This past winter when I built my little A Bone I really wanted it to be a Hemi car. However like us all I live in the real world and I simply could not find one, at the time. So in went yet another SBC in a Model A and maybe one day... As luck would have it I had the A up and running and was getting to drive it some, and word comes to me about this 354 Hemi about a hundred miles away. I go up there and purchase it, but it needs a lot of work. It is a truck 354 and had a really bad crank, needed pistons and all of the machine work. It also had those typical truck heads that take a wet intake manifold. No problem with those heads I have learned, with the one exception being finding a intake manifold that works with those heads. I managed to find a old Weiand Drag Star 6 deuce manifold with carbs at a price I could live with. I also found a crank and the other parts to get this built and in the car. I am a happy guy. And then the Hemi's just started crawling out of the wood work. A nice 392 just 25 miles from the house find it's way into the shop and plans have changed and it now is going into the A. Then here on the Hamb classified I find another 392 over in Ga and bought it as well. Cool thing about that motor is the guy who had it advertised here on the Hamb is a really cool guy. Spent the day over there with him when I went to pick it up, and found him to be a wealth of information on these early Hemi's. He also had a set of heads for the 354 so I bought those as well. So after just a small amount of time I have a shop full of early Hemi's , and if that wasn't enough I find another 392. Its in Pa or was right now it is on the freight truck on its way here. So from NO Hemi's to 3-392 and one 354. I am a lucky guy only trouble is I now have to build more cars to find these motors all homes. That is a good thing...
I have a truck 354 in my roadster with '56 passenger car heads. I got the block and crank given to me, great! Then I found out the other half of the formula, replacement and repair or modification parts are all made out of that rare and precious metal unobtainium! I don't know how it is where you are but almost everyone I spoke to that had hemi parts had this cash register noise in the background every time we talked price. I shopped high and low to get the best part for the best price and sometimes was successful. I have over 12k miles on it and it is a sweet motor from idle up to scare the hell out of yourself mode. I have now recovered financially and all is well. But, I can tell you that for the same money, I could have built a small fleet of sbcs or sbfs. But not have the fun, look, or sound of that hemi. An additional plus is the high quality of all the pieces and machine work from the factory, very impressive indeed. So unscrew your wallet and enjoy the ride!
duecemac, I hear you and I do realize that is the common spin on building an early Hemi. Now with that said is it really as Bad (or expensive) as everyone (who ever everyone is) says? The first 392 I bought was about six weeks ago, now this was supposed to be a built motor and I might add had a price that reflected that. However the owner had "NO" receipts at all for all of this built part. Don't know how most folks feel about that but for me without receipts it is a core motor. I renegotiated the price and bought it at my price, not his. Got it apart and it turned out to be somewhat built, but there were also problems. I know have it almost back together and so for this motor the money is spent and done. The build wasn't cheap if you compare it with a Small Block Chevy, but it wasn't really expensive it you compare it against a Big Block Chevy. A lot of folks feel that an engine is just an engine, thus the preponderance of Small Blocks by the thousands. Listen if a guy is on a budget and counting his penny's in building a car, a Small Block is in all truth a very good choice. They are plentiful--Millions Were Built--They are inexpensive to build, speed equipment is almost every where for them, they make damn good power if you choose the right parts and make the right moves. I simple do not feel that way. I am an old guy and bought my very first Hemi when I was like 14 years old and working on this poor old junk of a car a 1936 Plymouth Coupe. That Hemi even all those years ago was something special. I found it in a wrecking yard in Forney Texas and that had to be in 1959. The guy in the wrecking yard removed these old engines by turning the car on its side and cutting the motor mounts with a torch and rolled them out. When it got that old Mopar on its side you could see the crack on the side of the block with you eyes. That was the end of that Hemi, so I bought a Pontiac engine instead ( it was the only other one I could afford). Three years later I had to leave that old Plymouth and joined the Marine Corps never did find out what happened to it but I am pretty sure my old man sold it for scrap right along with that Pontiac engine. Hemi's do cost more to build than Small Blocks no doubt about, but when did it become all about JUST the damn money? There is that cool factor to deal with as well. That is why some of us build these old Hemi's and Flatheads and Nailheads, Oldsmobile's and a lot of these engines. Hell they all cost more to build than a Small Block but we do in anyway. Thank God
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