Nothing sweeter than an FED. I want to hop in my time machine and go back to 1966....and add in Wild Willie Borsch too...
Rebuilding a hemi should run you about $5,000.00 The cranks for all of the '51-'56 engines are the same The intakes manifolds for all of the '51-'58 hemis are the same from a bolt-on standpoint HOWEVER, the ports were enlarged in '54 and the thermostat housing was removed in '55. What this DOES mean, however, is that any aftermarket CHRYSLER hemi manifold will work on any '51-'58 engine provided you have the correct heads on the block In '57 the deck height was raised and, to compensate for the raised deck height, the intake runners were lengthened, thus, making the earlier intake manifolds usable on the later raised deck blocks. If you put the '55 heads on a '57-'57 block, the intake manifold will be too narrow and you'll need spacers. Conversely, if you put '57-'58 heads on a '56 and earlier block, the manifold wont fit either because it'll be too wide. Timing covers are interchangeable between '51-'54 before Chrysler switched from a cast iron cover to a stamped steel cover. If you want to convert to a Chev water pump, you'll need to convert your '51-'54 block to a stamped steel (aftermarket) timing cover. All Chrysler hemi valve covers are interchangeable with the exception of the 300 & Industrial/Marine variants with solid lifter cams. The solid lifters in these engines required that there be dimples in the valve covers to clear the exhaust rocker arm adjusters. If you don't have solid lifters, the 300 and Industrial/Marine valve covers will still work on your heads because the bolt pattern is the same as the "FirePower" and "Imperial"covers. Gear driven crank industrial engines (they only came in 331 and 354 cid displacements) have useless crankshafts. The lower timing gear boss on the crank is smaller than that of a timing chain sprocket crank and, since these gears are unobtainable, an industrial engine will require a new crank with the provisions for a timing chain sprocket. NEVER knurl valve guides, especially intake valve guides. The side-thrust on the intake valve stem due to the rocker geometry will render the knurling useless in under 1000 miles and you'll start sucking oil down the valve guides on deceleration and blow-by will be a nightmare. Replace the valve guides with factory sintered iron guides. Egge sells them. If you have a good machinist, have him/her mic the valve stems and HONE, not ream, the guides to factory tolerances. BTW, Be careful of who you buy parts from. https://www.flickr.com/photos/92382895@N07/collections/72157633393350258/ The bolt fell out of his pump. ....another five grand down the drain in 2011 thanks to Hot Heads
One of the bolts fell out of his converted 340 MoPar high volume oil pump conversions and I lost oil pressure climbing a hill in Maryland on the way home from the Street Rod Nationals in 2011. $2,200.00 for the tow back to Massachusetts and $5,000.00 for a new block and I was on the road again. This time with a modified (basically, a longer, hardened, 340-type intermediate shaft) oil pump drive shaft and an off-the-shelf 340 oil pump.
The engine in my avatar is a '54 331 out of a New Yorker. It has an aftermarket aluminum front cover and an aluminum SBC water pump. It makes a nice combination. Every pound you can save on these beasts is beneficial.
I may need @73RR to back me up on this, but I believe that the 331 crank had smaller cross drilled oiling holes in the crank than the 354.
The Hemi book you show is become very hard to acquire. The ones I have seen advertised lately are priced way high. I paid 10 bucks for mine through the Amazon site several years ago. A wealth of information and illustrations. I did read that it may be reprinted. That would be a good thing.
Per "slayer" this is where the tag should be... Mine was missing The 331 I purchased a number of years ago (long block with heads, etc all in pieces) was an Industrial version. Engines like this were frequently used to power irrigation pumps in the midwest. There wasn't an ID on the front of engine as given in other examples.... Its number was stamped on the left front of the block (probably on a Monday morning)... So, I stamped it for future IDing
I used to work for Tex Smith as a writer for Hot Rod Mechanix and Custom Car as well as selling magazine subscriptions and how-to books at car shows. That ended years ago when the economy tanked and Tex Smith Publishing folded. I do, however, still have a few new, never opened, copies out in the garage. pm me if you want a copy. cover price plus shipping.
Back to swapping. The '51-'56 cams are nearly identical. They can be swapped HOWEVER, you should look for the '56 cam because it uses a single bolt for the timing sprocket. The '51-'55 cams have a threaded snout on the front and take a different, unobtainable, sprocket. BTW, the 340 double-roller timing chain set-up is a direct fit swap for the '56 set-up. I have been running a '56-style Crower solid lifter roller cam and adjustable pushrods in my hemi since 1965. I switched to the 340 timing chain as well when it hit the market. The engine has a LOT of miles on it. It's been driven to the Street Rod Nationals every year since '74 and I live in Massachusetts. Aside from the Syracuse nationals, every other one has been a one-way trip over 1000 miles just to get there. It's a thousand miles, door-to-door to Louisville every summer. '51-'56 connecting rods also swap.
Sad to hear that,,,,,,on the plus side though,,,,,there will be several new pristine examples on eBay in a couple of weeks,,,,LoL . Tommy
....and all those three-digit priced books are all pre-owned. Mine were leftover new books still in the original CarBooks shipping boxes. I still have a bunch of the other Tex Smith how-to books including the Electrics book, which I wrote. I don't waste time trying to sell them because it's a real chore for me to get to a Post Office to mail them because I still have a real 40 hour a week job and the Post Office is closed when I leave for work and is about to close when I get out of work.
Correct. and Dodge and DeSoto hemis had fewer interchangeable parts as well. The Dodge was the shortest of the three hemi families while the DeSoto, size-wise, was between the Chrysler and Dodge. Unlike he Chryslers, intake manifolds weren't interchangeable between the early and later taller, raised deck, blocks.
Correct on the oil holes, BUT, the flange extension is also different on the 51-53 cranks vs the 54-up. Scooter discovered this when he was building his engine. Hemi starter to flywheel engagement problem | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)
Ooooh.... I did not know that! I have been on the hunt for another early Hemi block, but only have a 354 rotating assembly! This saved me a headache! Thanks!
My 1958 truck 354 startup last summer: 354 Chrysler Hemi startup - YouTube From the top: Edelbrock 650 CFM carb with electric choke & vac secondaries, Hot-Heads intake, 555 "triple nickle" heads, MSD distributor, 224* @0.050 cam, 10:1 CR, 340 oil pump, and homemade MIG-welded headers with 1 5/8" primaries, SBC H2O pump on a Black Mountain Hemi timing cover/adapter.
The Jalopy Journal
