Mopar Forums - Passing of Tom Hoover

Just registered to let you know that Tom Hoover, considered the "father of the modern hemi," passed away on, I believe, April 30. I'm certain that many of those in this forum knew of him and some have had the pleasure of knowing him personally. When I knew him, in the fifties, he was driving a '57 Plymouth convertible powered by a 392 hemi with Torqueflite. He held the C/GA records. His close friend, Wayne Erickson (also deceased), held the C/G records with a '53 Dodge with the small hemi.

Some stories about Tom: His convertible had a "home-made" ram manifold with two 4bbls. Space and configuration limitations made it impossible for the runner lengths to be exactly the same length. This intrigued middle management, for it seemed that this design seemed to "spread out" the ram effect over a broad rpm range. So, his car was brought "inside the gate" and examined by those in Engine Design and Engine Laboratories. Tom was, of course, an engineer himself at the time, but had finished his graduate studies only shortly before. Later, he worked in Engine Design, which is where my next story is found.

While designing the 426 hemi, there was a point when it seemed that there simply wasn't room for a rocker arm configuration similar to that of the 392 hemi. One solution was to use two exhaust pushrods, in series, for each exhaust valve. Crazy as it may sound, this was used with success by a British manufacturer (with German design help). Engineering drawings were developed, but, before any parts were machined, Tom realized that, by rotating the cylinder head very slightly, that single exhaust pushrod could find its way to a single exhaust rocker arm.

That sort of ingenuity will be missed.

In Christ,
Bill Shope