quote:
Originally posted by AV8R:
Chrysler 'borrowed' the head design for their hemi engines of the 50s. As far as their 'legendary reputation' goes, the engines were mediocre in performance because the hemi head didn't allow for much compression ratio. The real strength of the engine, in my opinion, was that the low compression made it easy to supercharge, with great results. Those were hot engines, but the production versions never showed much promise.
The engine was redesigned in the mid 60s, still not much of an engine. Reliability in standard configuration was subpar, and trying to make a performer from this engine was impossible mainly because the thing had pushrods as long as your arm, and revving it one rpm above seven thousand would leave parts all up and down the street.
The 'new hemi', as it is advertsed, is a wedge design kind of twisted sideways. It is still mediocre in performance, but seems to be even less reliable than the 'legendary' engines of the past. I would stop short of calling it junk..well, maybe not... but DC's marketing plan to sell the line, especially the trucks, to the 'supermacho' guy set seems to be working. The buyers in this area seem to always have gun racks in their rear windows, and wear a lot of camouflage.