The bean counters were solely responsible for the cuts. Those guys get pretty worked up over a nickel or two so the added costs of the big head castings and the double rocker ***emblies made them crazy.
73RR, in Detroit cost are tracked to a tenth of a penny, the Poly motor was simply cheaper to produce than the Hemi.
They were then. Now it is to the hundredth. As it was then, so it is now, the only way to make money in the automotive industry is sales volume.
A comment atributed to Don Garlitz said they were dropped because the B engines saved $35, and over 100s of thousands of engines that adds up.
I would like to see the cost sheet for a Max - Wedge versus a 392 . Either way they could have kept the engine as an option for high - end products . Garlits replied to an email that I sent to him and he stated that it was discovered years after that 1 higher up at Chrysler made a bunch of money under the table for the engine change. He didn't go into any further detail.
No, they could not have. That would have required not only an expensive extra degree of complexity in the ***embly line, but a service parts stream for warranty and wear support. These are guaranteed expenses, without a guarantee of a single sale. All of those things add up to extremely large expenses. In 2022 numbers, we're talking tens-of-millions. No automaker in their right mind would spend that on the outside chance that someone wants an esoteric engine. If you look at modern vehicles, in many cases you get to pick color and wheels. All of the hard parts for the model are the same, and are also shared across several platforms.
1957: Chrysler was making high deck 392s, low deck 354 hemis & polys for trucks, marine & Ind., DeSoto Hemis, Dodge hemis, & Dodge Polys for Dodge & DeSoto, plus Plymouth "A" Polys in 277, 301, and 318....going to just A & B engines must have been a relief.
When it comes to overheating this is the first thing I reach for. https://www.lislecorp.com/specialty-tools/combustion-leak-detector
gimpyshotrods; you mentioned that now automaker would spend tens of millions on the outside chance that someone would want an "esoteric" engine. Apparently you've forgotten about all those Hemi powered Mopars in the '70's, or Cosworth Vegas (the four-cam engine basically doubled the price of the car), or SVO Mustangs (or Turbo Birds for that matter), or LT5 Corvettes (four-cam engines ***embled by, of all people, Mercury Marine)...
Ever single second-generation Hemi was a guaranteed sale, and sold. The Cosworth Vega was a gamble GM lost, but so was much of what they did in the 1970's. They weren't in their right mind. Every SVO Mustang and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe sold. That wasn't an esoteric engine, either. Remember where it came from? Every LT5 Corvette sold, and at a profit. Chrysler looked at their actual balance sheets and determined that the current sales did not justify the gamble.
True that. Just look at the early Mustangs and Cougars. Then take a close look at all the parts from the Falcons that fit on those cars.
It always makes me laugh to think of all the penny pinching that went on and yet they still developed three separate engines of the same design (Desoto, Chrysler, Dodge). Wouldn't ONE Hemi design for the three marques make more fiscal sense?! It's almost as if it were a governmental en***y.
For Mopar the bottom line could be did the Hemi offer any advantage in performance or reliability in a production car compared to the B wedge?
not to mention the truck & marine versions, with the differences in each, of the Dodge & Chr, plus the Ind versions of all 3.
With both engine designs running 90 plus octane gasoline the wedge engines probably ran just as well in a day to day car. That worked out great until they wanted to race again AFTER the sh @T - canned the tools , drawings , and everything. They saved 35 bucks making the 413 and spent 35000 on manifolds ( still fell on it's face at the races ). The decision had to come somewhere around 1955 to be producing some wedge engines for the 57 model year. Those minor little ' design improvements " that we see between 1954 and 1955 engines must not have been enough to change the minds of the right people.
Either way they were moving on the excesses of post WW2 economics. They still could have selected one series of hemi engine to produce for all 3 brands and solved the majority of the financial cost woes. The gasoline quality is what motivated the move away from the hemi ( better gas allows the lesser designs to creep in ). But to s**** the whole entire engine series the way it was done .... sudden and thorough even the damn drawings is just absurd. They could have kept a small plant just for Chris Craft ( boats ) , trucks , performance. They bet it all on the 413 and lost. The 392 would get the last laugh at the dragstrip. It would go on to make the papers for at least the next decade ( probably longer than the professional careers of the guys that pulled the plug on it ). Dude in charge of racing R and D reporting to the execs on Monday morning giving them the bad news in 1962 ( and the execs have a newspaper on the table showing " Chrysler Firepower " valve covers on Sunday's fuel winners ).
This has gotten so far off base I'm going to stop following it. Sure hope babblewan got his heat issue cured. I'm gone
Haha I think I’m on the right track now. Drove it the last couple days. No overheating, no coolant puking. Worked out the temp gauge issue and she stays around 140 while driving. Started getting into 190’s while idling for extended periods. I only had a puller electric fan and I think I’m on the small side for a radiator. Not have the funds for a high efficiency radiator, I built a fan shroud and added a clutch fan I had laying around. Moved the electric fan to the front with a 185 temp sender. Idled for a good 30-40 minutes and fan still didn’t come on. Now I can move on to working out all the little things that go along with a new build. Thanks to everyone for their help, input and knowledge!
I would verify the accuracy of your gauge. Running around 140º is too low to support complete combustion. If you don't have the thermostat in, put it back in. Complete combustion should be around 190º-205º, give-or-take.
Called cl***ic instruments today, I have the 40 ford gauge set from them. The temp gauge is not linear and the hash marks are not all marked. Found what I thought was 140 is more like 180. I have a 180 t-stat in.
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