I was over at a friends the other day picking up a couple of wheels for a project at work and he mentioned he had gotten a Hemi back that he had owned 15 years ago. We walked down to look at it and it is partially dis***embled and wrapped up in plastic on his trailer and he went on to ask if I wanted to buy it. It is supposed to be a 56 Desoto 330 but I don't know anything about them. Have been sick and haven't been able to go back and pick it up but hopefully Sunday I will be able to. Will post some pics after I get it home but it is fairly complete other then the intake. It has been sitting up in a garage for many years and the pistons are stuck in it but the heads and crank look real clean. Story was that it came from a very rusty convertible 30 years ago or so and the car only had 50k on it. I have wanted one for a long time even though I dont have a body to put it in but the way I trade around on projects am sure I'll prob run up on something by the time it gets rebuilt. My friend also has the stock bellhousing and flywheel for it but I will prob be putting a toploader 4 speed or a t-5 behind it so I dont think I could use either. I think he wanted 100.00 for them. Would they be worth buying just to have incase or are they not much use?
If it's a stick shift bellhousing you can adapt the toploader cheaply to it. The flywheel dosen't care what trans is behind it. $100 is a good deal.
It is for a manual trans. What is involved in doing this and would I run a stock application clutch? I had looked at the flywheel and adaptor kits but they were pricy so this would free up some money for a multi carb intake then if I can use the stock stuff. thanks.
There should be a use code on a flat in front of the valley cover. Post that and/or the casting # to verify the engine
A 50's Mopar manual trans bellhousing will not likely be of any value if you are using a late trans of any kind...the early Mopar tranmissions used an extremely long input shaft. But then not knowing exactly what the parts are I say pony up the $100 because DeSoto used so very few stick setups that it could be an old adapter package... Post lots of pics and everyone will help out. And yes, the 330 is a very good engine. .
Will do. If the weather holds out and I feel decent going to pick it up Sunday and will post them up. The transmissions I have are mid 60's. Have both a toploader and a Ford Borg Warner 4 speed. Also have a later t-5 but in all likelyhood will use one of the 4 speeds.
Real good.. makes me want to find a couple more just to have them around. I missed a few a couple years ago when one of the local backyard junkyards sold them for s**** weight when they got out of the business.
My dad says I should put it in my 56 Ford but I just picked up a complete running y-block for it a few weeks back and plan on adding a tri-power to it and then dropping it in .
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