My buddy bought a 331 out of a 52 chrysler, I got it freed up, had 2 stuck vlaves, and a rough cylinder, nothing teribly bad. So Im looking at the extended block at the rear, and was wondering if anyone has ever milled off the rear portion of the block, and made an adapter plate say out of 1/2" material, and mated a standard mopar small block bell housing to it?

He wants to run a newer 4 speed, and I have an 833 laying around, and a spare bell housing id rebuild for him, but I dont know if this has ever been done before. Sounds simple enough, but would require some very good machining, and centering.

Is there a "kit" out there for this? I kinda reserched it and came up with zilch.

He is building a 30s model international rat rod, and got a good deal on the ol HEMI.


Thanks

Kasey

Sell that motor and get a later model without the extended bell. You can buy adaptors to bolt up your bellhouseing to the later early hemis

I think the extended block makes adapting a bellhousing impractical, any adapter would mate the trans directly to the block...like the one in the link below:

http://www.hothemiheads.com/transmission_adapters/51-53_chr_chevy_manual.html

isnt the extended block the bellhousing? they have a lower section that bolts on to it and the trans bolts to "bellhousing" so if you had the lower section you should be able to have a flat plate made that you could mout the trans to, possibly?that is how the factory did it i am sure they had manual trans on those motors, you just might need to make the plate fit the later trans bolt pattern and make sure the imput shaft went in far enough, the one on that link is just like the factory except drilled for a chevy you could do the same thing relativly easy with the correct measurements and machine work, and a flat plate of alumuinum

Like i said sell that extended bell motor and get a later non extended bell 331 or 354. There are plenty of them around. And Hothemiheads has the adaptor to bolt up an 833 4 speed.

".....He is building a 30s model international rat rod, and got a good deal on the ol HEMI....."

Not trying to be a smart a$$ but the reason the extended bellhousing 331 are cheap is because of the transmission issues and they have the least deseriable smalll valve/small port heads. They also cost as much as the better HEMIs to rebuild.

".....was wondering if anyone has ever milled off the rear portion of the block, and made an adapter plate say out of 1/2" material, and mated a standard mopar small block bell housing to it?......"


On another site I frequent there was a guy who did this....he was a machinest by trade. As I recall there was a ton of hours involved making pretty impractical $ wise if you needed to farm the work out.

Personally would just dig up a GM transmission spend the $400 for the adaptor and try to find an original flywheel if he doesn't already have ove....it will be cheaper in the long run.

IIRC the 331 we once owned had a plate adapter that mated it to a Cad-LaSalle gearbox. Wasn't the Cad-LaSalle the preferred choice of the early hot-rodders? BTW, our 331 ended up in England in a Allard

long ago there was an adapter made to fit a ford manual to it and i believe a chev automatic---find an 8 bolt hemi flywheel, bolt it on then put the 833 next to it to measure---i put an 833 to the back of a magnum V10 motor---used a getrag bellhousing and a 3/4" thick aluminum plate to bolt the 833 on--it works -and i would say if it runs use it even if our other pals dont like how it looks--i figure you arent going to be racing it so it will be existing as better visual alternative to a SBC---bob

They make an adapter where you cut off the fron of a 727 and mate it to the adapter. I have one but bought second hand already done. Mike

http://hothemiheads.com/images/25010.jpg

Despite what you guys, most of you guys are saying. Im not asking you if this is a desierable 331, I know its not. Dont really care, its a freeking chopped cobbled together RAT ROD.

Back on track. That adapter for the 727 might be the ticket if I can convince him of going to the auto. Hes dead set on a manual. So If I do some measurements, I could make a plate on the back of the extended block/bellhousing thats flat, and make it mate to an 833 if the spacing is correct. Thats an idea, and would be cheaper than hacking off the rear of the block.

And the 331s without the extended bell are NOT EASY to find. 55 was the ONLY year for a 331 without it.

http://www.hothemiheads.com/hemi_info/hemi_engine_id.html

That being said, The only reason this engine isnt running is there is 2 stuck valves, well they arent stuck that badly. I have them freed up. and it had 1 hole that was barely stuck. Im gonna take it down to the bare block for him, check it all out, check for any cracks, do a valve job on the heads, get a gasket set, and have it freshened up. It will be the ONLY engine I dont clean up really nice and paint cause he wants "patina" LOL

Kasey

Sounds like a cool build. I have been seeing more and more hot rods here in Md using the old 50's Hemi for power and it does look cool. Ron

Brandon really dosnt even care if its not a lot of power, he just wants a hand built car thats cool to the eye, and how much cooler can ya get with a earlie HEMI?

All this @#$% for no reason, just buy the @#$% adapter and stick a manual transmission on it! It's been being done since the '50s.
It'll be cool, of course it won't make mondo power but an honest 250 hp in a 2000 lb rod will be plenty fast. I think your biggest problem will be finding a flywheel that attaches to the crank properly.

R.

Yeah these earlie hemis have a flange that isnt threaded, so Ill have to figure that one out. Shouldnt be rocket science, so Ill just scratch my head when I need to.

DOGDAYS thanks for the PM, and updates!

Kasey

426 hemi-331/354/392 hemi have the same flywheel 8 bolt pattern--i have used the 426 flexplate on a 331---you just need the thread the holes on the old crank---bob

Yeah they are a slightly larger hole than the fine thread 1/2" bolt tap, so they will tap just fine. Wilcap co makes everything you can think of for any swap. Brandon has a T5 from one of his old ford builds, so He decited to go that rout. The kit isnt cheap, but its cool.


http://www.wilcap.com/Hemi.html#331350MT

Kasey

The problem with just tapping the holes is that you are bolting without a register so there may be balance issues. Been there, done that. The flywheel turns at crank speed, the wheels turn 3-4 times slower yet people on this board will opine that you need to be "hubcentric" with the wheels. But it's 9 to 16 times more problematic with the flywheel, and they don't worry about it.

R.

I'm diggin the 331 Hemi