315 HEMI-Can anyone give me a value? pics attached

[LAWFISH]

I ahve a 57 315 HEMI motor that had a bearing problem. I went to buy it as I was told it was a 331 and was looking for a nicer set of valve covers for my 392 HEMI for my 32 Plymouth project that I am doing.
When I got there, it turned out to be a 315 HEMI, which I know nothing about at all.

I am new to this board and will see if I can post a few pics.


Thanks for any advise.

Dave

www.smithvalleymopars.com

[ks662]

I paid $800 for one a few weeks ago but it was running in the truck.A guy from New Zealand called while I was looking at it and tripled my bid,needles to say I didn't negotiate.The seller was a great guy and sold it to me cause I called first.Hard to say what it's worth,Will it turn?Was it running recently?

[LAWFISH]

The guy I bought it from said it was developing a bearing noise. He pulled the main bearing and said it needed to be replaced. However, its not hurt. It was from a 57 Power wagon. I pulled valve cover and the heads look very nice. They have the adjustable valve/rockers on them.

Dave

[PCalaguiro]

You have the Holy Grail of Dodge Hemi engines: 315 with side mounts and adjustable rockers! Don't let anyone tell you it is not valuable and if you were not so far away I would offer to buy it from you now. The heads and rockers are worth a small fortune.
Peter

[Hannah1935]

Hello..I just bought a Dodge Red Ram 241..It's in great condition.What I would like to know is the difference between it a 315..How about a mild cam,where do I get all the studs, nuts and bolts for it...I'm not looking for speed just dependablity and looks..I'm looking for a pair of Headers for it.. What about the valve seats and valves can they be enlarged..this is my first Hemi and I'm really excited..All help will be appreciated..
Duane...

[George]

check Doc Fromader's 315 build on Webrodder. Get Tex Smith's Hemi book, it doesn't have as much Dodge as it does Chr., but it helps. Talk to Bob Walker at Hot Heads. The 241 is a low deck hemi. Cams don't interchange between high & low.

[LordMaximo]

Any hemi that is all in one piece is worth a small fortune. Yes it does take twice as much then a Chevy small block to build. But lets face the facts, old iron hemis' are worth their weight in gold. If all you need is a bearing or two, I would just go ahead and replace everything internally. You have one bearing going south, so this means the rest of it will soon follow. Logic is the key to saving money. A rebuild kit from Kanter is around $1700.00 all the way. Not including the machine shop work. Heads are, on average for an early hemi, around $500.00 to $750.00. And then the clean up on the block, is around another $500.00 ffor a good cleaning and bore. All in all, it is less then a crate engine or even a standard box from all the catalog shops.
I have no problem spending less the $5K for my early hemi to be refreshed. Why, because I have one and not very many in my area have any at all.
Status quoe, and people will have a new eye once you finish the hemi and drop it into the rails of cool rod. Your money, your time, all worth the effort.

[PCalaguiro]

Did you ever sell this engine?
If not, would you consider parting it out?
I would like to buy the heads and rockers.
Peter

[ANDY241]

Hell, I would buy the whole thing. Call me 830 895 1643

[desotohemibill]

Seeing the bumps on the valve covers this is probably a D-500 with adjustable rockers. It could be a 325 4-bbl. There are still a few manifolds available for this one. Even Weiand made some using the 291 Desoto. It had elongated pads where the manifold bolt holes were drilled for the high block Dodge or the low block Desoto 276-291. It takes the same S-1 rods as a 330-341 Desoto, and 331-354 Chrysler. It has a 2-1/4" rod journal. On my 341 I added Ross forgings and chromoly H-beam forgings with 7/16" rod bolts for the Pontiac. The rods can be had on Ebay for less than $300.00. The sides of the rods need to be precision ground .010" narrower to fit the Dodge.The rods are bronze bushed and are floaters. Have Venolia make a set of pistons using the Pontiac pins. The pistons can be had for about $525.00 or so. A lot less than Ross. A 340 distributor can be added rather easily. Exhaust flanges for headers can be had on Ebay. Hilborn now makes injection for it as well as electronic injection. I converted my Hilborns to TPI by adding 1/4" pipe plug threads on the oposite side as the original injectors. I can make adapters for the TPI injectors. The injector hats can be supplied for $100.00 by a guy on ebay known as focarman. He does good work. These hats allow braided stainless hose to be attached to the top of the injector and then to a fuel rail. A bolt-over the injector is not needed like on most factory units. Hot Heads sells trans adapters. Mine is an A-727 but next time I'll go with a Chevy trans to avoid the throttle linkage. I made some custom parts for mine and went with Lokar cable type to act as kickdow. Their unit works Ok if just using a carb on a stock manifold. How did you post a photo?

[PCalaguiro]

This info is good stuff. Thanks Bill. It would be nice if we could all learn how to attach photos of our projects.
Peter