Went camping / fishing about 3 hours from home on the long weekend. To get away from the zoo that the campground was, I went to see an old farmer I knew who I recalled had some old Dodge trucks. Mid fifites, 3 tons. He confirmed that one was a '57 and the other was a '56, both with 331 hemis. Might be for sale I'm supposed to call him in a couple of weeks. On the way back I checked out this small village and WTF here was a mid fifities mopar car. On closer inspection it was a '55 Chrysler New Yorker! Nice solid rust free car with a Hemi. Completely unmolested. The owner thought it was a 354 but it's likely a 331. It's for sale @ $2500. I wouldn't mind spending $2000 if I could part out the body and get $1000 back. But it doesn't look like a '55 Chrysler is worth anything.....
The engine in a '55 New Yorker is a "CE55" with the vaunted '555' casting heads. It also has a 4bbl intake and no extended block. Basically the most desirable 331 Chrysler there is, outside of a C300. Looks like it's all there too. I'm not sure the whole shooting match is worth $2k, but it might be since you get a lot of supporting hardware. The front clip and some of the trim might be bought by a restorer, but I wouldn't plan on recouping all your money. The truck engines might be interesting too, check for painted "Power Giant 354" valve covers, they are a rare sight with the lettering intact. Even more so with solid-lifter bumps! Good find...
If the engine runs and looks to be in good shape, it's probably worth close to $2K by itself. The truck engines are very cool indeed! They have real thick cylinder walls and some neat other features about them. Only problem is the heads and intake manifolds are not the greatest design in the world and would probably be worth swapping for p***enger car heads or something with similar flow. The '57 is probably a 354 and the '56 is probably a 331. Good luck! Hope you come home with one!
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