i forgot

[dodgedifferent2]

to post it here, but i saw a 1962 392 hemi for sale on ebay. To me i thought this definately had to be a fake and when i emailed him to ask what the id was stamped on the block this is the answer i got

it was used on an irrigation pump on propane. we could not find any numbers on the engine, arkansas dosen't require serial numbers ex. in missouri you go the state police and have them issue a serial number with bill of sale. has brand new 500 Holley carb, was able to determine engine size by the 4inch bore piston that were in the 392s. can hook up to raditor and check anything you need to. complete engine

is this possible? anyone ever hear of this?

[392heminut]

I emailed the same guy, and he emailed back to me that he was selling the engine for his uncle and really didn't know much about it, just what the uncle had told him. I would say it is an industrial hemi, which were only made in 331 and 354 c.i. If you look closely at the pictures of the engine you'll see that the water crossover with the thermostat is part of the intake manifold, leading me to believe it's a 331 industrial hemi. Every 392 I've ever seen had the water crossover as a separate part that bolted to the front of the heads. I believe that all the 354's had the same water crossover as the 392's, the 331's being the only ones with the water crossover integral with the intake manifold, but I'm not positive about that.

[George]

some 55 331 ind/truck hemis(&I believe some 354s) came with 54 style heads & wet intake. Suposedly no factory 392 used in ind. applications

[mart]

If it's a factory Industrial and not some home-brew car engine conversion, it's definitely not a 392. As for it being a '62 model it's possible the engine was installed in some sort of industrial machine as late as '62, by the manufacture of that machine, or that the machine was sold and delivered in 1962 hence the supposed 1962 date. But if it was, the manufacturer used a new left-over engine they bought or had in stock. The engine was certainly not built by Chrysler any time after about 1959.
More likely than all of the above though, is that the guy selling this thing is an idiot and doesn't know anything about what he's trying to sell. This problem seems particularly endemic on ebay when it comes to early hemis. A lot of people there seem to think that all hemis are 392's (or 426's for that matter!), that their particular engine must be "rare" or
a "race engine" and/or worth a fortune because "it's a hemi" or that all hemi parts are 100% interchangeable. I remember one ebay moron "hemi expert" recently was selling a pair of heads (no casting numbers given) and the crank, rods and pistons from an early hemi of some sort (a Chrysler? Dodge? DeSoto? Make, year and original application not stated) and claimed they were for a 331-354-392 Hemi (at least he didn't claim for a 426 too!) Truly amazing! Fixed bore sizes, stroke lengths and journal sizes be damned- this one magical and universal (it's for a hemi after all!) crank, rods and piston set-up fit all and gave at least 3 separate displacements (depending on the block used I guess)! Man, I shoulda' grabbed that one for sure, but I didn't bid in time! My loss, I guess! (big grin)

mart