Is the 426 Hemi a traditional hot rod engine?

Careful....Some of you won't hesitate using a BB Chevy or 400-something Buick or Olds. It was available in 4 door p***enger cars so that makes it a production engine not just a race engine. It's whatever you want. People put a blower or tunnel ram with dual carbs, is THAT traditional? You can NEVER go wrong with any Hemi! Mopars Rule!!!!

 

FBI ordered 2 white 4-door '66 Coronets with the 426 HEMI... One of those is sitting in the Garlits museum down in Fla.

 

Isn't that the truth. Me tooI put a lot of BIG 60's engines in mine
in the 60's.

 

Ha, ha ha, ha! you guys kill me. I think the HAMB is transcending its pure traditional roots for and with a few exceptions. 392 Yep, 426, yep. 392 looks better and certainly is more traditional. But to be honest anything that has valve covers on it and 8 cylinders is beyond the Traditional early cars. 1955 was a year of monumental change and into a much faster world. Yes I know there are still Flatheads around then and still today that run good and fast. But to me when the overheads became mainstream Cad/Olds/Chevy the traditional scale stopped in 1955 for the true early cars. I love overheads and that era of discovery from '55 to '72+/- when alot of things came and went all styles. So I guess after this long silly thought no a 426 is not traditional. IT is the baddest most awe inspiring life changing design ever and still in use today in a modified form to power the fastest piston driven things on wheels that has a huge lineage back to Duntov's Hemispherical combustion chambers. I'll make an exception anytime for the 426 in a pure Hot Rod, I don't care what it is because with the 426 it really isn't going to matter. Sneer or cheer it's your choice. But I'll take one anyday. After all wasn't traditional Hot Rodding all about going faster?


Tim

 

426? Those are for babies:
http://www.schubeckracing.com/new2/...er_op=view_page&PAGE_id=12&MMN_position=52:52

 

Technically speaking, they (the 426s) came out in 1964.... So if you are building a mid to late '60s style hot rod, then yes, it would be... although this board and many "traditional" shows (Billetproof) and magazines (Rod & Kulture) surf that year (give or take 1965) as the cut-off before the muscle and pony cars changed the game. Just don't mix and match eras...

 

and if you have a REAL 426, chances are you can sell it off to a Mopar resto-freak and make enough to hop up a 392 and have a little left over...

 

Well, I dont know what you consider "traditional" but I have seen several examples of vintage drag cars with pre war bodies, from 1964 and up, that had 426 Hemi's in them. One 34 Ford that I know of has a 426 Hemi that has been in it since 1964. It was raced, then put on the street, still has the 26. But Id love to have a blown 92 or 54 though

Although, One part of me respects anyting with a big inch mill that shakes the earth....traditional or not.

and small block chevies are as traditional as a nailhead, they have been in hot rod's since 1955 when the first guy realized it took up the same amount of room a flat head did.

 

just say it.. Hemi

 

I love the "traditional or not" arguments. I also love the 426.

I understand the rabid love many have for the earlier stuff (and i feel it, too) but hotrodders have traditionally yanked the "hot new mill" and shoved it in the lightest, and hopefully tightest, piece of tin they could find.

V8Ford, Cadillac, Studes, Nailheads, small Chevys, small Hemis, big Hemis, SOHC Fords, and dozens of others make up a list of traditional hot rodding targets. Each one was the hot, new tech of it's day.

 

That's certainly true.

Discussions like this remind me of just how many worthy and interesting engines went into production in the decade or so just after the "HAMB era," some of which fail to qualify as "HAMB traditional" solely because of the date of their introduction. Look all of the overhead valve V8 engines that were created in that era. And then look at some of the overhead valve inline 6s that would be far more interesting to see under the hood of a roadster than yet another small block Chevy. There were even a few inline 4 cylinder engines that would be worthy under the hood of a lightweight roadster. The Iron Duke, the Pinto Engine, and perhaps some others have been successfully used in cars like that.

These engines might all be arguably cool, but strictly speaking, no, these are not HAMB era traditional. The real question for the builder/owner then becomes this -- Just how dedicated are you to the idea of building your car to be 100% HAMB era traditional?

Let's take an entirely different example. The 426 HEMI is a bit extreme and thus it is likely to get a stronger backlash. But suppose instead that you were looking to install, say, a hopped up Ford 300 cubic inch inline six taken out of a late 60s pickup truck into a 1951 Ford F1 pickup. Strictly speaking, the Ford 300 engine didn't go into production until just after the end of HAMB era, but it's really not all that different from some of the other inline sixes that were designed a decade earlier. Would it really be such a sacrilege to use the Ford 300? Or would most HAMBers grin when you popped your hood and move in for a closer look?

 

Go for it! Any old Hemi is fine in my books whether in a Mopar or not.

 

I guess you guys aren't going to like the car I'm building.My first finished ,well almost finished hot rod.please don't tell me its a street rod i'll sell it now.1933 ford 5 window with everything out of a 1964 hemi polara.even push****on 727. trying to make york .pictures on another thread.yikes I thought I was doin it right .Bucky

 

King Cuda,when your one of the masters of making these beasts run in Super Stock you can call it what ever you like Sir.

 

don,t care if you want it use it

 

If I had a 426 hemi I'd have to find something to put it in.
Only person I'd be out to please is me.

 

Within the boundaries of traditional design? No... However, I would put a 426 in anything! Including my living room, just so I could look at it and give it a hug evey now and then! There is no cooler motor than a Hemi. 392 or 426. In Tucson there is a Deuce coupe running around with a Hemi in it, and that car is sick man, it rules! It looks beautiful! In my humble opinion... Embrace The Elephant Brother!

 

I have a 392 in my 40 ford and to me it was something I wanted to do. If the 426 is your choice do it. 64's 426 yes and today's 5.7L no.

 

1964 right ? so would be correct on a 60's rod,,anyone ever do a nice custom with a 426 ?? Might look nice in an old Merc. Plus back in the Traditional day,,was'nt it common practice to try and stuff the next new thing motor into the old car ?

and yeah the "Goldenrod" any old FED,,they are traditional motors. but the internet is rewriting history so ya never know

in the end Tradition is only what has lead us to where we are now

1965 baby

 

Hemi in the living room so you can look at it and give it a hug? I thought i was the only one that did that. LOL

BTW, that is a SICK avatar!!!!

 

A thank you for the people that tried to keep this Thread Positive and Informative.

Closed because of the Drama Queens that didn't...