just after i bought my duster off an old family friend, i decided to take it out with my church group to a corn maze a few miles away. i had the car about two weeks at this point with some short highway trips, maybe 5 miles at the most. when we got the car we did all the things your supposed to do, belts, oil, hoses, coolant ect. i get roughly six miles out (also took a wrong turn at this point) and i see the mechanical oil pressure gauge i installed start dropping. and dropping...finally it pegs at zero. light comes on and i pull off and throw in a quart i had in the trunk. get me 25 psi. keep in mind im a 16 year old kid at this stage and its about 830 at night in october. so i knew there was a station ahead and managed to get there right as the pressure hits zero again and the light comes on. i go in the mini mart and by all the oil i could with the money i had. dumped in i think about 5-6 quarts. nada, zip, zilch nothing. call my dad and have him tow me home and about 100 yards from the driveway the tow rope breaks. we bite the bullet and i start her up and drive it the rest of the way big red light shining at me. turns out all the wax from being run on pennzoil for many years built up to the point where when i got it nice and warmed up the new oil cleaned the crankcase and plugged the pickup screen. well tore the pan off in the car and the bearings were ok so new pump and a very very thourgh cleaning of the pickup and pan and put it back together. this was at 73000 when i bought the car now at 130000 in three years and its still going strong... oh ya lost the water pump belt on the highway once... drove it in HOT, lost two sets of alternator brushes so far

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1975 Plymouth Duster,225/6 2bbl. and duels, 904, 7 1/4
1986 Dodge Charger Shelby, 2.2 Turbo I, A525

drove mine for two weeks with a broken vacuum advance hose. i did all kinds of stuff to the cooling system trying to fix the overheating. the gauge was at the top or in the red most of the time. found the broken hose when i went to do an oil change. once that was fixed, it ran great and no more overheating.

zedpapa

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1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

As I was pulling my /6 out of my 67' A-100 pickup the chain slipped resulting in the back of the engine hitting the floor and breaking the bellhousing adapter plate. Needless to say I am in the market for the correct engine sling for a /6 and an adapter plate. Any help is greatly appreciated.

My story isn't so horrendous and yet marvelous. My car is bought from a friend who bought it off a some lowrider. That engine was a mess when we got it. 4" lower blocks was the previous owners attempt at killing everything on that car.
Needless to say, it was all worn out, leaking like a dead fish under the seat from last month, and smoking a storm... but ran like it didn't care. speedo stoped working At 175000, and hasn't started sence
Then my friend (the owner at the time) came across a guy selling the six out of an engine swap. $25, and we had an engine to rebuild! Now the engine whent from being a teaching tool for one owner to a teaching engine for this owner. Lets see what things I'll do as I'm learning that I will look back and ponder my innocent ignorance

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My Car Domain

Greetings,

I'm pretty sure I've abandon what could be helpful to the slant six community. I apologize if I've been flip but marine 454's are what I went onto after I sold my 225 Dodge Mirada to a chemist from Midland. And on to self tour the 5.9 Toluca MX engine plant. The fit of the FORD distributor cap sure seemed like it was a (maybe not a sentance) within six sigma fit. It had a vent ~ the one I pulled off and THREW Away did not.

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Brian Doak CMfrT

I've got a few good ones....

My first SL6 car was a '66 Valiant V200 4 door that I bought with a seized engine, no brakes, and a rusty underbody for 300 bucks. It had been sitting for 12 years after the P.O.'s father supposedly rebuilt it and drove it to CA to pickup his daughter (the "P.O."). On the way back the car started misfiring and finally came to a dead stop on the side of the freeway. The father angrily threw the keys off into the desert and had the car towed home. Father passed away, daughter inherited the car, then I come along and buy it.

I trailered it home and threw it in the driveway. I finally got a chance to go fart with it. I pulled the dipstick, and found out the engine had 10 quarts of oil in it! Well, with a fresh battery, I just kept clicking the starter, and it finally started to turn over. It turned over very slowly but it did turn. I figured the starter was probably toast so I put another one in it, and wow! Now it turned over fast enough to start.

I changed the oil, cleaned the plugs, set the point gap, dumped gas in it, and.... nothing. The engine was cranking wierdly, not the "wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh" it was more like "uhhhhhhhhh-wuh-wuh-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-wuh-wuh" so I did a compression check. From 1 to 6 I got: 60, 120,0,120,0,120. Hmm, well I then replaced the timing chain figuring that it was bad.... and oh my gosh was it bad! It basically fell off after I broke the sprocket bolt loose.

Installed new chain, cranked it over... same sound... hmm, well I replaced the ballast resistor to get spark, dumped gas in it again, "uhhhhh-wuh-wuh-uhhhhhh-wuh-wuh-uhhhhhh-pop-uhhhhhh-pop-uhhhhhh-pop-pop-uhhh-pop-uhhhh-pop" Long story short, I dumped gas in the tank, more down the carb, and it started! It was running on 3.5 cylinders, smoking from everywhere, and rougher than a cob, but it ran!

I tore the engine out... all the compression rings were busted into 3+ pieces! 2 intake valves were oblong (3 and 5), and there was a new piston in hole number 4... but the crank had been turned 10 under.... hmm.... rebuild eh?


Story 2:

My '71 Dart 4 door, traded my Honda for it, the rad was plugged (I had no idea) and was on the freeway from Oregon City to Salem. I started seeing steam and smelling antifreeze, but I just kept going (no temp gauge). I pulled into the first gas station in Salem, and shut it off. By this point there was no more steam (Coolant was gone.. it was full when I left Oregon City) So I filled it with water and drove the 5 miles home. I yanked the radiator from the Valiant and stuffed it in the Dart.

Fast forward to last years racing season the first time I drove to Medford. Going up through the hills on the way to Medford, the car was doing the same thing. We stopped at a rest stop and I checked the coolant level... again... there was none. The car was pinging like crazy the whole day no matter where I set the timing. We got to the track, Sergio had brought me another cluster from one of his cars, so I intalled the temp and fuel gauge into mine, put on a couple of jumper leads because the pins on the board were broken, and whamo! I had gauges!

Left Medford, and now I could see what the temp was. 10 miles out of Medford, the car was 3/4 up the gauge. I sped up ahead of our caravan (Fopar, Ceej, and Stephanie) trying to make it to 7 feathers which was our meeting place. All through the hills it was just tipping off of the H but never quite into it. I was smelling antifreeze the whole time. I got to 7 feathers, shut it off and waited. When we came back outside, I checked the coolant level, and again... it was gone!

Drove into somewhere north of 7 feathers to stop for food (decided against 7 feathers for some reason), I filled it with coolant again and by that time it was starting to get cold outside. Made it all the way home without stopping once for coolant again.

I replaced the radiator 1 more time with another unit, and installed an overflow tank. No more overheating!

That car is currently owned/driven by some friends of mine, and he still acts up with other systems now and again, so I see it alot.

Story 3: (This one is short.. I promise)

My old 1974 Dart Swinger blew a core plug on the way to Redding. I got the same thing as with my '71, steam and that unmistakable smell. I pulled over looking for something blatant, but since the majority of the plug was still in the block, I couldnt tell. The plug that broke was the 4th one to the right, behind the exhaust manifold. I pulled off and found a store some 12 miles north of Grants Pass. I bought 7 gallons of water, and proceeded to fill the radiator with water from a hose, intent on making it to Grants Pass.

The water came out as quickly as it went in. I said screw it, filled the radiator, hopped in, and hauled bumper until the temp gauge started climbing again. I stopped probably 4 times to fill the overflow tank on the way. I got into Grants Pass (Jessica and Andrew were already on their way to pick me up and haul me down to Redding... Thanks again!), bought a core plug, and parked at the gas station beside the freeway. I was saved from "Drinky" as he would later be known as, and Doug Dutra was kind enough to let me borrow an adjustable rubber plug until I bought him a replacement. I still got to race that weekend, and did very well on Sunday.

The trip home went as planned.

Alrighty, well if you read all of that, I applaud you. I have many many more as I am sure all of you do, but those are probably the most interesting to read.



~THOR~

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1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Hello,

The corollary to the Mirada war story is my younger brother kept calling it a maruader 21 years and counting. If I had kept it who knows it might have had a Cordoba bumper. They don't stamp em like they used to.

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Brian Doak CMfrT

there is a website somewhere on the net that has video about a guy's fight with a boot compnay in his gated subdivision. Really funny stuff!

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'72 Duster 198 stock cam, 3:23's Hookers on jack stands for 8 years in the driveway
'79 Maxivan 360 Offy Qjet Comp RV cam/rusting in the driveway.
93 D350 160HP Cummins Auto Dually Clubcab needs a injector pump
2005 Golden Couch Buick

In the 60's I drag raced a 283-powered 55 Chevrolet. The 3-speed transmissions were famous for blowing apart 2nd gear syncros and since I was tired of always repairing mine, I sold the car. Later, I put together a 4-speed, 327-powered 65 chevy which I raced in NHRA's SS class with very limited success. About that time bracket racing became popular with all the sanctioning bodies and I began racing in that arena. Trouble was, nothing I had built to date had won much. I traded the chevy for a 1962 Plymouth Fury with a 413. Although it was a very consistant car and thus great for bracket racing, it had an appetite for parts that I couldn't meet with my meager Navy paycheck. It was then that I encountered my first slant 6 race car: a 1964 Dodge Dart with a 1963 Valiant front end. The previous owner told me the only things he had done to the car was to add the clifford headers, a 2-barrel Holley Carb, and a 3.90 gear. I don't remember how many races I won with the car. It was deadly in its class and a feared competitor at many major events. I never looked back and have owned slants since. No longer racing them, but simply enjoying driving them. This site has been extremely helpful keeping me in the 21st century and I thank you.

In 1995 I started a mobile mechanic business and bought a 72 P200 dodge step van (ice cream truck ) /6,727,4.10 Dana60.With all my gear it was 7200lbs and 10000 with a tandem trailer.The engine had a main bearing noise so I replaced it with a 170k km, 80 super six from a 5th ave.2 months in, the rear seal started leaking so in went a new seal ,timing gearset and oil pump.I put 5600 hours on that beast,always running 10/40 oil it still runs 60 psi and 40 at idle.I eventually junked the truck,but saved the eng/trans ,it is now on its 3rd rear seal and timing set, is turbocharged and installed in a 66 coronet.Cant wait to finish it and drive it again.I have nothing but respect for that power plant,and for sure no speeding tickets

Amazing the amount of disrepair you find slants in.
I found a shortbed truck 2wd 4spd with a slant at Carlisle one year. Owner priced it and said it will go down in price every hour till it was sold. I asked if it ran and he replied very upset "that at that price it shouldnt matter" but claimed it ran rough while cold. It had a fresh tune-up on it but ran very weak and ruff.I bought it at $200. I checked the fire order and switched two plug wires and it ran like a top. It burned up a quart of oil on the 600 mile trip home that I figured was fuel cause it never used oil again. Point being Im sure he sold the truck cheap cause he couldnt get it to run good. It is one of my favorite slant adventures ever.
I also bought a Volare Wagon that didnt run. Paid the farmer $100 turned the loose distributor a 1/8th turn and it fired up and I drove it home but it had burned a hole in one of the pistons, too late.

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70 Valiant 225,super six
65 Dart More Door race car 225/4bbl 8 3/4 3:91
70 Dodge D100 Sweptline short box 225/4spd

I bought a 76 dart with a /6 and found out they had NEVER changed the oil! I bought it when I was desperate, so I didn't check it out (stupid move). When I changed the oil I was the one who broke the paint film around the drain plug. (no signs of repaint) the car had over 120k miles on it and smoked like crazy. Hoping I'd be lucky and it was valve stem seals, I puled the valve cover... it looked like it was paved with asphalt with hollows ground out for the valve train. It was to hard to chip out with a putty knife.An old diesel mechanic recommended using 20% dexron in it till I could rebuild it. When I started I got 20 miles per quart, by the time I got around to rebuilding it I was up to 25 mpq and the valve cover cleaned up with a rag! Tearing it down I checked the rod and main journals/bearings. The bearings were down to copper about all of the lower shells, but the crank was not scored and were standard size! (plastigage showed oil clearance right where it should be) After removing the cylinder ridge, I pushed the pistons out and they fell back to the compression rings. the oil ring expanders were riding the cylinder wall! I put standard rings in and it ran like a champ. I can't believe how good it looked for not having the oil changed.



Joined: 30 Sep 2007
Posts: 22


Post subject: survivor /6 (Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:34 pm) Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post
I had one in a 77 Dodge d-200 that burned a hole in #6 piston while I was pulling a tandem axle trailer on the highway. I could still hold 65 mph and even passed some cars. I drove that way for 150 miles. When I pulled the head there was a hole big enough to stick my thumb through!

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Dave

1977 d-200 crew cab ex-army pickup wants it's /6 back
1962 Valiant 2 door, 170, three on the tree
1972 d-100 parts truck
80 volare wagon now a parts car