The slant or the 318
I didn't. I said IF I was a beginner, which I am not. It's just that you write an entire essay. That might be overwhelming to some. lol
Oh; okay.
I just thought that somebody needed to point out the REASONS why it is so hard to get big horsepower out of a slant six without some kind of power adder. The engineers who designed the leaning tower of power were given the job of creating a short, (meaning, length-wise,) not very tall, compact package to fit under the sloping hood of a new Valiant in 1960, so in an effort to minimize the length of the engine, they put small bores in a narrow bore-center block, leaned the motor over 30-degrees to make it vertically "shorter" and moved the water pump into the area beside the block, instead of in front of it, to give it less length, yet. There were good reasons for doing everything they did.
But, in the process, they shot the motor in the foot, with the (relatively) small-bores, not leaving room for big valves.
The only way to put a
lot of air through this motor is by forced induction (turbo- or super-charging it.)
That's not to say that you can't have a great time, playing with this motor, usingthe "standard" hop-up procedures, like a better (4-bbl) intake, high compression, a ported, big valve head, efficient headers, and a long-duration, high-lift cam... Moparkid305 has a '68 Dart hardtop that hasn't been extensively lightened and it runs very low 14's on the street (ahead of a stock 340) and Guzzi Mark's little Valiant is a record holder in multiple classes, running low 11's, normally-aspirated. It CAN be done....
But, it's not easy, nor particularly cheap.
Turbocharging brings with it, its own set of problems; too numerous to mention here.... but, overall, in my considered opinion, if you pick a target e.t., you'll spend less and have less trouble getting there with the addition of a turbo and the necessary related hardware, (than normally--spirated.)
The "essay" I wrote was just an effort to explain why this is... nothing more.
If I over-stated my case,in an attempt to explain why I feel the way I do with
too much information, I'm sorry. It was meant to help, not overwhelm.
.............................:wack:
I could have just said, "
Turbo's ROCK," but that wouldn't really explain much... LOL!
Anyway, as usual, you pays your money and, you takes your choice.