Please forgive me if I've asked this before, I didn't catch the answer. I would like to build a non-hotrod slant six for climbing. I am building a hunting/fishing vehicle for the high country in Montana, and maybe a little rock crawling in CA and Utah. I would like to know what I can do to a slant six to make it a climber power house.
Thank you very much.
Ross

About 8 years ago I did some business with a gentleman I haven't seen on the board for a while. He was building a late 70's Dodge Ramcharger for a similar purpose (climbing/crawling/hunting)...

I found the NP435 bellhousing he needed for the 4x4 conversion he was doing.

His build was:
Late '70s Ramcharger 4x4
3.55 front&rear gears (I think 4.11 would have been better...)
11" clutch/NP435 transmission

9.2:1 SCR target
Comp Cam 252 or equivalent, degreed to 4 degrees advanced
Forged Crank engine

I know he was going to go with the 2bbl super six intake and a BBD to start, and modify the oil pick up so if the terrain wasn't level it would still feed oil.

Not sure if it ever worked for him.

-D.Idiot

You can use any slant build you want if the gears are low enough and the truck is light enough.

With 31" tires 4.11 is marginal in a 3500lb truck.

I use 10.5:1 gears , 3500 stall with 35" tires. It gives me bout 60mph at max rpm........in a 2300lb truck with 375hp

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

I have thought about building a tube buggy myself with a slant in it, just to be diffrent from all the other guys with v8s or stroked 4.0s. The key to the build would be keep it simple and dependable with lots of torque at the low end yet still keep good mileage. Its no fun running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. I would look at a dual fuel setup. Run a stock Super 6 with a propane hat on top. That way you know you have fuel at no matter what angle you are. And for the oil system use an external pump with accumulator to insure good oil flow at at times.

The np435 tranny with granny gear with a stock slant is already a stump puller, and would be my choice with a good clutch. But lots of jeep guys pull their newer dodge trannies. For built strong 727s so that would be my second choice if auto is a must have.

It never hurts to have extra gearing so dual transfer-cases or a crawl box will help tremendously. That's how the guys running small 4 bangers with low power out puts can push 40 - 50+ inch tires. My buddy's Toyota buggy has twin Toyota tcase and a total of 95 horsepower, and he can out crawl my other buddy's 650 hp Bronco. Its all about how you use the torque your motor makes.