Hotrod Magazine Slant Six Build Up

Great article. They certainly put a lot of time into it, probably collecting parts for years before running the tests. I recall another Hot Rod article ~10 yrs ago where they compared cast-iron and aluminum slants on the drag strip. Surprisingly, the cast-iron did as well, which they attributed to the stiffer block preventing cylinder distortion at max power. That is comforting for those who don't want to search for the elusive aluminum block head gaskets and such, or repeat the failures they suffered with their aluminum block.

I'm not reading 7 factual errors in SSD's analysis, just a few things that could have been cleaned up in editing or clarification added at the expense of brevity. Anybody who works with cars knows that a 1976 to 1977 change could be +/-6 months on the production line and thus better to pick 1975- engine parts to be safe. My biggest question is that it appears they used hydraulic lifters in their 1972 engine, based on the photo of valve timing components (unless some solid lifters had a side hole). Is that the real reason they had to buy shorter push-rods? Unlikely they would make that mistake.

If anyone wants to get peev'ed, watch the slant-six Duster episode on Hot Rod TV where the mechanic with bad teeth keeps grumbling that you can't do anything with the (snicker) leaning-tower-of-power and the owner is a fool to want to keep it stock. Contradicting himself? No, he really means toss the 6 for a V-8 (preferably SBC), which wasn't the title. Not everybody is stupid enough to drive fast and die young, just do what the customer wants, racin boy.