Just joined the forum and have lots of questions for everyone. A little background. I just retired yesterday as a machinist for over 30 years in a R&D shop. I have a 38 Plymouth 4 dr sedan street rod project in my garage waiting for me to work on it. I presently have a 360/727 mounted with a Walker radiator in front of the engine. I have decided that to be different I would like to put a slant six/automatic in the car. I can fabricate motor and trans mounts without any issues.
Some of my concerns include:
Will the radiator for the 360 be suitable for the /6?
Will I have oil pan clearance issues as the car has a stock Mustang II cross member. The 360 came out of a Dodge van and clears just fine.
Does it make any difference which side the water pump points to for the radiator.
I have read some on the forums/web sights and tried to figure out the best engine for my use. I seem to like the 2 bbl engines, balance for expense/power/ease of installation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as to which engine to look for, ideas on motor mounts, trans mounts or any other things I should look for.
I am in central Illinois and there doesn't seem to be many drive trains out there that I can find. Any help here would also be appreciated. Will be glad to correspond with anyone on or off the forum if that is ok. Chuck Cobb

Welcome to the forum, Chuck. You'll find a good number of rather knowledgable folks here.

If it were me, I'd find a set of "spool" mount engine brackets for the slant. It's a simple matter of making "ears" to weld to the frame, that match up to the engine brackets. That's what I did with my T-bucket.

The radiator will be more than enough for the slant, but you may have some plumbing issues to get sorted out. Going by memory, both the inlet and outlet are right of center on the stock slant radiator, which worked out great for me, but the upper for you may be a bit of a problem. You could do as a bunch of the old car crowd do, and plumb it with copper tubing and per-bent hose elbows. (Polish the copper for some eye candy.)

It shouldn't make any difference which side the water pump/fan is on, in relationship to the radiator, but you might have to end up fabricating a fan shroud. My bucket does ok as long as it's moving, but the walking speed on the fairgrounds at Back To The Fifties causes it to overheat. (I need to get a shroud built yet.)

Can't say I have experience with M2 front suspensions, but I suspect the crossmember is more forward under the engine. You may have to round up a rear-sump oil pan and pickup for the slant. Those can be found in slant-powered pickups and vans.

As a side note, what was wrong with the original Mopar flathead? Gone when you got the car?

Roger

When I bought the 38, it was already street rodded, had a Ford 302/C4 for a drive train, Mustang II front end, Ford 9" rear. I didn't want a Fopar, I wanted a Mopar!!!! Bought the 360 from a old boss who has forgotten more about Mopar V8's than most will ever know, he had the drive train in a dodge van, helped me torch out the front of the van to get engine/trans out. The engine hasn't even been turned over in 4 years, haven't had time to work on car. Am now retired so want to get back to working on it. Needs floor boards, trunk floor. I now have most of the tools to do all the work needed, just needed to find the time.

Welcome! Sounds like a great project.

I agree with Roger's statements. Many of us have spare engine/transmission cores, and there are some folks in Chicago area and around IN, IL, MO. A rear sump truck pan might be best for your application and will provide better oil control (cornering, braking, accel) than most Slant pans. However, a car pan could work too (Dart, Aspen...).

I would use a 904 auto trans, and yes it is different than the V8 version (bellhousing pattern). The year of Slant 6 does not matter much unless you are going for ultimate weight loss or highest performance. The later (77-87) cast crank motors are just fine for strength and durability and the later ones (82 up?) are a bit lighter. I have a 270HP cast cranker in my 64 Dart.

Happy building!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Hmmmm. "Needs floor boards"
This might be a perfect opportunity to adapt a V8, A-518 to the slant. That would give you an overdrive trans for better highway mileage. The A-518 is larger from the mid-section to the tailshaft, and if you have to cut the floors for replacement, it might be wise to do some advance planning, if it's in your budget.

As for the engine itself, I think I'd just go with a two-barrel intake and carb, a little more agressive cam, and maybe shave the head about .050"
That'll bump the static compression a bit, but still leave you with good street manners. You could go a little better, and drop in oversize valves for some better breathing, but all this could be done at a later date, after the car is on the road. As Lou said, many of us have "extra" rebuilder cores laying around.

(Lou, what do you think about the overdrive trans idea?)

Roger

The OEM inline six was compact compared to the slant six. If it needs floorboards then you can better work around the extra length. I think there are members of the P15-D24 site that have swapped a slant six to these cars. I think there is plenty of room, the OEM front cross member was made for "floating power" motor mounts, I don't know if the Mustang II crossmember will provide more space, but I think it might.

http://www.cascadepacificplymouth.org/5 ... lswap.html Here is some good info. My 51 has a slant in it.

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51 Plymouth Cambridge with / 6

My 51 Desoto rad has surprised me by cooling an engine 100 cubic inches larger than stock ....including an extended trip through Baja this fall.

Your rad should be just fine for a slant.

My trans mount looks exactly like the one in 51 Cambridges article...the one for the 727 now in your car may be fine.

The one big deal for swaps in these cars is the steering box. I dealt with that problem by cutting the frame...making new rails ...and swapping in a late B body K member and suspension. Power steering....disc brakes...torsion bars ....and ball joints

Have fun!

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

Thanks for the link to your pictures. I find that the way various car people build/design/fabricate various parts is always very interesting. Skill levels, tools available, materials on hand all vary and I'm amazed that so much can be done. I street rodded a 47 Chevy many years ago that was a basket case in every respect. The "build" was for me the most fun, as a machinist making something needed out of nothing or modifying a part to be used elsewhere was a lot of the fun. Everything was always "over-engineered" for safety. It appears that I will probably have to hunt for a truck engine. I will go down and see what kind of clearances I have now. The 360 seems to have fit just fine at this time, it did come out of a van. I did do a 6" recess in the firewall for engine clearance, so that is done already and should be wide enough for the /6. Length shouldn't be an issue either. Any other pictures/ideas will be appreciated. I can be emailed @ chuck.cobb@itv-3.com if anyone so desires. With my retiring this last Friday, I am supposed to get a "retirement" check from work for each year of employment. It is to go to the car with the wife's blessing!!!!!, so that is why I am looking for a drive train. The overdrive transmission would be nice too. The 9" rear is a 3.08 I believe.