What is a 'Special Six'?

-

nm9stheham

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2013
Messages
12,087
Reaction score
4,281
Location
Waynesboro, VA
I have read about the Super Six 2 BBL from the late 70's. But I was browsing through my old '71 Chilton's manual and checked the engine option codes for the Dart/Valiant. In '68-'69 there was a 'Special Order 6' in addition to the 170 and 225, and in '70 there was a 'Speical 6'.

So what is a 'Special 6'?
 
That's what they put in the short busses.

Sorry, I tried not to do it. :)
 
Only /6 not mentioned is the special 198 slant 6 it is Speical
 
I may be wrong but the special 6 is the two bbl motor.Atleast the ones I had were.Or wait that was Super 6.....
 
The 198 slant six came out in 1970 so I'm guessing that's what they're talking about.

The "special order six" for 68-69 is a mystery to me. Chiltons don't always have the most accurate information in them so I doubt it's anything special.
 
ESP47 hit the nail on the head. Chiltons info is some what general.

My Momma told me I was "Special Sick" ??!!!
 
It's a slant six that swings the other way.
 
Thanks all. This is not in the description sections of Chilton's but in the specs which was reasonably on the mark in those years. The Special 6 t has it's own engine code per Chilton's: C for 68-69 and E for 70. And the 170 and 198's are listed with different engine codes so that is not it. This list has all the other engine codes you would expect like the HP variants, and so forth, so it seems accutate enough to think this is legit. Maybe it just never really got ordered.....??

And per the Allpar site, 1960 had the HyperPak option, so again, maybe this was a real spin off. I gotta find my old Direct Connection catalog from the day and see what is mentioned in regards to /6 variants.
 
Taxi or fleet? Sometimes they had some HD parts. Same idea as the police 360's.
 
Well the HyperPak was '60-'61 only and these are '68-'70 engine codes. So It can't be the HyperPak. (And my Chilton's is a '71 so I don't have info if these codes go beyond '70.) I went through my early 80's Driect Connection engine book (man, that is one awesome book; GET one if you ever can), and I can't find any reference to this. They mention the HyperPak and the Super Six and the Lite/Feather Duster engines, but nothing else I can find.

So perhaps this was indeed something for trucks or taxi's etc. Another of life's mysteries.....well, thought I would ask. If anyone comes up with anything solid, I would like to know.
 
In Australia, we had a 69 model slant 6 that was in a VF Pacer that had 175hp....wonder if that was it ????
 
In Australia, we had a 69 model slant 6 that was in a VF Pacer that had 175hp....wonder if that was it ????
I saw some reference to that (perhaps on theAll par site) and wondered that myself. Is there any way to find out the engine code used for that version?

Edit to add: So you got me going, and I found this reference on the Aussie valiant.org site for 1968 for the VE Valiant: "The 225 slant six continued with 145 bhp (109 kW), but a new 160 hp (120 kW) Super Six version with a two-barrel carburetor, revised camshaft, and upgraded exhaust was now available as well. " This looks to be the same /6 varaint that you mention above for the '69 VF.

Soooo, it's maybe the earliest incarnation of the Super 6; the 1968 year start of this Aussie /6 variant for the VE matches the first year that my old Chilton's has a specific engine code for the 'Special 6' option. And the Valiant.org site lists this for use in the '68 and '69 Aussie cars, which matches the listing that the C engine code was for the same 2 years.

http://www.valiant.org/ausval.html
 
Taxi or fleet? Sometimes they had some HD parts. Same idea as the police 360's.
I was getting ready to suggest just this.

As far as I know truck engines and industrial engines got a shot peened crank. I wouldn't be surprised if taxi, fleet and police engines got those parts too and was just labeled special order.
 
-
Back
Top