Andy from Kerrville TX has a Red Ram hemi in his nice 32 Ford Roadster hooked up to a all-synchro early 60s Ford 3speed using a column shift. YAHOO> A very fun car to drive, rides good, handles good, looks good.
Nice looking motor there in that 35. I'm doing, pretty much the same with a 38 Ford Standard tudor sedan, but mine is a 57, 325 ci. Dual quads with the baby 273 hip0 afbs, put a harmonic balancer on it, crank girdle, Pontiac H-rods, D-500 heads with adjustable rockers, and the hump valve covers. Yes, I've gone over-kill on the engine, but what the heck, I wanted the hemi look. Oh yes, I did find a NOS, never used, Isky Cam from 1961. Yes, things can be found on ebay for these motors. Hopefully, this year it will finally hit the road.
Just a note here: I don't know where you guys get the idea that these motors are all that big, or wide for that matter. I measured off a small block Chevy. 325 Dodge hemi 4" shorter in length. With exhaust headers on sbc: 325 Dodge hemi 3" narrower at the widest point. Weight: 325 Dodge hemi with aluminum water pump, dual quad intake, small alternator, starter, Sanden a/c, and headers 543 lbs. Stock with all the cast iron parts: 608 lbs. The aluminum stuff really takes the weight off in a hurry. Yes, I realize that the Chryslers and Desoto hemi's get heavy, as well as big in a hurry, but the little Dodge? Well, from what I measured, taint so. Also, running the steering shaft past the little hemi was a breeze, as the Sanderson headers go down, rather than out, as the sbc's do. Horspower? Well, stock this D-500 engine was in the 315 hp range. I figure with the small amount of add ons that we've made, it should be in the 350 hp range. That's enough power for me, and then there's the looks. Go hemi.
There are 11 early Hemi engines sizes they are 241,259,270,276,301,315,325,330,331,354,392, http://www.classichemi.com/index1.shtml
last chrysler 331 hemi i had, i got $1000 for it, it was all apart, and the crank needed cleaned up, but i had a new set of arias pistons that went with it. there will be the casting number on the engine at the front of where the valley pan is top right on the block. d44-1001 = 1953 red ram 241 2 bbl 140 h.p. d50-1001 = 1954 red ram 241 2 bbl 140 h.p. d50 (1,2,3) = 1954 red ram 241 2 bbl 150 h.p. hope this helps. info. is from my hot heads book
my 354 came out of a Dodge dump truck....the bigger Dodge trucks used the same hemi (but industrial)as the Chrysler cars...the valve covers are not stamped with the usual "Firepower" or "Imperial" as their cars had..these had decals on them with "Power Giant 354"
I'm in the process of acquiring an all original 53 coronet with the 241 that has been sitting for at LEAST 9 years and would like to get all the information I can about how to fire it up the RIGHT WAY. I don't want to botch it up. Can anyone point me in a good direction where I can find more info on the do's and dont's i.e. oiling the rockers and guides properly etc...?? VERY EXCITED and have got to learn to take it slow....and not get in a rush, Thanks in advance ferdbeard QUOTE------------- So true.....After reading as much as I have I know not to fire these hemi's after they have been sitting for a few years without first oiling rockers and guides properly. ----------
Well, you won't find a 'user manual' kinda format. At least you are aware of the potential rocker arm oiling concerns. Whether or not you can safely fire an old, long-sitting engine depends alot on things like how and where it stored as well as the internal condition (moisture levels in the oil, how much oil, sludge). Hell, does it even roll over???? If not you're pulling heads. I'll tell you to pull the valve covers and the oil pan and run them thru a hot tank (also, the oil pump and screen assembly). I'll also suggest not trying to scrape crap from inside the block assembly since you can easily loosen chunks that might plug the freshly cleaned screen assembly. Beyond that, the usual fresh oil/filter, new sparklers, fresh fuel... my 2¢ ...others will differ .
Minimally change oil, get somec pre SM type oil. pull the dizzy b& int shaft & run up the oil pump to get oil every where, turning engine to get oil to rockers. Like gary said, if it's stuck, don't bother trying to start.
there is no 259 or 301. there is however a 291, 341 and 345. I sell the stepped balancer keys and a few other parts for the Dodges, like a front fill valley cover.
Thanks for the input on the restart. I've been reading a lot of great posts on the matter here on the H.A.M.B. I'll keep telling myself to take it slow and not get in a rush. The last one I brought back from the dust was a 48 truck and it fired right up on the first try with fresh gas and clean lines and new plugs and wires..... course it's the old flathead six and probably not quite as finicky.
A tip for you Red Ram fans... they also made a Polysphere version of this engine that was identical except for the heads and exhaust manifolds. Block, crankshaft, even the intake manifold. So if you see a Poly engine in the junkyard, in a Dodge, Dodge truck or some Plymouth 1955, you can turn it into a Hemi with just the heads. Worth knowing if you are trying to build up an engine from parts, or just want to have a spare engine around. There was also a Poly version of the Chrysler hemi, used in the cheaper Windsor model. And poly DeSoto. Then there was the later Polysphere used in Dodge and Plymouth 1956-66. It had no hemi counterpart. Each Poly engine had its own distinctive shape of valve covers. The early ones were scalloped, the later ones more of a saw tooth pattern. Once you see them you can tell them apart at a glance.
Not completely accurate. There was no 259 or 301 Hemi. But there was a '55 301 Chrysler Poly that will accept 331/354/392 heads, and a Dodge 270 based 259/260 Poly found in Plymouths and Dodge trucks (also '55). Also, the only DeSoto poly was actually a 325 Dodge, that was a 1957 only thing. There was no true DeSoto poly that shared parts with the DeSoto hemi's like the Chrysler or Dodge Poly's did with their hemi counterparts.
And the 1956 Plymouth poly shares a block with the Dodge Super Red Ram but the Plymouth has side motor mounts - the only year for this....
OK guys..I need to know if the intake off of a 392, 1957 or 58 will fit on a 1954 331. It is a 4 barrell intake. Thanks for the help
Yes, it will bolt-on...although the 392 is a 'taller' deck, Mopar modified the heads instead of the manifold....but using a 'dry' intake on a '54-331 leaves you without a t-stat. .
TR Waters response was correct....his statement was in reply to a prior post that listed 11 hemi displacements, which included 259 & 301. TR correctly pointed out there were no factory 259 or 301 hemi engines. Ray
Neither post actually mentioned anything about what was, or was not, available from the factory. Which is why I underlined hemi in my response, and added that the the 301, 259 and 260 displacements were in fact Poly engines. But, since those blocks are identical to hemi blocks, there's no reason that there can't be 301, 259 or 260 hemi's. 301 hemi's were used quite a bit at Bonneville to get hemi's into smaller displacement classes. And truck engines were rebuilt all the time with whatever parts were on hand. My point was only that you can in fact find 301, 259, and 260 hemi's out there. That they aren't factory I think has little bearing on this forum, since very little here is factory. I have a 315 Dodge "hemi" in my garage that started life as a 315 truck poly. Is it any less a hemi than a 315 that rolled off the assembly line as one? No. I bought a Plymouth coded 260 that was pulled out of a '55 Dodge convertible, it was a replacement engine swapped in by a dealer. Stranger things have happened. I was simply adding some information that might prove helpful to someone that comes across a converted Poly engine, or has a Poly that they want to convert.
------------------- Hmm?? We kinda' got off the original topic of this tread, which started out being about 241 Dodge "Baby Hemis", but anyway.... The 392 has a higher deck height than the 331 and 354's - but the 331- 354 and 392 intakes are all exactly the same width and will interchange. To make up for the 392 block's higher deck height, the 392 heads were cast with a slightly lowered and slightly longer intake port - which also, by the way, because of their lowered intake port position, the 392 heads generally don't flow quite as well as the 331-354 heads - (and definitely not as well as the good two-year-only "big port" '54 & '55 331-354 "555" heads). But If your 331 is at least a mid-'54 or later engine, the '57-58 392 intake is a straight bolt on. The only caution that would negate or at least seriously complicate your planned intake swap, is if you have an early 331 - ie - a 1951, '52, or '53 model engine (and supposedly, also some early-1954's model engines too) that had the thermostat housing cast integral with the intake manifold and also had slightly different water passage locations in the heads. But if your 331 uses a separate water crossover manifold that bolts to the front of the heads to locate the thermostat, you're 'good to go' with the '57-'58 392 intake. Mart3406 ==========
On off the Thread topics like 331 intakes...put Hemi Tech Index in search & start reading. A 241 that is nominally 7.0 or 7.1 measured out @ 6.19:1 on webrodder.
The Jalopy Journal
