Thread: 1955 Chrysler 331 Hemi build for '34 Plymouth Coupe

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Loved the 410 Edsel I had in my 59 Ford business coupe(dept of Agriculture) later replaced with a Nascar 406fe and dual quads plus four speed ( some parts available after 62 Pikes Peak hill climb)

Several years ago, I had a Top Loader all bolted up to a 430 with Lakewood scattershield when I changed my mind and went with a 460/C6.

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Originally Posted by 69Bee

The manifold is a factory 392 manifold from 57, and was set up for AFB's.

Yeah, the manifold was originally tooled for two WCFB's, White Cast Four Barrel or Will Carter Four Barrel, choose the one you like best.

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On the carb spacers, Tech is right on the manifold being tooled for the WCFBs, which also happens to be the same spacing as the inner holes on an early AFB. While the later Carter AFBs and all the Eldebrock AFB (and AVSs) are drilled for the dual bolt pattern, the earlier AFBs were only drilled for a single bolt pattern. The pad was there for the second set of holes, and I have added the second pattern to many of the early ones to make them fit a different manifold.

As to the reason for the spacers, the real answer is they are there is for clearance for the carburator linkage. The WCFB had the linkage set higher on the carburator. On an AFB you can’t even fully bolt the carburator down on these manifolds without the spacers because the linkage runs into the top of the intake.

“……In reply to Mike about push rod adjustment and the spacers--------take this one from me as a gift---its more likely that with the springs you will have more oppurtunities to replace pushrods or lifters out of the hole than if you have the spacer tubes. If you use the same head on the same side of the block you can use the gasket over…….”


Jerry, I respect the advice you provide on here and I agree with your statement above. The difference we have on this topic I believe is our perspective, which can occasionally be quite different between a machinist and a mechanic.

From a reliability standpoint and especially on an engine that’s going to see hard use the spacers make perfect sense. From a serviceability standpoint, not so much. You, Pat. Dave work on the engines that have already been pulled and are sitting on the stand. In my world we are generally working over the fender of a car and around accessories to do the service work.

Whether your a machinist or a mechanic all you can really control is the quality of your own work, we cannot control the quality of the parts we get. Yes, we have learned to use quality parts and check them before we put them in but we have all seen new parts that have failed or just not lasted as long as they should have. That includes; valve springs, pushrods and rockers (and on engines that have age on them, valve seals that get hard and need replaced).

One of the HEMIs I have is in the 57 Plymouth. At 20,000 miles I had a lifter collapse. To replace the lifter in car required removal of the intake manifold and carburetors, alternator, AC Compressor, valve covers (requiring loosing the master cylinder and heater box), and valley pan. On the bright side, the distributor could remain in place LOL.

Basically this is a PIA job, especially being stretched over a large fender and taking care not to damage the paint. Fortunately, by having the springs and being able to slide the rockers over that was as far as I had to take the engine down.

With the spacers all the head bolts would have had to have been removed and my experience is that when that happens on rocker shaft engines in most cases you’re going to break the gasket seal. Now the dilemma becomes do you take a chance and just tighten the head bolts down again or go ahead and pull the water crossover and exhaust and pull the heads to put new gaskets in. As a mechanic, I’m going to pull the heads (a very unpleasant and straining job) and put new head gaskets on because I won’t know if the old gaskets have resealed until I have everything reassembled and can start the engine again. If I guessed wrong and the gaskets didn’t seal, I have to redo everything I just did, plus pull the heads that I should have in the first place.


Now all that being said, while I would not not use the spacers on the 57 Plymouth, if I ever have to go back into to HEMI in the 37 Dodge, I would consider the spacer for that engine. The main reason being the fenders on the truck are easy to remove (God knows I’ve had enough practice with the truck being in and out of mockup). With the fenders out of the way and not having all the accessories to fight, getting into the engine to change a valve spring or rocker (and replace head gaskets if necessary) is not that bad of a job.

Like I said Jerry I don’t disagree with your thoughts on the spacers. I just have a different perspective based on my experiences.



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Mike-----I have respect for your thoughts as they probably are 100% as to the machinist vs mechanic ------However, you must realize that first I am a mechanic who has worked over fenders plus under cabs, standing at the side of tractors, laying on top of combines, inside boats,under/over many types of air line ground equipment, etc, etc------and I must of course mention many types of race cars, from early/mid fifties up, dragcars that include top fuelers (many track records plus NHRA National records) funny cars, pro stockers and stock block Indy cars. But I haven't worked for a car dealer---------altho I did have and work on things in my own shop where in addition to service work we did quite extensive mods on all sorts of vehicles, which included ground up building of many types of street rod except no rat rods.

But---------besides the springs, and the long tubing spacers, there are now retainers that CLAMP onto the shafts and they can be moved aside so that the valve spring/lifter can be serviced.

Also on replacing a lifter , IIRC you can work them to the back and access thru the distributor hole ( Oh, you did not remove it)

I was telling my wife about you being from up here but couldn't remember where?

And as for me being a machinist---------I basicly got into that because after returning to Illinois there wasn't any one doing it the way I wanted so I started buying stuff-----learned about 3 phase converters--------


And lay over the top of all that-----military (tank mech) plus learning to fly and working my way all the way up to Captain on B 777-------(B747) only one I didn't-------

I'm originally from the Quad City area Jerry.

The clamp on spacers make a lot of sense, and I've seen them before for other engines.....just never never thought about them for the early HEMI....hell if no one makes them specifically for the HEMI they wouldn't be that hard to fabricate.

As far as fishing out the lifters thru the distributor hole, an interesting thought and it would probably work on a few of the rear lifters but I'm not real sure about the forward ones.


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Early Hemi Rocker Shaft Collar Set 331 354 392 426 Chrysler Dodge DeSoto | eBay

This guy has lots of early hemistuff $$$$$$$$$$$$



Oh---------and after all that stuff you have to remove working on the hemi---you can see why so many peeps use SBC crate engines----

Very nice build you have going on here! I just recently got a Weiand 2x4 intake for my 354 and had my dreams crushed on needing to use 2 390 holleys to keep the engine from being over fueled. That killed my plan of using 2 craigslist 600 edelbrocks and rebuilding them, and getting it done cheaply. I should have already known it wouldn't be cheap with the Hemi.

“…….That killed my plan of using 2 craigslist 600 edelbrocks and rebuilding them, and getting it done cheaply……”



I’m not sure why that would be Ryan. Yeah, two 600 AFBs gives you a theoretical 1200 CFM but the beauty of the AFB is the secondary air valve that even when the secondary throttle plates are open only allows air/fuel flow thru the secondarys based on engine demand

If you set the linkage up progressively, you will only be running on the primaries of the rear carb for the majority of your driving . Basically when you mash the pedal if the engine can’t use (or produce the vacuum to open) the secondary’s you will only be running on the primaries of both carburetors (the equivalent of just running a single 4 bbl) .

I could see where there might be an issue running both carburetors with a synchronized linkage (where you are running on the primaries of both carburetors at the same time) but personally I wouldn’t be afraid of running the Edelbrocks.

One of the nicest running dual quad engines I had was a 350 Chevy (virtually the same displacement as your 354) with a pair of 600s.


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Mike, those were my thoughts as well. But when I was ordering more parts from Hot heads I mentioned my plans and he said that the 600 Edelbrocks don't work like that and will over carberate the engine. I haven't researched it any farther. I've never done much with Edelbrock or AFB carbs. I planned to figure it out once I get the car back to a roller again.

FWIW, if you come across a couple of AFBs at the right price, pick them up....you'll be glad you did.

If you need a someone to walk you thru setting them up for the HEMI myself or someone else here will be more than happy to do that....it's pretty much just a secondary jet change, springs, step rods and possibly playing with the timing.


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Got the guides in the heads today, and put the pin bushings in the rods (the wife helped too).

Man oh man.... that is just pure automotive porn! LOL..

Very nice work sir!

Started to get the block ready to align hone the mains. Chased the bolt holes, cut the caps, spot faced the tops of the main caps, then install and torque the main studs.