It was mentioned that the 85 slant six is the lightest factory slant. Is it just the 85 engine or 85 and later?
I thought all the cast engines from 81 and up were all the lightest.
Just curious.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

I don't know when was the break, but I know 84-87 engines I have seen are light. Not sure about earlier. You can look up block and crank casting numbers in Doug's table article maybe? All hydro heads I've weighed are pretty close to 70 lbs fully loaded (no rocker gear). This is just slightly heavier than typical 60s drool tube heads.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

What about a 170?

I would Imagine Blocks and cranks to be somewhat lighter on those.

Not sure if a 170 crank / block is lighter than a

user Gregcon has weighed and posted a bunch of those in the last year or 4.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

I am just curious about 225 engines. I have an 81 cast crank engine but I was looking for an 87 engine.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

The lightest factory Slant-6 engine would probably be the '61-'63 aluminum-block engine, and the lightest factory Slant-6 vehicle would probably be that engine in a 1962 Valiant 2-door sedan.

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

Dan is dead on of course that the Alum engine is the lightest. I rode in one of those cars once, Dan (2dr '62 with original alum engine). Man, the manual steering felt like buttery power steering. I hate power steering, BTW, and doubt I will ever have a (factory) PS Mopar again. The two I had felt terrible and the manual is just sooo good (when properly maintained).

Doc put a late/light cast crank in an alum block with some custom machining. SUPER light. Don't think that engine is still with us...

You can tell if you have the light cast iron stuff by weight. It is unmistakable. 140-145 lbs for the "light" cast crank block (w/caps), and 60-62 lbs for the light cast crank itself. Earlier stuff (cast or forged) is 160-170 lbs for block and 74-78 lbs for crank. Really early cranks could be as much as 85+ lbs, but I have never seen one of those. Yes, I weigh everything...

170 block and crank doesn't save you too much. IIRC, the 170 blocks are around 140-145 lbs and the cranks are about 68 lbs. Still heavier than the late cast crank 225.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

OK, so per Doug's book, in 84 they lightened the cast crank a little bit. This would bake the 84-87 slants the lightest iron slant sixes.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

I have 3 motors with the light crank, and a crank and bearings. Mike was very fond of them. My aluminum rod motor may have a light crank too.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I happen to be going the other way. Not for any particular reason, besides "what I ended up with". I have an 85 pickup, with a slant.
I have a '74 forged crank block on the stand getting ready to drop it into that 85 truck body. On top of that, I have a '77-78ish (a guess, going by casting number) peanut plug head.
I haven't weighed anything but compared to a couple of drool tube heads I have, and an 80s head that I picked up at Dad Truck's garage over the summer (largely after he commented on how heavy the head that I brought over is) and I could definitely feel the difference as I picked up each one then the next.
As I remember reading somewhere, the late 70s head with the smog pump ports is among the heaviest of /6 heads.
I have watched some (not all) of Uncle Tony's stuff and in one episode he had a forged crank that he had ground off a significant amount of weight from and had rebalanced when done hacking. I forget the amount but seems like it was around 15 lbs he was able to get off of there.

The peanut head from my 79 Volare slant weighed 80 pounds. The drool head on my 65 slant weighed 68 pounds. My 79 block weighed in at 147 pounds when cleaned. The 65 block was about the same. The forged 65 crank weighed in at 75.2 pounds while the cast 79 crank weighed 63.2 pounds.
I created a relatively light, iron 225 by using a late 70 cast short block and an early 70 drool tube head.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

I do wish that an aluminum head for a slant was more of a reality

Please don't make this start again!!!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Yeah, I won't live long enough to see one of 'those'.
I am more interested in what I can actually get my hands on (now).

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

The slant that is in the 68 Barracuda is built from a 1987 block and head and crank.

The '87 block, with main caps and bolts, with the cylinders bored .080 over fresh from the hot tank with no cup plugs or bearings weighed 145 lbs.
A completely stripped 87 peanut head, hot tanked weighed 65 lbs
A completely stripped 75 peanut head, hot tanked weighed 74 lbs

The 87 cast crank has smaller counterweights than an 83 cast crank, I remember weighing them, but can't find that at the moment.

Cast crank K1 rods are 604g
Steel crank 198 rods are 786g

Another place to save some weight with the late motors is they have a die cast aluminum oil pump body.
To save weight in the valve train, I found that the solid lifters in a 1966 motor were a two piece fabrication and they weighed in at 87g.
The later stock style dumb bell solid lifter weighs 102g.
Then there are conical valve springs and 11/32 inch diameter valve stems.
It is all incremental.

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Doo Ron Ron and the Duke of Earl are friends of mine.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8Nj8ABEI8

If running the forged crank and going to rebalance you can wack off the 3 counterweights and drop some pounds. I want to try this with the next forged crank I do. I know Ceej started this on his crank but I don't remember how much weight it dropped off. They were pretty big chunks of metal I remember. Don't know if a cast crank would be able be done or not?

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6