The slant or the 318
more "post pollution" from a guy that loves the sound of a V8. my duster came with a great running slant six. i picked up a low mile small block because i have owned nothing but 318/340/360/383/400/440s. something about the vicious sound of a V8 with dual exhaust and a nice cam. i spent 300 bucks on the SB and the 727, 20 on a radiator,150 on conversion mounts and 150 on the headers ,60 on my driveshaft. IMO, some of the best money i ever spent. it took me 3 hours to pull the 6 and have the SB up and running and driving. i have total respect for the /6 and these guys are making crazy HP with them, but for me , its the sound and performance of a V8 that i love. i will never go back as i sold off the six.but its all up to you whether or not you want to play with a V8 or a six. you can always go back and change it up, which is the benefit of having a /6 k frame, if you are into sixes. you'll never know unless you try it. the slant vs V8 is a mini -war that will never end, and yes i have had my clock cleaned by built /6s, but i love my V8s
I had a 340-powered '64 Valiant back in '72, and had a ton of fun with that car. I installed a Lunati cam, some fender-well headers, a 4.56:1 Sure Grip, and a 3,000-pound Hayes clutch. It was the 10.3:1 1971 motor, and sounded like 600 horsepower (was probably actually, more like 350.)
Then, I built this '72 Valiant with a 360 Magnum and a Vortech supercharger, which gives me all the thrills an old man can stand, when I stand on the loud pedal. It runs mid 11's in the quarter on 10 pounds of boost.
Not having ever owned a slant six anything, nor a turbocharged anything, this new car that I am attempting to put together with my partner, Freddie Nielsen is an unknown quantity in most respects, but we took the coward's way out and built a "copy-cat" motor, with the same specs as two other FABO slant six enthusiasts, so we wouldn't be totally in the dark, starting out.
Tom Wolfe, (Shaker233 on FABO) who built one of the turbocharged engines, schooled us on where to buy pistons (Wiseco) and rods (K-1) and what specs worked best for a cam. His engine is pretty close, (parts-wise) to the engine in Ryan Peterson's '66 Valiant, so between the two of them, our maiden voyage with this thing shouldn't be a complete guessing game.
Without their help, we'd still be trying to figure out how to get the head off... I'm not kidding....
So, my advice is, if you want to embark on a new modus operandus, and change horses in mid-stream, as the Packard ads used to say: "ask the man who owns one!" They have been immensely helpful to us!
Our car is in the body shop and the new paint should be ready to take home, Friday, they say.
The remaining work on the car is pretty minimal; installing fuel lines and some wiring. That's about it for the buildup; now we will have to wait for some warmer weather before we can run a few test-n-tune laps.
No denying that a V8 has the sound that everybody loves (me, too,) but I can't wait to hear this
"UPS truck on steroids" I'm anticipating when this thing goes on boost!
If it runs anything like it should, our V8 cars (Freddie has a fuel-injected 360 Dart) won't stand a chance.... Neither my supercharged Valiant, nor Freddie's Dart would be much of a race for Tom's 11-flat '70 Dart, or Ryan's even faster '66 Valiant! I HOPE our car runs within a second of theirs....
Talk's cheap! We'll see!!!:cheers:
