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Over the course of several "horse trades," I had acquired a 1948 Mercury flathead V-8 engine and a Lincoln-Zephyr transmission of postwar vintage. Once I made the decision to build a hot rod, I leaned toward the idea of building a traditional car much as I might have built when I was in high school in the late 1950's. The idea of using the flathead Merc and Zephyr transmission certainly fit that mold, as they were cheap and fairly plentiful at the time.
One Saturday I happened to be over at Richard Wright's machine shop philosophizing with "the boys." One of the assembled throng asked me what engine and transmission I'd be putting in the Plymouth. When I told him I planned to use the Mercury engine and Lincoln transmission, he informed me that it would be a "God-damned sin" to put those Ford products into a Plymouth! "That car ought to have a Hemi." That started the search.
I began to learn about early Chrysler engines with hemispherical combustion chambers -- the so-called "hemi" engines. My hope was that they built one small enough to fit under the hood of the Model PB Plymouth and even allow for the side panels to close. I learned that the smallest hemi ever built by Chrysler was the 241 cu. in. V-8 that was available in the 1953-1954 Dodge Coronet. That began my eBay quest, and eventual purchase of a completely rebuilt engine located in Pennsylvania. It had been restored by Carl Bills of Black Mountain Hemi near Lititz, PA. He is a highly respected builder of early hemis. I feel that I was very fortunate to have located this engine, which had served initially in a fire truck!
The 241 hemi originally had a 2-barrel carburetor and produced about 140 horsepower from its 7 to 1 compression ratio. A fairly broad variety of speed equipment became available in the ensuing years that made the early Chrysler-DeSoto-Dodge hemi engines popular among hot rodders. I began looking for a more exciting intake manifold/carburetor setup.
Again, eBay yielded some results. Offenhauser built a number of different intake manifolds, but the one you see here supports four Stromberg Model 97 two-barrel carburetors. I was able to purchase it intact, with carburetors, linkage, fuel pressure regulator and cutoff. It came from Geri Tarvin, a lady in Missouri who had used it on a 241 that she ran in a Fiat Topolino drag car on the West coast. She was great to deal with, had a long history of building and racing cars, and appreciated what I was trying to build. I feel very fortunate to have found it. The engine looks very capable. I'll be curious to see what the dynamometer results are when the car is finished.
The ubiquitous Stromberg "97"
A lot of people convert these engines to use a more modern small block Chevrolet water pump. This is primarily because the original water pumps are just about gone. You have to search to find one and when you do find one it's usually expensive. Nonetheless, I really prefer the look of the original. If I keep the original, however, I want to always carry a spare in case a water pump fails on the road.
I was able to find a good used water pump on Craig's List in Milwaukee (7-21-09) and got it for $50, including the housing casting. This turned out to be a real blessing. The casting that was on my engine had come off a truck and was slightly taller than the passenger car casting. It interfered with the forward carburetor of that beautiful intake manifold. Now I have a spare newly-rebuilt water pump and we have solved a serious interference problem at the same time!
Engine in Place!!!
On November 25, 2009, Deron moved the engine into position to study the relative positions of frame, firewall, engine, transmission, master cylinder, steering column and box, etc. Here's a picture:
Is this cool, or what???
And here's a picture of the mockup motor mounts that Deron has made out of cardboard, prior to cutting any steel:
And here Deron has translated the pattern into steel...
2-10-10 After we installed the 5-speed Borg-Warner transmission, which moved the starter to the passenger's side of the engine, we noticed that the original starter was extremely close to the exhaust header. I was concerned that the heat from the header would roast the starter and destroy it. Deron found out that we could substitute a "mini-starter" from a 1992 Dakota pickup. It fits in the same opening, engages the flywheel properly, and is half the size of the original starter. As you can see in this picture, we gained a lot of clearance.
A few weeks ago I saw a replacement pair of valve covers (rocker arm covers) on eBay that I had to try to get. This engine, because it started life as a commercial engine (remember, it came out of a fire truck), had plain valve covers. They had no embellishment. The automobiles, however, had valve covers that were embossed with the Dodge ram head and the words "Red Ram" and "Dodge." They're hard to find in decent shape. They were made of stamped sheet metal and they rust easily. The long narrow cover on top of the valve cover is to route and hide the ignition wires. It contributes to a tidy uncluttered engine compartment. I had been looking for a nice set for a couple of years. Finally I was able to score the ones you see here mounted on the engine. One nice thing about the Grey/Silver colors is that they will complement any body color I eventually use.
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