Can anyone tell me what they did for a rad when they put an old hemi into their dodge truck . Thanks in advance Jim .
I think the truck that I pulled the Desoto Hemi that I have in my shed out of ran the stock truck radiator. That was close to 25 years ago though. The engine was halfway apart when they drug the truck to the shop along with a rather trashed mid 70's Camaro that gave up it's engine, trans and rear end to the project. I did the swap and got the Hemi and overdrive trans and the Camaro out of the deal.
If your building a Pilot House then check these: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=455737 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=742584 .
George is correct. The starter on the 904 series trans sits about ½" higher than on the 727 and therefore does not clear. That said, it is possible to rotate the adapter's transmission bolt pattern CCW but you won't like the one-off costs... The 727 is a simple bolt-up and there are plenty of adapters available. .
I have wondered about using a clockable mopar starter from someone like powermaster with the 904/A500 transmissions. Would the ability to clock the starter body allow the smaller transmissions to be used with adapters on the early hemi. The 904/A500 bolts to the adapter ok so would this work? It would sure be a better transmission for smaller displacement hemis since the 904/A500 has a better first gear ratio.
Well I am building my first project with the help of my 13 year old son . It's a 51 dodge on a dakota frame with a desoto 276 hemi that's completely rebuilt. At this point I have the cab on the chassis and have the engine mounted in on home made motor mounts . And yes I know I have no isolators on my mounts that is to come later . I have a steering column from an old chevette car that fit real nice as well. For all I had to do was shorten the column a bit and make an adapter plate to bolt the column in the stock mount . As well I just have to ad a universal and steering is done . I did have to cut some fire wall out but not too bad and have to make a trany tunnel cover as well . Here are a fer pics.
Cool project. There are a couple guys that are doing this on here. Good luck. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Can anyone one tell me why you need the adapter for a 727 to early hemi as the bolt pattern lines up with the original spacer plate any info would be great as I am still learning about this.
There are a couple of reasons. Even though the bolt holes may line up, the dowel pins do not. But the most important reason is that the early hemi crankshaft extends out the back of the block farther than the later small block engines that use the 727 transmission.
In addition to what Tom said, part of the adapter package will also include a crank flange adapter that provides a place to register the flexplate.
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