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What am I looking at?

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 24 9:39 pm
by Faux-7-0
Asking for a friend. My guess is a 318 poly.ImageImage

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Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 24 9:58 pm
by Pete
Yep, 318 Polyspheric engine, known for some reason as a "semi hemi".....

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 24 1:46 pm
by Faux-7-0
Much obliged - I'll pass the detail on.

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 24 7:17 am
by rocket70
What are giveaways to it being a semi hemi and not a standard 318?

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 24 10:06 am
by Pete
rocket70 wrote: Wed Jan 31, 24 7:17 am What are giveaways to it being a semi hemi and not a standard 318?
It is an "A" Engine - easiest "tell" is the 2 bolt Rocker covers, as opposed to an "LA" - Light "A" - engine with a different design and Perimeter bolts on the rocker covers, very few parts are interchangeable....

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 24 4:58 pm
by Blue
Big block weight, small block capacity and hard to find parts for, boat anchor basically.

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 24 12:09 pm
by Dave Napier
I recently heard that L/A heads will bolt onto the poly block and the poly block can go .100" over with no issues. The poly engines are heavy due to the size of the heads and cast iron intakes etc, the blocks alone are reputed to be only slightly heavier the the L/A blocks. Cranks and rods are interchangeable, though pistons / cam are a no due to valve placement. There's folk running stroked poly motors well into the 10's N/A and still using the poly heads across the pond. I've no real world experience of poly motor's but there are a few big small block strokers using these blocks out there.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/426-c ... gun-hemis/

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 24 1:22 pm
by Blue
They can work and do have thier fans but you can imagine what it costs compared to an LA or big block making the same power.

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 24 3:07 pm
by Blue
There was someone over here that was going to set the world alight with one about 15 years ago, I can’t hold my breath for much longer…

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 24 3:41 pm
by Dave Napier
I was just surprised at the amount of parts that will change over from poly to L/A (and vice versa), I was always under the impression that virtually nothing did :read2:

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 24 4:55 pm
by Blue
I knew some parts interchanged but I didn’t know the LA heads could be swapped on.

Re: What am I looking at?

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 24 10:01 am
by Dave999
yeah someone had plans to do a 4 inch bore one, might have been baccaman, opens up things on the piston front
with a stroker crank might be fun

the chamber shape, rather than the valve positioning is semi hemi, like the aussie 265
think you can fit a 2 inch inlet and a 1.6 exhaust in there and you'd need to get well acquainted with the ferrea valves catalogue, positioning is still on the diameter of the bore, not offset to one side or the other so all good on that front

definitely a "because i can" type project.

Dave