Hemi 6 245 & 265 Crates

The combustion chamber isn't actually hemispherical. It's almost kind of sort of partly close; the "Hemi" name was more for marketing than for accuracy. Is it "better" than the slant-6? That depends what means "better". The Hemi-6 isn't as smooth as the Slant-6, but the Hemi saw a lot more attention paid to it and so was developed to a greater extent in terms of power output, etc. 1bbl, 2bbl, 4bbl, and 6bbl versions were produced by the factory. There's some decent info and pics in the Wikipedia article; more detailed development info and lots of pictures in Bill Weertman's book.

As for installation in US A-bodies: Yes, with varying degrees of difficulty depending on the specific car in question. It's a longer engine than the Slant-6. Some of them have the same bellhousing pattern as an A/LA V8, others do not (and the ones that do not also don't have a Slant-6 bellhousing pattern, and the only automatic that bolts to them is a cruddy BorgWarner BW35). I'm sure I've seen conversion mount kits to drop a Hemi-6 in place of a Slant-6, but at the moment I can't find them. Send e-mail to Graeme at Blue Star Spares, Ray at Pentastar Parts and Restoration, check with Nev at GPRS, and post a query on Mopar Market Forum. Also get in touch with Jeff "OzHemi" Rubin, [email protected] . He has imported a lot of Australian Mopars and parts (including Hemi engines) to the States over the years. And see a few Hemi-6s advertised on Craigslist in California here and here.

As for Hemi Performance -- I haven't checked lately, but the last time I did check, some years back, their reputation was fair to poor in terms of customer service and providing the parts they say they are providing.