When would the 50th Anniversary of the Slant 6 engine be? It was introduced to the public in 1960 but the design must have started a couple of years earlier. What say ye?

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'63 Valiant V200 Convertible
225 Aluminum Block

The engine development started in May of 1958, and the first Chrysler Slant-6 engine in the world started and ran on 26th November of that year.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

So everyone mark your calendar and we ALL start our slants that day.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Well, there we have it. Happy 50th to the venerable and ubiquitous Slant 6. This is OUR year.

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'63 Valiant V200 Convertible
225 Aluminum Block

Don't forget that Feb 25 is coming up soon too !!!

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There are 3 things that will live forever, cockroaches, Keith Richards, and Slant Six Dusters !!!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/slantasaurus/

take a look around

LOL. A joke only a /6 fan would get. I love it...

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

hi/6 sages- thats really funny about the 58 slant eating the oil pump and continuing to idle for 2 weeks. will be very interesting to see how long after production ended(i think 87 or 91) will the slant continue to be fairly common in day to day use. the basic chevy small block v8 introduced in 55 is still in production. two other popular engines may provide an illustration. fords flathead v8(32-53) remained in fairly common use through the 60s and then almost disappeared except for show cars by 1970. probably eclipsed by the hot small ohv v8s (289) ford brought out. another ford the 28-31 model a flathead 4 was extremely popular and common up to about 1950 according to uncle moe. again it quickly disappeared after that except for show cars. if the last /6 was 87 thats over 20 years of continuous daily driver use. parts are available and cheap, its easy to fix and maintain and sage advice is plentiful. wondering (worrying )how much longer it can go on. what seems to send most of these relics to the squashing machinesespecially dodges and plymouths is the rust and primadonna welders who supercharge better than a b17 radial. if the key thing today is emissions and mileage, the slants are still competitive. my two with sticks still pump 20/25 mpg real world. my fwd saturn L ( 4 stick) does 25/33 real world but one repair bill on that one and 4 years of gas savings are more than wiped out. any opinions on where the future of the slant on its 50th is going? there certainly isnt an alternative on the horizon yet. best regards bf

Some thoughts...
Remember, this year is also the 40th anniversary of the Mopar/Hurst made hemi powered 1968 Barracudas and Darts of SS/A fame... so I don't think we will get much "press" for the first SL6 being "born" 50 years earlier... well, maybe if we wait untill after the Summer show & race season is over we can get some "ink" on this.

As for how long the "SL6 movement" will last... that is anyones guess.
One thing I look at is the Inliners International club, mostly made up of the older GMC / Chebby inline 6 owners. All the "daily driver" cars are pretty much gone from that group and the club is now made-up of "show car" and racers of that engine family.

My feeling, as the years pass, we will see the same sort of thing happen to the SL6 owner group... people will have these cars because they want them, more for fun then for daily transport.
DD

Dang. I suppose this means my warranty has expired.

-Mac

I agree with you Doc. When I bought this car in 1993, I paid $700 and daily drove it for over ten years, with little cost. Now it is a hobby car, and I drive my Toyota Matrix, which cost 13K. . I also think it is true that there is no equivalent out there for someone who wants to buy a cheap daily driver. The high tech repairs are just too expensive to keep an old car any more. I have given away two Mini Vans with around 100K on them each. The idea was that these people did not have transportation, and each was a "gift". Well, in each case, 30K miles later, the recipients decided these free cars were too expensive to keep, and had them junked. It is a new era now.

Sam

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The high tech repairs are just too expensive to keep an old car any more
This is exactly why I purchased my 83 d-150, as ignorant of a mechanic as I am , my bet is that I can keep this going for its life and maybe mine, as I am nearly as old as this design! Fellow at work made a joke of puttin so much into an old work truck, I figure for four grand I got a new truck, paid up, and its maintenance and gas will more than make up for any troubles it may develope
Thanks to all of y'all , still learning
robert

Are there any good references on the developmental history of the slant six? I'd like to read up some more on how our engines came to be.

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hello ve- best thing i ever read on the history of the sl6 was a 3 part article by its designing engineer weertman in the old slantsix news mag which covered the period 58 to i think 91 when the last one was made. regards bf