Thread: General Hemi Info Part 2

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Chasing the wild goose (HEMI)


Ready to go hunting for a HEMI? This can be fun and very frustrating. I’m going to gloss over the 426 and New HEMI and just tell you to check E BAY, Hemmings and the parts counter of your local Chrysler Dodge dealer.

If you “HAVE TO HAVE” a 392 HEMI yesterday and your pockets are deep enough, PAW sells a 392 engine kit for $6000 (normally aspirated not including shipping). What this gives you once you get it put together is a long block. You still need a bunch of other stuff to actually get it bolted to a transmission and put in a car. For grins one day I added up what you would need to complete the engine and I came up at about $10,000 (including the engine kit) to actually get it running.

If you have your heart set on a particular displacement HEMI, you could be in for a long search. Yes Chrysler made the early HEMI engine for 8 years, but many of the HEMIs were ONE YEAR ONLY in passenger cars. Just as an example:

331 1951-1955, However, the extended bellhousing was 51-some 54s, short bellhousing some 1954s and 55

301 1955 Only

354 1956 Only

392 1957-58.

Besides passenger cars, Chrysler also used the 331 (both extended and short bellhousing versions) and 354 in “Industrial” and Marine versions. The industrial versions were found in Dodge trucks and stationary applications (pump motors and even air raid sirens). Many of the industrials have a data tag attached to the bellhousing giving the pertinent info. In some cases however the industrial/marine applications may not be suitable for hot rod application due to extra water jacket openings in the front of the block (refer to the references I listed above for details on this).

Many of the Dodge Hemi’s were also used in industrial/truck applications.

There were NO 392 Industrial HEMIs (although some did find their way into marine applications) nor to my knowledge were any Desoto HEMIs used in industrial applications.

Unlike the New HEMIs and 426s, your chances of finding an early HEMI locally may be pretty good, but remember chances are the ones that were easy to find are likely already gone. One source may be E Bay where they do show up (along with parts) on a regular basis. You want to keep in mind that shipping one of these a long distance can make even a “good deal” pretty expensive.

The next recommendation I would have is put keep your ear to the ground and put out the word that your in the market then be prepared for a lot of wild goose chases. As I mentioned before you would be surprised at how many people have never seen a HEMI in real life.

Unless the person is really knowledgeable or have done their research they likely don’t know what they really have. IT WILL BE UP TO YOU TO IDENTIFY WHAT ENGINE YOU ARE LOOKING AT. Take your references (serial number info, casting numbers etc) with you.

Go on even the absurd hunts even though you know the information cannot be correct (i.e. a friend of a friend who has an old 426 hemi off an irrigation pump, the “factory” 392 in a 56 Plymouth, or even the 440, 413 or 383 HEMI in the old Chrysler). What you mostly hear is it’s either a 426 or 392. What you mostly find are either old Poly, Wedge motors, Flathead or even 6 Cyl motors ( If it doesn’t have the BIG valve covers with the plug wires in the center IT AIN”T A HEMI) At a glance the Early HEMI is easy to distinguish from the 426. The Early versions had the distributor in the rear and the 426 located it in the front of the engine. In most cases if the original valve covers and wire covers are on the engine (or lying beside it) you can narrow down what engine it is. If it says Chrysler Fire Power, Chrysler Industrial, Imperial, or Chrysler Marine it’s the Chrysler version. If it has an extended bellhousing it’s a 331 Chrysler. Dodge engine are generally marked with RED RAM (but remember it must be a HEMI valve cover as the Poly version also used the red ram label) and the Desoto’s were marked as Fire Dome. I have however run into some HEMIs with no name valve covers and that where your reference material comes in.

If the engine is in the car (and looks like it is original) another dead giveaway is the make of the car it’s in. With one exception that I’m aware of Chrysler engines were in Chryslers, Dodge in Dodge and Desoto’s in Desoto’s. The exception to this is the 1957 Dodge D501s which used the 56 version of Chryslers 354 Hemi (from the 56 300B). Since there were less than 100 of these cars made chances of coming across one are petty remote.

Beware of the “special order” stories. It usually goes something like this. “Yeah, the car was special ordered by (pick one; the local hotrodder, local sheriff, local cop, police department, state police officer, retired police officer etc) with the 392 HEMI.” There has been NO DOCUMENTED case of Chrysler putting a “special order” Hemi in a model other than what was available to the general public. I tracked one of these down at one point only to find it was a plain old 325 Dodge Hemi in a 57 Dodge Custom Royal.

Something to keep in mind if the engine turns out to be certain Poly engines is that they can be a donor for a HEMI build. While not all Poly’s will accept HEMI heads (the 318 Poly being a good example) some will. Generally if an engine was available in both a POLY and HEMI version (i.e. Chryslers 354 HEMI and 354 “Spitfire”, the 315 and 325 Dodge Red Ram Poly and 315/325 D 500 HEMI) the bottom end of the engines are the same. All that’s needed to convert one are the right heads, valve train, manifolds and pistons (the valve reliefs are located differently between the Poly and HEMI pistons.

If you hear of an old 50’s MOPAR (Except Plymouth) sitting in a shed or barn some where it can’t hurt to go look, there were more Poly than HEMI cars produced, but you never know. It is not even really surprising to find a complete HEMI powered car sitting in the old part of some junk yards. Believe it or not I found the complete 55 331 HEMI that’s going in my 37 Dodge sitting in a 55 New Yorker in a junk yard where it had been since the 60’s. My 354 was originally bought out of a big Dodge Truck and only had 5000 miles on the rebuild (I'm still going to go through it).

If you happen across a HEMI powered car and the engine is already gone, spend a little time looking around in and beside the car and see if anything was left that you can use. I recently found a pair of early 331 heads and factory windage tray left in the trunk of a 53 Chrysler (the windage tray will find a home in one of my engines).

Speaking of which if you happen to come across early HEMI parts that you don’t have an immediate use for but they are cheap enough and you have storage room, pick them up. Most early HEMI owners (myself included) are pack rats. I have some parts lying around that although I probably wouldn’t sell, I would trade for something I felt I needed.

HEMIs can also sometimes be found in incomplete or poorly done projects. A few years ago a friend of mine scored a complete running 392 that some one had put in a mid 70’s Dodge truck. The drive shaft had not been done properly and the truck vibrated. He paid under $1000 for it and latter sold the body.

Once you finally find your HEMI, be sure to give it a good check before spending a lot of money. Just because they are a HEMI it does not mean they don’t have cracked blocks because someone let them freeze with water in them, or a thrown rod or any of the other problems associated with any other engine. Also keep in mind that if it’s still in the car there was likely a reason they stopped driving it (like maybe it was completely worn out, used oil and had burned valves??? )

Basically old HEMIs is where you find them.