I attended a show yesterday and saw an engine lifted from an old gasser for sale: Let's see who can ID this old boy.
From Wikipedia. Chrysler applied their military experience with the hemispherical combustion chamber to their first overhead-valve V8 engine, released under the name FirePower, not "Hemi", in 1950 for the 1951 model year. The first version of the FirePower engine had a displacement of 331 cu in (5.4 L) and produced 180 bhp (134.2 kW). Eventually, each Chrysler divisions had its own versions of the FirePower engine, with different displacements and designations, and having almost no parts in common. Chrysler and Imperial called their versions the FirePower. DeSoto called theirs the FireDome. Dodge had a smaller version, known as the Red Ram. Only Plymouth didn't have a version, instead retaining the poly-head engines: there was no Plymouth hemi engine until the 1964 426. Collectively, the 1951-'58 Hemi engines are now commonly referred to as first-generation Hemi engines,[SUP][citation needed][/SUP] and the group can be identified by the rear-mounted distributor and the spark plugs in a row down the center of wide valve covers.
Now that is cheating. It is a 331. What is the fuel induction set up? That will not be so easy to look up on the net.
Desoto had the 345 while the big C had the 354 so you could have been correct. The donor was a 54 model. The 354 came out in the 56 model.