1955 Plymouth Hy-fire 259ci engine....speed parts??

Hey there,

So I pushed my flathead aside and got me a 1955 Plymouth V8. I was looking to see if there are speed parts for this motor. I know I can swap to Dodge hemi heads, but I want to stick with the look of this engine and hop it up a bit. Also I was told any mopar auto trans from 54-61 would bolt up to this engine....is this true? Any cons to putting an auto trans to a regular 3 speed manual?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Also any pictures of hopped up Poly motors would be great.

 

yeah, just about any speed parts that fit on the hemi's will fit the poly... intakes, cams, things like that.

 

heres a picture of mine... i just traded the car..

 

And there is a recent thread on a Hy Fire also. Hemi tech index for block tricks.

 

The trannies up to '61 MAY bolt on, I don't know for sure about that, up thru '57 and some '58s, yes. But, here's the thing........they don't offer much as they are all old tech trannies. There are adapters available from several sources, some HAMB members a**** them, that will permit use of a wide range of GM and some MOPAR automatics. That is worth your consideration.

Ray

 

Thanks for the help guys. I want to stay away from anything post 1961 as Im trying to be period with this custom I am building. Just something to do to make my life building this car more fun.

Would someone building a custom back in the day stay with a 3spd or go auto?

 

I'm thinking Customs were more show than go, so an a/t probably wouldn't have been a big problem.

 

Thats what I thought. Low and slow is what they say.

I have a line on a powerflite trans. out of a 57 Chrysler.

 

A '57 should be an iron 3 speed torqeflite.

 

Im guessing they made aluminum auto ******s?

 

Portions of them were aluminum. The Torqueflites (and Powerflites too) of the period had aluminum bellhousings, iron main case and aluminum tailshaft housings.

Sometime later, the Torqueflites were redesigned and used all aluminum cases with integral bellhousings and bolt on tailhousing.

Ray

 

First, check out Petes project: Pictures and other links appear... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=360864

The 259/260 Plymouth is the same engine as the 241-270 Dodge.

Next, transmissions:
As you surmised (or were told) all 54-62 (Hemi, Hemi based poly, and A-series poly engines) (not B-RB) transmissions can be used if swapped as a complete package. That means use all of the parts from a single year/application. If you start mixing starters, flywheels, converters, starter mounting plates, etc you will not be happy.

Starting in '63, changes were made to the A-series block and crank that require an adapter for the old engine/late trans swap.

From a practical stand point; The earlier auto trans units are expensive to rebuild, compared to a later TF. The early transmissions (auto and manual) have an e-brake attached to the tailshaft which can create clearance problems. The early units have an odd-ball trunion instead of a slip yoke on the driveshaft.
Good points include '****on drive through '64, although the lack of a slip yoke is an issue. The 63 and 64 models can be converted if you have a 65 model available to get the tailshaft from. The tailshaft can be from either small block or big block application.


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Here's a photo of an aluminum OFFENHAUSER 3x2 intake with triple Stromberg 97's I did for my 55 Plymouth V8-259. These intakes are still kicking around, but very very rare.