I’ve got some down time so I decided to pull out the Tri-Power I took off the 57 Plymouth and go thru it. It was a good working unit when I swapped it out for the Dual Quads but it did look like it’d been on a car that I’d been driving for 12 years.


T1 by M Patterson, on Flickr



T2 by M Patterson, on Flickr



It was a pretty straight forward rebuild and detail the carbs and intake.


T2 by M Patterson, on Flickr




The one thing I did change was to replace the rubber fuel lines with hard lines.


T1 by M Patterson, on Flickr



Over all I’m happy with it. Originally my thought was to put it up for sale and I still might but after looking at it for a while it hit me I do know where a couple of builder HEMIs are but even more interesting (for me anyway) I think I might know where there is a builder 331/354 Spitfire (Poly) motor .

I built a 354 Spitfire back in the 70s (ended up in an F20 Farmall for tractor pulls) so I kind of have a soft spot for them. As they were based on the Fire Power HEMI ….the short block is the same and to convert them to a hemi only requires changing the heads, pushrods and exhaust manifolds …..and possibly pistons depending on the CR you want to run. The Intake manifolds interchange between the Poly and HEMI !!

Their kind of an unusual looking engine which I guess is part of the appeal and they only made slightly less HP than the HEMI did.


spitfire by M Patterson, on Flickr


Of course if I build either another HEMI or a Poly I probably end up wanting to put it into something ….say a 55-56 Chrysler, Plymouth or Dodge…..not that I’ve looked for any on E Bay or Craigslist mind you



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