Without going into great detail, here is a bit of HEMI history. What is a HEMI? Hemi is a shortened name for a hemispherical head combustion chamber for an engine. Simply described, cut a ball in half, look inside and you have a round chamber; cut two (2) holes for valves to operate in and put a spark plug between the valves. This design allows for VERY large valves without piston interference and ideal spark plug placement. The large valves allow more air and fuel to flow, therefore providing mo' power. Chrysler Corporation started working on this so named head design in 1941. They worked and developed the head design through the Second World War and even introduced several aircraft engines utilizing the head design. Those motors never really saw the war or production but they did break speed and performance records for aircraft. They were basically abandoned with the coming of jet age.
The late 40's and early 50's saw American car manufacturers introduce horsepower wars. Prominent players were GM/Cadillac, GM/Oldsmobile and Hudson. Hudson, working with their straight 6 engine won the early NASCAR stock car championship several times in the early 50's.
Chrysler introduced its hemispherical head engine in 1951 as a 331 cubic inch engine. It almost immediately surpassed all the other manufacturers in horsepower. Each Division except Plymouth quickly followed; with the DeSoto offering a 276 cu. in. hemi and Dodge in late '52 with a 241 cu.in. hemi. Chrysler entered stock car racing and was almost immediately champion. By 1955 DeSoto was at 291 cu. in., Chrysler was 331 cu.in. Depending on whose history you look at Chrysler, had the first passenger car with 300 horsepower. They capitalized on that with the model name Chrysler 300. In '56 the Chrysler motor grew to 354, DeSoto to 330 and Dodge 315 cu. in.. By '57 Chrysler was 392, DeSoto 345 and Dodge 325. By 1958 all the hemispherical head engines were gone as they were big, heavy and expensive to produce.
Chrysler reintroduced the HEMI engine in 1964 as a 426 cu. in. motor. It was an all in racing motor variously known as King Kong in its early years and later as the Elephant motor due to its weight and size. It was instantly a winner at Daytona taking the first three positions in the Daytona 500 in 1964. It became the basis for all TOP FUEL and FUNNY CARS through today.
The 1956 DeSoto 330 came in two basic variants. The two barrel (2) carburetor version and a two (2)
four barrel carburetor version. Both of my cars were of the two barrel versions. Aftermarket performance parts for this motor were and are virtually nonexistent. There some parts for the Dodge motors and a huge aftermarket for the Chrysler motors. So if I wanted performance for my build what do I do? Chrysler hemi? Very expensive either used, rebuilt or new. What about the big block 383, 400, 413, 426 or 440 cubic inch Chrysler motors? Parts availability is very good but cost is HIGH compared to Chevy and Ford motors. I priced out MANY different motor scenarios for the Chevy, Ford, Hemi and building a Mopar big block after I knew the body repairs and body mounts were viable as I described in "LOOKIN UP". Again, I stuck with the something "different" idea but all MOPAR.
While my son was home from school, he came to me and said look what I found on the internet, on EBAY. What he showed me was a 1996 Dodge Viper Generation 2 motor with 5600 miles on it salvaged from a wreck. It was complete, top to bottom, including clutch, pressure plate, bell housing, wiring, computer, engine harness and body harness and one header. There was no guarantee but the seller verified the motor was unhurt and running.when salvaged. He had intended to build a race car but had changed plans and was now selling. We bid twice, staying low, and did not expect to win. We had researched, on line, salvage yards specializing in performance car salvage; what similar Viper, Corvette, Camaro, Challenger and Mustang motors were being sold for. We won the bid! Boy was that a HARD NUT to sell my wife!!!!!!!!!
A new Chevy, Ford or Mopar crate motor would have been roughly about $500. cheaper and still would have required wiring, computer, carburation, headers etc. Pictures of our "crate" motor, motor mounts and various stages of installation follow.
That't what made such a buy!.
The one of the motor mounts welded in and before painting, with motor installed. I was told later by Chrysler engineers that I had assembled the mount backwards! More on that a little later. The engine shop that helped with this work gave some really BAD advice which nearly cost me the engine and thousands of $$. They said I did not need an engine oil cooler. It was OK to plug the line fittings. Turns out plugging the line fittings partially starved the engine of oil and caused damage when we did get to the point of running. The engine and transmission had to be pulled, torn down and repaired. This cost me a full year plus and $$$$!
The motor as installed. Note the "high tech" 2" x 4" spreader bar and chains for lifting the engine. I used 1/8" x 3" heavy metal flat stock and loops welded to it. Then drilled the flat bar to match the header bolt holes and bolted the bars in place. The "spreader" keeps the chain from crushing the valve covers. Found out much
later there are lift points on the engine for installing hooks. Early
Viper headers had a two piece headers. You removed the "elbow"
turn out and used the header as the lifting point.
Both DeSoto motors were sold. One locally, to a builder, and the other to a DeSoto restorer in Georgia.
I had been looking for a DeSoto Adventurer dual quad 2x4 carburator manifold for over a year when just a few weeks after the Viper purchase a man called and said he had one!. The price was SO cheap I could not let it pass! Only about 4,000 were made in '56-'57! I made a few $$ by including it with the engine going to Georgia.
Ok, we have motor. What about a transmission? Automatic or stick? To me was almost a no brainer! A Viper is stick shift. Through my early teen years stick shift was dying out, BUT, the "most desired factory "muscle" cars had stick shift. Shopping around, a new Tremec T-56 6 speed for a Viper would be about $3 to $4 K. I located one on line from salvage with 26 miles on it! I got one DIRT CHEAP! It came from an '06 Dodge Ram 1500 Pick up SRT 10 with Viper engine. It will cause headaches which I'll cover a little later. A picture of the "crate" transmission follows.
You can also see the partially installed Viper adjustable clutch, brake, gas pedals and rotating control knob hanging down.
Once the front clip (fenders, core support and inner fenders were installed) the only way to remove the engine and transmission is to separate
the transmission from the bell-housing,
then the bell-housing, clutch and pressure plate
then the engine. Adds a ton of hours and expense
which came into play when the engine had to be
repaired.
Now I need a rear end. Ford 9 inch is the most popular rear end with lots of gearing possibilities and aftermarket parts. BUT, this is a Chrysler product! Chrysler used Dana rear ends for many of their muscle cars and heavy duty pick ups and vans. I found a Dana 60 4.10 posi-traction unit from a salvaged 1999 Dodge Ram 1 Ton Van. Dana 60's are very large, heavy and the ring gear is 9.75 inches. Bigger and stronger than the Ford. It came with an inspection certificate saying it was mechanically ok. A picture follows which shows the new flanges, axles and extra long stud bolts.
Many Chrysler products have offset center sections for reasons unknown to me. To make this rear end work, I had the housing cut down on one side and added to on the other to match the old DeSoto rear end. Then new axles were ordered from after market suppliers along with new end plates. The end plates in this conversion are commonly Ford pattern and include better heavy duty Ford "big end bearings and studs.
What is not shown is the drive shaft. I some how failed to take a picture of that component. It is all black, 3 inches in diameter. Of course there is a tale of woe for it. There is a shop locally that makes custom drive shafts as well repairing them. The owner happens to live a few streets over and volunteered to come over one evening and measure for proper length; and kind of check out what I'm building. After all the specs were laid out, I went to the shop and made the order. An employee wrote everything up. Occasionally people don't listen carefully and make mistakes. That happened I guess. The splined universal they ordered came in, was welded in and the shaft was done.... BUT it was the wrong one. The engine is 1996 the transmission a 2006. DIFFERENT transmission different, different output shaft. We came VERY close to wrecking the transmission when it was started. The drive shaft universal was just floating inside the transmission supported by the oil seal and the transmission shaft was rotating inside. To understand this take your thumb and first finger and make a circle. Take a finger from your other hand and insert in the circle and spin it.Had either part slightly misaligned the they would have ground each other to pieces. Only the transmission oil seal kept them aligned and away from disaster. After I figured out why the wheels weren't spinning I had to remove the shaft, they had to cut the shaft, get a new part and redo it. TWICE! The second one was the wrong part as sent by MOPAR parts. It would not go on. Remove again, haul back again etc. Third time was the charm!!
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