Comments on: Hemi Love

By: 50merc

50merc — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:55:13 +0000

Paul, a cross-section of the Mercedes 300SL’s straight 8 with desmodromic valve actuation had a similar effect on me. My own drawing of that image’s cylinder head section became my special project for Mechanical Drawing class.

By: Buick61

Buick61 — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:42:45 +0000

This “not a real Hemi” talk is straight out of 2004. It’s as close as we can get these days, and I say it’s close enough.

The mid-to-late 1950s performance cars are always unrightly overshadowed by those of the 1960s. It’s a shame, really.

By: barberoux

barberoux — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:33:27 +0000

I never noticed her teeth.

By: Andy D

Andy D — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:56:05 +0000

wow, 50 freakin yrs. Seems like yesterday. My 2nd car was a 53 New Yorker Deluxe with, IRRC, the 331 1st gen. The corner garage had a 57 300C convertable. AKA, “the Pink Pig” Much later, I bought the spousal unit an XJ 6 to celebrate our silver anniversary. The engine was great, but the rest of the car……..

By: 1981.911.SC

1981.911.SC — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:06:07 +0000

speedbrakes

YES At least the 3.0L in my 1981 SC is of that design. Ask me how I know !! 11 broken exhaust side cylinder studs when I bought it. AND it ran…not well, but it ran.

By: Paul Niedermeyer

Paul Niedermeyer — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:22:14 +0000

chuckgoolsbee: I have prostrated myself in front of the venerable XK.

speedbrakes: Porsche, Ferrari, and just about any high-performance engine out of Europe for much of the 20th century. It was the gateway to good breathing and power.

By: chuckgoolsbee

chuckgoolsbee — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:34:32 +0000

Another legendary hemi-head engine is the Jaguar XK. With a six-decade run (1948-1994) it powered everything from Le Mans winning race cars (C-type, D-Type), legendary sports cars (XK 120/140/150, XKSS, E-type), Luxury saloons and Limousines (Mark 1 & 2, VII-X, 240, 340, 420, Daimlers & Panther De Ville, and of course the XJ) and even military tanks, one of which was classified as the fastest tank in the world, namely the British FV101 Scorpion, which saw combat in the Falklands war.

The XK is a timelessly beautiful engine with cathedral-like proportions, suitable for worship.

–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org

By: speedbrakes

speedbrakes — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:16:37 +0000

I thought I remembered reading in Wilkinsons “Gold Plated Porsche” that the 911 flat six utilized a hemi design.

By: GS650G

GS650G — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:03:40 +0000

My neighbor has a ‘56 Windsor in his driveway. 331 Wedge engine, it has a dry intake manifold and free flowing exhaust mans. It also can accept hemi heads, believe it or not.

Big Daddy Don liked the Red Ram hemi engines. 6 main bearings and chrome plated cranks. They were overbuilt monsters capable of taking a lot of abuse.

I was privleged to work on one years ago. It was in a 55 Dodge and not really modified. Oil leaks were common around the spark plug tubes so I helped replace the gaskets and seal it up. I had a religious experience when I removed the covers and saw the valve train.

By: rudiger

rudiger — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:09:59 +0000

The 426 Hemi is one of those automotive legends that is best remembered in myth. The reality (as someone else has already pointed out) was that they were not only expensive and difficult to maintain, they also had an alarming tendency to break regularly. That’s just the price one paid for trying to run a high-strung race engine on the street. It was not uncommon to see Mopars a few years old with original Hemi engine call-outs on the fenders or hood sporting regular wedge-head, big-block replacements in their engine bays. That’s why the smart Mopar street racers that actually had to drive their cars on a daily basis ran single four-barrel 440s, just like the savvy Ford guys preferred 428 CobraJets to the similiarly legendary Boss 429.

Although it might not have had the same racing pedigree or caché as the 426, the 331-354-392 fifties’ FirePower was a far better example of a Hemi that could run reliably on the street.

By: shaker

shaker — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:56:24 +0000

I suppose that a TV ad with a dad trying to get his two-year-old son to say “Pent-Roof” wouldn’t be as poetic.

By: carlisimo

carlisimo — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:08:51 +0000

I don’t share the same engine interests, but I know what love for an engine type can be. Sorry to hear about its demise.

By: AGR

AGR — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:05:50 +0000

The 392 celebrated its 50th Anniversary this year.

The folks that are still true to the original design are the Top Fuel guys in drag racing although the engines are 500 cu in with dual plug per cylinders all aluminum…they still look like a Hemi.

For the street the Hemi was the killer package, although they were very maintenence intensive, and challenging to keep well tuned. In those days when someone starting talking about adjusting the valves on a Hemi(the days of mechanical lifters on the really hot engines) and having to remove a lot of stuff around the engine just to remove the valve covers…it was not fun.

Just like the Hemi changes, Petty Enterprises is moving from Randleman to Mooresville.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:21:38 +0000

Excellent retrospective, Paul. And thanks for pointing out the new HEMI is not a hemi.

The old Mopar motor was the unquestioned champion, the new one is more of a GEN-III small block Chevy with funny heads, funnier ignition, and no extra power. (and I expect it spits out more emissions than the GM mill too)

By: Kurt B

Kurt B — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:18:49 +0000

Nice piece Paul.

By: paulr

paulr — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:33:35 +0000

When the owner “Fred Sunoco” was not around, we would break the wire seal on the pump and dispense “280″ to our friends.

By: Bill Wade

Bill Wade — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:47:54 +0000

Are you sure you’re not me?

I worshiped at the same alter.

By: Brock_Landers

Brock_Landers — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:08:39 +0000

Bravo! Great piece! Sunoco gas station story is priceless :)