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331 Hemi???

5K views 17 replies 7 participants last post by  willys36@aol.com 
#1 ·
Hey Hemi crew.
Got a chance to buy a 331 Hemi for 600 bucks. Its pretty complete with the exception of an oil pan N pump.
Is this the Motor you used Willys? Whats the goods N bads of it?
Centerline. Is the Hot Rod N Hemi's website yours?
Its a 55 331, so it wont have the extended bellhousing on it. HG
 
#2 ·
Yes the <a href="http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com" target="_blank">http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com</a> website is mine.

The 331s were the first of Chrysler’s hemis and for cars were available in three basic versions. The early '51-'53 motors had an extended belhousing that used to make them difficult to put a modern transmission behind. This is not the case anymore since Wilcap and a couple other companies are now producing adaptors, which allow the use of modern 4 speed transmissions. If you have one of these you will have to run a manual trans. The second version were the 54 models. This 331 had the integral belhousing removed but still retained the water passages and thermostat in the intake manifold. The 4 bbl version had heads with larger ports which breath much better than the small port heads found prior to 54. The third version was the '55. In this version they moved the thermostat to a crossover pipe between the heads just like the later 354 and 392. There were other versions specific to truck, industrial, and marine use which can be made to work as well.

As with most motors over its development life they improved compression and intake manifold design so the later versions are the better performing (from the factory) motors. The Chrysler C-300 for '55 had dual quads, a solid lifter camshaft, and produced 300 hp. Not bad considering Chevy and Ford cars of the era were in the 170-190 hp range.

Any 331 will be a good motor but won't produce the kind of legendary hp a built 392 will produce. You can reliably get 350 hp out of one, which will give you respectable performance, but the "WOW" factor is immeasurable.

Good luck.

Centerline
<a href="http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com" target="_blank">http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com</a>

[ April 25, 2003: Message edited by: Centerline ]</p>
 
#4 ·
The 331s can all be bored 1/8" over and accept stock 345 pistons. That is the only difference between 331s and 354s, the bore. As Centerline details, desireablility goes up year by year. I run a '52 331 w/ long bellhousing 'cause I also run a B&M dual rang hydro and have an adaptor for the long bell housing engine. Got the adaptor as an HS graduation present in '67 and will keep it forever.

HG if you have a chance to get a '55 331 GET IT. The heads are the most desireable of all of the early hemi group, even the 392 guys use them 'cause they supposedly flow better than those that came on the 354 and 392. That is why they sell those 1/2" intake manifold adaptors - to accomodate the head swap. If you want to make it a 354, just bore it 1/8" over. You can put just about any auto ro manual tranny behind it you want. The 354/331 engines are slight smaller and lighter than the 392 so will fit in your Gremlin a little easier. Best of all worlds.

Dragon; I have two comments on your stuck piston engine. First, these engines are thick wall castings so there is a bunch of wall thickness to play with. They are high nickel iron castings, some fo the finest quality castings ever in production engines. The heads even come stock w/ hardened exhaust valve seat inserts. I would guess that you could knock out those stuck pistons and clean up the bores and they will be as good as new. Second, if by chance you did need to sleeve the block, these engines are very easy to cool so I doubt highly there is any problem with subsequent cooling. I would place that story in the myth catagory.
 
#5 ·
There is a company now that makes adapters to put any Chevy trans behind them, if you're interested I'll dig out their web address and you can contact them. They had a few early Hemis at the Hot Rod trade show that all had 700r4's or other Chevy trans behind them.
 
#7 ·
#10 ·
The name of the adapter company is Bendtsen's,
they make adapters for all sorts of old iron (old long tail hemis,nailheads,early Olds,even some inlines). their web address is;
<a href="http://www.transmissionadapters,com" target="_blank">www.transmissionadapters,com</a>
 
#11 ·
This guy's stuff looks good but is really expensive. He wants almost $700 for an adapter for the 51-53 long belhousing to Chevy automatic. PowerPlay and others offer a similar setup to adapt the same motors to a Chevy 4 speed for under $400.

I guess he figures he's the only game in town when it comes to running an automatic behind the 51-53 hemis so he can charge that much and people will pay it. Ouch!

This link should work. <a href="http://transmissionadapters.com/" target="_blank">http://transmissionadapters.com/</A>

Centerline
<a href="http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com" target="_blank">http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com</a>

[ April 30, 2003: Message edited by: Centerline ]</p>
 
#12 ·
Yes, it is expensive for the long bellhousing hemi but did you notice what he is doing? He is bolting a plate on the back of the engine and extending the crankshaft to that plate. Then the Chevy automatic can be bolted to that. For what he give you, it is a pretty fair price. To put it in perspective, I paid over $400 for machined aluminum plate and flex plate to adapt a Chevy auto trans to my 235 straight 6. He gives you a bunch more stuff.

On the other hand, this solution to the long bell housing problem makes the engine/trans combo a foot longer than it could be! Not many cars can accommodate this huge size increase. I think a better solution would be a kit that bolted a plate to the tranny front pump after the tranny bellhousing is machined off. This would eliminate the double length bell housing problem and seems like it could even be cheaper, depending on the cost to cut off the bellhousing.
 
#13 ·
Seems to me I remember an article on doing just that a few years back, but since I suffer from CRS I have no clue where I read it.

Centerline
 
#16 ·
Originally posted by willys36@aol.com:
<strong>Can't Remember Stuff.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Exactly. Sometimes the other "S" word is used instead of "stuff" though. The following link describes this debilitating syndrome that unfortunately affects almost everyone over the age of 50.

<a href="http://www.bandersnatch.com/crs.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bandersnatch.com/crs.htm</A>

Centerline
 
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