Hello! Im new, yeah shocker? I have a 1950 Dodge Coronet Sedan currently running with the original drivetrain. Slow? Very. But with dual side pipes and glasspacks connected to a dual header for a flathead inline 6? Not something you see everyday. I love old tradition hot rods, like the ones kids made back in the 50’s when they were in high school, guess im kimda with that crowd since im currently attending high school. So when you have a car thats slow and is a mopar what do you do? Throw in a 291 Desoto s21 Fireflite hemi from ‘55. Need some advice on this massive project because I am still learning and doing things kinda on my own with no welder. Sounds fun. Thanks for reading, advice is appreciated Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hi & welcome. Nice ride you have there. Talking about more speed wanted and a hemi there are a few things to consider. Should be room for that engine but you will have to fab engine mounts. If your original tranny does not bolt to the new engine you will have to fab or get a bel housing adapter or you will have to get tranny to go with new engine. Is your old tranny strong enough for the Hemi? If you do that then likely you will have to modify the tranny cross member or fab a new one. If you change transmission most likely you will have to adapt the driveshaft by shortening or lengthing it. Bunch of work. What kind of speed do you need? Back in the day what the drivers were doing with these flathead six engines for the most part was adding 2 or 3 carbs, dual exhaust & perhaps a 3/4 grind street cam. Big improvement in performance without an engine & tranny change. Back then the cars had mostly 50 - 55 MPH speed limits and were geared for those speeds. Lots of the rear end ratio's were 411/1 to give more low end torque and ability to climb hills without shifting down. That 411 ratio would burn the tires, use more gas & the engine would be screaming RPM at 55 - 60 MPH. With a bit of a hopped up 6 cylinder engine many changed the ring & pinion gears in the rear end and went to a ratio in the 350's & that allowed to cruise at todays hwy speeds at a reasonable RPM that would not destroy the engines. But with this rear end change it would go fast buy be a tire burner at red lights. That is what I have done with my 46 Chevy coupe in my avatar. Makes it a really good looking engine and I can now cruise down the Hwy at any legal speed with low RPM with great gas mil[age. I got the look, I got the speed & I got great MPG. It is just not a race car. There are lots of great hop up parts out there for your engine. There are dual & triple carb intakes & even those less expensive Y adapters where you remove your single carb, install the Y and then install 2 carbs. Jack Clifford has a website and offers tons of stuff that will fit your current engine. His stuff is not cheap but it is very good. My avatar here is my 235 ci Chevy with Clifford dual intake with two 2 barrel Weber carbs & I have the Clifford 268 grind cam. Got a bit of engine lope when it idles. Good luck and if you make changes update here with photo's. Jimmie
If it stops, starts, and steers, enjoy it for now and begin acquiring parts for your big changes. In the meantime, you can make little changes that won't take more than a weekend or so. Have fun! You'll find lots of helpful people, here.
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