Posted by MoparNorm on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 at 5:38PM :
In Reply to: Re: What??? posted by David W on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 at 5:00PM :
I've posted this many times but always like a chance to do it again. The first Mopar V-8's were the Hemis' but they were too costly to produce with the extra rocker shafts etc. The Poly was basically the Hemi with only one row of rockers, using canted valves. It was still too expensive for a sruggling auto maker so the wedge was born. Everyone knows how good the wedge design is as the 318/340/360 lived on for many years with basically the same block as the first late 1950's Poly. A stock Poly truck motor produced 200 HP with a 2 bbl! The car version made 260 HP with a 4 bbl, these were way more potent motors than the 318LA's that replaced them. Mopar has gone back to the Poly design in their NASCAR motor, and the Hemi has come to life again in the production vehicles. A well built 318 Poly can produce over 400 HP and 500 lbs of torque. (reference Aug and Oct 2000 Mopar Muscle Mag build-up)
MN