My "Dream Hemi"! :)

[mart]

Does anybody else here spend any time
dreaming about what they'd build if they
won the lottery or something and money
suddenly became no object??? One of my
*several* "what if" dream cars that I've
been mentally building for some years
now, would be a street driven 'sports car'
based around a 2400 Lb. early '60's Kellison
'Astra' kit car' and powered by a 700-plus hp,
365 inch, twin-turbo'd, EFI injected. early
hemi! (I've loved the Kellison 'Astra' body
design ever since I was kid, and they used to
advertise 'em in the back pages of Hot Rod
Magazine!)

This is a totally hypothetical and 'what if"
exercise, but I'd like to hear any comments
and thoughts on my 'dream hemi' engine
combination for this imaginary dream car! And
who knows...maybe someday I will win the
lottery. Or maybe, some disgustingly rich, long
lost great-uncle that I've never heard of before,
will suddenly kick off, leaving me his entire estate
and his immense fortune made during a lifetime of
ruthless and cunning investing and speculating on
widget futures and/or in cornering the market in
wheelbarrow handles!!! (Yeah right! Like that's
really gonna' happen!) <LOL>

My Dream hemi for my Kellison 'Astra" kit
car: To start with, the block would be a
late-production ('59 or '60) 354 Dodge
heavy-duty truck block. It'd be bored to
4 inches, fitted with billet 4-bolt main
caps and the decks cut for O-rings.
Chrome-moly studs and nuts would be used
for the heads and main caps and socket-head
aircraft fasteners used everywhere else.
If money was no object, I might even
have the block cryogenically treated and
have the bores Nicosil coated too! The crank
would be a stock-stroke, chrome-moly billet
piece - with cross-drilled mains, center counterweights
and machined with a big-block Chevy style front
snout, so a standard 'off the shelf' BBC style
Fluidamper balancer could be used. Rods would be
6.75 inch long (.50 longer than stock) Carrillo
H-Beams. Pistons would be 7.5 or 8 to 1 compression
custom forgings by J.E. or Arias and use taper-wall,
tool steel, wrist pins. The cam would be a custom,
steel billet, reverse-rotation, solid roller cam from
Crane or Isky, with a fairly mild - ie - 'high lift, but
short duration and low overlap' "turbo" grind. Cam
drive would be by a custom fabbed 'two-gear'
gear drive, not unlike that used on the Chrysler
marine hemis - hence the use of a reverse-rotation
camshaft. The gear-drive would sit behind an early
'as-cast' finish. Moon finned aluminum front cover.
Oiling would be mostly Milodon parts - with a high
volume oil pump with an integral pick-up, dual
remote filters, an oil cooler and a full length
'dragster type' oil pan (The engine in a Kellison
sits well back in the chassis, so there's no front
crossmember under the engine to interfere with
the oil pan.) So much for the basic shortblock.
Now on to the good stuff!

Heads would be aluminum Hot Heads, with the
optional CNC race-porting and severe duty valves.
In addition, the combustion chambers, intake and
exhaust ports and piston tops would all get a
metal-ceramic heat barrier coating too. The valve
gear - the roller rockers, shafts and stands etc.,would
be all be by Titan and covered by a pair of vintage
Donovan 'mag' valve covers. The intake would be a
modified Hot Heads tunnel ram, with the top blanked
off and the front of the plenum machined to accept
a pair of forward facing,- 60 mm each - EFI throttle
bodies. Fuel would be by 8 - 75 lb./hr. injectors
controlled by an SDS (Simple Digital Systems) 8F
programmable controller - which would also handle
the ignition via DIS, with a crank trigger and a pair
of coil packs. A dummy distributor would be used in
the stock hole to drive the oil pump. Two additional
injectors - also controlled by the SDS controller -
would be employed as well, to inject a
water/methanol mix when needed, to ward off
detonation.

Next the exhaust side and the real heart of
the motor. The exhaust would start off with
a pair of stock, cast iron, Dodge heavy-duty
truck manifolds. The manifolds would be
port matched to the heads, extrude honed
internally for flow and then ceramic or
porcelain coated to insulate them and
retain heat. The flanges would be modified
to bolt to a pair of pair of integrally wastegated,
Garret T04 type, ceramic ball-bearing turbos,
- one for each bank and mounted down low, along
the sides of the block The turbos would probably
have a .60A/R ratio and use 50 or 60 trim
compressor wheels. This combination *should*
allow for quick spin-up with little lag and produce
an easy and very efficient 20-25 lbs.boost.
Compressed air from the turbos would travel
forward through a pair of 2.5 inch or so I.D
aluminum pipes and silicone flex hose, up to a
large 'air to air' intercooler mounted in front of
the radiator. Then back through some more
piping and flex hose to the engine and twin
throttle bodies mounted on the front of the
intake manifold. A pair of 'blow off' valves
would be mounted up front. on the intercooler
to blow off excess pressure during gear changes
and sudden throttle closings. Exhaust would pass
out of the turbos via 3 inch diameter exhaust
pipes and feed into a pair of 4 inch o.d.,
straight through, resonator-equipped sidepipes
on the outside of the body, exiting just ahead
of the rear wheels. The rest of the drive train
would consist of a scattershield, containing an
aluminum flywheel and connected by a
Centerforce twin-disk clutch to a Viper-spec
6-speed tranny and then feeding back into
a severely narrowed 9 inch Ford center section
mounted to the frame and connecting
to a Jag E-type based I.R.S!

I know this is outragious, wild overkill and
impractical...but, hey, I can dream can't I??
Where'd I put that damn lottery ticket????
<LOL>

mart
=========================

[speedicusmaximus]

And I thought I dreamed too much !? Seriously though, it'd be a '40/'41 Willys. 354 Hemi with a stroker crank, around 8.5:1 compression with a 6/71 on top that's been through the BDS mill. Detail-wise, I'll take a leaf from your book, Scott, and have the block worked over, with all those fasteners done aircraft-style. 600 HP should be OK for a while.

Linking it to the rear would be a sorted A518 overdrive 'box and either a built 8-3/4, or a Dana 60.

Naturally, it'd be a gasser, with a small-drop tube front, discs all round and ARE TTD's - 4.5" X 15" and 8.5" (or 10" X 15"). Interior would be something like black/dark grey tuck and roll, comfy, but not too over the top. Chrome roll bars rule ! Outside depends on what mood I'm in: Deep cherry-red candy, pale yellowy-green metallic, or sometimes a good blue ! Most Gassers seem to have names, so I'll work on that one.

Then, there's the '69 Road Runner: A slight deviation here though with the detail ....... I'd still retain the 383 ci V8, but with a stroker kit to take it out to 431/432. Heads would be Edelbrock, fully ported, with a hudraulic roller cam in there too. Outside would be a well done restoration, with the wheels being either 17" or 18" ARE 200S's, or, the old faithfull ARE TTD's !

Then there's the '32 five window. Body done to replicate the Doyle Gammell Coupe, with the engine from the Gasser mentioned earlier.

Or it could be a '32 Roadster with it instead !

Mike

[scottm]

My dream HEMIs are likely not unique, but here's my list.

#1 1970 'Cuda Hardtop w/ 426 HEMI and 4-speed (stock)
#2 1968 'Cuda SS clone w/ fuel inj 572 HEMI and auto
#3 1930s pickup rat rod w/ fuel inj and blown 392 HEMI

And I would need a new Challenger SRT8 as my daily...

[john]

My dream Hemi is simple ---- anything from S & M !

[mart]

My dream Hemi is simple ---- anything
from S & M !

Hmmm??? By that I hope and assume you mean
"Sox & Martin" and not the other kind of
"S&M"!!!!! <LOL>

mart <who was shocked when he discovered
that the phrase "Different strokes for different
folks" didn't necessarily have anything to do
with with crankshafts!!!>

===========================

[speedicusmaximus]

There was two "Dream Hemi's" I forgot: It'd be a '56 Ford F100, lowered stock style suspension - it's a truck ! C'mon ! - with 17-18" ARE 200S's and either a first generation Hemi - a 354 or 392 - or a third generation Hemi - a later 5.7L or a 6.1/6.4L. Maybe the latter with a 6/71 blower, a la Don Garlits' recent sling shot recreation. Again it'd have an A518 over drive, or the stock-style, five-speed auto-trans, and either a Dana 60 or 8-3/4. But it would have disc brakes. Drums are OK to a point ....... Maybe it'd run on Propane too ..... ?

The other would be a '69 or '70 Dodge Charger, with a larger displacement Hemi built to haul all that weight, and having a drag race slant somewhat like Dick Landy's (RIP) racing '70 that was recently uncovered .....

Mike