So they weren’t lying…
We’ve all heard people say “they’re still out there” followed by photos or stories of some some awesome find in a barn, garage or fence row. Well, I’ve always been happy for the people who make these discoveries, I just never thought I’d have one of my own. Today I was doing some storm repair work for a lady that we’ve worked for in the past and after repairing a roof on an old barn I went around back to take a piss. While standing there, I peered in through the gaps in the boards and saw two engine blocks and a few heads laying on the dirt floor. I could tell from the exhaust ports that they weren’t sb Mopar but decided to go check them out anyway. I looked the one block over, then flipped a head over and noticed the hemispherical chamber! I whipped around and saw a big valve cover with 4 holes in it, leaning against the wall! Quickly walked over to it and saw the iconic “Chrysler FirePower”!! Then came the shakes of excitement! I asked the lady I was working for if she’d like to sell the engine parts in the barn. She didn’t know anything about them and asked me to show them to her (it was her parents place that she recently inherited) after looking them over she said “if those interest you, you can have them!” I offered multiple times to pay for them but she insisted I take them and anything else in the barn that I might want. (It was mostly empty so nothing else there that I wanted) From what I have gathered so far, the bare block is an industrial 354 Hemi, as for the intact shortblock, I’m 99% sure it’s a 392!!!
She asked me later if I knew what vehicles they were from and I said a Chrysler. She said someone must have given them to her dad since he never had any Chrysler vehicles, he was a Ford man.
There’s no telling how long these parts have sat in the dirt floor of this barn, but I’m going to have fun cleaning all this up because everything that SHOULD slide, rotate or pivot must definitely does not!
And since threads (especially ones like this) are worthless without pics, here’s what all I got.
First up, the engine blocks. As I said earlier, the bare block is an industrial 354 and the short block I’m almost for certain is a 392.
Next up, we have a standard 4bbl intake and the industrial intake along with a set of head (not sure which number these are)
In total there were 3 sets of heads. 1731526 392 heads, 1635779 desoto heads and 1556157 heads.
Here are the 2nd and 3rd set. Set with the drool tubes are the 392 heads.
I also got all 8 rods and pistons for the 354. I’m pretty sure someone had started rebuilding this engine but never finished, if you zoom in on the 4th piston from the left, the ring is brand new! Now these will obviously need to be redone since these pistons are all stuck in the position that they’re in.
Two sets of rocker arms, all stuck where they are. Oil pump and an oil pan.
Two distributors, 2nd oil pan (one of them has a hole rusted in it) only have one valley cover but have an extra front cover/water pump housing.
Did I mention everything is stuck? Here’s how I found the 354 timing chain. I couldn’t even move it! :rofl:
Next we have the 354 crank and the two sets of valve covers.
And lastly, a photo of the awesome, iconic FirePower valve covers!
We’ve all heard people say “they’re still out there” followed by photos or stories of some some awesome find in a barn, garage or fence row. Well, I’ve always been happy for the people who make these discoveries, I just never thought I’d have one of my own. Today I was doing some storm repair work for a lady that we’ve worked for in the past and after repairing a roof on an old barn I went around back to take a piss. While standing there, I peered in through the gaps in the boards and saw two engine blocks and a few heads laying on the dirt floor. I could tell from the exhaust ports that they weren’t sb Mopar but decided to go check them out anyway. I looked the one block over, then flipped a head over and noticed the hemispherical chamber! I whipped around and saw a big valve cover with 4 holes in it, leaning against the wall! Quickly walked over to it and saw the iconic “Chrysler FirePower”!! Then came the shakes of excitement! I asked the lady I was working for if she’d like to sell the engine parts in the barn. She didn’t know anything about them and asked me to show them to her (it was her parents place that she recently inherited) after looking them over she said “if those interest you, you can have them!” I offered multiple times to pay for them but she insisted I take them and anything else in the barn that I might want. (It was mostly empty so nothing else there that I wanted) From what I have gathered so far, the bare block is an industrial 354 Hemi, as for the intact shortblock, I’m 99% sure it’s a 392!!!
She asked me later if I knew what vehicles they were from and I said a Chrysler. She said someone must have given them to her dad since he never had any Chrysler vehicles, he was a Ford man.
There’s no telling how long these parts have sat in the dirt floor of this barn, but I’m going to have fun cleaning all this up because everything that SHOULD slide, rotate or pivot must definitely does not!
And since threads (especially ones like this) are worthless without pics, here’s what all I got.
First up, the engine blocks. As I said earlier, the bare block is an industrial 354 and the short block I’m almost for certain is a 392.
Next up, we have a standard 4bbl intake and the industrial intake along with a set of head (not sure which number these are)
In total there were 3 sets of heads. 1731526 392 heads, 1635779 desoto heads and 1556157 heads.
Here are the 2nd and 3rd set. Set with the drool tubes are the 392 heads.
I also got all 8 rods and pistons for the 354. I’m pretty sure someone had started rebuilding this engine but never finished, if you zoom in on the 4th piston from the left, the ring is brand new! Now these will obviously need to be redone since these pistons are all stuck in the position that they’re in.
Two sets of rocker arms, all stuck where they are. Oil pump and an oil pan.
Two distributors, 2nd oil pan (one of them has a hole rusted in it) only have one valley cover but have an extra front cover/water pump housing.
Did I mention everything is stuck? Here’s how I found the 354 timing chain. I couldn’t even move it! :rofl:
Next we have the 354 crank and the two sets of valve covers.
And lastly, a photo of the awesome, iconic FirePower valve covers!
