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1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower

Jimmy writes: A buddy of Bob Willshire shared this trick with him and he passed the information along to me. This car was from Indiana.

The trick to installing a Hemi into a 1965 Mopar B body involves modifying the shock tower. Otherwise removing and installing the Hemi valve cover will create problems.

To modify you, in effect, flip the shock tower top to bottom, (or bottom to top). This puts the backside inside the engine compartment. It is really hard to see the results, until the Hemi engine is in the engine compartment!

The modification moves the shock stud up, instead of under the valve cover. It makes it easier to remove the valve cover, and prevents scratching the valve cover on the shock stud.
1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower modification   1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower modification
1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower modification   1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Towe modification
1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower modification   1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower modification

It appears it moved it down instead of up in these photos, but after it was done, my shock stud was higher in my 1965 Plymouth.
This modification does not resemble the look of an original Hemi shock tower,
(see the photo to the right).

I am only talking about function.
  1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower

This shock tower mod will work on other Mopar B bodies as well, for example 1964’s.

More Mopar Inverted Shock Tower Photos

Hammer sent in some shock tower photos from his Mopar project:

1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower 1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower
1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower 1965 Mopar Hemi Shock Tower

Thanks Jimmy! And Hammer!  smile!

Gary H.


Posted November 26, 2005; Updated November 10, 2010


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