I have been looking at getting a 572 hemi for my 73 cuda that is going to be a street car with a trip to the track every now and then. Any thoughts on if this will be too much motor for a street car? Gas milage obviously isnt a concern, I just dont know if this will be something that will do nothing but sit there and spin whenever i want to get on it and be useless without a pair of slicks. Was considering maybe a 528 hemi too. Car currently has a 340 that i built for it. Any thoughts?

it'll have a little more than the 340, maybe not night and day, but noticeable.
if it's gonna be a street car, forget the slicks. whole lot more fun sliding around corners, etc.
half the fun driving these old mopars is fighting with the steering trying to keep the thing in a straight line while showing off.....

The 528 with a single carb on a dual plane intake should be very street friendly.

it depends how it's built, what gears are in the rear, and how hard you drive.
i have a daily driver 572 hemi in my 72 road runner. low compression, single plane indy intake and still makes 500 lbs torque at 1500 rpm. if you drive it reasonably it gets around 14mpg on the highway.
you have to ask yourself what exactly you want and build accordingly.

From a 340 to a 528/572 Hemi is quite a step. Have you had cars with that kind of power before? Do you have the suspension and drive train that will handle that kind of power? If not set up right, then the car could be a real handful. Or even dangerous.

I personally have had big blocks all my life. Driven and raced them for 30 years. A few years ago I built an Eddie headed 500" stroker. It is a different animal altogether. Even now, with a good suspension set-up, it can break the tires loose at 45 mph if I am not careful. Things happen very fast with this level of power. And you will probably have even more horsepower given the additional inches and the fact that it's a Hemi.

If possible, you may work your way up to that kind of power a little at a time. That way, you your drive train and your suspension can get up to speed.

Go for it. I put a 528 maxx aluminum hemi, 1050 dominator with 5 speed overdrive and 430 rear in my 72 cuda. What a rush. Can easily get away from you. Problem is you can't get enough tire under it. Have put sub frame connectors on it. This is a street only car.

Either motor will do the trick. For the last couple years I've been finding and upgrading the 'weak links'. I plan on putting some bigger street rubber under the truck in the coming year. It will smoke the tires at any speed up to 70 right now. I opened up the wheelwells to fit a pair of 32.5x14 radial drag slicks.
In any case either motor will at one point scare you into wishing you had a pair of depends on.Dave

Broken windshields and wrinkled quarter-panels....ahhh, the price we pay for performance. There's an old saying, "Speed costs money, son. How fast do you want to go?"

Is bigger always better?

I was going to build a big old 550+ cubic inch sixpack motor, but decided to just build a little 493 inch motor because of the above mentioned items. As it is, it puts out close to 700 horsepower at 5500 rpm, and I'm still worried about those things.

I had to spend a lot of money upgrading all the links in the chain to handle that horsepower level, fuel system, ignition system, exhaust, driveshaft, subframe connectors, and Cal-tracs. With todays DOT legal drag-radial tire technology, hooking up is going to be possible, but tire life short.

Something to think about when deciding....One time I had a 500 horsepower 440" 'Cuda do an nearly instantanious 180 degree rotation at 45 mph when I popped the clutch it in 2nd while punching it. My buddy still talks about that to this day. We spun out onto the freeway backwards in a cloud of smoke. Got lucky that day. I never had that car do anything like that in the hundreds of times I'd done that before. Note to self, be f'ing careful with big horsepower.

I'm running a 528 Hemi on the street that has a mild cam and 850 carb. It's pretty much like driving a big block except it makes you wish you had a spare set of shorts when you nail it. :biggrin

You're welcome to come drive mine

As we've stated above, big horsepower can get you in trouble real quick, you really have to be aware of the conditions and surroundings.
The very first time I drove my truck with the 528 under the hood I darn near killed myself. -25F., I decided it would be safer to run it up to 70 before nailing it. It instantly started spinning the tires, I used up both lanes and shoulders before I could get it straightened out enough to get off the throttle.
The biggest problen as I see it though is...you get used to the power pretty quick and then want more. That's the main reason I bought a Dyno, the need to find more hp. Horsepower....more addictive than Heroin. Dave

How is everybody else hooking up with their cars and the hemi's?

I've got a 472 Stage V in my car. I run a stock convertor and 3.23 rear gears along with a stock exhaust system. That tames it alot but it's still easy to spin the tires from here to Mexico. I like the bigger cubes in a street car because you can get very good performance from it but with lots of tractability and lower revs. I've had at least 1 at a time Hemi since 1980 and the stroker crank is the way to go with a Hemi on the street.

Sheldon

Anyone else?

'68 Hemi RR, 4-speed, 4.10, 438", 540HP & a bit over 500ft/lbs before the carbs were straightened out. Not a prayer of hooking up on the street until 3rd gear if the 295/50R15s T/As are mounted. With M&H DOTs on it it's a lot better, but you can still break 'em loose bigtime clutching it in 1st gear. Before the car was restored, it had cracks at the cowl from street racing it; you could see the car twist when powershifting. There's more rear weight bias on my car than an E-body.
The other thing to keep in mind is slowing it down; My 11" drums are fine until 3rd gear wide-open, so ya gotta pick empty places to let it out.