354 Hemi Good? Bad? Ugly?

Those old Hemi engines are great. They can make some impressive power. The 354 Hemi was the first engine that I've seen to make more than 1 horsepower per cubic inch stock. They had a 355/360 horsepower version in the 55 c-300 (not to be confused with the 57 300 C).


I was at the Mopar Nationals one year where Don Garlits was talking about the old hemis and when the 413 came out to replace it. The 413 couldn't make the horsepower that the old Hemi did.

He was invited to race at a race track one time. The track owner wanted Don to break the 220 mph barrier on his track and offered him $1000 to race. Don brought the rail with the 413 in it and raced it, but couldn't do any better than 217/218 MPH. At the end of the day when he went to the owner's office in the control tower to pick up his pay, the owner was sitting behind his desk, had a gun sitting on the desk and said, "Garlits, you're saving your motor for the nationals next week, I'm only paying you $500. Don said that you can't argue with a gun so he took the $500 and left.

Well after thinking about it, Don decided to put the old 392 Hemi back in the rail for the next race. He wanted to see how much power it would make and upped the boost and timing on it and made a pass, and it didn't blow up and ran real fast, He then kept upping the timing and boost each run trying to blow up the Hemi, and it keep running. He ended up breaking the 220 MPH barrier that day. He said the other track owner probably thought for sure that Don did not break 220 on his track on purpose after that, when he was just trying to see how much he could get out of the old Hemi and couldn't blow it up.... Don stated that the old Hemis had more power potential than the "new" big block.

that was a great story, I would love to hear him talk about it again, as I've probably forgotten most of it, but it was interesting to hear.

Ask rustyratrod about the old Hemis, he has one that he's putting together.