Slant 727 WIW

hefty lefty said
I don't believe for a minute a 904 would hold up behind a 340 or 360 in a heavy vehicle like all those vans and trucks or the heavier cars. Not for sustained abusive use.

I said the SLANT 6 727 was made for a reason and that reason was that it would not be the weak link in a heavier vehicle. Chrysler engineers actually knew what they were doing and when management allowed it did excellent work. The 904 was entirely adequate behind G/RG and LA engines in lighter vehicles and it did cost less to build. I accept it sinks less power too but I am skeptical about 25 hp.

Chrysler management was engineering oriented up until the very early 60s and after that suffered from MBA mentality and lack of balls. Where the engineers could they got in some superb designs but corporate management hobbled them badly. Still the better Chrysler products were robust as hell and inspired a lot of loyalty.

The factory started putting 904's in various heavier cars sometime around the middle of the 1970'a... my daughter at the time, had a 360, 4-bbl-powered Cordoba that had come from the factory with a 904. I asked my transmission friend Len Schneider about it (he has built drag racing transmissions for a living for the last 30 years) and his response was, "727'S have so much rotational inertia, that the sheer mass and weight of the internal parts wears them out and causes catastrophic component failure; they do it to themselves... it's not the torque you put through them that tears them up... it's self-inflicted."

The fact that the Hemi Challenge NHRA racers choose to run ProTrans Torqueflites (which are based on 904 internals) in their 900 horsepower race cars tells me that a 904 can be built to take anything a small block 340 or 360 can dish out.