Thread: Give me some input for my wacky idea please.

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In the early hot rod era, Hemi's were the engine to have in a 40. You are correct in that it is about 200 lbs heavier than the SBC you have in it. If you have a Mustang II setup in excellent condition, you can play with the springs and it will work. Be sure and check your welds and such on the Mustang II, many are made out of a light weight material and are cracking under normal usage. If you need to replace it, do so with a FatMan product. His front ends are made from a thicker gauge material than the others, yet his prices are very good. Now, a stock 354 with only a carb change, that will not run like the 350 you have in the car - more like a good running 283. Horsepower ratings back then were at the flywheel with no acc's attached and some were fudged a bit. To make the hemi a sweet motor, you will have to rebuild and do standard hot rodding mods. Resale value, much better with hemi, just a bit less with 350, less with Cummings. Transmission for hemi -good advice from Mike P, if you want cheaper, you can adapt an old torqueflight to it - could be bullet proof.
Good luck with your choices and be sure to post and let us all know. Ray

Originally Posted by Scooting

In the early hot rod era, Hemi's were the engine to have in a 40. You are correct in that it is about 200 lbs heavier than the SBC you have in it. If you have a Mustang II setup in excellent condition, you can play with the springs and it will work. Be sure and check your welds and such on the Mustang II, many are made out of a light weight material and are cracking under normal usage. If you need to replace it, do so with a FatMan product. His front ends are made from a thicker gauge material than the others, yet his prices are very good. Now, a stock 354 with only a carb change, that will not run like the 350 you have in the car - more like a good running 283. Horsepower ratings back then were at the flywheel with no acc's attached and some were fudged a bit. To make the hemi a sweet motor, you will have to rebuild and do standard hot rodding mods. Resale value, much better with hemi, just a bit less with 350, less with Cummings. Transmission for hemi -good advice from Mike P, if you want cheaper, you can adapt an old torqueflight to it - could be bullet proof.
Good luck with your choices and be sure to post and let us all know. Ray

Thanks for the input. I plan on replacing the stock MII cross member with a Fat Man cross member already. There's a list of things the car needs to make it right. I'd like to add a/c too since I have 2 little, little kids. So I don't know how far the money tree will reach out to this car. I have to watch it basically. LOL