Cutaway inline-6

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If you want to watch the partial lap of the TT course, aboard the 50 year old 250cc I6 GP machine as ridden by Steve Plater, here it is.
 
Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
When I was a kid, my mom drove a '65 Pontiac Tempest convertible with a 230" inline six with a Powerglide.


It would of had a Super Turbine 300 2-speed automatic, Commonly mistaken for a Powerglide. There were VERY FEW Aluminum Powerglides used behind BOP engines & that was late 60's-early 70's.


Wow! You said Super Turbine 300 transmission, and a whole boatload of memories came flooding back. Back in the '70's the Harman family was crazy for Vega's. One of them was a '72 Vega GT with a Powerglide, and when the engine starting pumping water out the radiator, we knew it was time for a swap. So we came up with the idea for a Buick V6, and found a '65 Buick Special with a 225 V6 and Super Turbine 300 trans in a local junkyard. I think we got it for $75, drove it home, and stripped the engine and trans out of it. The toughest part of the swap was making mount adapters for the engine, and fabricating an exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft. Gross power on the Buick 225 was ~150HP, so it was considerably faster than the original 110HP Vega lump. And the trans had a switch-pitch converter that made launches pretty nice when you brake-torqued it. We built the car in '76, and dad drove it for two years, then sold it to my oldest brother right as I got my driver's license. So I never got to drive it.
 
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Originally Posted By: Number_35
That would be the smallest inline-6 I've ever heard of - 2 l is approximately 122 cu in. For whatever reason, the Japanese tended to export larger engines to North America.

There is at least one smaller 6-cylinder engine though, albeit not inline; Mazda offered an optional 1.8 l V6 in the MX-3 back in the day.

Of course we know that the absolutely smallest gasoline (petrol) engine is the one Keith Stewart built. (Is anyone else a fan of Nevil Shute's Trustee From The Toolroom? Charming story, and a good read for any gearhead.)


IIRC Honda had a racing V-5 at 25cc per cylinder.


They had a 125cc inline 5 in the early '60's that revved to 22000 rpm. I think Visio Racer on YouTube has a video of it.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Yes, we only had the 3.0.


I had a VL with RB30 in last week, not many left on the road now.
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
Inline...it was Honda's experience in the racing 6's that went into the CBX pictured above.


Just looking at them on different sites, impressive engines.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
When I was a kid, my mom drove a '65 Pontiac Tempest convertible with a 230" inline six with a Powerglide.


It would of had a Super Turbine 300 2-speed automatic, Commonly mistaken for a Powerglide. There were VERY FEW Aluminum Powerglides used behind BOP engines & that was late 60's-early 70's.


Wow! You said Super Turbine 300 transmission, and a whole boatload of memories came flooding back. Back in the '70's the Harman family was crazy for Vega's. One of them was a '72 Vega GT with a Powerglide, and when the engine starting pumping water out the radiator, we knew it was time for a swap. So we came up with the idea for a Buick V6, and found a '65 Buick Special with a 225 V6 and Super Turbine 300 trans in a local junkyard. I think we got it for $75, drove it home, and stripped the engine and trans out of it. The toughest part of the swap was making mount adapters for the engine, and fabricating an exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft. Gross power on the Buick 225 was ~150HP, so it was considerably faster than the original 110HP Vega lump. And the trans had a switch-pitch converter that made launches pretty nice when you brake-torqued it. We built the car in '76, and dad drove it for two years, then sold it to my oldest brother right as I got my driver's license. So I never got to drive it.


I usually have a "Project" transmission on my bench at all times....So I get to build some of the more obscure Hydramatic's.

While the Buick versions had the Switch Pitch torque converters, The Pontiac did not. Same with the early TH400.
 
Originally Posted By: clinebarger
I usually have a "Project" transmission on my bench at all times....So I get to build some of the more obscure Hydramatic's.

While the Buick versions had the Switch Pitch torque converters, The Pontiac did not. Same with the early TH400.


just quoting because that's a great visual image to live vicariously through.
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
TheTrustee from the Toolroom is better than On the Beach. Never became famous because it wasn't made into a movie.

Yay, another Shutist!

Agreed, I also really liked Beyond The Black Stump and No Highway. I've reread these three several times. I agree that On The Beach, while always cited on Shute's other books ('By the author of ...') is not as good a read.

No Highway was made into a movie, which I'd love to see. It's commonly thought that the book was based on the de Havilland Comet crashes of the mid-50s. In fact, the book came out in 1948, and was prophetic.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Originally Posted By: andyd
TheTrustee from the Toolroom is better than On the Beach. Never became famous because it wasn't made into a movie.

Yay, another Shutist!

Agreed, I also really liked Beyond The Black Stump and No Highway. I've reread these three several times. I agree that On The Beach, while always cited on Shute's other books ('By the author of ...') is not as good a read.

No Highway was made into a movie, which I'd love to see. It's commonly thought that the book was based on the de Havilland Comet crashes of the mid-50s. In fact, the book came out in 1948, and was prophetic.


Could that movie possibly be "No Highway In The Sky"? That is about a British airliner that has a metal fatigue problem that causes the tail to fall off, and James Stewart is a scientist that has a theory to explain it. That movie can be seen for free on YouTube.
 
Correct, the book is No Highway, but the movie based on same is No Highway In The Sky. Thanks for the tip, I'll try to catch it on YouTube.
 
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
Originally Posted By: Silk
Triumph made their 6 by adding a couple of cylinders to a 4 cyl, and made a nice engine out of it


Then, a few years later-didn't Triumph design a V8 and cut it in half to make a 4 cylinder out of it?

That's at least how I've heard the engine in the TR-7 described.


Yes; it was developed from the V8 in the Stag.
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
Originally Posted By: Silk
Triumph made their 6 by adding a couple of cylinders to a 4 cyl, and made a nice engine out of it


Then, a few years later-didn't Triumph design a V8 and cut it in half to make a 4 cylinder out of it?

That's at least how I've heard the engine in the TR-7 described.


Yes; it was developed from the V8 in the Stag.


Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: bunnspecial
Then, a few years later-didn't Triumph design a V8 and cut it in half to make a 4 cylinder out of it?

That's at least how I've heard the engine in the TR-7 described.


I think it's the other way around...they built the 4 (which became the saab engine as well), then joined two for the V-8.

The TR-8 used the Rover/Buick.



http://driving.ca/triumph/auto-news/entertainment/triumphs-v8-the-worst-engine-ever-made

Quote:
The SOHC V8 looks exotic with twin-carbs but hides a host of issues.

The styling was indeed spot-on and it featured a unique T-bar roof that allowed it to be driven with a cloth top, removable hard-top, or no top at all for open-air motoring. Triumph was aiming for mid-range GT cars like the Porsche 911, and to do so they needed more power than the traditional inline-four could provide.

Initially a 2.5-litre version of Triumph’s own inline-six was considered, but engineers believed it would not provide the power or refinement that GT buyers expected in the segment. There was also the discussion of whether the model should use the familiar Rover 3.5L V8. But in the end it was decided to use a Triumph-designed engine because engineers were already nearly done with a brand-new engine, and because they wanted to show the world what Triumph engineering could do. Unfortunately, they did.

Triumph’s solution was to twin their existing inline-four into a 2.5L V8. The I4 had actually been designed with this in mind and the reverse had been done before by Pontiac, turning half a V8 into a slant-four. Thus began an extremely lengthy (and costly) five-year development program between 1964 and 1969.
 
When BLMC was winding up here, they had P76 engines sitting on the floor for bargain prices...about the same time the Stags were becoming non runners. It became a happy marriage.
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
When BLMC was winding up here, they had P76 engines sitting on the floor for bargain prices...about the same time the Stags were becoming non runners. It became a happy marriage.


Oh yeah, it would have been. I saw two of them in Canberra.

Guy I used to know made a "TR-8" - Holden 308 Trimatic...was stupid IMO.
 
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