It was interesting to hear that the 331 hemi was not that great from Dave. I agree from present knowledge that is true. I think the main impact was when Chrysler announced the "300". At that time 300 HP on the street was really a step up, but today on this Forum it does not seem like so much. Going back to one of my favorite sites on the comparable ARDUN

http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm

we see that it was only rated at 175 HP and yet even that was a major improvement when folks were trying hard to get 120 HP with bolt on speed equipment on a stock block flathead. That being said the value of the Chrysler 331 to me is the nostalgia effect and after all probably Chryler was trying to keep up with the earlier Cadillac OHV in the ''50-'53 which probably led to the SBC 265-283 etc. which took a while to get to 300 HP or above. Still allowing for a lot of "funny" looking cars from the '30s to '50s the big Chrysler is a nice cruiser if fixed up so a "restoration" with a motor rebuild/tuneup should yield something of interest that still keeps up with modern rods. Just for comparison, I recall driving the earlier straight-six Chrysler and it was bored out bigger than the Plymouth, Dodge, Desoto straight six engines and the Chrysler straight six performance was pretty good. The Hudon hornet proved that if you have enough displacement and a long enough hood a straight six could provide a lot of torque/performance so when Chrysler came out with the big V8 that was really news!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder