucket dude could honestly call it an anchor.
Go for it!!

 

Wow that's a lot of power for IRS. So what's the car's theme? Street/strip? High speed bruiser? Show special that'll never hook in 2nd?

Keep us posted, all the downstream stuff that hemi's gonna force should result in a kickass car.

 

Thanks guys.

The independant might be a pipe dream. More than likely it will get an AirRide suspension all around.

The goal for the car is sort of 1950's SRT8. I'm looking for an 300C or Charger SRT8 interior for it.

She will not be a show special or a trailer queen.

 

I install a 392 in a 56 Regent in the late 60's don't remember having much trouble it could smoke the bias belts easily and the car weighs the same as a Chev. but it had no brakes.

 

Good answer.
Looks like an awesome project.

Jack

 

The '55-56 coil spring cars are MUCH different than the '57+ torsion bar cars.

Get ready to make some serious cuts! If you're looking into air-ride, now is the time to commit. That way you can get all the old unwanted crap out of the way and start from scratch, probably with a (beefy!!) Mustang II setup.

There is a '55 C300 running around with a 528 late Hemi in it. However, the Chrysler was blessed with a 4" longer wheelbase than the Plymouth/Dodge and it's all forward of the cowl. You can make it work, just be prepared to change everything.

Looks like a lot of fun to me.

 

That Fatman stub frame looks like the hot ticket. Looks like it just made the chritsmas list.

Gotgas,

Love your avatar!

 

I think it is absolutely a fabulous idea. I've thought about that combo many times before. 55 Plymouth's especially Belvedere's are scarce as hen's teeth. Back in '60 a buddy of mine took a hemi out of a 50 something Imperial and stuffed into his 55 Belvedere convertible. He did this in his driveway at his house and he didn't know shit about cars and if he could do it anybody could. I hope you can do it and keep the hood on it though. Good project, in fact, excellent project !!

 

Physically the two (392&426) are the same size with the 426/472 longer by an inch so it should fit with some work and it would be a killer combo.

 

We've had a few problems with them. Seems the new direct connection stuff from world products is better than the old production mopar performance stuff from cummins, so depending on when that motor was built it might not be an issue.

 

That's gonna be awesome. Wish I could offer some tech help but I never had either so I can't. But, I will add my voice to the Right On!!! side of this argument.

 

I see a helluwa hot rod on a way, go for it. My advice is to decide and get the rear also in your garage. That's because of getting things in line at once, your steering and exhaust will most likely force you to move the engine an inch or two to the right, and it helps to move the whole drivetrain around at the same time rather than trying to find the correct rear end setup later. Forget the IRS, 62-70 B-body 8 3/4" should be quite close width. Also an rear sump oilpan might be needed. Fatman uses Cavalier rack and I have heard many people complimenting their setup under their early mopars

 

Aw, come on now...injected 472 and 550 hp...you're trying to sandbag somebody aren't you???

Awesome project. The 8 3/4 is a good choice, certainly lighter than a ford 9" and plenty easy to get parts.
And, as has been noted, everything will be custom fab: mounts, exhaust, et al.

A couple of thoughts; How about a Jag front susp? and why not use the A-518 vs the gear vendors setup? Just curious and always looking for options to pass along.

We will, of course, demand a photo journal as you proceed.

.

 

If it was gonna be easy everyone would be doing it.

Looks like you are gonna have a kick ass ride.

Build it how ya want and have a ball.

 

I second the notion.

Also, go visit the p15-D24 forum and search through the back posts for 'rack and pinion' and see what those say. Your car is not quite a P15, but I think your suspension is fairly close to the older ones. The group there is pretty inclusive, and support both restorers and hot-rodders.

The main problem with putting such a big motor in these cars is the steering gear interferes - get that figured out first. You can keep the stock suspension too, and get a power rack and pinion. The Fatman kit for $200 is basically 2 heavy weld-on brackets for the rack, and a sheet of instructions - see some pictures of them installed and you may decided to do it yourself. Also, some people have not been happy with the Datsun 510 tie-rod ends that Fatman recommends. The 1984 or so Cavalier power rack is probably what you should start with, and some pictures of installed units.

Or of course a Mustang II unit - make sure it is sized for your motor (which is about 1000 lbs, right?)

And Pics, pics, pics. Lots of pics. Get a couple of identical $60 digital cameras and always have a battery charging. You will be happy, and the HAMB will thank you.

 

It always amazes me that anyone on this board would ask the question, "why?" We are hot rodders are we not? sometines a few here sound like a bunch of old women. Go to a restoration site if your against putting a drivetrain in places where it wasn't intended to go.
I say do your homework, get the best advice you can find and go for it. Be sure to detail the process here for everyone's enlightenment then go out and waste some rear tires.

Frank