276 Hemi rebuild.

Small block mopar is a real close distributer, i think the shaft is just a little shorter, like an 1/8" or 3/16 or something, and same direction of rotation, BB mopar is a little closer but wrong direction

The Small block is a pretty common swap, you could probably search to find an artical on that

 

I've been following this discussion and i just can't figure out what is unreliable about a stock valve going ***sup after almost 50 years in De Soto's race engine. I'd consider that pretty reliable myself.

 

50 Years ?

Well, Here is a lil news.

The engine was built in '60 on a low milage out a wreck, STD Bore & STD Crank.... Raced 1 1/2 years and then put away.

I bought it in 2004 & broke the valve after about 500 miles.

So it really had 5~6 years of service.

I knew better & should have replaced them & the Rods & Mains but didnt.

I didnt say they were unreliable, I suggested that while he was in there replace them with 1 piece valves so he didnt encounter what had happen to me.

 

Well its been along time since I posted here and I have to say my Willys Whippet with 1952 Desoto Hemi is fun. I decided to ditch the idea of an automatic and dropped a 5 speed in it. It fries the tires and gets huge rear tire chirps hitting second. It also revs to the moon. It's been going on 4 1/2 years of ultimate fun and put on about 20,000 of hard miles. Love slamming the gears. I am going to drive it a bit more and then going to take it apart because I have a weird flutter /miss/ squeaking sound out of the exhaust and oil flow doesn't seem really good on the top end. But it has been running with good oil pressure and never gets over 175 even on the hottest days. I also found a 1955 4 bbl intake and am running a 1958 Cadillac carb. Here's how its looking now. I also ditched the exhaust for some traditional U build headers. I also got rid of the disc brakes that came on the stock 1940 Ford axle that was dropped and installed 1939-1941 Lincoln self energizing brakes. It's weird because I didn't notice anything different except that the disc brakes would drag sometimes and these don't.

 

Im trying to get it mostly all traditional and even the 1956 Imperial generator works killer. 13.5 volts even at idle. I wired the whole car with all automotive cloth wiring that was on the rolls. I even installed a 1951 Water alcohol set up from Almquist just for the look. I drove this car on a lot of 300-400 mile cruises and it is more comfortable than any of my other cars. It also tracks like any modern car and never follows ruts in the road. The hubcaps are early 1950s 16" NOS Lyons caps I scored on Ebay for a great price.


Im now busy building a full Kustom 1953 Chevy that's taking up a lot of my time. This is why I haven't been posting on here so much
lately!!

 

Great to hear that you have been diving/enjoying the car.
With regards to what you refer to as oil flow doesn't seem really good on the top end ; These engines do not move oil to the top in giant quan***ies like a lot of others. If everything was proper when you ***embled the engine then you should be getting enough to do the needed job. If you do decide to make volume changes keep in mind that you also have a limited amount of drainage....You really don't want oil pooling around the exhaust valves.
...small steps......

 

Well a concern was that when the machine shop installed the cam bearings , the rear was clocked a bit off so that the hole is 2/3rds exposed but not 100%. I had lifters that wouldn't pump up with spring pressure and clacked and would end up with a lot of lash. I could release the pressure on the lifter and bump the ket and instantly the lifter would be filled but soon as I cranked the pushrod down to 0 lash and fired it up, it would end up bleeding down. This was all with 55-60 lbs of pressure at the gauge. So I called Delta cams and asked if it could be that the cam being ground to a smaller cir***ference that this may be causing the problem and if I could install solid lifters. They all agreed that this would be fine. Well this did solve the lash problem but I still have a weird squeaking that is not rhythmic with rotation but comes out of the exhaust and when it does do this squeak, the engine flutters a bit and feels like a small miss. I think Im going to pull the carb and see if it might be some lean fuel problem as I have a couple of Carbs of the same vintage and if that doesn't help, I'll take the intake off and see if I might have a small vacuum leak. The engine does run really strong and surprises everyone that rides in it. Its rev's up fast and really pulls in 1st and second gear. 5th gear is when you notice its just a baby hemi LOL! But its great cruising on the freeway at 2200. It really is a blast to drive and the most fun and so far reliable car. Everywhere I go I can't be in a hurry because there's always a crowd that forms around it. I did buy another rocker ***embly just in case it might be the rockers. I did take them apart and clean them surgically. I mean really clean everything. The stock rockers did have a little wear on the valve side of the rockers and so I am thinking that maybe this little bit of edge might be causing s0ome of the noise. Other than that, anyone that thinks that a little 276 may not have much power, don't be too worried, they pull pretty amazing. This is coming from me that also has a car that does 11.75 in the quarter and 0-60ft in 1.6 seconds. The T-5 helps out a lot I think because of the gearing . Here's a picture of the interior Im doing myself. 1957 Oldsmobile gauge cluster, old Mileometer, 1959 Cast steering wheel 1951Chevrolet steering Column . All the gauges work and even the high beam indicator lights up. I rebuilt the whole gauge cluster as it was frozen. I also have all the gl*** in with tempered and polished edges.




Slowly but surely its being refined . It's probably the only Willy's Overland 3 window coupe that's been hot-rodded and after doing this one I can see why. Everything has to be custom made as there are no parts available. I had to make the trunk lid, modify a 1932 Ford lower tail panel by adding 3" to it to fit the width of the Whippet body, the roof is a 4 door Chevy roof that was infilled, widened 1 1/2", chopped 3, shortend 4" and then 5" added to the edge at the door. This car had more wood in it than any other car I have ever seen. When you remove the wood from the doors, all you have is a door skin and that's all. No structure whatsoever made out of metal!!! Anyway, glad I did it and now enjoying the **** out of it!!!