any inline 6 battle stories?
- Thread starter jdawg89
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We had a few in our family when I was young, all Dodge / Plymouth 225 slant sixes. No exciting stories, just sturdy, smooth running, conservatively rated engines. I rebuilt a slant six when I was a young man. That was a good project. Reflecting on the experience years later, rebuilding an engine and then actually driving the car instills a nice sense of self-confidence in one's abilities.
i have thought that a 4 cyl copy of a slant 6 would be good. or a V6 vers of the 440 would be good at 330 ci. could replace the 318.
I've owned a few Ford 200 & 250 I6, other than a weeping head gasket on a '75 Granada never had a issue with any of them... Haven't owned anything with a I6 in well over 20 years...
I put a freshly rebuilt head on the Granada and it started weeping again within a few weeks, dropped a bottle of Bars Leak in it and it stopped.... Somewhere around 165K mi the Ex sold it to a friends daughter and she ran it a couple years... Finally kicked out a rod at just short of 200K mi, by that time it'd had likely been run low on oil on more than a few occasions...
I put a freshly rebuilt head on the Granada and it started weeping again within a few weeks, dropped a bottle of Bars Leak in it and it stopped.... Somewhere around 165K mi the Ex sold it to a friends daughter and she ran it a couple years... Finally kicked out a rod at just short of 200K mi, by that time it'd had likely been run low on oil on more than a few occasions...
I had a Duster with the 225 slant-six and 3 on the floor. The car was Plum Crazy going on Prune by the time I got it.
Gulf of Mexico to Vail pass to Tahoe, it never let me down. It did get a little fussy coming out of the Ozarks once when I let the points go too long. I think the car was originally delivered to Colorado Springs; It seemed to pick up a little top-end when I changed to a rebuilt carb (Holley 1-barrel) that had a bigger jet.
I could change both the oil filter and the starter without getting under the car. The distributor gear was plastic/nylon, and would break if you dropped a screw from the points down into the distributor.
I watched a slant-six Duster do a bye run at the drags one night. It had open exhaust and wound out with a weird, painfully slow noise.
Gulf of Mexico to Vail pass to Tahoe, it never let me down. It did get a little fussy coming out of the Ozarks once when I let the points go too long. I think the car was originally delivered to Colorado Springs; It seemed to pick up a little top-end when I changed to a rebuilt carb (Holley 1-barrel) that had a bigger jet.
I could change both the oil filter and the starter without getting under the car. The distributor gear was plastic/nylon, and would break if you dropped a screw from the points down into the distributor.
I watched a slant-six Duster do a bye run at the drags one night. It had open exhaust and wound out with a weird, painfully slow noise.
The Toyota JZ series engines are great.
So are the Nissan L-series and RB-series engines.
So are the Nissan L-series and RB-series engines.
I loved the L series engine in my datsun. It loved to rev with higher compression and some better breathing. Made plenty of torque as well. I once read many years ago that Nissan bought the rights to the design of the L series engine from Mercedes. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?
Wikipedia states that Prince Motor Company had a license to copy Mercedes Benz engines but had "changed" the design enough that they no longer needed a license. The problem with that is that the Nissan L20 6 cyl predates the Nissan/Prince merger.
Nissan had a license to copy Austin motors and did for a long time. They were OHV engines though.
I do think Nissan borrowed heavily from the M130 Mercedes Benz engine. They are very similar.
Nissan had a license to copy Austin motors and did for a long time. They were OHV engines though.
I do think Nissan borrowed heavily from the M130 Mercedes Benz engine. They are very similar.
1966 Chevrolet C-15 pickup with the 230CI 6. Bone stock, 3 speed on the tree. You couldn't kill it. I got it with over 150k and busted odometer. drove it for 5 years gave it to my brother who drove it until someone stole it. I loaned it to everyone who needed to move something. I estimate the mileage to be somewhere in the 400-500k range before the frame broke and the wooden bed fell off. The engine used 1 quart of oil every 3000 miles.
I know one thing for sure, the Chevy inline built from 1978-1980 or around there. (The motor with the integral head) was one tough sob. A friend of mine had this motor in his 78 Camaro back in high school. He installed the split headers from Clifford Industries with duel exhaust out each side of the car, (boy what an odd sounding thing it was) and installed an MSD ignition, 2bbl carb, and who knows what else. We were beating 8 cyl cars with that Car all the time! it was unbelievable!
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In '99 I traveled across Australia in a '73 Holden Kingswood. I don't know what size straight 6 It had, but everywhere I went I was told I couldn't have bought a better car for touring Australia. The whole drivetrain was silky smooth.
I did change the plug wires, U joints, and the tires, but I sold it for the same Price I paid on the other side of the country. 700 A$
I did change the plug wires, U joints, and the tires, but I sold it for the same Price I paid on the other side of the country. 700 A$
Originally Posted By: SubyRoo
I once read many years ago that Nissan bought the rights to the design of the L series engine from Mercedes. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?
Far too similar to be a coincidence, but they must've had the blueprint negatives in the wrong way round as the Nissan had the intake and exhaust manifold on the opposite side to the Mercedes.
I once had a 1957 International AS110, that was a great engine, but pretty thirsty at 4mpg. Expensive to run for an apprentice on low wages - after burning all my fuel on the weekend I'd walk the streets with a 4 gallon tin and length of hose to get enough fuel to get me to nightschool during the week. I went on a trail riding weekend once with our motorcycles on the back, my mate offered to pay his share of the fuel, but on our first fill it cost $10. He freaked out, he'd never put $10 of fuel into a car before - and he worked at a service station.
Before I got the AS110, we had a customer with one at work, one day they drive it onto the forecourt and start pouring can after can of water into the radiator, and then it won't start. We pulled the head off, and No5 combustion chamber was missing, just a rusty water jacket and 2 valve stems. Some very slight marks on the piston and no sign missing metal. The truck was sold to a wrecker for $25. Can't believe it was running like that.
One time we had an FJ40 Landcruiser in, it was stolen and recovered, and I was doing a mechanical check on it. It was running fine, but lost power under load....sitting idling on 6 cyls sometimes it'd give a hiccup and go twaaaannnng!!! I didn't know what that was, so pulled the head to find out - turning the engine over I noticed there were 3 pistons at TDC....the top was off one piston, and had been running like that.
I once read many years ago that Nissan bought the rights to the design of the L series engine from Mercedes. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?
Far too similar to be a coincidence, but they must've had the blueprint negatives in the wrong way round as the Nissan had the intake and exhaust manifold on the opposite side to the Mercedes.
I once had a 1957 International AS110, that was a great engine, but pretty thirsty at 4mpg. Expensive to run for an apprentice on low wages - after burning all my fuel on the weekend I'd walk the streets with a 4 gallon tin and length of hose to get enough fuel to get me to nightschool during the week. I went on a trail riding weekend once with our motorcycles on the back, my mate offered to pay his share of the fuel, but on our first fill it cost $10. He freaked out, he'd never put $10 of fuel into a car before - and he worked at a service station.
Before I got the AS110, we had a customer with one at work, one day they drive it onto the forecourt and start pouring can after can of water into the radiator, and then it won't start. We pulled the head off, and No5 combustion chamber was missing, just a rusty water jacket and 2 valve stems. Some very slight marks on the piston and no sign missing metal. The truck was sold to a wrecker for $25. Can't believe it was running like that.
One time we had an FJ40 Landcruiser in, it was stolen and recovered, and I was doing a mechanical check on it. It was running fine, but lost power under load....sitting idling on 6 cyls sometimes it'd give a hiccup and go twaaaannnng!!! I didn't know what that was, so pulled the head to find out - turning the engine over I noticed there were 3 pistons at TDC....the top was off one piston, and had been running like that.
My dad overheated a 250 cuin inline Chevy. It got so hot it softened the valves prings which killed the compression. A new set of valve springs and it was as good as new.
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Toyota 7MGE in a 92 cressida. What an ill-engineered pile of junk! Blows head gaskets all the time. The way they shoved it in and piled all sorts of linkages on top of the valve cover made it less than fun to work on. The rest of the car had Toyota's legendary (now a step down) levels of quality. But the engine dragged the poor car down.
Seconded... Great car if it weren't for the POS motor.
Toyota 7MGE in a 92 cressida. What an ill-engineered pile of junk! Blows head gaskets all the time. The way they shoved it in and piled all sorts of linkages on top of the valve cover made it less than fun to work on. The rest of the car had Toyota's legendary (now a step down) levels of quality. But the engine dragged the poor car down.
Seconded... Great car if it weren't for the POS motor.
Originally Posted By: Shannow
'73 Kingswood was either a 173, or 202 c.i. six, the same one as the ones in my pics, just with simpler cams and inductions.
173 was 3.5" bore, 3" stroke, 202 3.625" bore and 3.25" stroke.
Thanks, I think it was the 173. I loved that car.
'73 Kingswood was either a 173, or 202 c.i. six, the same one as the ones in my pics, just with simpler cams and inductions.
173 was 3.5" bore, 3" stroke, 202 3.625" bore and 3.25" stroke.
Thanks, I think it was the 173. I loved that car.
Geez, that's LONG?! IIRC, a Chevy 292 has a 4.125" stroke. Drove a couple in trucks, including one in a 1974 GMC C35 with a rollback deck on it...and a 3 on the column. Very slow...and with 4.56 gears, 60MPH was about 3000RPM! Never missed a beat with >150,000 miles on the engine.
BMW 2.7L "ETA" engine was.. un-killable.
I know, I know.. everybody hates this engine (the 2.7L one?) but I don't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M20
The BMW M20 was a straight-6 SOHC piston engine produced from 1977-1993. Like the larger capacity M30 engine it was produced alongside, the M20 has 12 valves. While the M30 camshaft is chain driven, the M20 camshaft and auxiliary shaft are driven by a timing belt. Initially released with a carburetor, later models used Bosch fuel injection.
With displacements ranging from 1990 cc to 2693 cc, it was the "little brother" to the larger BMW M30 engine. It has 91 mm (3.6 in) bore-spacing[1] instead of 100 mm (3.9 in) of the M30.
Powering the E21 and E30 3-Series, as well as E12, E28 and E34 5 Series cars, it was produced for nearly two decades, with the last examples powering the E30 325i touring built until April 1993.[2] It was replaced by the DOHC BMW M50 engine.
Early versions of the M20 were sometimes referred to as the "M60",[3] although the M60 code has since been used for a V8 engine first produced in 1992.
The M20 was the basis for the M21 diesel engine and the M70 V12 engine.[4]
I know, I know.. everybody hates this engine (the 2.7L one?) but I don't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M20
The BMW M20 was a straight-6 SOHC piston engine produced from 1977-1993. Like the larger capacity M30 engine it was produced alongside, the M20 has 12 valves. While the M30 camshaft is chain driven, the M20 camshaft and auxiliary shaft are driven by a timing belt. Initially released with a carburetor, later models used Bosch fuel injection.
With displacements ranging from 1990 cc to 2693 cc, it was the "little brother" to the larger BMW M30 engine. It has 91 mm (3.6 in) bore-spacing[1] instead of 100 mm (3.9 in) of the M30.
Powering the E21 and E30 3-Series, as well as E12, E28 and E34 5 Series cars, it was produced for nearly two decades, with the last examples powering the E30 325i touring built until April 1993.[2] It was replaced by the DOHC BMW M50 engine.
Early versions of the M20 were sometimes referred to as the "M60",[3] although the M60 code has since been used for a V8 engine first produced in 1992.
The M20 was the basis for the M21 diesel engine and the M70 V12 engine.[4]
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