The extremely long profile of the new design meant that the crankshaft would be highly loaded if power was taken off at the propeller end. Chrysler's solution to this problem was unique; power was instead taken from the middle of the engine, placing the propeller reduction gear in a gap between two V-8 cylinder banks and sending power to the front of the engine via a long extension shaft running below the crankshaft. Additionally many of the accessories were driven off the drive shaft instead of the crank shaft. This solution also raised the weight of the engine by the amount of the shaft, but it was apparently a price worth paying.
A single overhead cam drove the two-per-cylinder
poppet valves, arranged at an angle to the piston in a hemi-spherical cylinder head, with the spark plug arranged between the valves. This arrangement allowed for "cross-flow" scavenging of the charge, and had been used on various race and performance car engines for some time. The hemi is actually less efficient than the design being used in most engines of the era, the
penta engine, which improved airflow by allowing three or four valves per cylinder.
One early problem for the design was the lack of high-strength aluminum alloys; the original supplier,
Alcoa, was able to deliver only half the required strength. Chrysler was able to address this through much improved production-line
quality control, but the engine was nevertheless built with considerably more distance between the cylinders than normal, making the engine relatively long. This was not helped by the "gap" holding the propeller gearing in the middle of the engine, or the large accessories section at the end.
Weight was not greatly affected, however, and the
power-to-weight ratio was certainly competitive at 1.03 hp/lb.