Thread: Spitfire / Hemi build

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".....That motor sounds fun to build and please never show me pictures of your perfectly preserved, mummified, Arizona " junkyard " cars again. I was checking for rust on a 2013 today ......"

You did catch my "T shirt weather" comment too didn't you Seth Only took me one trip back to Illinois in January a couple of years ago to remind me why I live here.

I am looking forward to this build. There are several thing I want to try that I have been wondering about, basically comparing "what looks good on paper" against real world results.

The first one I'm wondering about is using Citric Acid to de-rust the block and heads. I've used it before things like my Granddads rusty old tools and was impressed. I want to see how it works on rusty water jackets and the other areas you can't get into.

I'm also real curious about how much HP difference there is between the HEMI and POLY heads. When you go back and look at the difference in say the 57 354 Poly and compare it to the 56 354 Hemi the difference is not that great.....310 HP/405 Torque for the top of the line single 4 BBL 57 Poly and 340 HP/385 Torque for the 56 dual quad solid lifter 354 Chrysler 300B engine.

I'm also wondering what I'll see performance wise going to a roller cam compared to the older designs I'm running in the 57 Plymouth and 37 Dodge.

Right now I'm looking at the initial configuration being as a Poly with Tri-Power and then switching over to Fuel injection. The next step will be switching over to the HEMI heads with fuel injection......I'll probably not bother checking carburetors against the fuel injection with the Hemi configuration as I pretty much already know that a 331 and 354 carbureted engine runs like.

Not sure exactly how I'm going to test the combinations......I want to do a little better than the old seat of the pants thing and I don't really want to go thru the dragging the engine back and forth to the engine Dyno in Tucson. My other 2 options once I get the engine in a car are putting it on a chassis Dyno (my friend who runs a local speed shop usually brings the portable chassis Dyno to his shop twice a year). Though not as accurate, taking it to Tucson Dragway a few times for testing also has a certain appeal.

Anyway that's all tire kicking until I get the engine put together.



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