Contemplating the Gen III Hemi Swap

I received a press release a few days ago that sparked an interesting line of thought. Holley recently announced a new line of products for Gen III Hemi swaps into older vehicles, namely D100/D150 pickups and 1966 to 1972 B–Body cars.

- John McGann

The products include engine and transmission-mount adapters, headers, and exhaust and fuel systems. These parts are in addition to their various stand-alone engine management systems that can control the engine, should you wish to keep it running on EFI.

A friend who works at Holley says the company is going “all in” on the Gen III Hemi-swap stuff, so expect a lot more parts to be rolling out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, soon. That got me thinking—with the backing of Holley and their massive catalog of parts, will the Gen III Hemi swap become as ubiquitous as the LS engine swap? If so, is that a good thing?

I think the answer to the second question is an unqualified yes, while the first warrants a slightly less enthusiastic “probably”. I’ve been around long enough to remember the first LS engine swaps by the pioneering souls who took on the challenge of figuring out clearance issues and adaptability. At