1958 Super Red Ram HELP

Dodge changed the naming on the hemi/poly engines by year. Initially, only a hemi could be a super red ram. But that changed as the model years changed, so what a "super red ram" was depended on what year it was actually made. And of course, those are just stickers, so anyone could have put them there at any point. I've heard so many different theories on how the Dodge hemi's/poly's were named that I completely ignore the stickers and go solely on serial and casting numbers.

And, that's not a '58. At least not if the serial number starts D533. In fact, it shouldn't even start D533. Maybe D553, or even D633, but not D533.

It appears to be a 55 or 56 Dodge poly, which would make it a 270. If it were a later Dodge poly it's possible that it could be a 315 or a 325, as there was a later, taller deck version of the same engine. All of the early Dodge hemi's came in a poly version as well except for the 241's. The 270 poly has the same exact block as a 270 hemi, the only difference are the heads, pistons, and push rods. The rest is exactly the same. I'm pretty sure the 270 poly is actually narrower than the 318 poly, and those two engines have almost nothing common except for the name.

As far as putting it in a '65 Cuda, knock yourself out. But as RRR said, it won't be a bolt in operation. Custom mounts and a custom exhaust at the least, and you'll have to watch firewall and steering box clearance too. From a performance standpoint, its a pretty small displacement engine. If you leave it as a poly it offers no real advantages over the original 273, and it will cost at least twice as much to build. If you get a set of 270 hemi heads for it, you'll up the "cool" factor and build a little more horsepower, but you'd be spending 3x as much, if not more.

If you have the casting # from the block, or even the intake, I could narrow down the identity of the engine a bit more. I'm in the Sacramento area too, so if you wanted me to look at it I might be able to help. I have half a dozen of the early Dodge hemi's and poly's, so I'm fairly decent at identifying them.