@@What.its.like. I was a famous painter for Hollywood movie industry 🎥🎞️🎞️🎬 back in the day's , I did the car for Corvette Summer,, coustom fade with flames 🔥 I also painted the Car Used in Tucker A man and his dream , besides hundreds of More including No country for Old men , my works Went up in Flames. On this movie 🤣🤣🤣 As Always patriotically inspired by your post 🇺🇸❤️🦅 Mopar Madness , ♦️♦️♦️
@@dwightwhittaker4208 I never experienced this! However, the water pump was fairly easy to replace at home! I had more G.M.s with bad water pumps, though.
My first car was a 1967 Dodge Dart with a 225 Slant Six. It was not a particularly exciting car unless you were trying to stop unexpectedly, but it never left me anywhere, even when it should have. I made many trips in the Dart between my home in Virginia and Indiana where I went to school. I usually drove at night by myself. (This was before cell phones and other communication devices.) That car droned its way through the mountains on almost empty Interstates without missing a beat. I wish I still had it.
Those were known as bread and butter cars. Chrysler wasn't exactly blowing up the ledger sheet with profits from low production Hemi cars. The everyday cars and engines is what people need. Cheap, efficient, and reliable transportation.
I had a crew cab Dodge Dart. 1967 four door with the 225 slant 6. Brakes would get hot and you couldn't even hold a car at a stop light. I loved that damn thing.
I rebuilt a 225 for our Highschool auto shop stand mounted display. The engines systems were so simple I could start it up by simply firing the ignition at the right time....without ever using the starter. The skill won me an A+ for the year and a training scholarship from Chrysler Plymouth trouble shooting competition.1978
I worked at Chrysler engineering in the 70’s. At that time they converted several slant six’s to diesel’s. These engines ran on the dynamometers 24/7 for weeks with no major problems. Truly a fantastic engine.
I had a 1964 Dodge Dart when I was 19 in 1970. It was a three on the tree with the 170 engine and a 1 barrel carb. Wasn't the fastest car, but it was reliable, sipped gas and never left me walking.
Had a $50 (1978) '60 Plymouth (ugly, rusted, moldy interior) Valiant that HAULED MY ASS EVERYWHERE ON PENNIES OF GASOLINE! This was TRULY a GREAT AMERICAN CAR!
We had the 225 slant imported to Australia and put into our home grown Chrysler,s. After the 225, Australia developed its own 245 and 265 hemi 6. The 265 was also developed further for muscle car use (300hp in the e49 Australian charger ) and took on the v8,s in racing
And the 170 version was unknown in Australia. Chrysler Australia having a performance edge over the six cylinder competition as well as simplifying parts supply.
Great piece on the history of an indestructible engine. I knew a farmer that had a slant six in a late 70s 1/2 ton pickup that he would use to pull a horse trailer. It would go anywhere as long as you weren't in a hurry.
I had a 1972 Dodge with a slant 225 and 3 on the tree. I hauled scrap iron and towed trailers with it. I actually wore second gear out. 3 rd gear downhill and 2 nd gear uphill all the time. In and out , back and fourth. On a flat it would pull okay in 3 rd. Hit a hill and you were going to need 2nd no matter what unless the truck was empty and then you might pull the hill in 3rd. The truck never failed to start no matter how cold it was and I had a 1 barrel carb with a manual choke.
When my daughter started college, I bought a valiant slant 6 and drove it myself for a few months did a few adjustments and gave it to her to drive at school. She wasn't to excited about the car but I slept better knowing that a break down on the road was the least of my worries
We had several cars with the 225. Great engines. Corrosion killed the bodies long before the engines and transmissions showed any problems. Easy engine to maintain.
Just got a 1970 Dart 4 door with the 225...no rust on the car at all....except where there is a dent in the roof. The car spent all of it's life in Georgia and Alabama.
The leaning tower of power was almost indestructible and easy to work on. I had one in a 66 dart I acquired from my Great Grandma after she stopped driving at 90 years old. all of the sixes above were hard to kill. I've owned all four and none made terrific go fast, and emissions killed every one of them, but if I had to choose a favorite, the Chrysler slant six and the AMC were IMO absolute stump pullers. Out of the big sixes, Ford 300 hands down all day long.
My father had a 1963 Dodge pickup truck with the 225 slant six that he would load so heavily that he had to pump the tires up to 60 or 70 pounds. He was always splitting rims and finally made his own heavy-duty wheels. He traveled the southeast working on microwave towers. He fashioned a special wheel that served as a crane hub that we wrapped a manila rope around. We would place the truck on wood blocks, remove the wheel and tire and mount the hub on the truck to run materials and tools up and down the towers. That slant six engine left our family with 430, 000 miles on it when I sold it to a roofing company. The slant six was probably the best gasoline powered work engine ever made.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing those memories =) bullet proof One day I wanna get for bulletproof six cylinders and put them up against one another
Final thought. I worked for GoodYear from 1995 through 03, and we had a fleet of E250 cargo vans on the extended w/b. All had the 4.9/300 six with the AOD trans. When Ford switched to MPI fuel injection, that mill was unstoppable. Several of those vans made it to 400k before wearing out. This was in day in day out heavy stop and go local tire deliveries; very little highway miles. We couldn't keep ball joints or brakes on them, but never an issue with the engines. They just wore out.The only other domestic straight 6 that I saw during that time that could come close or match it was the Jeep 4.0 with MPI as we had a contract with CSX railroad that were used for yard security, BUT some of those did have head problems, whereas the Fords never did.
Didn't Ford E250 vans have twin I-beam front suspension? Ball joints?? Maybe it was the king pins that wore out. You are right about the 300 cu.in. six... gear driven cam...Bulletproof.
The first car we owned in North America was a 1968 Plymouth Valiant with a 170 cubic inch Slant Six and automatic transmission. When we finally gave up on that car, because much of it was falling apart, including the engine mounts, the engine had over 250,000 miles on it, with no major repairs. The car had gone through several transmissions, but the engine was still running fine.
Nice presentation of a under appreciated engine. I had a 64 valiant with the 170. Was given to me when I was 15 by a neighbor who I helped maintain his property until he moved. Drove it to school for a few months, but it was cancer ridden. The engine was the best part in the car. My high school auto shop teacher had one of those long plane intakes. I was not aware it was for a Carter AFB carb. Kinda reminded me of those long plane 413 intakes that went on the letter cars. Today's "What it's like" is completely unfair since all those motors were really good. Since I'm really a Chevy guy, I got to go with the 235. Chevy made them until 1962, then went to a 230 which were not as good in 63.
Growing up, my family had a thing for Plymouth Valiants. We had several with the 225 cid that all made it well into the mid-200k miles. The only one that didn't had the smaller engine.
Awesome Choice thank you so much for all the literature I really appreciate it for whatever reason I didn’t see your last name If I ever do make it out west I will definitely take you out to lunch or something =)
I had a new 1960 Valiant with the 170 ci slant 6. Always reliable even when I abused it driving long stretches at its top speed of 80 mph. Always got at least 25 mpg, sometimes 30. Had lots of fun with that little car.
My vocational school auto shop in the early 80s gave me lots of experience, and tales to tell about the slant six. #1) i saw one start and run with the distributor completely 180 degrees from where it should have been. God only knows how it ran! #2) one came into the shop making a horrible racket, come to find out, it was only running on 2 or 3 cylinders, but it kept going somehow! They were nearly impossible to kill once all that terrible useless 1970s emissions vacuum line crap was removed, unless, of course, that damnable resistor made of porcelain on the firewall got a crack in it! Hard to fathom such a nearly indestructible engine could be knocked out by such a small piece getting a hairline crack, but it happened. And, I can still hear those lifters clacking along in my mind today!
The slant had a couple of little know advantages over other American six cylinder motors. For one, they had the same bearings as the 318 V8. No doubt this was done for simplicity and cost saving but it meant they had a very strong bottom end. Then, they had quite a good head design with individual intake and exhaust ports to each cylinder, compared to the cruder heads used by Ford Falcon and Chevy Nova sixes. This meant they were a very strong durable motor with a lot of hop up potential. Legendary stock car mechanic Smokey Yunick said they responded to a few simple hop up tricks, more than any other motor he ever saw. He was referring to the Hyperpak kit sold by Valiant dealers. NASCAR had a short lived compact car racing series in 1960 or 61. The Valiant wiped the floor with the competition in every race so they quickly cancelled the series. Another thing, they were about the last new engine designed with pushrods and solid valve lifters. Another performance advantage but it meant you had to adjust the valves every 20 or 30 thousand miles. If you did this the motor was as silent as a hydraulic lifter motor and stayed that way for the life of the car. But nobody ever adjusted them so they usually sounded like an old diesel. They kept on running though, regardless of lack of maintenance and abuse.
Lots of research went into this episode I never realize that they’d be two different block variations but they never extended it past 225.. I feel like they could’ve made it better by adding a supercharger or a turbo charger to it when they brought back the hurricane I was hoping that it was a slant six but it’s awesome that Stellantis offers an in-line six with two turbos attached to it that seems like a really sick engine =) Glad you dig this episode really cool stuff coming next week I’m going back to Classic auto Mall I might go and shoot multiple locations and spend more than one day out there =)
@@What.its.like. There's always a way ??? 3 Dellorto side draft carbs on an Argentina intake . Ported and polished head ..larger exhaust valves .. cut the exhaust manifold gasket in half and two exhaust mounting plates on the block split the header pipes to 3 pipes into one 2 in collector x 2 for 2 inch exhaust duals 4 inch total 2 x 14 inch glass pack muffler for street legal ... Balance the short block and run a small tractor alternator 40 amp ?? Charges the battery enough an gain 8 or so HP ?? More Labor than Money 💰👍 I'm a working man poor boy 😜👌... Motor efficiency it's a pump 🤔😉 power and balance, weight are the keys to success.. Never over look an Harmonic balancer ??? Liquid and enhance the top end dramatically.. 🤠👍 Enjoy your adventures and keep us posted on your speedster project 👌✌️👋👋
Thanks. I clicked on this because my Grandma had a Chrysler Valiant in the 1960s and I remember my dad working on the engine. Re long produced engines. Off the top.of my head, the FIAT Tyoe 100.engine started in 1955 in the 600 and was still in production in 2008. That's 53 years.
Sweet =) that’s always been my philosophy you can’t really drive legally over 70 miles an hour so you might as well have something that gets good gas mileage and is reliable =)
A Dart with the 170 and three-on-the-tree was an economical car, but it would start to wheeze at 60 mph. The same car with a 225 and automatic would happily run 75 mph and still get respectable gas mileage. It was not exciting and would not set dragstrip records, but would start every day and run forever with minimal maintenance. I agree, one of the best engines ever made.
@@frankpeletz1818 Ah, 1941 and later ChryCo manual transmissions - super-short 2nd gear, easy 2nd gear starts, but a big gap between 2nd and 3rd. More than a few owners of 41 Plymouths and stick-shift Dodges replaced the gears with 1940 gears. Taller 2nd gear. The 42 cars had a bigger 6, so it wasn't as much of a problem.
I was a mechanic in 1972 at a Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge dealership and I can tell you the aluminum engine was a pain. If they overheated for any reason, they were junk. Usually we would find a cast iron one at a salvage yard and replace them. The iron slant sixes were amazingly tough. I got to drive a Hyper-Pak once and it was amazing! When you hit the throttle it just kept pulling! I got to visit with the owner and he drag raced with it and did pretty well.
I never liked and still don't like aluminum engines. Fine for racing cars, where a few hundred pounds less weight can mean winning by a hair vs losing by a hair, but not practical for street use.
I had a 1970 Plymouth Duster with a slant 6 and three speed on the column manual transmission. The motor outlasted the car, it had rusted so bad that when it rained water would spray up from the floor boards at you. That car never stopped running.
With all due respect to the Slant 6, which was an awesome engine, I’d pick the AMC 232. Great episode as always ~ Chuck. P.S. - What an treasure Mark sent you - thank you Mark, from all of us!
The AMC is better and a Ford 300 six will run circles around a Slant Six in performance and durability and not just because the Ford has more cubic inches, either. Slant Sixes are way overrated
Drove a 63 Plymouth Savoy 2-door post sedan with 225 and three on the tree.Removed 14 in wheels and replaced with 15 inch radials and upgraded to spring over shocks all around. Used like a hobby stocker class stock car on rural dirt roads hillbilly drifting.
Mopar fan and EX auto mechanic from back in the day. One of the best engines I've ever owned. We used to say slant-6 won't get you they're fast but it will get you they're and back without any issues.
I had a Dart Swinger in the 70's with a 198 I loved that car, lost it in a divorce and she ran it out of oil twice and it still kept running. Only problem I remember having was the resistor block going.
Most MOPAR owners I new back in the day would carry a spare in the glove box just in case. The wire coil in the back of the resistor would rust and over heat making it burn out. Then you're not going anywhere. Wonderful cars and trucks
I bought a 73 dart 2 door swinger. I called it lime green in color with a dark green vinyl top in 85 for $200 with 125,000 and hadn't started in 2 years . I got it started with a new battery and poured gas down the carb. I owned it for 10 years. I had to rebuild the whole front end in 88. Other than that, normal maintenance. In 95 I did an oil change and put in an oil additive. 5 miles later I threw a rod at 363,+++. I'd say I got my money's worth. I drove that car everywhere including the mountains. I never questioned it's reliability. Slow yes. I wish I still had it. I liked the body style.
Good video. Glad you mentioned the Hyperpack. I've had or driven all of these engines. I like the slant 6, but also the AMC 6, which soldiered on for a long time despite AMC's limited financial resources.
🇦🇺we only had the 225 in super singal barrel carb then the 160 HP slant an then the VF Pacer slant at 175 HP seen slants here pulling 13 .2 quarter miles in Australia 🇦🇺 with triple Webers . 👍🏻👍🏻
@@What.its.like.I you like I can provide a TH-cam link to the Chrysler ad for their triple Weber 265 hemi six putting out 302hp. Under endurance dyno testing with the exhaust pipes glowing orange hot. With more on the Valiant Charger that E49 was developed for
Great engine! I still have my 1980 Dodge D-150- 8 foot bed with 225 slant six and manual transmission. My dad bought new in 1980 and I still have it with less than 100,000 miles. Still have original alternator on her. We have Red Oak boards we custom made too. Thanks for sharing your video.
One of the best engines ever designed , if Chrysler had continued to improve the engine instead of ending it , it would today , be an engine on par with anything Toyota has ever made , I loved that engine ,
AGREED!!!!! We had two Slant 6s that easily outlasted the cars they faithfully propelled. Today I would not touch a Chrysler/Fiat/Stellantis with a ten foot pole. I drive a Pontiac Vibe with a GM A/C compressor and radio. The rest is 100% Toyota. When equipped with the Slant 6, the Dart and Valiant were Corollas before the Corolla was a Corolla.
Was way WAY better than any Japanese engine. Remember, motor oil before the 80s - the slant 6 went out of production in the EARLY 80s - was grossly inferior to today's motor oil, with one exception. Today's Japanese engines would probably be all done by 60,000 miles with yesterday's oil.
I had a 66 plymouth Valiant with the 170cu in and 3 spd column shift manual. Good on gas, reliable, ran forever, but had a light rear end, so it got stuck easily in winter.
I liked the slant six, had it several Dodge Darts including a rare 64 GT covertible with the very rare factory 4 speed. I think that was the only year that the Dart offered the four speed (with the slant six) until the 70's when it was a three speed with the overdrive 4th gear. Sadly, i was broke and young at the time i got it (1971?) and it was a pile of rust from the Chicago area. After 2 years of attempting to deal with the rust issues, worn out bucket seat upholstery, and an engine that started to have blowby, i sold it to a guy that wanted the trans, pedal assembly, steering column and driveshaft to covert his Dart six to a four speed trans and give it the look of a factory installed unit. But, as much as i like the slant six and wished it had the overseas displacement and head of the Australian units, i'm personally impressed that the AMC "new generation" six was as good as it was. Considering the budget AMC had, its a remarkable achievement for a small company and Chrysler saw its potential by adding fi and changing the head design.
I just bought a 73 Valiant 4dr ac power steering. Almost no rust and interior is almost perfect original. It was a friends grandads who bought it new. they took great care of it. Just bought a slant six for $100 in great shape. The original had rusted the cam and crank areas. Like rust dust deep in the pan and covered the cam. The old quaker state oil must have gotten water in it to do that much rust damage.
the slant 6 was a very remarkable engine !!!! i hope to run across 1 at a sale or auction so that I could install it in a later model pickup . these engines just ran forever without any issues , I drove yale fork lift trucks with these engines and they were brutes for an industrial engine !!! I understand that there were many variations of these engines used in industrial applications . I have an old lift truck with one of these engines in it .
From South Africa. Those engines were bloody marvellous. My dad had a Valiant which one of my brothers managed to seize. He waited for it to cool, started it, and it ran better than ever! (with a bit of piston slap). That car had no brakes though..
Awesome I want to build one one day I heard you could get an insane amount of power out of one and they sound good and they never die as long as it has oil in it..
Don’t forget the old AMC OHV 7 main bearing inline six that was used by Nash at least a decade before the slant 6 and continued in the Chrysler made Jeep long after the slant 6.
232 AMC a solid dependable engine My grandfather had a Plymouth station wagon probably a 59. It had the slant six in it. It did a good job of moving that station wagon down the road. It wasn't a speed demon but that engine had lots of torque and it could pull you up a mountain grade easily with power to spare. It was a very nice car. I remember riding in it as a young boy. I remember looking at it with my dad when my grandfather bought it new and to me the engine looks funny cuz it looked like it was leaning over. One of the great automotive engines. No doubt about it.
Good history video. You’re correct, Chrysler was an engineering focused company. If I remember correctly, Chrysler Imperial ads in the 50’s called them the “engineer’s car”. And as you mentioned the 50’s were a high mark in Chrysler’s market share and profitability. The Slant 6’s were a solid choice for durability and economy. Just remember the later year horsepower ratings were SAE net rather than the previous Gross. On paper it was a shocking difference, but in some cases only slightly less power output. Engines are still rated as SAE Net, but thanks to improved designs, variable valve timing, fuel injection, etc current 6 cylinder engines produce more power and higher efficiency
I agree with your summary of why more modern engines produce more power and I want to add another reason. As CNC machining became the norm in industry, the tolerances that machine parts could be held to increased almost exponentially. Being able to hold these tighter tolerances in manufacturing has meant a 10-15% improvement in engine performance across the board when the compounding effects of bearing lubrication, and ring sealing plus other wear points are taken into consideration.
@@cdjhyoung Much of today's outrageous figures are being facilitated by computerized fuel and ignition systems. If those didn't exist, it would be impossible to smog engines that are this radical, and they wouldn't be streetable in any case.
In the early 90s I bought a 78 Dodge truck from a friend with the 225 Slant Six. Manual everything, three on the tree that had been converted to a floor shifter and power bench seats out of a Buick! There was much play in the steering box you could rotate the wheel a quarter turn in either direction before it would think about turning.
Another key reason for the drastic drop in stated horsepower figures was the 1972 shift in output measurement from Gross Horsepower (the engine is tested without accessories, belts, and other power-sapping attachments) to SAE Net Horsepower (measured when the engine has the accessory belts, transmission, and everything else that is normally attached to the engine). In other words, the SAE Net is the amount of output the driver will actually get when they purchase the car. This resulted in a 30% or greater drop in stated Horsepower just from that change in measurement standard. Combine that with newly mandatory power-choking emissions controls and you’ve got a series steadily declining horsepower figures across all manufacturers after the 1971 model year. They didn’t call it the Malaise Era for nothing…
Had 64 Dart with the slant in 1965. Was involved in an accident where I was hit on the right front, at night. After dealing with the situation I drove it the 10 miles home, although running poorly. The next day as I surveyed the damage I discovered the dizzy cap was broke nearly in half. The engine ran with only 4 contacts in the cap & open to the air! The broken piece was hanging by the plug wires. Couldn't kill that engine.
A good follow on topic would be the Aussie inline “hemi” 6s in 215, 245 & 265ci. In E49 spec, it had more power and torque than contemporary V8s up to 302/308ci from their competitors.
Worked at a Chrysler dealer in early 80s. An old timer taught me to adjust the valve clearance to .009 intake and .019 exhaust. The engine 225 would be running and rattling when you started and end up so quiet you wouldn't know it was running. Ready for another 200000 miles!
In Australian Valiants 1968 and 1969 there was a optional variant of the slant six, known as the 160HP. A 225 cu inch with two barrel carb. And in 1969 a special version in the Valiant Pacer made something like 170 horse power
high school ride in 1984? 1975 Valiant Custom 225 Slant six. (SAE 95 HP net) It could not get out of its own way. Single barrel Holley, had a bad habit of stalling or losing power on left turns - had to do with bowl float. A Thrush Turbo helped uncork the thing immensely. (had a nice inline-six snarl) My dad - many years later - called that car "best form of birth control". It is kind of cool to see that these have made a minor resurgence in the old car world. Very cool to see what the Aussie's do with these engines - big cams, Webers, long tube headers, high compression pistons, superchargers, the works. The car I had is long gone (A904 gave up), but the engine is probably sitting somewhere in a Gleaner combine or hay mower, still plugging along.
I wish we would’ve gotten the Australian version here why do they get all the cool stuff.. One day I want to build a 226 slant six either put a turbo charger on it or a big cam with triple webers.. in my opinion nothing is sexier than when you open the hood and you see an in-line six with three Weber side draft carburetors but you have to have the pipes to the velocity stacks. It’s one incredible looking engine and sounds great too
The 198 was available in the Feather Duster and the Dart Lite in 75 and 76. These were the economy versions and had aluminum hoods, trunk lids and bumper supports.They only came with a manual 3-speed.
My daily driver (and literally the only car I have on the road at the moment) Is a 1962 Dodge lancer GT with a 225 slant 6, I installed a late 70s super six manifold with a Carter BBD 2 barrel from a 318 V8. Car is driven 60+ miles daily in all conditions and never let's me down!
All 4 of those inline 6 engines are quite good. It is hard to chose a preference. That being said I have personally owned AMC 4.0 inline 6s since the late 90s and absolutely love that mill.
My first car was a 1965 Plymouth Valiant with the 225 ci. Slant 6. Bullet proof engine. Car ran like a top only needing normal servicing no breakdowns and when I sold it in 1985 it still had no rust.
My favorite 53 Dodge had a flat head 6, I was able to soup it up with Parts from JC Whitney parts company , A turbo blower , dual exhaust dual carburators , gave me about 40 more horse power , The Dyna Flo transmission and 2 speed differental rear end was a good design, only problem was I was blowing Head gaskets left and right , ♦️♦️♦️‼️
Not a option, but I’ll pick the Ford 240/300 inline 6. Very little to go wrong since the cam shaft was driven by a gear which was being run by the main crankshaft. Could easily run for 300,000 to 500,000+ miles before a overhaul.
I will always remember the slant 6 as a wonderful engine. Many Australians swore by it, cdertainly compared to the ancient straight six GMH motors offered in either the Grey or the other Red models. which needed a lot of new parts and fettling to get any performance from them. The slant 6 was ready right out of the box.
2:10 Engine that had a longer life span. Well, the Small Block Chevrolet v-8 comes to mind. 1955 - 2003. Technically still in production through GM Performance. Of course the VW flat 4 that powered the Beetle from 1936 - 2006. Hey, let's not forget the old AMC inline 6. Started out as the 199 in 1964 in the Rambler. Same engine became the 232 and the 258. The 258 was used in Jeeps up to around 1986 and then AMC revamped it just before Chrysler bought jeep and they made it the 4.0L. Chrysler corp continued on with the 4.0L to 2006. Not a bad run 64-06. (putting a 258 crank in a 4.0L block is a popular mod - also, putting 4.0 head on old 258 is common) Honorable mention should go to the Ford 300 (4.9L) that was in production from 1965 to 1996.
Had 1977 Plymouth Volarie as a teenager in the mid 1990's... I didn't like the car so I purposely ran it out of oil thinking my parents would be me a different car. The Plymouth 225 c.i.d. slant 6 ran for literally almost 3 months with less then a qt. oil & did not blow up.... Great engine
Fantastic engine I had in a Chrysler valiant 1967 model it was a terrific quiet and powerful engine good for towing too. These things lasted longer than the car did. Tough machines
Of the choices presented, the 232 Rambler six with its seven main bearings is a great choice. One might also consider the Buick V6s at 225 cubes, available in the A-body Special and Skylark models from 1964 through 1967, and in '64-'65 Olds F85 models. Rough as a pit-bull puppy, but the 155 horsepower wasn't bad. Also think about the Pontiac OHC six.
Chevy 6 also always had 7 main bearings and always OHV! AMC used FLAT HEAD 6 into 1966 !!! Early Buick V6s not acceptable... ran like a V8 with two bad spark plugs... very irritating...
@@BuzzLOLOL Yep. The 201 flathead was an old Nash engine from the 40s at least. ...and yes the Chevy 6, especially the newer 230 and 250 models, were very reliable AND could be hot rodded. They had decent sized valves and a good sized bore. The 225 slant 6 was strangled by it's 170 sourced head with it's puny valves and 3.4" bore. Reliable, but low performance.
The 2 that I had, '77 Volare & 74 Duster(s) outlasted both vehicle body, frames, etc. Never let me down In H.S. and many years beyond. Great engines - easy to work on too!
🥝✔️ I 😍 Loved it. I grew up around GM, Chrysler and Ford's, so I chose the four great Post War Ford iron in line six engines....A: 4.375 inch bore spacing I block 215, 223, 262 ( 51-64) , B: The 4.08 inch bore spacing 144-170-187-188-200-221-250 Small Six (59- 96, OHC 3.2/3.9/4.0 from 1988-2016) , C: the 4.48" bore spacing 240 and 300 cube big six (65-97). And D: the 3.78 inch bore spacing Zephyr 138-155 cube six (51-66). There is no 233 six for passenger cars. Aside from the XK Twin Cam Jaguar six, (1948-1992) I don't think there is a more long lasting in line six than the Mopar Slant!
I had a 1972 Challenger with the slamt six I drove in high school in 1990. Found a 360 setup and swapped it out along with the entire front suspension and K frame.
Chrysler Australia developed a 245 and 265 from the ground up with aid from American engineers, competed against 351's and only failed from not homologating a 4 speed early enough
I read Australia had the hemi had Chrysler in line 6 that would be an incredible engine or at least it seems incredible on paper and I did get to hear it sounds epic.
The standard engines were NEVER made to play with 351s. Only the E38 and E49 triple Webered engines. And while fast they failed though were faster over the quarter. A harsh rattly and quite heavy engine, but had good performance. They were used in cars and trucks
@@ldnwholesale8552 A very distinctive sound when cranking over. I had a few back in the day. They didn't have the longevity of the slant though. The slant was likely a better engine too for the trucks than the Hemi was.
I had 2 early 70s D-100 pickups with the 225. I bought each for a few hundred. Despite low compression & oil burning? I drove each one over 5 years. Start every time!
The Chyrsler production transfer lines had huge scope to change bore pitch, so the Slant six shares the broad architecture of the 25 inch flat head six, with cam on the passenger side, same peak stroke on the 225, and the rest was original. The distributor drive is B Chrysler big block, the timing chain A block, but on the flat head, the distributor pased through the block to the other side of the block. The slant six has the distributor on the same side as the cam, not passing through the block. if you pull the head off a flathead hand match it with the 225, they are very similar, but not the same. Its essentially a clean sheet, but not quite.
They also used the same main bearings and rod bearings as the 318. Sensible sharing of parts, and part of the reason the slant is so over built and durable.
When I was 18 years old (in 1974) I bought my grandfather's '68 Plymouth Valiant, which had a single barrel carburetor on the 225 cu. in. slant six engine. The car had a 3 speed automatic transmission (D, 2, and L), manual steering, drum brakes, and 'air' was supplied by the two wing glass windows turned to scoop the air in from outside plus the two door vents located in the upper corners of the foot rests. You stayed relatively 'cool' if you kept moving. My buddies and I would sometimes race 'off the line' (which was basically from a green stop light to the finish across the intersection). I almost always won with that car. They couldn't believe how fast it would get off the line. I'd even beat some V-8's!!! It felt good to put some of the show-offs in their places! 😲 I drove that car until about 1983 or '84, when the rear end finally gave out and the body was rusting out pretty badly. But I loved that car. It was my party wagon, band equipment transportation, date mobile, and the car I drove until it had about 235,000 miles on it. It was burning a little oil at the end and I had rebuilt the head once at around 90,000 miles. And oh yeah...I rebuilt the carburetor several times, mostly because I kept messing it up, but I got good at it and finally got it right. The video mentions engine component accessibility. That is absolutely correct. I could easily get to EVERYTHING: spark plugs and wires, oil filter, distributor cap, points, and ignition wires. I even replaced the radiator once...a few bolts and hose removal...easy as pie. There wasn't a vestige of anything EPA on it. Aah, those were the days! Soon after I bought the car I put the then new-fangled radial tires on it. Some people thought that would make the car less stable and degrade its handling, but the exact opposite was true. I am gonna guess I was getting about 18 mpg in town (because I couldn’t keep my foot out of the pedal), but I also did quite a bit of hill climbing due to living near the Illinois River valley, traversing its bluffs sometimes several times a day. I drove that car like it was a sports car and it responded to my handling very well. I drove it on a 2,600 mile trip from Peoria, IL to Antlers, OK, then to Estes Park, CO and back. I kept track of my mileage and I remember being surprised that I was averaging 28 mpg! On that trip I took it up to a lookout on the Continental Divide. There was no traffic, so I stopped right in the middle of the road, shut it off, got out and looked toward the Pacific Ocean. I briefly toyed with the idea of continuing on to California, maybe never coming back. But I was 18 and asked the Valiant, "Well, what do YOU want to do?" About that time the radiator cap gave a little hiss as it let off excess pressure. Back then the coolant system was not a closed one, so any excess pressure in the radiator was released to atmosphere through the spring-loaded cap. I took that as a sign to go back...I didn't want to wind up in the desert with an overheating engine (it was July 1974, and hot in the lower elevations)! So I returned to the eastern side of the Great Divide. That car NEVER did that again, EVER. I miss my old first car and I wish I had more photos of it...light blue with a chrome-trimmed red stripe down each side, chrome bumpers (I actually employed a bumper jack to rotate/change the tires) and red-trimmed chrome full cover hub caps (real metal...not plastic!!!). Tires with a thin white-wall against those wheels were outstanding! They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
It's difficult to compare power and torque levels when you cross over the time period when ratings changed from gross horsepower to net horsepower. There is some data from 1971 models that shows both gross and net ratings for the same engine, so you can see how much power loss was due to the change in rating method. There were also reductions in power due to "Emissions", but the reduction in advertised power due to the change in the rating method didn't reduce performance.
I think the new for 71 Net figures were deliberately conservative to allow for the 72s to be weaker yet have the same advertised net horsepower and torque, as many, not all but many, of the 72s would be left behind by identical 71s. Race a 71 Ford with a 351 against a 72 with the same type of 351, (there were two different ones, a 351 Windsor and a 351 Cleveland) and you will run and hide from that 72. Stock vs stock of course. The 73s were even slower, and the 74s slower still. I have an old Chilton shop manual that shows both gross and net horsepower for most cars, and the net figures are about 12% lower, not 33%.
Slant Six. I have a 225 in a 1976 Dodge Dart Sport “Spirit of 76” with a stock 904 transmission and 7 1/4 rear end. I bracket race it every weekend, and i have to have it running in the staging lanes just to get it warm.
Yeah he is I totally owe him lunch or something problem is he lives clear on the other side of the country but eventually when I get over there definitely gonna make that happen for him =)
WYR? Chevy 235 and don't forget that engine continued to be made overseas until 1979 in Brazil. I'd also take a Slant 6. Both of those engines were very reliable. The real choice though? Ford 300, tough, powerful, dependable. A side story- The Revell Slant 6 you showed. My dad worked at Revell from 1956-until 1965 in the art department as the instruction sheet artist. He brought home prtotype and watched me try to assemble them and would make adjustments to the instruction sheets. He knew I loved mechanical things, he brought me 2 Slant 6 kits. Great fun! And the first time I had to actually work on one? I knew 90% of how it was. As another aside Mom worked for a company named Romalite - she was responsible for making and painting the Revell models you saw in hobby shops back then. Good episode, as a Ps. horsepower ratings went from gross to net, basically nothing changed but the rating.
Glad you dig this video Great story, do you still have that engine model that was a really cool model from just looking at the ads. Man that would be rare to find now I wish I had a time machine lol
@@What.its.like. No, sadly it was damaged in one of the many moves I made over the years. Built a "visable V8" also. Lots of guys who loved mechanics back in those days built them.
Our family has always had Plymouth Valiants with the 225 slant six, and they have never let us down. They have plenty of torque, decent gas mileage, and will go forever. I currently have a 47 chevy fleetline with a 54 235 inline six, and I can tell you the 225 is much torquier, revs up faster, and just an all around better engine. The 235 in the 50's was at the end of its life, being around in the 216 since about the 30's I believe, so the slant six was much newer technology. I love them both though.
I had a 73 Valiant and an 80 Dodge Diplomat coupe with the 225. Both ran 300k, although the 73 definitely had more power. I worked at Argonne National Lab in Lemont IL in vehicle maintenance from 2005-09 and they used 225s to drive water pumps for flooding and sewage. Governed at about 3000 rpm max, these engines had TONS of running hrs on them and dated back to 1964! Except for valve and side cover gaskets, they had never been apart.
I learned to drive on a 72 Dodge Dart with the 225 with automatic. No power steering, 4 wheel unassisted drum brakes, and a foot pump for the windscreen washers. The 225 did not endear itself to me. Power of a 4 cylinder, thirst like a large V8. That was replaced, in 1980, by a 75 Dart Swinger that was truly beautiful. The 1bbl 225 was even slower and more thirsty. Needless to say, my experience with a slant 6 taught me to run, not walk, if I learned a car I wanted was a six. That 75 was replaced by an 81 Volvo 245 with the carbureted 2.1 litre putting out a solid 105. It outperformed the 225 in every measurable way. Volvo 240
@@What.its.like. The kicker is that the first brand new car in the family was my Grandfather's 1940 Plymouth. The flat head 6 was about as fast and returned the same gas mileage as the 72 Dart, despite being larger, heavier, and much worse aerodynamically.
The slant sixes were as tough as a box of rocks! They would go 200,000 miles back in a time when most engines would be worn out long before 100K. The downfalls were poor fuel economy and they were hard to pass smog inspections. Yes, the tighter emission standards killed everyone but the slant sixes seemed to struggle the most. On those engines, all of those sixes were good engines. The 235 Chevy would be on a par with the slant sixes. The 232 AMC engines were great too. I would put the Ford six in last place but they were rugged too. The old 230 flathead sixes were as rugged as hell and a rebuild was easy to do! They would go and go and for many years after they were popular in industrial applications such as forklifts, tractors and stationary power plants. Good job with your presentation!
Thank you so much for sharing all that insight I’m glad you dig this video i’m going to try to do the discussion episodes just like this just dive right in no intro.. I was afraid of doing it that way because it always seems like there needs to be a starting point and there needs to be an ending point. =)
Way back in '65 the girl I was dating bought a new Barracuda with a slant 6. What a great running car. The car was so well balanced that in winter we could go where VWs couldn't with only studded tires. It also had great gas mileage for a 6 as well.
AWESOME motor! Had a 1983 Dodge D150 w/ the 225 Slant\6 and had to sell it as was moving to the Lower48 from Alaska. Miss the simplicity of that engine designed by Willem Weertman (same guy that did the Elephant 426 HEMI). Not the power of today's vehicles, but how many multi-valve G.D.I. vehicles with VVT and whatnot will survive as long as a Slant\6 without being rebuilt? : hardly any in 25 years from now as they'll rot in junkyards in 2048 as a Slant\6 drives by their automotive corpses.
I have had several 225s and a 170. I still have an original HyperPak cam (actually a Melling RPD-3). There were other changes to these over the years; 1973 they went to electronic ignition (an easy retrofit); I was the guy that always pulled the distributor out to change points. In 1975 they eliminated the spark plug tubes and the 3/4” reach plugs with new short reach taper seat 💺 plugs. No more spark plug tubes or strange plug wires. In 1978 they changed the distributor mounting so you could turn it more than a few degrees and they went from a 1/4-20 distributor bolt to a 5/16-18. Also in 1978 they went to hydraulic valve lifters. Any of you who ever PROPERLY adjusted /6 valves (.010 intake / .020 exhaust, engine hot and running) would appreciate this. I also had the pleasure of working with a 225 in a Yale lift truck (you might call it a hi-lo or something similar). Propane powered, pretty neat! On your last question I would be hard pressed to decide between the Mopar /6 and the AMC 232 / 258. That was an extremely reliable engine too, 7 main bearings, the engines usually outlasted the cars they were installed in. But my all time favorite 6 cylinder engines are the Ford 240 / 300 and the GMC 305 V6. Those were both pretty much bulletproof. The /6 was really REALLY good and I love it but I don’t think it can beat that Ford or GMC.
Metallica -Fade to black and I'll take the slant.
Yeah buddy you got it the part right after
Are you alive.. awesome choice =)
@@What.its.like. I was a famous painter for Hollywood movie industry 🎥🎞️🎞️🎬 back in the day's , I did the car for Corvette Summer,, coustom fade with flames 🔥 I also painted the Car Used in Tucker A man and his dream , besides hundreds of More including No country for Old men , my works Went up in Flames. On this movie 🤣🤣🤣 As Always patriotically inspired by your post 🇺🇸❤️🦅 Mopar Madness , ♦️♦️♦️
Can't believe your statement about what killed the horsepower of the slant six. Car companies went from gross power to net power. Look it up!!!.
Those slant sixes were bombproof - tough, dependable, and they never left you anywhere.
GREAT "POWERPLANT"! The ONLY successor to the WONDERFUL Chrysler "flathead 6"!
Terrible water pump.
@@dwightwhittaker4208 I never experienced this! However, the water pump was fairly easy to replace at home! I had more G.M.s with bad water pumps, though.
We were stranded by our Plymouth Satellite stalling on right hand turns due to flaw in carburetor design
The only problem they had was that they were cold natured. They didn’t like to start and run when cold. But once warmed up, they were unstoppable.
My first car was a 1967 Dodge Dart with a 225 Slant Six. It was not a particularly exciting car unless you were trying to stop unexpectedly, but it never left me anywhere, even when it should have. I made many trips in the Dart between my home in Virginia and Indiana where I went to school. I usually drove at night by myself. (This was before cell phones and other communication devices.) That car droned its way through the mountains on almost empty Interstates without missing a beat. I wish I still had it.
Those were known as bread and butter cars. Chrysler wasn't exactly blowing up the ledger sheet with profits from low production Hemi cars. The everyday cars and engines is what people need. Cheap, efficient, and reliable transportation.
I had a crew cab Dodge Dart. 1967 four door with the 225 slant 6. Brakes would get hot and you couldn't even hold a car at a stop light. I loved that damn thing.
I had one that overheated on the way to Texas, it threw up, then I refilled it with water..... Never even sneezed!
@@jonbaker3728 Mine was a four door too. The brakes taught me to plan ahead.
Fun fact: that flat exhaust manifold was perfect for heating TV dinners!
I rebuilt a 225 for our Highschool auto shop stand mounted display. The engines systems were so simple I could start it up by simply firing the ignition at the right time....without ever using the starter. The skill won me an A+ for the year and a training scholarship from Chrysler Plymouth trouble shooting competition.1978
Awesome story =) thank you so much for sharing those memories
I worked at Chrysler engineering in the 70’s. At that time they converted several slant six’s to diesel’s. These engines ran on the dynamometers 24/7 for weeks with no major problems. Truly a fantastic engine.
Yeah, after they went to a 7 bearing crank.
@@leecrt967 That would require a whole new block. They could even have slanted it. But it can't be the same engine.
@@soaringvulture It's not. Chrysler designed a 7 bearing slant 6 diesel. Different block than the standard 225 /6.
That makes sense. But I would not call it "converting a slant six to diesel". I would call it making a diesel slant six from scratch.
At the time I was working in the fuel and exhaust lab and heard this info from the boys in the engine development lab.
I had a 1964 Dodge Dart when I was 19 in 1970. It was a three on the tree with the 170 engine and a 1 barrel carb. Wasn't the fastest car, but it was reliable, sipped gas and never left me walking.
I had a 1964 dart with a push button automatic
Had a $50 (1978) '60 Plymouth (ugly, rusted, moldy interior) Valiant that HAULED MY ASS EVERYWHERE ON PENNIES OF GASOLINE! This was TRULY a GREAT AMERICAN CAR!
My old man had a ‘64 ‘vert with the push button. We drove all over Southern California in that car. Top down, soaking it up. Irreplaceable memories.🙂
We had the 225 slant imported to Australia and put into our home grown Chrysler,s.
After the 225, Australia developed its own 245 and 265 hemi 6.
The 265 was also developed further for muscle car use (300hp in the e49 Australian charger ) and took on the v8,s in racing
And did pretty well against the much bigger 350 Monaros and 351 Falcons. The triple carbs, big cam and extractors helped.
And the 170 version was unknown in Australia.
Chrysler Australia having a performance edge over the six cylinder competition as well as simplifying parts supply.
Great piece on the history of an indestructible engine. I knew a farmer that had a slant six in a late 70s 1/2 ton pickup that he would use to pull a horse trailer. It would go anywhere as long as you weren't in a hurry.
You could rebuild it while still in the engine bay; great engine;
I had a 1972 Dodge with a slant 225 and 3 on the tree. I hauled scrap iron and towed trailers with it. I actually wore second gear out. 3 rd gear downhill and 2 nd gear uphill all the time. In and out , back and fourth. On a flat it would pull okay in 3 rd. Hit a hill and you were going to need 2nd no matter what unless the truck was empty and then you might pull the hill in 3rd. The truck never failed to start no matter how cold it was and I had a 1 barrel carb with a manual choke.
The "Super 6"(in a Volare/Aspen) would BURN THE GROUND!
When my daughter started college, I bought a valiant slant 6 and drove it myself for a few months did a few adjustments and gave it to her to drive at school. She wasn't to excited about the car but I slept better knowing that a break down on the road was the least of my worries
One of the best engines ever made !
yes, along with the Ford 300 I-6. Isn't it interesting that the best engines ever made were both inline sixes?
The BMW and Mercedes I-6s were superb as well. It’s inherit to the configuration.
We had several cars with the 225. Great engines. Corrosion killed the bodies long before the engines and transmissions showed any problems. Easy engine to maintain.
Yeah dodge seemed to use the worse sheet metal out of the 4 big companies
Just got a 1970 Dart 4 door with the 225...no rust on the car at all....except where there is a dent in the roof. The car spent all of it's life in Georgia and Alabama.
A friend of mine had a Valiant slant six ....in 1968 ...it was unbeatable... Andrew never forget that car !!!.
The leaning tower of power was almost indestructible and easy to work on. I had one in a 66 dart I acquired from my Great Grandma after she stopped driving at 90 years old. all of the sixes above were hard to kill. I've owned all four and none made terrific go fast, and emissions killed every one of them, but if I had to choose a favorite, the Chrysler slant six and the AMC were IMO absolute stump pullers. Out of the big sixes, Ford 300 hands down all day long.
Chevy 250 and 292 best 6s...
The fuel pump was on the BAD side (motor-to-frame) of the "slant 6", but I would say that this motor was A GREAT ENGINEERING ACCOMPLISHMENT!
My father had a 1963 Dodge pickup truck with the 225 slant six that he would load so heavily that he had to pump the tires up to 60 or 70 pounds. He was always splitting rims and finally made his own heavy-duty wheels. He traveled the southeast working on microwave towers. He fashioned a special wheel that served as a crane hub that we wrapped a manila rope around. We would place the truck on wood blocks, remove the wheel and tire and mount the hub on the truck to run materials and tools up and down the towers. That slant six engine left our family with 430, 000 miles on it when I sold it to a roofing company. The slant six was probably the best gasoline powered work engine ever made.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing those memories =) bullet proof
One day I wanna get for bulletproof six cylinders and put them up against one another
My slant six rubbed a cam lobe right of the cam shaft
needs a hole from lifter valley to fuel.pump lobe@@dianedougwhale7260
1st runner-up , maybe
Final thought. I worked for GoodYear from 1995 through 03, and we had a fleet of E250 cargo vans on the extended w/b. All had the 4.9/300 six with the AOD trans. When Ford switched to MPI fuel injection, that mill was unstoppable. Several of those vans made it to 400k before wearing out. This was in day in day out heavy stop and go local tire deliveries; very little highway miles. We couldn't keep ball joints or brakes on them, but never an issue with the engines. They just wore out.The only other domestic straight 6 that I saw during that time that could come close or match it was the Jeep 4.0 with MPI as we had a contract with CSX railroad that were used for yard security, BUT some of those did have head problems, whereas the Fords never did.
Didn't Ford E250 vans have twin I-beam front suspension? Ball joints?? Maybe it was the king pins that wore out. You are right about the 300 cu.in. six... gear driven cam...Bulletproof.
The first car we owned in North America was a 1968 Plymouth Valiant with a 170 cubic inch Slant Six and automatic transmission. When we finally gave up on that car, because much of it was falling apart, including the engine mounts, the engine had over 250,000 miles on it, with no major repairs. The car had gone through several transmissions, but the engine was still running fine.
Sweet =) it seems like most people totally dig this engine
Nice presentation of a under appreciated engine. I had a 64 valiant with the 170. Was given to me when I was 15 by a neighbor who I helped maintain his property until he moved. Drove it to school for a few months, but it was cancer ridden. The engine was the best part in the car. My high school auto shop teacher had one of those long plane intakes. I was not aware it was for a Carter AFB carb. Kinda reminded me of those long plane 413 intakes that went on the letter cars. Today's "What it's like" is completely unfair since all those motors were really good. Since I'm really a Chevy guy, I got to go with the 235. Chevy made them until 1962, then went to a 230 which were not as good in 63.
Glad you dig this video =) one day would love to compare all the built proof sixes
I agree, the 235 was a better Stovebolt than the 230. If I ever buy a 63 - 65 Chevy 6 with a bad engine, I will put a 235 in it just for fun.
Growing up, my family had a thing for Plymouth Valiants. We had several with the 225 cid that all made it well into the mid-200k miles. The only one that didn't had the smaller engine.
Awesome =)
I am in my 20s, just bought a 70 Dart 4 door with the 225....no rust.
That’s awesome how do you like it?
Thanks for the shout out!!!
AMC 232
Awesome Choice
thank you so much for all the literature I really appreciate it for whatever reason I didn’t see your last name
If I ever do make it out west I will definitely take you out to lunch or something =)
I had a new 1960 Valiant with the 170 ci slant 6. Always reliable even when I abused it driving long stretches at its top speed of 80 mph. Always got at least 25 mpg, sometimes 30. Had lots of fun with that little car.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your experience with this engine
My vocational school auto shop in the early 80s gave me lots of experience, and tales to tell about the slant six. #1) i saw one start and run with the distributor completely 180 degrees from where it should have been. God only knows how it ran! #2) one came into the shop making a horrible racket, come to find out, it was only running on 2 or 3 cylinders, but it kept going somehow! They were nearly impossible to kill once all that terrible useless 1970s emissions vacuum line crap was removed, unless, of course, that damnable resistor made of porcelain on the firewall got a crack in it! Hard to fathom such a nearly indestructible engine could be knocked out by such a small piece getting a hairline crack, but it happened. And, I can still hear those lifters clacking along in my mind today!
I had 3 cars with slant 6 engines. Good durable engines.
Sweet =)
The slant had a couple of little know advantages over other American six cylinder motors. For one, they had the same bearings as the 318 V8. No doubt this was done for simplicity and cost saving but it meant they had a very strong bottom end. Then, they had quite a good head design with individual intake and exhaust ports to each cylinder, compared to the cruder heads used by Ford Falcon and Chevy Nova sixes.
This meant they were a very strong durable motor with a lot of hop up potential. Legendary stock car mechanic Smokey Yunick said they responded to a few simple hop up tricks, more than any other motor he ever saw. He was referring to the Hyperpak kit sold by Valiant dealers. NASCAR had a short lived compact car racing series in 1960 or 61. The Valiant wiped the floor with the competition in every race so they quickly cancelled the series.
Another thing, they were about the last new engine designed with pushrods and solid valve lifters. Another performance advantage but it meant you had to adjust the valves every 20 or 30 thousand miles. If you did this the motor was as silent as a hydraulic lifter motor and stayed that way for the life of the car. But nobody ever adjusted them so they usually sounded like an old diesel. They kept on running though, regardless of lack of maintenance and abuse.
Your welcome great work n enthusiast love the influence
Thank you glad you dig =)
Well done great collection of knowledge 👍👏👏
AMC 232 was a great motor and reliable 😉..
Enjoy your adventures 🤠✌️
Lots of research went into this episode I never realize that they’d be two different block variations but they never extended it past 225.. I feel like they could’ve made it better by adding a supercharger or a turbo charger to it when they brought back the hurricane I was hoping that it was a slant six but it’s awesome that Stellantis offers an in-line six with two turbos attached to it that seems like a really sick engine =)
Glad you dig this episode really cool stuff coming next week I’m going back to Classic auto Mall I might go and shoot multiple locations and spend more than one day out there =)
@@What.its.like. There's always a way ???
3 Dellorto side draft carbs on an Argentina intake . Ported and polished head ..larger exhaust valves .. cut the exhaust manifold gasket in half and two exhaust mounting plates on the block split the header pipes to 3 pipes into one 2 in collector x 2 for 2 inch exhaust duals 4 inch total 2 x 14 inch glass pack muffler for street legal ...
Balance the short block and run a small tractor alternator 40 amp ?? Charges the battery enough an gain 8 or so HP ??
More Labor than Money 💰👍 I'm a working man poor boy 😜👌...
Motor efficiency it's a pump 🤔😉 power and balance, weight are the keys to success..
Never over look an Harmonic balancer ???
Liquid and enhance the top end dramatically.. 🤠👍
Enjoy your adventures and keep us posted on your speedster project 👌✌️👋👋
Thanks. I clicked on this because my Grandma had a Chrysler Valiant in the 1960s and I remember my dad working on the engine.
Re long produced engines. Off the top.of my head, the FIAT Tyoe 100.engine started in 1955 in the 600 and was still in production in 2008. That's 53 years.
Awesome glad to bring back those memories =) thank you for sharing those memories with us
I'll take a slant 6 simplicity , runs forever & low maintenance
Sweet =) that’s always been my philosophy you can’t really drive legally over 70 miles an hour so you might as well have something that gets good gas mileage and is reliable =)
A Dart with the 170 and three-on-the-tree was an economical car, but it would start to wheeze at 60 mph. The same car with a 225 and automatic would happily run 75 mph and still get respectable gas mileage. It was not exciting and would not set dragstrip records, but would start every day and run forever with minimal maintenance. I agree, one of the best engines ever made.
Awesome memories =)
I had a 64 Dart with 170. That 3 speed manual was like a 4 speed missing 3 rd gear/ I had my up to 120 mph.
@@frankpeletz1818 Ah, 1941 and later ChryCo manual transmissions - super-short 2nd gear, easy 2nd gear starts, but a big gap between 2nd and 3rd. More than a few owners of 41 Plymouths and stick-shift Dodges replaced the gears with 1940 gears. Taller 2nd gear. The 42 cars had a bigger 6, so it wasn't as much of a problem.
I was a mechanic in 1972 at a Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge dealership and I can tell you the aluminum engine was a pain. If they overheated for any reason, they were junk. Usually we would find a cast iron one at a salvage yard and replace them. The iron slant sixes were amazingly tough. I got to drive a Hyper-Pak once and it was amazing! When you hit the throttle it just kept pulling! I got to visit with the owner and he drag raced with it and did pretty well.
I never liked and still don't like aluminum engines. Fine for racing cars, where a few hundred pounds less weight can mean winning by a hair vs losing by a hair, but not practical for street use.
I had a 1970 Plymouth Duster with a slant 6 and three speed on the column manual transmission. The motor outlasted the car, it had rusted so bad that when it rained water would spray up from the floor boards at you. That car never stopped running.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your experience =)
With all due respect to the Slant 6, which was an awesome engine, I’d pick the AMC 232. Great episode as always ~ Chuck. P.S. - What an treasure Mark sent you - thank you Mark, from all of us!
AMC here, too.
One day I’ll do an episode one that engine family, can’t wait to review some cars in those books mark sent =)
I am driving one now, except it is called a 4.0 L in my 2000 Jeep.
The AMC is better and a Ford 300 six will run circles around a Slant Six in performance and durability and not just because the Ford has more cubic inches, either. Slant Sixes are way overrated
@@scdevon the leaning tower of power in argentina, completely stock:
th-cam.com/video/p5FvnXtDufY/w-d-xo.html&feature=share9
Drove a 63 Plymouth Savoy 2-door post sedan with 225 and three on the tree.Removed 14 in wheels and replaced with 15 inch radials and upgraded to spring over shocks all around. Used like a hobby stocker class stock car on rural dirt roads hillbilly drifting.
Mopar fan and EX auto mechanic from back in the day. One of the best engines I've ever owned. We used to say slant-6 won't get you they're fast but it will get you they're and back without any issues.
TRULY GREAT MOTORS! I experienced these! They were a tribute to "Chrysler Engineering"!
I had a Dart Swinger in the 70's with a 198 I loved that car, lost it in a divorce and she ran it out of oil twice and it still kept running. Only problem I remember having was the resistor block going.
Most MOPAR owners I new back in the day would carry a spare in the glove box just in case. The wire coil in the back of the resistor would rust and over heat making it burn out. Then you're not going anywhere. Wonderful cars and trucks
This was the ONLY flaw in the BULLETPROOF Chrysler ('72 on) electronic ignition! This WAS AMERICAN DEPENDABILITY personified!
I bought a 73 dart 2 door swinger. I called it lime green in color with a dark green vinyl top in 85 for $200 with 125,000 and hadn't started in 2 years . I got it started with a new battery and poured gas down the carb. I owned it for 10 years. I had to rebuild the whole front end in 88. Other than that, normal maintenance. In 95 I did an oil change and put in an oil additive. 5 miles later I threw a rod at 363,+++. I'd say I got my money's worth. I drove that car everywhere including the mountains. I never questioned it's reliability. Slow yes. I wish I still had it. I liked the body style.
Awesome story thank you so much for sharing all those memories
I got a 225 slant 6 in my Plymouth Volare. I love that engine.
Sweet =)
Good video. Glad you mentioned the Hyperpack. I've had or driven all of these engines. I like the slant 6, but also the AMC 6, which soldiered on for a long time despite AMC's limited financial resources.
Glad you dig this video will do episode on amc 6 one day =)
🇦🇺we only had the 225 in super singal barrel carb then the 160 HP slant an then the VF Pacer slant at 175 HP seen slants here pulling 13 .2 quarter miles in Australia 🇦🇺 with triple Webers . 👍🏻👍🏻
There is nothing sexier than seeing triple Webbers on an in-line six
@@What.its.like.I you like I can provide a TH-cam link to the Chrysler ad for their triple Weber 265 hemi six putting out 302hp. Under endurance dyno testing with the exhaust pipes glowing orange hot.
With more on the Valiant Charger that E49 was developed for
Great engine! I still have my 1980 Dodge D-150- 8 foot bed with 225 slant six and manual transmission. My dad bought new in 1980 and I still have it with less than 100,000 miles. Still have original alternator on her. We have Red Oak boards we custom made too. Thanks for sharing your video.
One of the best engines ever designed , if Chrysler had continued to improve the engine instead of ending it , it would today , be an engine on par with anything Toyota has ever made , I loved that engine ,
AGREED!!!!! We had two Slant 6s that easily outlasted the cars they faithfully propelled. Today I would not touch a Chrysler/Fiat/Stellantis with a ten foot pole. I drive a Pontiac Vibe with a GM A/C compressor and radio. The rest is 100% Toyota. When equipped with the Slant 6, the Dart and Valiant were Corollas before the Corolla was a Corolla.
I say POPPYCOCK!
Was way WAY better than any Japanese engine. Remember, motor oil before the 80s - the slant 6 went out of production in the EARLY 80s - was grossly inferior to today's motor oil, with one exception. Today's Japanese engines would probably be all done by 60,000 miles with yesterday's oil.
I had a 66 plymouth Valiant with the 170cu in and 3 spd column shift manual. Good on gas, reliable, ran forever, but had a light rear end, so it got stuck easily in winter.
I liked the slant six, had it several Dodge Darts including a rare 64 GT covertible with the very rare factory 4 speed. I think that was the only year that the Dart offered the four speed (with the slant six) until the 70's when it was a three speed with the overdrive 4th gear. Sadly, i was broke and young at the time i got it (1971?) and it was a pile of rust from the Chicago area.
After 2 years of attempting to deal with the rust issues, worn out bucket seat upholstery, and an engine that started to have blowby, i sold it to a guy that wanted the trans, pedal assembly, steering column and driveshaft to covert his Dart six to a four speed trans and give it the look of a factory installed unit.
But, as much as i like the slant six and wished it had the overseas displacement and head of the Australian units, i'm personally impressed that the AMC "new generation" six was as good as it was. Considering the budget AMC had, its a remarkable achievement for a small company and Chrysler saw its potential by adding fi and changing the head design.
I just bought a 73 Valiant 4dr ac power steering. Almost no rust and interior is almost perfect original. It was a friends grandads who bought it new. they took great care of it. Just bought a slant six for $100 in great shape. The original had rusted the cam and crank areas. Like rust dust deep in the pan and covered the cam. The old quaker state oil must have gotten water in it to do that much rust damage.
Wow that’s crazy
the slant 6 was a very remarkable engine !!!! i hope to run across 1 at a sale or auction so that I could install it in a later model pickup . these engines just ran forever without any issues , I drove yale fork lift trucks with these engines and they were brutes for an industrial engine !!! I understand that there were many variations of these engines used in industrial applications . I have an old lift truck with one of these engines in it .
Have one in an old Onan generator.
From South Africa. Those engines were bloody marvellous. My dad had a Valiant which one of my brothers managed to seize. He waited for it to cool, started it, and it ran better than ever! (with a bit of piston slap).
That car had no brakes though..
Awesome I want to build one one day I heard you could get an insane amount of power out of one and they sound good and they never die as long as it has oil in it..
Still have a 225ci with a torqueflite 904 behind it. Did it first100,000 miles in 2002 and till going strong.
225 Dodge (then the Rambler)
Song? Dude, you went for the truly obscure riff...no idea.
Had to make it a little harder =)
Don’t forget the old AMC OHV 7 main bearing inline six that was used by Nash at least a decade before the slant 6 and continued in the Chrysler made Jeep long after the slant 6.
AMC got a new line of engines, both six and V8, in 1965. They were excellent and very durable, as you say, the 6 went on to the early 2000s in Jeeps.
232 AMC a solid dependable engine
My grandfather had a Plymouth station wagon probably a 59. It had the slant six in it. It did a good job of moving that station wagon down the road. It wasn't a speed demon but that engine had lots of torque and it could pull you up a mountain grade easily with power to spare. It was a very nice car. I remember riding in it as a young boy. I remember looking at it with my dad when my grandfather bought it new and to me the engine looks funny cuz it looked like it was leaning over. One of the great automotive engines. No doubt about it.
Great story thank you for sharing those memories =)
GREAT CARS!
The slant six was a great motor we had an industrial slant six in our 1960s Case combined.
Sweet I always wondered what engine powered those =)
This (like the AWESOME Chrysler "flathead 6" ) was a CLASSIC , WORKING MOTOR!
I had two slant six engine 225 cubic inches 145 HP. The best engines ever so smooth and reliable.
Good history video. You’re correct, Chrysler was an engineering focused company. If I remember correctly, Chrysler Imperial ads in the 50’s called them the “engineer’s car”. And as you mentioned the 50’s were a high mark in Chrysler’s market share and profitability. The Slant 6’s were a solid choice for durability and economy. Just remember the later year horsepower ratings were SAE net rather than the previous Gross. On paper it was a shocking difference, but in some cases only slightly less power output. Engines are still rated as SAE Net, but thanks to improved designs, variable valve timing, fuel injection, etc current 6 cylinder engines produce more power and higher efficiency
Glad you dig this episode =) thank you so much for sharing all the added information and insight
I agree with your summary of why more modern engines produce more power and I want to add another reason. As CNC machining became the norm in industry, the tolerances that machine parts could be held to increased almost exponentially. Being able to hold these tighter tolerances in manufacturing has meant a 10-15% improvement in engine performance across the board when the compounding effects of bearing lubrication, and ring sealing plus other wear points are taken into consideration.
In the 60s, NOBODY BUILT BETTER than Chrysler! WONDERFUL VEHICLES!
@@cdjhyoung Much of today's outrageous figures are being facilitated by computerized fuel and ignition systems. If those didn't exist, it would be impossible to smog engines that are this radical, and they wouldn't be streetable in any case.
In the early 90s I bought a 78 Dodge truck from a friend with the 225 Slant Six. Manual everything, three on the tree that had been converted to a floor shifter and power bench seats out of a Buick! There was much play in the steering box you could rotate the wheel a quarter turn in either direction before it would think about turning.
Another key reason for the drastic drop in stated horsepower figures was the 1972 shift in output measurement from Gross Horsepower (the engine is tested without accessories, belts, and other power-sapping attachments) to SAE Net Horsepower (measured when the engine has the accessory belts, transmission, and everything else that is normally attached to the engine). In other words, the SAE Net is the amount of output the driver will actually get when they purchase the car. This resulted in a 30% or greater drop in stated Horsepower just from that change in measurement standard. Combine that with newly mandatory power-choking emissions controls and you’ve got a series steadily declining horsepower figures across all manufacturers after the 1971 model year.
They didn’t call it the Malaise Era for nothing…
Had 64 Dart with the slant in 1965. Was involved in an accident where I was hit on the right front, at night. After dealing with the situation I drove it the 10 miles home, although running poorly. The next day as I surveyed the damage I discovered the dizzy cap was broke nearly in half. The engine ran with only 4 contacts in the cap & open to the air! The broken piece was hanging by the plug wires. Couldn't kill that engine.
Crazy story thank you so much for sharing those memories =)
A good follow on topic would be the Aussie inline “hemi” 6s in 215, 245 & 265ci. In E49 spec, it had more power and torque than contemporary V8s up to 302/308ci from their competitors.
Worked at a Chrysler dealer in early 80s. An old timer taught me to adjust the valve clearance to .009 intake and .019 exhaust. The engine 225 would be running and rattling when you started and end up so quiet you wouldn't know it was running. Ready for another 200000 miles!
Great information =)
After reading all of the comments I kind of sort of want to get a Dodge with a slant six and build the six and have a sleeper
I drove slant sixes for about 25 years; one of the most reliable engines ever made. Period.
I had a 64 225. Great engine.
In Australian Valiants 1968 and 1969 there was a optional variant of the slant six, known as the 160HP. A 225 cu inch with two barrel
carb. And in 1969 a special version in the Valiant Pacer made something like 170 horse power
high school ride in 1984? 1975 Valiant Custom 225 Slant six. (SAE 95 HP net) It could not get out of its own way. Single barrel Holley, had a bad habit of stalling or losing power on left turns - had to do with bowl float. A Thrush Turbo helped uncork the thing immensely. (had a nice inline-six snarl) My dad - many years later - called that car "best form of birth control". It is kind of cool to see that these have made a minor resurgence in the old car world. Very cool to see what the Aussie's do with these engines - big cams, Webers, long tube headers, high compression pistons, superchargers, the works. The car I had is long gone (A904 gave up), but the engine is probably sitting somewhere in a Gleaner combine or hay mower, still plugging along.
I wish we would’ve gotten the Australian version here why do they get all the cool stuff.. One day I want to build a 226 slant six either put a turbo charger on it or a big cam with triple webers.. in my opinion nothing is sexier than when you open the hood and you see an in-line six with three Weber side draft carburetors but you have to have the pipes to the velocity stacks. It’s one incredible looking engine and sounds great too
The 198 was available in the Feather Duster and the Dart Lite in 75 and 76. These were the economy versions and had aluminum hoods, trunk lids and bumper supports.They only came with a manual 3-speed.
Awesome thank you so much for that information =)
Actually it was called the "Overdrive 4"
My daily driver (and literally the only car I have on the road at the moment) Is a 1962 Dodge lancer GT with a 225 slant 6, I installed a late 70s super six manifold with a Carter BBD 2 barrel from a 318 V8. Car is driven 60+ miles daily in all conditions and never let's me down!
All 4 of those inline 6 engines are quite good. It is hard to chose a preference. That being said I have personally owned AMC 4.0 inline 6s since the late 90s and absolutely love that mill.
=)
My first car was a 1965 Plymouth Valiant with the 225 ci. Slant 6. Bullet proof engine. Car ran like a top only needing normal servicing no breakdowns and when I sold it in 1985 it still had no rust.
One of the most indestructible engines ever made.
My favorite 53 Dodge had a flat head 6, I was able to soup it up with Parts from JC Whitney parts company , A turbo blower , dual exhaust dual carburators , gave me about 40 more horse power , The Dyna Flo transmission and 2 speed differental rear end was a good design, only problem was I was blowing Head gaskets left and right , ♦️♦️♦️‼️
Not a option, but I’ll pick the Ford 240/300 inline 6. Very little to go wrong since the cam shaft was driven by a gear which was being run by the main crankshaft. Could easily run for 300,000 to 500,000+ miles before a overhaul.
Awesome choice
Going to do an engine episode on that family of engines as well =)
I've had two of these. Smooth and bullet proof.
@@freeman48083 the Ford 240/300 inline 6 or the Chrysler slant 6?
@@seana806 The Ford. My grandfather had a couple of slant 6 engines, including a pickup. The motor was reliable, even if the door fell off :-)
My first car was a 62 Plymouth with a 225 Cast Iron Block. Good car. Chrysler was a good company back then would never own one today.
VW air cooled flat 4 was a longer run right? Something like 36 to 86 or beyond.
Awesome thank you so much I forgot about aircooled VW
2003 was the year that Mexico ended production...✌️
I will always remember the slant 6 as a wonderful engine. Many Australians swore by it, cdertainly compared to the ancient straight six GMH motors offered in either the Grey or the other Red models. which needed a lot of new parts and fettling to get any performance from them. The slant 6 was ready right out of the box.
2:10 Engine that had a longer life span. Well, the Small Block Chevrolet v-8 comes to mind. 1955 - 2003. Technically still in production through GM Performance. Of course the VW flat 4 that powered the Beetle from 1936 - 2006. Hey, let's not forget the old AMC inline 6. Started out as the 199 in 1964 in the Rambler. Same engine became the 232 and the 258. The 258 was used in Jeeps up to around 1986 and then AMC revamped it just before Chrysler bought jeep and they made it the 4.0L. Chrysler corp continued on with the 4.0L to 2006. Not a bad run 64-06. (putting a 258 crank in a 4.0L block is a popular mod - also, putting 4.0 head on old 258 is common) Honorable mention should go to the Ford 300 (4.9L) that was in production from 1965 to 1996.
The Chrysler flathead six went from 1928 through 68 in the Power Wagon, and longer than that for industrial use.
My introduction to the Chrysler flathead 6 was in mid 1960s Massey Ferguson combines. Smooth and reliable in the dirtiest conditions.
The Chrysler "flathead 6" and "slant 6" were DEPENDABLE MOVERS! Drove ALL, but NEVER trusted G.M. or Ford "6s" LIKE THESE! They ALWAYS WORKED!
Chryslers Leaning Tower of Power was virtually indestructible!
Had 1977 Plymouth Volarie as a teenager in the mid 1990's... I didn't like the car so I purposely ran it out of oil thinking my parents would be me a different car. The Plymouth 225 c.i.d. slant 6 ran for literally almost 3 months with less then a qt. oil & did not blow up.... Great engine
Thanks for this. It would be nice to see the models that used each of the slant sixes.
The smaller displacement engines were used in the smaller cars in the 225 was used in trucks and the bigger cars that were lower on the totem pole.
Fantastic engine I had in a Chrysler valiant 1967 model it was a terrific quiet and powerful engine good for towing too. These things lasted longer than the car did. Tough machines
Awesome =)
Of the choices presented, the 232 Rambler six with its seven main bearings is a great choice.
One might also consider the Buick V6s at 225 cubes, available in the A-body Special and Skylark models from 1964 through 1967, and in '64-'65 Olds F85 models. Rough as a pit-bull puppy, but the 155 horsepower wasn't bad.
Also think about the Pontiac OHC six.
Yep. The Rambler 232 was the best of the bunch. Would live on in much refined form as the 4.0 Jeep six for many many years.
Chevy 6 also always had 7 main bearings and always OHV!
AMC used FLAT HEAD 6 into 1966 !!!
Early Buick V6s not acceptable... ran like a V8 with two bad spark plugs... very irritating...
@@BuzzLOLOL Yep. The 201 flathead was an old Nash engine from the 40s at least.
...and yes the Chevy 6, especially the newer 230 and 250 models, were very reliable AND could be hot rodded. They had decent sized valves and a good sized bore. The 225 slant 6 was strangled by it's 170 sourced head with it's puny valves and 3.4" bore. Reliable, but low performance.
I didn’t like that 90° V-6 Buick until the brought out the even-fire version. Then they developed it into one of the all-time greats …
The 2 that I had, '77 Volare & 74 Duster(s) outlasted both vehicle body, frames, etc. Never let me down In H.S. and many years beyond. Great engines - easy to work on too!
🥝✔️ I 😍 Loved it. I grew up around GM, Chrysler and Ford's, so I chose the four great Post War Ford iron in line six engines....A: 4.375 inch bore spacing I block 215, 223, 262 ( 51-64) , B: The 4.08 inch bore spacing 144-170-187-188-200-221-250 Small Six (59- 96, OHC 3.2/3.9/4.0 from 1988-2016) , C: the 4.48" bore spacing 240 and 300 cube big six (65-97). And D: the 3.78 inch bore spacing Zephyr 138-155 cube six (51-66). There is no 233 six for passenger cars. Aside from the XK Twin Cam Jaguar six, (1948-1992) I don't think there is a more long lasting in line six than the Mopar Slant!
I had a 1972 Challenger with the slamt six I drove in high school in 1990. Found a 360 setup and swapped it out along with the entire front suspension and K frame.
Chrysler Australia developed a 245 and 265 from the ground up with aid from American engineers, competed against 351's and only failed from not homologating a 4 speed early enough
I read Australia had the hemi had Chrysler in line 6 that would be an incredible engine or at least it seems incredible on paper and I did get to hear it sounds epic.
The standard engines were NEVER made to play with 351s. Only the E38 and E49 triple Webered engines. And while fast they failed though were faster over the quarter.
A harsh rattly and quite heavy engine, but had good performance. They were used in cars and trucks
@@ldnwholesale8552 A very distinctive sound when cranking over. I had a few back in the day. They didn't have the longevity of the slant though. The slant was likely a better engine too for the trucks than the Hemi was.
I had 2 early 70s D-100 pickups with the 225. I bought each for a few hundred. Despite low compression & oil burning? I drove each one over 5 years. Start every time!
The Chyrsler production transfer lines had huge scope to change bore pitch, so the Slant six shares the broad architecture of the 25 inch flat head six, with cam on the passenger side, same peak stroke on the 225, and the rest was original. The distributor drive is B Chrysler big block, the timing chain A block, but on the flat head, the distributor pased through the block to the other side of the block. The slant six has the distributor on the same side as the cam, not passing through the block. if you pull the head off a flathead hand match it with the 225, they are very similar, but not the same. Its essentially a clean sheet, but not quite.
They also used the same main bearings and rod bearings as the 318. Sensible sharing of parts, and part of the reason the slant is so over built and durable.
@@mrdanforth3744 Hemi 426 main bearings match,.and the early plug wires
I remember having a 1972 Duster gold with the slant 6 when i was 16 yrs old great engine
Ford Barra motor straight six in Australia dates back to 1960 ended production in 2016.
Awesome thank you so much for that information
When I was 18 years old (in 1974) I bought my grandfather's '68 Plymouth Valiant, which had a single barrel carburetor on the 225 cu. in. slant six engine. The car had a 3 speed automatic transmission (D, 2, and L), manual steering, drum brakes, and 'air' was supplied by the two wing glass windows turned to scoop the air in from outside plus the two door vents located in the upper corners of the foot rests. You stayed relatively 'cool' if you kept moving.
My buddies and I would sometimes race 'off the line' (which was basically from a green stop light to the finish across the intersection). I almost always won with that car. They couldn't believe how fast it would get off the line. I'd even beat some V-8's!!! It felt good to put some of the show-offs in their places! 😲
I drove that car until about 1983 or '84, when the rear end finally gave out and the body was rusting out pretty badly. But I loved that car. It was my party wagon, band equipment transportation, date mobile, and the car I drove until it had about 235,000 miles on it. It was burning a little oil at the end and I had rebuilt the head once at around 90,000 miles. And oh yeah...I rebuilt the carburetor several times, mostly because I kept messing it up, but I got good at it and finally got it right.
The video mentions engine component accessibility. That is absolutely correct. I could easily get to EVERYTHING: spark plugs and wires, oil filter, distributor cap, points, and ignition wires. I even replaced the radiator once...a few bolts and hose removal...easy as pie. There wasn't a vestige of anything EPA on it. Aah, those were the days!
Soon after I bought the car I put the then new-fangled radial tires on it. Some people thought that would make the car less stable and degrade its handling, but the exact opposite was true.
I am gonna guess I was getting about 18 mpg in town (because I couldn’t keep my foot out of the pedal), but I also did quite a bit of hill climbing due to living near the Illinois River valley, traversing its bluffs sometimes several times a day. I drove that car like it was a sports car and it responded to my handling very well. I drove it on a 2,600 mile trip from Peoria, IL to Antlers, OK, then to Estes Park, CO and back. I kept track of my mileage and I remember being surprised that I was averaging 28 mpg!
On that trip I took it up to a lookout on the Continental Divide. There was no traffic, so I stopped right in the middle of the road, shut it off, got out and looked toward the Pacific Ocean. I briefly toyed with the idea of continuing on to California, maybe never coming back. But I was 18 and asked the Valiant, "Well, what do YOU want to do?" About that time the radiator cap gave a little hiss as it let off excess pressure. Back then the coolant system was not a closed one, so any excess pressure in the radiator was released to atmosphere through the spring-loaded cap. I took that as a sign to go back...I didn't want to wind up in the desert with an overheating engine (it was July 1974, and hot in the lower elevations)! So I returned to the eastern side of the Great Divide. That car NEVER did that again, EVER.
I miss my old first car and I wish I had more photos of it...light blue with a chrome-trimmed red stripe down each side, chrome bumpers (I actually employed a bumper jack to rotate/change the tires) and red-trimmed chrome full cover hub caps (real metal...not plastic!!!). Tires with a thin white-wall against those wheels were outstanding! They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
Thank you so much for the story and the memories that car sounded pretty cool. =)
I miss the bumper jack days =)
It's difficult to compare power and torque levels when you cross over the time period when ratings changed from gross horsepower to net horsepower. There is some data from 1971 models that shows both gross and net ratings for the same engine, so you can see how much power loss was due to the change in rating method. There were also reductions in power due to "Emissions", but the reduction in advertised power due to the change in the rating method didn't reduce performance.
I think the new for 71 Net figures were deliberately conservative to allow for the 72s to be weaker yet have the same advertised net horsepower and torque, as many, not all but many, of the 72s would be left behind by identical 71s. Race a 71 Ford with a 351 against a 72 with the same type of 351, (there were two different ones, a 351 Windsor and a 351 Cleveland) and you will run and hide from that 72. Stock vs stock of course. The 73s were even slower, and the 74s slower still. I have an old Chilton shop manual that shows both gross and net horsepower for most cars, and the net figures are about 12% lower, not 33%.
Slant Six. I have a 225 in a 1976 Dodge Dart Sport “Spirit of 76” with a stock 904 transmission and 7 1/4 rear end. I bracket race it every weekend, and i have to have it running in the staging lanes just to get it warm.
*Mark* is Thee Man!
Yeah he is I totally owe him lunch or something problem is he lives clear on the other side of the country but eventually when I get over there definitely gonna make that happen for him =)
WYR? Chevy 235 and don't forget that engine continued to be made overseas until 1979 in Brazil. I'd also take a Slant 6. Both of those engines were very reliable. The real choice though? Ford 300, tough, powerful, dependable.
A side story- The Revell Slant 6 you showed. My dad worked at Revell from 1956-until 1965 in the art department as the instruction sheet artist. He brought home prtotype and watched me try to assemble them and would make adjustments to the instruction sheets. He knew I loved mechanical things, he brought me 2 Slant 6 kits. Great fun! And the first time I had to actually work on one? I knew 90% of how it was.
As another aside Mom worked for a company named Romalite - she was responsible for making and painting the Revell models you saw in hobby shops back then.
Good episode, as a Ps. horsepower ratings went from gross to net, basically nothing changed but the rating.
Glad you dig this video
Great story, do you still have that engine model that was a really cool model from just looking at the ads. Man that would be rare to find now I wish I had a time machine lol
@@What.its.like. No, sadly it was damaged in one of the many moves I made over the years. Built a "visable V8" also. Lots of guys who loved mechanics back in those days built them.
Our family has always had Plymouth Valiants with the 225 slant six, and they have never let us down. They have plenty of torque, decent gas mileage, and will go forever. I currently have a 47 chevy fleetline with a 54 235 inline six, and I can tell you the 225 is much torquier, revs up faster, and just an all around better engine. The 235 in the 50's was at the end of its life, being around in the 216 since about the 30's I believe, so the slant six was much newer technology. I love them both though.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your experience with us =)
My daily driver the last 13 years, is an 82 d 150 super /6. Starts in all weather, never been apart, and still managing 20 mpg.
I had a 73 Valiant and an 80 Dodge Diplomat coupe with the 225. Both ran 300k, although the 73 definitely had more power. I worked at Argonne National Lab in Lemont IL in vehicle maintenance from 2005-09 and they used 225s to drive water pumps for flooding and sewage. Governed at about 3000 rpm max, these engines had TONS of running hrs on them and dated back to 1964! Except for valve and side cover gaskets, they had never been apart.
That’s crazy
I learned to drive on a 72 Dodge Dart with the 225 with automatic. No power steering, 4 wheel unassisted drum brakes, and a foot pump for the windscreen washers. The 225 did not endear itself to me. Power of a 4 cylinder, thirst like a large V8. That was replaced, in 1980, by a 75 Dart Swinger that was truly beautiful. The 1bbl 225 was even slower and more thirsty. Needless to say, my experience with a slant 6 taught me to run, not walk, if I learned a car I wanted was a six. That 75 was replaced by an 81 Volvo 245 with the carbureted 2.1 litre putting out a solid 105. It outperformed the 225 in every measurable way.
Volvo 240
Cool story thank you for sharing those memories =)
@@What.its.like. The kicker is that the first brand new car in the family was my Grandfather's 1940 Plymouth. The flat head 6 was about as fast and returned the same gas mileage as the 72 Dart, despite being larger, heavier, and much worse aerodynamically.
The slant sixes were as tough as a box of rocks! They would go 200,000 miles back in a time when most engines would be worn out long before 100K. The downfalls were poor fuel economy and they were hard to pass smog inspections. Yes, the tighter emission standards killed everyone but the slant sixes seemed to struggle the most. On those engines, all of those sixes were good engines. The 235 Chevy would be on a par with the slant sixes. The 232 AMC engines were great too. I would put the Ford six in last place but they were rugged too. The old 230 flathead sixes were as rugged as hell and a rebuild was easy to do! They would go and go and for many years after they were popular in industrial applications such as forklifts, tractors and stationary power plants. Good job with your presentation!
Thank you so much for sharing all that insight I’m glad you dig this video i’m going to try to do the discussion episodes just like this just dive right in no intro.. I was afraid of doing it that way because it always seems like there needs to be a starting point and there needs to be an ending point. =)
No matter how I drove them....20 mpg!!love them ;
Chrysler Australia developed the inline hemi six which was the best of the 1970’s sixes.
Way back in '65 the girl I was dating bought a new Barracuda with a slant 6. What a great running car. The car was so well balanced that in winter we could go where VWs couldn't with only studded tires. It also had great gas mileage for a 6 as well.
Awesome story thank you so much fir sharing that awesome memory =)
AWESOME motor! Had a 1983 Dodge D150 w/ the 225 Slant\6 and had to sell it as was moving to the Lower48 from Alaska. Miss the simplicity of that engine designed by Willem Weertman (same guy that did the Elephant 426 HEMI). Not the power of today's vehicles, but how many multi-valve G.D.I. vehicles with VVT and whatnot will survive as long as a Slant\6 without being rebuilt? : hardly any in 25 years from now as they'll rot in junkyards in 2048 as a Slant\6 drives by their automotive corpses.
Awesome information =)
I have had several 225s and a 170. I still have an original HyperPak cam (actually a Melling RPD-3). There were other changes to these over the years; 1973 they went to electronic ignition (an easy retrofit); I was the guy that always pulled the distributor out to change points. In 1975 they eliminated the spark plug tubes and the 3/4” reach plugs with new short reach taper seat 💺 plugs. No more spark plug tubes or strange plug wires. In 1978 they changed the distributor mounting so you could turn it more than a few degrees and they went from a 1/4-20 distributor bolt to a 5/16-18. Also in 1978 they went to hydraulic valve lifters. Any of you who ever PROPERLY adjusted /6 valves (.010 intake / .020 exhaust, engine hot and running) would appreciate this.
I also had the pleasure of working with a 225 in a Yale lift truck (you might call it a hi-lo or something similar). Propane powered, pretty neat!
On your last question I would be hard pressed to decide between the Mopar /6 and the AMC 232 / 258. That was an extremely reliable engine too, 7 main bearings, the engines usually outlasted the cars they were installed in. But my all time favorite 6 cylinder engines are the Ford 240 / 300 and the GMC 305 V6. Those were both pretty much bulletproof. The /6 was really REALLY good and I love it but I don’t think it can beat that Ford or GMC.
Awesome information and insight thank you so much for sharing =)
I had a car with a slant 6 engine about 40 years ago. I knew this old mechanic and he said. "BEST DAMN ENGINE EVER MADE"
Sweet =)