Mopar Vs Gm Vs Ford

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mopar_1974

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hey guys, i'm pretty sure we all have a soft spot for Mopars here but i just want to know why. Just looking for all the advantages and disadvantages of each of the American Giants. Personally, I have a Mopar and love owning something that not many others do. but i do hate having to search and spend a small fortune on parts. but i am also interested in technical advantages too. like head design and others. I also think its great how you can pull the distributor and stick it back in being right on or 180 degrees off. Another thing is the bad name Dodge got with all of the transmissions going out in the 90s trucks.
 
Oh I would imagine that if you looked hard you'd find that all of the big 3 had there fair share of firsts, as for me, I've just never been the type that goes with the flow or better said, I enjoy swimming against the current.

Terry:burnout:
 
iv ben mopar crazy since i was born. my dad always had them laying arond and he drove a 340 72 demon for a long time when i was a kid.then i saw vanishing point and have ben upsesed with challengers more than anything since.i think i also like the high inpact colors and pistel grips. gm never came close to pather pink or curiours yellow lol they wouldnt dare, i cant beat on fords tho bc i drive a 91 fox body mustang every day lol.u cant beat their power for the buck.
 
Back in 1969 my best friend had a 67 GTX. The guy that was concidered the king of the road was a dude with a 1967 Chevelle. The guy challenged my friend to a race. needless to say the X kicked his A**. About 6 months later a guy from another town that had a 64 impala with a 409 in it wanted to race Donnie. The GTX blew his doors off too. Wasn't nothing better then cruising around in that GTX knowing it was the hottest car around! I've been a MOPAR guy ever since!
 
Well I don't have to have a history owning mopars to say they're the best! I dunno theres something unique about them. but in it all I love all american muzle as long as it looks nice and it roars!

with this...I ask you all for an advise...as u see I own a 67 valiant...I like that not too many drives these...I dunno maybe they are a lil undesirable...and its kinda true...my favourite is the 69 dart gt 340s

but theres a guy selling me a very tempting car...a 66 mercury comet caliente...its hella nice! I've never had an eye for the ford line...but this is my chance to get something moree musclular...fix it...sell it...maybe...and get a nice mopar later lol

what do u guys think? that's why im selling my val.
 
having owned a few chevy's in the past (5 chevelle including a 1970 SS 396, a nova and a few impalas) I can say that they certainly have some good points:

Lots of cheap parts available
parts and engines are very interchangable
easiest brand to convert from auto to 4 speed (or visa versa)
were plentiful at a decent price back in the day (20 years ago)

The down side to bow tie ownership:

the engines have poor valve train design that wears out the valve guides
the rear ends are weak (notice how most of the chevys at the track are using FORD 9" rears!!)
the muncie 4 speed transmissions are even weaker (were basically obsolete the day they were introduced in 1964)
have very poor suspension from factory when compared to a MOPAR with SS springs and a pinion snubber

FORDs always pissed me off when working on them as an auto mechanic so I avoided FORD ownwership (except for a few boats powered by 351 W engines).

MOPARs cost more to build, but you get what you pay for!

MOPAR's also have :

very strong engines, compare a 340/275 to a 350/300 and the 340 is built way better with more performance stuff inside :

340 has : steel crank, windage tray, double roller timing chain, forged pistons, floating piston pins on bushed rods , long (6.125") rods, 2.02 intake valves. etc

350 has: cast crank, no windage tray, nylon timing sprocket with wimpy chain, cast pistons with pressed pins, 1.94 valves, short (5.7") connecting rods. etc.

That is why a 340/275 has a NHRA HP factor of 310 hp (+35 over stock rating)

and 350/300 chevys have NHRA HP factor of 285 or 290 (-5 or 10 from stock)


Bob

PS: if you haven't noticed from this post I have sold off all of my chevy stuff and now currently own three steel crank 340's
 
Simple. By far the best engine designs and the best looking cars out of the three. While I can appreciate any American muscle car, IMO, they just don't compare to the agressive, menacing look of a nice Mopar. Doesn't matter if it's an A, B, E, or even some C bodies - they just look cool.
 
Well I believe pre 1980's Mopar are made better. Engines were cast out of better iron, the cars were built to handle more power. They did have their problems, like lean burn but that can just be replace with a good MSD unit.

However, today I think it does not matter, all cars are built cheap-unless you can spend $200,000+ for a new car-today I like GM, Mopar then Ford, I won't even think about buying a car made with non union workers.

All cars today work great when new but they will not last nearly as long as the pre 80's cars. Motors are going to crack, warp. Bodys have so much plastic on them, when plastic gets old-over 30 years old-it cracks, warps.

Not to even bring up what happens to 30 year old computers needed to run the car, brakes.

We will see but I can not picture many 2000 and over cars, running around in the year 2035.
 
Summitar said:
FORDs always pissed me off when working on them as an auto mechanic so I avoided FORD ownwership (except for a few boats powered by 351 W engines).
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Ha, so true. My brothers and I used to own a transmission shop and everybody hated when they had to work on the Fords. Apparently the designers don't care about maintenance because they make it as difficult as possible to do anything to these cars.
 
After many years in auto service I can only say a car is a car.
So similar in so many ways, yet all have there differences.
I'll compare them to women.
I prefer white women, of the choises available, and especially the one I married. I prefer mopars, and especially the 67 Barracuda.
Why? It's a mistery to me.
Torsion bars vesrus coil springs ? Throttle pressure linkage versus modulater valve ? All those things will be debated forever but not by me. I enjoyed being the used car mechanic rather than just service mechanic for the Ford dealership. No one else could rebuild the heater case in a Nissan Pulsar NX one day and replace a power sunroof in a Volvo station wagon the next day. Variety is the spice of life.
The only major difference between mopars and those others that i dont like is the windshield wiper mechanism being under the dash. Not only the difficulty in repairing but the noise it brings inside the cabin which becons the call for repair.
As for the wifes flaws in design... not just her but all women should have one breast on their back ,
just for slow dancing. LOL
 
dodge freak said:
However, today I think it does not matter, all cars are built cheap-unless you can spend $200,000+ for a new car-today I like GM, Mopar then Ford, I won't even think about buying a car made with non union workers.
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Please, the Union workers are the reason for the $200,000 price tag and the poor quality.
 
I grew up with muscle era mopars (not neccessarily hot rods but passenger cars my dad tweaked with off the shelf pieces).

Why mopars ? Engineering - simply. Take a look at the muscle era GM and fords - none of them match up in stock as delivered form, axles, trannies, engines, suspension design.

It may cost more to build a mopar but they last - Besides who wants to be like everyone else ?
 
I have a couple of friends who are Chevy and Ford addicts. They always rag on Chrysler's "weird" engineering and "poor quality" construction. I say to them: "Look at all the old Darts, Valiants, Barracudas, etc. that are still roaming the street in (almost) stock form. These cars were the choice of grandma's everywhere! How many Novas, Mavericks, etc. do you still see around? The only vintage Ford and GM iron still on the road today have been overly restored with cheap and abundant aftermarket parts. With Mopar, that ain't so!

When I was cruising around back in the 70s, my buddies all had Mopars. Why? Because street racing was the thing in those days, and you had to prove your mettle. Mopars ruled on the street. Plain and simple.
 
Having been a professional mechanic, I had the chance to work on everything. Every manufacturer had it's good points.

Ford had the 351 Cleveland which was truly a wicked small block. The 4v canted valve head is the best flowing stock small block head I've ever seen. Nothing like 2.14" intake valves right from the factory. Ford also had the 9" rear end, which is now a standard that everyone tries to live up to.

GM had ummm, well.....The powerglide comes to mind. These can be built to handle almost any HP rating for less money. The GM small block head bolt pattern is far stronger than Chryslers. Parts are CHEAP!

That being said, I think that Chrysler offers the most well balanced, best looking package of all. My dad had a Plymouth Fury with a 318 that just screamed, but what really rocked my boat was when my brother-in-law came by in his black '69 383 4 speed Road Runner. I was 14 at the time and I will never forget the sound of that engine with a big cam in it. WOW. I've been a Dodge/Plymouth/Chrylser fan ever since.
 
I was fairly naive when I was about 14/15. I thought all muscle cars from the 60s/70s looked very similar and were all very much the same. I started talking to my dad about it and he educated me in the ways of the Mopar. He owned a 1971 340 Challenger way back when. He showed me some old pictures, and then dragged me out to the drag strip one summer. After that, I was hooked! Ever since I've never stopped reading on the history and modification of Mopars. Hell, now my dad calls me if he wants to verify some information. Websites like this definitely make a huge difference!

I guess I could just has easily been a GM or Ford guy, but it all came down to my dad. Which is funny, because his brothers are GM guys...poor bastards.
 
Simple answer is I wanted something different - always been that way.
My 1st car was a '64 Olds Cutlass. Then bought a (very slightly) used '69 340 Dart in late 1969 and was hooked on Mopars. Cruised and raced the Dart in SoCal through the mid '70s and enjoyed beating up on big-block Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs, etc. Made the big mistake of turning the Dart into a purpose-built race car, then made the bigger mistake of selling it. Drove a collection of other cars over the years but always missed my Dart. Most recently I was restifying my '83 15th Anniversary Hurst Olds that I've owned since new. Suddenly relapsed back to 'Mopar Madness'. Bought a '69 Dart that is currently in construction to get back to what I had before to play with on the street. The Hurst Olds is now for sale to help finance the build on the Dart.
Once you get 'Mopar Madness' you're infected for life!
 
So many advantages i can think of, not many disadvantages.

I love the distributer spot on or 180 degrees off. Change a oil pump on a big block in 30 min. I purposly drained the oil out of my 383 once trting to seize it, to do a rebuild early, ran it for 45 min, wouldnt die, it did have 182,000 miles on it. and it sure did make a racket, i put oil back in it and drove it for another year.

Lower the car, at least the front with a 3/4 in wrench, in less than a hr.

Never met a Chevy that didnt piss me off when working on it.

Ford, well they seem to have some good things going for them, they dont piss me off as much as a chevy when i work on them.
 
For me it goes back to the first car I owned at 16, a 74 Gold Duster. My parents weren't really brand loyal but I remember when they were shopping around for my car. It could have been a 72 LTD or a 197? Delta 88 but a car dealer friend had a Duster with "a little 6 cyl" on the lot that he promised my dad I couldn't get into trouble with . Proved him wrong a couple times. Bought a second Duster for the 318. Put the 318 in the first Duster, never got around to tuning it properly, but won several street races. Almost bought a one owner 68 Road Runner for $2000 in 87 but I didn't want to sell the Duster, first. Had the car 8 years until it got totaled while living in Laramie. Could not get any body shop to pull the rear subframe so stupidly sold it to a Wyo Tech student, should have had WTI do it as a project. Have since owned a couple Sentras, a 97 Malibu, and an 04 Venture and company currently supplies me a Ford Ranger and an S10 before that. Still greatly regret selling the Duster and miss the fun of driving and maintaining it. Never got the same satisfaction of washing and waxing any of the other cars. Finally got my hands on a 71 Duster 340 project and can't wait to get it on the road. Even when I had the Gold Duster I've wanted a Duster 340 due to its reputation alone. Interestingly enough, my wife's first car was a 70 Duster and she has hated Dusters ever since. But, I'm trying to raise the girls right. Both would be more than happy with a Duster and my 10 year old's favorites are the new 300C, new Charger and Magnum.
 
For me, I grew up during the 60's where it was hard NOT to notice Mopars. Between their total domination of drag racing and stock car racing (remember them????) everyone else was playing catch-up. Mix in that the very first time I ever went to a drag strip (the now defunct New York National Speedway) the very first thing I saw walking in was the Hemi under Glass yanking all 4 wheels off the ground and sliding on it's rear bumper.

Ruined me for life... Mopars, and particularly Barracuda's.
 
I was a Buick GS guy before switching over to Mopars 1991. As far as finding and purchasing parts for Mopars I am in heaven compared to trying to find and purchase speed parts or restoration parts for Buicks in the 80's. Being I was a GM guy I also had my share of Chevs and wouldn't go back to them for any reason. I would however own another Buick, great cars. People say that the GS is the same car as the SS Chevelle and they are wrong. They are the same platform but are not the same car. When I had my '70 Stage 1, two life long buddies each had a '70 SS396 and when either one drove my GS they both commented how much tighter and solid the car felt, not to mention it was faster.

To me Mopars are the best of both worlds, they are popular enough that it is fairly reasonable to get parts for but they are not to popular enough to be the "everyone has one" crowd. I have always been of fan of the "underdog".


Chuck
 
Since I come from Alberta, I have a completely different opinion of unions. As far as I'm concerned, there is absolutely no need for them here at this time, but it's probably a very different situation down there. All companies are extremely desperate for people, so there's no need for unions. If you don't like your job, you can probably go somewhere else and make more money. Damn oil boom.
 
71produster said:
Get your head out of your *** and you might be able to see what the union has done for workers. Do a little research and you'll see all the good that they have done.
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Yeah? I've done my fair share of research regarding this topic. Maybe you should do a little research and see how much money these companies (and the consumers) lose to unmotivated, unskilled thugs. The level of corruption in these orginizations is astonding. But I'm sure you're just towing the line and see any orginization that makes money as the enemy.

I know there are millions of hard-working union members, and I also agree that there needs to be worker protection against heartless corporations, but what's in place now is a joke - A bunch of thugs running the show skimming their share of the loot and raking American industry over the coals.
 
Hey, guys this is a thread about Mopar, GM or Ford, not about pro or con union. To respect the thread starter PM each other or start a new thread. I also have an opinion about unions but this is not the place.

Thanks guys,
Chuck
 
thanks for the replies guys, especially summitar, ramcharger, and rp23g7 who replied with the type of answers i was looking for, specific details on the cars. and also 340mopar for taming the thread down a bit :)
 
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