A279 Ball Hemi

[CFMopar]

So I started a Utube channel to document my charger build. But I also love classic car history so I've started to get more of that on the channel as of late. 

Just did a video on the A279 Ball Hemi program. Curious how many knew about it here and if anyone cared to provide feed back on the format?


https://youtu.be/ZBl9AzPu9-A

[Mike DC]

 
       
Yeah I knew about the 'ball stud' Hemi. 

The video is done well.  The white board print & photos are clear & understandable. 
You might wanna slow down the verbal/audio speech just a little bit.  Not a lot slower. 


IMO the factory was on the right track with the ball stud design.  The Mopar muscle car world suffered an incalculable loss when the program was abandoned.   

It wasn't as powerful as the 426 Hemi but that wasn't the point.   How many of us have ever even driven a 426 Hemi, never mind owning one?  The point of the BS Hemi was to make it as cheap/common as a 400 wedge.  We could have been grabbing used motors out of every Plymouth station wagon or Ram truck or Chrysler New Yorker from the 1970s.  That would have been a game-changer for the Mopar muscle hobby in the coming decades.  It would have even fit into A-bodies more easily than a 426 Hemi. 

[CFMopar]

Yeah exactly. Hemi as cool as It was just was available to the common person.  This would've opened a whole new door to everyone.  And it sounded like it didn't need much work to be as good if not better than the hemi.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm apply it to my next one on the 76 Le Mans and the charger and Torino that ran at it

[Mike DC]

  
The ball stud hemi could probably never have beaten the 426 hemi for power.  The design was a compromise (on airflow) for the sake of a smaller/cheaper cylinder head & valvetrain.


It would be interesting to see the BS hemi heads/parts being reproduced and put into use.  IIRC they designed it all to bolt directly onto the existing wedge block.  

But I'm sure there's no business case for reproducing it.  The 426 Hemi conversion heads are out of production now, and the demand for that conversion must have been much higher.    

[CFMopar]

 

It would be interesting to see the BS hemi heads/parts being reproduced and put into use.  IIRC they designed it all to bolt directly onto the existing wedge block.  

But I'm sure there's no business case for reproducing it.  The 426 Hemi conversion heads are out of production now, and the demand for that conversion must have been much higher.    

Well that's how Arruzza and the owner of the 2nd motor got it to work.  They modified a RB block to work with the heads.


It was stage 5 that built those RB hemi heads correct? They stopped? Guess they didn't sell well.

[Mike DC]

              
The 426 Hemi conversion heads sold fine back in the 1990s when old Hemi blocks were getting rare and there were no streetable reproduction blocks.  That was what originally prompted the idea.  


Honestly I'm a little bit surprised that the conversions didn't remain more popular.  Repro Hemi blocks have never been cheap and the availability has never been consistent.  
       
The conversion required using Hemi pistons & adding drain-back tubes onto the block.  The whole motor had to come apart to do the job.  That was a factor working against the popularity of it.  

[moparstuart]

I have a Buddy who owns the one DOHC hemi prototype  that made it out the door of Chrysler it was from the Mid 60's  Nascar wars .

[CFMopar]

A full working one???

[Mike DC]

   
I've read that there wasn't ever a 'real' DOHC Hemi.  They faked the prototype engine with some wooden parts and electric motors hidden inside.  

They were bluffing Bill France with it.  They wanted Ford's SOHC motor to be banned.  

[TheAutoArchaeologist]

Here's the history of the DOHC Hemi.  No wood parts, and it was made to run.  But it broke on the first electric motor RPM test, and never fixed.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/return-dohc-426-hemi/

Here's the Ball-Stud Hemi today.  I am not going to get into the travesty that was done to it.

[CFMopar]

I cover the work done to it in my video.

The more I learnt about what Arruzza did the less I'm upset about it.  Providing the valve covers, original air cleaner and other parts weren't just chucked in the garbage. 

Dick Landy did a fair bit of work to it prior swapping the cam and other things. So not like we would've known what it would've been like in factory form.

[Kern Dog]

Here's the Ball-Stud Hemi today.  I am not going to get into the travesty that was done to it.

Therein lies the problem. When the engine was rebuilt and the articles were written, people were too polite about it all. I recall that the engine had some historical significance to it that was erased and very few people made a noise about it.

[moparstuart]

Here's the history of the DOHC Hemi.  No wood parts, and it was made to run.  But it broke on the first electric motor RPM test, and never fixed.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/return-dohc-426-hemi/

Here's the Ball-Stud Hemi today.  I am not going to get into the travesty that was done to it.

Yes , Ive known about the DOHC motor since the 80's when i met John hes a fellow local mopar club member and he show the motor every few years .