Chrysler slant-six - is it as reliable as they say? (Page 1 of 2)

Yeah, there are speed parts available, and other motor parts are pretty cheap for old American iron. I'm sure with a little work you can have a Slant six putting out 150-200hp. No idea what the Baracuda with the Olympia Beer theme has done to theirs, but it was faster than our Ford 200 six. I believe the Dudes Ex Machina have a slant six Plymouth, and its been fairly reliable after some initial teething issues

Change the pulleys around or move the alternator so you don't end up with a 22ft long fan belt.  They are prone to starving for oil in the turns.  You may consider modifying the pan.  There are lots of options for go fast stuff.

Your talking about this? This is the 72 Valiant of DEM (see my signature)

And this barracuda is from the Seattle area
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LSPS12/ … -0059.html
http://www.murileemartin.com/UG/LSPS12/ … -0057.html

There have been 4 slant Six cars that have/are running in Lemons as far as I know (Judge Phil will chime in here maybe?).
A 225 into a BMW,
Spacefranks 1964(?) Dart down in texas(?),
the Baracuda (ran Searspointless and the Ridge in 2012),
and our 72 Valiant which has been running 4-5 races since 2012.

They are not quite bullet proof.
They are nose heavy and low Hp. the crankshaft alone weighs like 70-90 lbs. I think the whole engine is over 700lbs of cast iron.
Judge Phil (and maybe Jay) like underdog cars. You will get good residuals, so you can residual your way to a pretty good car. look at those used carbs on our car. they were 100% of a big residual.
you have to be diligent and patient shopper over the whole USA for GFP.

There are some parts that you can get from other cars to make the chassis handle, good brakes, and there are some options for making some Hp, maybe has high as 240 Hp (really cheating a lot). Our 72 handles with some of the best cars on the west coast, and we have awesome brakes (under budget for the 1st race)
Send me an e-mail direct (right click my name), and we can talk off line. Also go to the Slant Six.org, or forAbodiesonly forum.

The major problems are oil pump drive gear oiling, and radiator.
Oil Pump drive gear oiling I think I solved with a .8mm drill bit. You drill through the block from the oil pump output side, pointing at the oil pump drive gear adn camshaft junction. this costs you about 5-10psi of oil pressure, but saves you from a chewed up oil pump drive gear, which leads to low oil pressure and then to failed rod or main bearings.
Get a Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 Radiator and its a super easy bolt in. Take the upper radiator hose from the jeep too.

They're not that heavy, most sources show 475lbs, but that's without starter and possibly carb.  A tall deck big block 440 with iron heads and manifolds is less than 650lbs.  I don't think even a 426 hemi goes 700, and those heads are a ridiculous amount of cast iron. 

The slant 6's are heavier than they need to be since they were designed for aluminum construction then switched to cast iron.  There are a few of the aluminum motors floating around still, and they're about 50lbs lighter than the iron ones.  S/F.....Ken M

Just for reference purposes, the earlier Chevy Stovebolt sixes actually weigh more than the small block V8 motors. I think it changed when they revised the design some time in the mid sixties, but back in the day the front springs for the stovebolt cars were stiffer than the small block cars.

The Slant Six is more reliable than the Lemons average, but (like Toyota and Honda engines) nowhere near as reliable as it is in street use. It is, however, the most reliable Chrysler engine in Lemons (that we've seen so far).

Are you sure its jetted rich enough at WOT? A slightly more advanced ignition may make it run cooler too.

It took us five/six races of massive idiocy to cook ours. Rings went bad, doesn't hold compression no more. However, it continued to race at Sebring, even though over half of the cylinders lost over half of their compression.

We have a 1964 Slant Six. Stock oil pan, just overfilled a quart for each race. If you get one, baffle the oil pan - you won't regret it. Or, you'll be getting new rings like us. Certain years have a forged crank; which is nice.

Things the really anger us on our six:

- Distributor location.
- Getting the intake and exhaust manifold back on.
- Transmission cooler line routing. 
- Some intake and exhaust manifold design bits.

Take advantage of your torque curve. This thing, with the right gearing, will punch out of the corners. If you know how to drive and you have a car that handles, this thing will help you keep up for sure. 

Finally, they are so lovely and simple to work on. Only so much can be wrong for it to not go - which is nice.

Jetting is problematic, Big cam so its hard to get a idle AFR that makes sense. Running WOT (on the street) we have about 12, 10 at initial opening. So plenty rich. I've tried to get the AFR down a bit to get more power and better fuel economy, but can't seem to lower it.
Timing , yes.

If I ever build an old-timey street rod, it will have a Buick straight-eight.

Aren't you using complicated, ferrin, progressive 2bbls? with like 100 adjustments on them? Way too complicated for me, but I bet they are going lean somewhere in the midrange. Do they have a vacuum activated enrichment circuit that you can put a lighter spring in?

We were running a 274 degree cam in our Ford 200, up from the 264 we broke at Sears Point. It really didn't seem all that much faster, though both were way better than the old factory 256 smog cam.

Lastly, just this race at Thunderhill we ran a bone stock (well, with a header) 200 motor with 50k miles on it. With the T5 behind it, instead of the C4 we ran there last time, it actually felt nearly as fast even though it was down 50ish horsepower, and we had a self imposed 4000rpm rev limit. So a 5 speed manual transmission makes a huge difference compared to a 3 speed auto. How hard is it to get a 5 speed behind a slant six? Could you get a 6 speed manual out of a Dakota?

Wait, there are companies that make aftermarket baffled oil pans?  How come they do not make they for the super awesome, track-ready, Saturn 1.9L DOHC?