Thread: General Hemi Info Part 5

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Odds and ends:

At this point you are basically ready to put the accessories on and start it. A few last things I’ll pass on as general information that might be useful:

Balancers: Something else you have some choices on. You could use the stock one IF it’s in good shape, but any balancer 50+ years old would be questionable. You could go for the Hi Buck SFI approved units, or you could use a replacement stock type balancer which is usually a modified 340 unit. Now the 340 unit IS NOT a bolt on. The keyway is too small on the stock 340 units and chances are the timing marks will not be in the correct place. Hot Heads does sell a modified unit that is a bolt on and has timing marks located for most timing covers. It’s well worth the piece of mind. The first picture shows (clockwise from the top left) a stock 2 piece balancer and hub assembly, stock 1 piece balancer, stock SB Mopar balancer and finally a Hot Heads modified unit. The second picture shows the difference in keyways between the modified and stock units.



Pulleys:

Stock Mopar BB and SB will bolt not only to the modified 340 aftermarket balancers but also to the OE early Hemi balancers.

If you are using a 4 groove lower Mopar pulley, the inner 2 grooves are slightly larger than the outer 2 grooves. A belt on an outer grove and one on an inner groove CANNOT also go over a common 2 grove pulley due to the difference in belt speed.

If you use the short aluminum lower pulleys (such as those sold by Hot Heads) and a short water pump, a 2 groove SBC water pump pulley (stock or one of the chrome aftermarket ones) lines up perfectly.

Bolt Sealant:

Sealant should be used on certain bolts/studs. The upper 3 valve cover bolt holes are drilled and tapped into the water jackets and needs sealer. The upper exhaust manifold bolts are drilled into the inside of the head where the oil collects when the engine is running (you might want to screw some bolts in these holes if your priming the engine if the manifolds are not on yet). The lower exhaust manifold holes are drilled and tapped into the water jackets.


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All in all there really isn’t mush more to building one of these than any other engine, just like any build take your time and do it right.