HEMI MYTH

[njsteve]

[ QUOTE ]
I remember Racing a guy with 70 Hemi RR for 500.00 with my LT-1 super tuned 78 Z/28 back in high school. I blew my clutch at the line, I coasted to the finish line at 5mph just passing the Hemi as it had vaporlocked and shut down.
What a race

[/ QUOTE ]

I know just what you mean. Without an electric booster fuel pump, the 2 carbs drain the fuel lines of fuel at full throttle at anything over 5000 rpm. The car just leans out and slows down rapidly. Add to that, the fact that at full throttle the oil pump drains the oil in the oil pan into the valve covers in 10 seconds, but the rear return holes in the head cant drain the oil back into the pan fast enough and you had a lot of spun bearings in hemis back then. Very tempermental and very heavy but when you sorted them out, they ran very well.

[njsteve]

.....and then they would grow a Mullet....

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If only I still could, I would!

[GRB]

I remember the 440 six pack gave them a run for their money but there was't and still isn't any word as magical as HEMI was. Not to me anyway. To this day I will stare, transfixed under the hood of an old hemi until someone pulls me away.

[JoeG]

My friend had a '66 Plymouth Hemi that was running good , but you had to tweak it with the weather--I actually had put an order in for a '67 GTX Hemi-- and the salesman did everything ,but stand on his head to talk me out of it, to no avail---I guess guys thought they were going to Rule The Streets right off the show room floor--And brought the car back for service when they got beat at a light to light by a 390 Mustang---They had to be looked after to run like bears and a lot of guys were just not willing or able to do that.--

[njsteve]

I have had a bunch of hemi cars over the years and out of all of them, I've kept the only one that would ever run worth a damn. I've had her almost 20 years now. She has a great set of carbs, the original set of headers from the 1970 Chrysler "Hustle Stuff" catalog, stock cam and compression, Mopar Performance electronic ignition and mini-starter to replace the gear reduction unit and an auxiliary Carter electric fuel pump. I've switched to other stuff over the years but they never improved her over this setup, so I always switched back. And she starts with a click of the key, cold or hot. All in all, a happy little 4040 pound car.

[JoeG]

I use to flip over the Dodge catalogs with scat pack options---This is one of my '71 catalogs---The '70 is just to big to scan, but they even offered a cool can in one package--The Top Eliminator------That was HI-PO dealer Trench fighting at its best ------------Very Nice Hemi njsteve -----The Hemi could be tempermental, but worth it--IMO--

[Mr70]

Don't do it JoeG.

[GRB]

I dreamed about hemis all night. This thread is going to end up costing me!!!

[427TJ]

I have an old Cars magazine in which there's a test of a '68 Hemi Coronet. Marty Schorr wrote the article and he said then that a tuned 440 car could take a Hemi in a street race. I could dig up the article if anyone's interested.

[JoeG]

I've seen it happen,and not just to the Hemi---But the phrase you have to underline here is street race---lot of factors to figure in street racing------track conditions and properly set up cars are a different story----The 440 did muster a lot of its power early and with that torsion rear setup they did alright on street tires---Somedays you eat the bear, and somedays the bear eats you-----------I knew Rick (mr70) was into animals, so I just thru that in -