Long story short, I've acquired a rusty and beat old New Yorker Deluxe with the 331 Firepower Hemi, same engine used in the '55 300. I don't think the car was collectible itself, but you think the engine might have value in the 'Rod market?
Long story short, I've acquired a rusty and beat old New Yorker Deluxe with the 331 Firepower Hemi, same engine used in the '55 300. I don't think the car was collectible itself, but you think the engine might have value in the 'Rod market?
Asked how he’d like to be remembered were he hit by a bus tomorrow, Tracy doesn’t hesitate: “I’m a race-car driver. At the last second, I’d swerve and avoid the bus.”
The early engines (331, 354, 392) are an entirely different engine than the 426. Nothing interchanges with the RB style blocks, very few aftermarket parts are available for the Early Hemi (even the 392 was mostly obsolete by 1964).
Who knows? Ad the entire thing in "Hemmings", you never know who might want what.
If the car is at all restorable, it's worth at least $2,500.00 according to the February 2010
Old Cars Report Value Guide. That's based on a 4-door sedan. Like-new condition
would be $20,000.00. A convertible would be $4,300.00 - $36,000.00.
A parts-salvage only car would be $800.00 - $1,500.00 depending on body style.
The engine alone has value. Vintage-style hot rodders like them. Some people
( Ed Donovan, Tom Hoover ) feel the original Hemi was better than the later 426
version.
Look for one on Ebay or Craigslist and see what they go for.
"It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny." - James Fenimore Cooper
"One man with courage is a majority." - Thomas Jefferson
Yeah I knew the 426 was a different beast. I had read at one time the 392's had been really popular with the Hot Rod crowd, strong platform for blowers etc.
I make 3 or 4 392" cams a year, so someone is running them.
"IRL" ... what IS that anyway?
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CamKing,Originally Posted by CamKing
I would guess quite a few of the nostalgia drag racers still run them. These would include the fuel dragsters, fuel altereds, and gassers.
True, but the reason they are hard to find now is that many of them eventually blew up. High boost pressure and close to 100% nitro would eventually kill anything. There was an old saying: "Tip the can and throw in the label too...". Scarcity and weakness were the reasons that Milodon, Donovan and perhaps others developed purpose-built aluminum Hemi blocks.
Here's a bone stock dual 4 392 for 8500.00. Maybe a 1200.00 master overhaul kit and some machine shop work would bring your 331 into the 3-4 grand range. I saw an industrial 331 on there for 600.00 as is.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-Chrysle...ht_1027wt_1135
thanks!
some demand from ratrod builders
"You people worry too much. Strive for change. Root for your favorites. Enjoy the racing. Drop the flag." rev-ed, 3/04
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