Kerry;
I looked into that possibility of a bearing swap a number of months ago and
found there was such a difference that it wasn't even worth entertaining.
For example with the big end bearings on the con rods, the hemi journals are
2.25' inches in diameter whereas the 318 journals are 2.124'. The closest
that I have found to these, at least in theory, were the ones used on big
block Pontiac 389's. The problem being that I would need to find out whether
the locating tangs are in the same places on both engines.
The mains on the early hemis are 2.5' inches in diameter as are the 318
ones but the lengths are likely different which is what would need to be
altered. I am rather hesitant about trimming metal off of a harder to find
part like a crankshaft just to fit an easier to find bearing. My inclination
would be to alter the bearing length to fit the crankshaft rather then then
alter the jounals to fit the bearing. From the outlook of machine costs and
the originality standpoint it would make more sense as well.
As for the availability of parts almost all are being reproduced and are
available from many outlets at prices from reasonable to outrageous. Almost
everything that will work on a 354 hemi will work on a 331 hemi. All that
Chrysler did when they came out with the 354 in 1956 was to take a 331 block
and enlarge the cylinder bores. The stroke, con rod lengths, bearings,
valves, rocker arms, piston pins, valves, valve guides and a host of other
things are the same on both engines.
Sets of bearings, con rod and mains, are available for $96 and $119
respectably from P.A.W. These are alecular bearings, not the steel backed
babbit kind, and are the same price for a 392 engine as they are for a
331/354. The amount that you might save on the 318 main bearings would be
more the offset by the cost of machining. Also keep in mind that you still
will end up using stock con rod bearings in the end, where you will find
that stock main bearings are easily available from the same sources.
Considering how often you will be changing these bearings on a stock engine
powering an old car, like our Imperials, and how many miles they are driven,
I just can't see the advantage. However I will give the article a read.
Best Regards
Arran Foster
1954 Imperial Newport
Needing A Left Side Tailligh Bezzel and other trim parts
----- Original Message -----
From: "KerryPinkerton" <pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 6:34 PM
Subject: IML: Hemi rebuilding Article
> The march issue of Rod and Custom has a really neat
> article on rebuilding Hemi's. The thrust is how to
> use modern components instead of NOS hard to find and
> $$$ parts. For instance 331 and 354 main journals
> are very similar to those in 318's and with minor
> machining will work. Bunch of things like this for
> 331,354 and 392's.
>
> The mag is 4 bucks.
>
> regards
> Kerry
>
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