330cu.in Hemi's?

[Chris5.7ltr]

Hey all,

I'm thinking about buying This Hemi which is listed as an 1956 Dodge De Soto Fire Flite 330 CI Hemi Hi-deck Long Engine S24, which I've never heard of.
Heads cast - 1613608-1
Block cast 1636629

Can anyone shed some light on this?
I've only known about the 331. 354 and 392 (to name a few) but not 330.
I'm wondering if the aftermarket support for this engine is the same?

[Greg N Smith]

These might help -

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/thr ... h.1059446/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Hemi_engine

Hemi's and HOT RODS go together !!!

[FRANK BASILE]

Brings back a memory for myself. Back in 71 across the railway line from the RAAF Base at Laverton was a small industrial area and some vacant blocks, with dumped junk there was a 50,s Mopar with what was "Red Ram" on the valve covers. The same engine?. I ended up via a mate heading out with a RAAF recovery crane vehicle and getting it. I remember this thing dangling on a chain and myself perched up front hanging on as we re entered the base. Stored it and eventually took it home and sold it in the "AGE" Classifieds.

[Chris5.7ltr]

Thanks guys

From reading the info posted it might not be working going with one of these engines.

[32coupe]

Do your research first, try here, they have been a great help to me.

https://hothemiheads.com/index.html

[mgtstumpy]

The engine number stamped onto the block will identify what car it was originally installed in. http://hothemiheads.com/hemi_info/hemi_engine_id.html
Egge has what you need to rebuild it, https://egge.com/kit/de330m56/

[Andyd]

For starters Dodge and Desoto were two different brands within the Chrysler Company....Dodge hemis all had "Dodge Red Ram" pressed into their rocker covers and were 240(241),270, 315 and 325 capacities with "Desoto Firedome" in their rocker covers and were 276,291,330,341 and 345 capacity and finally the Chrysler Hemi was available as a 331,354 and 392 capacity with "Chrysler Firepower" pressed into their rocker covers..........each brand, Dodge,DeSoto and Chrysler had specific sized engine blocks and internal parts will not generally swap..............Desoto had the least amount of aftermarket hot up gear available which can be hard and expensive to find.........Plymouth made no hemi engines, the closest Plymouth came was to the Polysphere engines 270/277/303/313/318 & 318 A Series small blocks..........as mentioned Hot Heads is the go to place..........the 330 Desoto and 331 Chrysler are DIFFERENT engines.........if you can find a copy of Tex Smiths/Ron Ceridono's "The Complete Chrysler Hemi Engine Manual" then get it as it covers all the Mopar hemis as well as the Polysphere versions of each including Plymouth......andyd

[Andyd]

Oops.....should have checked what I typed.........

....Dodge hemis all had "Dodge Red Ram" pressed into their rocker covers and were 240(241),270, 315 and 325 capacities with

....after this should have been.....Desoto engines having "Desoto Firedome" in their rocker covers and finally......andyd

[steve the ford guy]

Just some extra info on poly's
Watched Fletchs Classic Restos today, by coincidence a guy interviewed had a rare four door Chrysler Saratoga with a 354 poly

from Wikepedia

Chrysler
The Spitfire engines were Poly variants of Chrysler's FirePower (Hemi) engine. Chrysler built three Spitfire engines: the 331 Poly, 354 Poly, and the all-new 301 Poly, which did not have a Hemi version. They were introduced for 1955 in the low-priced Chrysler Saratoga and Windsor models and were used through 1958.

All Chrysler Spitfire engines were low deck; no Poly version of the raised deck 392 Hemi engine was produced

[enjenjo]

For further info, the 64 and up 273-318-340-360 were based on the Chrysler hemi tooling and were known as LA series engines. Some parts interchange directly, and some with minor modification.

[Chris5.7ltr]

Thanks all, I have decided to pass on these engines.

[Andyd]

Enjenjo..........have not heard re the LA being based on the Hemi.......do you mean that the LA was based on the Plymouth 270-318 Poly? as the blocks, bottom end are essentially the same between the 270-318 Poly and LA 273-360 wedge.........heads, intake & exhaust manifolds are the key differences.........andyd

[enjenjo]

Enjenjo..........have not heard re the LA being based on the Hemi.......do you mean that the LA was based on the Plymouth 270-318 Poly? as the blocks, bottom end are essentially the same between the 270-318 Poly and LA 273-360 wedge.........heads, intake & exhaust manifolds are the key differences.........andyd

The 270 and 318 Poly were designed to make use of the Chrysler Hemi tooling since the Hemis were too expensive to build, Primarily the heads. So the Poly head was cheaper to make. When the Hemi was discontinued in 58 it was replaced by the B engine which used different tooling and was much lighter. The Hemi tooling was retained, and modified, to build the 318 A engine. The 331, 354, 392 Hemi was also designated as an A engine for engineering purposes.

In those days the tooling to machine a block was very large, up too 30 meters long and up to 5 meters wide with anywhere from 20 to 50 stations, each of with was maned by a worker. This " tool" was a very large investment even back in the 50s. So being able to reuse it was a big savings.

In 1963 Mopar wanted a V8 for their small cars so the blocks were redesigned to be much lighter but still machinable on the same tooling, again modified. This was the birth of the 273, 318 LA ( light)A which eventually grew to 318, 340, 360 and 239 V6, and was used until 2003, 2004 as a V6.

So things like crank to cam spacing, bore spacing and other dimensions were the same on the LA as the original Hemi.

[Andyd]

The original Plymouth A series engine started in 1955/56 well before the demise of the Hemi........and the 270/303/313/318/325 Plymouth Polys all used a single rocker shaft with the only carryover bits from a twin rocker shaft hemi engine being maybe the collets and/or rocker adjusting screws..........and everything I have seen or read refers to the LA as the LATE A series, not "light" A..........andyd