A Hemi is allways a Hemi, i like the thinking outside the box. I building a 392 of a of 5,7 Hemi, and sure its proably cheaper buying a crate one for $6000 but i built it myself(and the crate ones have bad rumour) and the only one to blame if it brakes is me. And its getting a sixpack to And ignore the "thats no real Hemi" comments...
I applaud you trying to reinvent the wheel to make something that you "designed" work. Normally I would keep my mouth shut and mind my own business... and let you wallow in self pitty after something goes terribly wrong... but the fact that you are making something extremely unsafe that could harm someone else I can't just pass this one by. With that being said.... there is collectively hundereds of years of HEMI experience, if not more, on the HAMB and to ignore that is very unwise. You don't care to listen to these people who have been doing this a LONG time either, no matter what you say. Their point that they are driving home is safety, especially with overboosting your engine. Have you seen a supercharger explode before in person? I doubt it. Have you seen an engine explode and throw a piston out of the side of the block or watch the block grenade? I doubt that either. From a distance is it kind of neat to watch something explode... but I assure you that watching something up close explode while possibly harming you or someone else is anything but. You are going to hurt someone because you want to be foolish and do it your own way and hopefully you just hurt your pride. I have had my share of engines blow the sides of block apart, pistons fly out, superchargers explode, turbos explode... I worked for Cummins in troubleshooting catastrophic engine failures in the engineering department for a long time... Attached are some pictures of what can happen. Now keep in mind diesel engines have higher compression, so when something happens, it happens big. This can still be a huge issue with engines like the engine your are building as well... Imagine that house as a person... not a pretty picture... Working at a company that designs and produces ONLY engines in an engineering department dedicated to finding root cause of failures in these instances taught me a valuable lesson... Engine components (especially blocks) are designed a specific way for a reason. If they wanted to make something so it is universal, then they would have. This explains why that one bolt is a bitch to get out on everything you work on.. which begs the question "why would someone make/design it like this?"... simply because it is needed to prevent something unsafe from happening. I have seen countless hillbilles do stuff like you are doing now and are reduced to near tears when their $3,000+ investment goes up in smoke because they didn't want to listen to someone who knew what they were talking about. This build has taken a rat rod stance on the HAMB and can be compared with other shitty builds posted on the HAMB of rat rods or the like with 1/8" tach welded frames, 4 link suspensions, etc. This build has started to remind me of this link from South Africa: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=781612&highlight=south+africa If you are going to blow over $3,000 on something that is going to explode or be destroyed do it on something else... don't waste a 354 hemi for christ's sake, I can think of a thousand high schools or people or something like that would love to have the experience to build a hot rod engine. If you want you can give me 3 grand and I can just kick you in the nuts repeatedly, its going to damage your pride and you just as much and I will save you money on top of it... Now I congratulate you on trying to invent something new, but you are going about it the wrong way. If the experienced folks here are saying that the boost will grenade that engine, don't do it... If redrilling the water pump holes is said to be unwise... it would be best not to do that either. You have ignored everyones advice so far, so I suspect you won't give this post a second thought, but as I said... I cannot pass this one by without saying something. -1959apache
You don't care to listen to these people who have been doing this a LONG time either, no matter what you say. This build has taken a rat rod stance on the HAMB +1 Ago
rat rod engine for sure,sorry if i offended a rat rodder. actualy i have freinds with rat rods and theire engine are much better and safer. i also was not saying anything but as things are progressing it is getting more ridiculous, sorry had to say it, i try not to say anything negative but if this is how the engine is coming togheter i can only imagine the car it will go in.
I've sit back and watched this thread since the beginning, and do agree that the OP's efforts may be a little misguided. However, the drama of comparing it to a CN locomotive that spit a power assembly and 40 pound piston through the roof of a house in Louisiana is ridiculous. The old Hemi's cast pistons will go away very quickly under any sort of boost, leading to massive blowby and little if any compression. Or it will spit back and break something like the blower case, manifold, or what-have-u, and that will be the end of it. I understand what he's trying to do, not everyone can just call Hot-Heads and order 10K worth of parts. I give him an A for effort and wish him luck, he's gonna need it.
the last couple posts have left me speechless guys. i honestly dont know what to say. so im just going to continue building....why? you may ask because i will have this engine taken to the one machine shop ive mentioned form the gecko....Brangers Performance and Machine shop. i will have them go over EVERYTHING im doing and have done before it fires up. im just going to ignore all the insults of me being reckless because i take safety #1. if its not safe its not going on the road. PERIOD o yea....i forgot to mention....i called whipple supercharger tech line and went over everything. they also confirmed that 6inch pulley should be ok. if anything they suggested i might have to go a little bigger because of the cubic inch difference between the 5.4liter and the 354. going to 6inch might land me lower than 5psi. in that case i should increase pulley size and monitor boost each time i do so.
hemi $700 supercharger $350 harmonic balancer from 340 $25 timing chain cover $22 cans of lube $20 new oil filter adapter $18 intake flanges $64 valve covers $120 new rod bearings $82 new piston rings 97$ harmonic balancer key $15 bbc adapter for water pump. $55 crank pulley sep. $5 belt tensioner $5 good used pistons and rods $125 new hydrualic lifters $55 new TBS pop off valve $45 $30 worth in paint and paint stripper. for valve covers main bearings from EGGE.com $125 new bbc water pump $47 spark plug tube seals new $32 motor mounts $38 full felpro gasket set $168 EDELBROCK 7032 DUAL QUAD TOP $45 billet aluminum alternator bracket. $47 alternator $15 holley four barrels $80 shotgun scoop polished complete with airfilters new $130 hei distributor $65 -80 flywheel pulley $5 header flanges $59 total...$$$$$2609 so far
got a really great deal at the kyana swap meet this year! found me a distributor NEW for the hemi $65. just cant beat that. plus its a vacumn advance and electronic. no more points! wasnt able to buy any heads at the meet....just no one with any. was able to meet a guy that lives locally and he is suppose to have rebuilt heads that were never used on his hemi. im going to meet up with him later this week to try and purchase them from him. here are some pictures of the new distributor and scoop. i like the chrome cover on the distributor because it reminds me of a magneto.
So let me get this straight..................... a few guys are worried because this guy is going to reweld some holes and tap 4 bolt holes to support a water pump, and these guys think the front of the block is going to rip off? If this is the case, how in the heck do the welded up old hemi blocks live through blown drag racing situations? Now, with that said, this isn't the way I'd go either. I think I would get the new front cover and kill a couple birds with one stone. But I applaud your efforts! Keep up the good work! These Hemis are anything but cheap.........
been a little bit sense i posted anything but its mainly due to the fact i stopped working on the engine because im working on other stuff. but i was able to get some work done to the supercharger today. looks freakin awesome. here some pics of what ive done....
"good used pistons and rods $125" Jeeeeeeeezzus,,,I think that sentence should end with the word EACH!
All WD-40 is good for is killing wasp's W(stands for water) D ( stands for displacement) 40 ( stands for the 40's try)
Im thinking that later on in a few years after i get it going about switching over to a more traditional 671roots style. For now i think this just looks freakin awesome.
I'm wondering how the fuel/air from the rear carb will find it's way into the blower inlet? seems to be a very small space for the air to turn. Looks like 1 carb right over the inlet would be a better deal
air inlet to the supercharger is in the middle of both carbs. shouldnt be an issue. will find out on the day it fires up...or explodes
been awhile since ive posted. money been tight so... was able to sqeeze a couple lemons and pick up these heads. the owner told me they were rebuilt a few years ago. they look good to me.
Drill the push rod holes out to 1/2" now before installing. When you put adjustable pushrods in you will need the extra clearance. You maybe think about spark plug tube seals also. Ago
what about tube seals? thanks on the heads up on the push rod holes. ive havent read anything about doing that yet. better to do it now then later so that i dont have to take heads off. back to the tube seals. these seals....are you talking about ones that go into the head? or ones that seal onto valve covers? i have not purchased tubes yet and going have to sometime.
The seals in the heads, seal the spark plug tubes from oil leaking down around the spark plugs. The heads have to be machined for them. there are some that don't need head machining. But I never seen them. Most people don't use spark plug tube head seals and don't miss them. Don't forget valve seals. Ago
ok. thanks. i will run that by the machine shop and th\ry and get that done when the block is being sleeved. shouldnt be 2 much longer until that will be done. thanks ago. alot of people have lost interest in this engine build for some of my choices. im glad people like you still trying to help others regardless of the direction they choose.
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