Posted by Rob Steller on Monday, January 21, 2002 at 10:15PM :
In Reply to: Re: 345 Hemi???? posted by EdC on Monday, January 21, 2002 at 9:12PM :
Ed's Info agrees with my experience as well. Last year I rebuilt a 354 hemi truck engine out of a '58 D700. I'm planning on putting it and the NP540 that came with it into my '58 W300 at some point. The truck hemi had all the items EdC noted, plus a gear drive cam shaft and a different timing cover from the cars. Converting to the chain drive and all the after market options that enables sometimes requires a different crank, as the noses are sometimes different. The books seem a bit confused on this point. Also, good oversize pistons for the 354 are hard to come by. Only cast, from a mfgr that my machinist is not impressed by. We ended up sonic testing the block, and boring out to 392 std bore (making a , and using Keith Black pistons as I recall. We were able to keep the compression ratio at about 8.6-1. You also want to put in hard exhaust valve seats, as most of the hemis didn't have them. www.pawengineparts.com in chatsworth, CA has a hemi catalog, as well as www.hothemiheads.com. Good luck! Rob
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