Motor Decision

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hoosierdaddy

hoosierdaddy

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Hey everyone I'm looking for some opinions on my motor situation , in December 17 I picked a 72 Duster /6 out of Florida and its in incredible condition . I bought a 360 (new build) Mag a few months ago and I'm slowly getting all the parts to do the V8 swap . I finally made it to a local car show ( I don't do many) and the response to the / was pretty amazing , it seemed everyone had story about their / and yep I was the only one there .This was a Chevy heavy show and I got my fair share of attention against a lot of nice cars . I've been on the fence about the V8 swap but I finally decided to do it but now I'm back on the fence again . I also ran into guy that put me on to another guy the apparently has a large stash of Mopar parts and heavy on the / parts . There is no replacing V8 power with my motor but I can tweak it some and make it fun . What bothers me is I can't seem to get fully vested in V8 swap . The ultimate decision is mine but I would like some opinions .
 
I've also had many considerations on swapping from a /6 to a v8 and the main reasons are with a /6 do you want to keep the car orginal and be unique and draw attention because most people dont run slant sixes anymore. Or do you want to have fun and go fast with a v8 which is what most people do. Since you already invested in the new engine and some parts for swap it sounds like thats the way you should go.
 
best move i ever made was junk my leaning tower of smoke

now, keep in mind, if you swap out the /6 for a 360, well, the rear end is likely to give out
then you may want to consider the added weight and power of the 360 may be too much for the brakes you have now
 
My slant story.......the car did not belong to me, it belonged to a friend.........the car: 1966 Dart 170 2 door post, started life as a 170, 3 on the tree..........it grew into a car with K-H disk brakes, front sway bar, V8 T-bars, 225 with an OD 4spd behind it. The 225 was bored .030 over simple cast rebuilder pistons, MP cam with 244 seat duration, .436 lift, not really much of a cam, still idled like Grandma's car if you stood in front of it, maybe just a little fast, Turbo mufflers out back told a different story. The head was cut .060 good valve job, bowls cleaned up, Clifford 4bbl intake with a 390 Holley, Clifford 6 into 2 headers.

Watkins Glenn International Raceway is close to me and in the fall we would go up for Vintage week end and enjoy old race cars. The 2 lane road there is twisty, turny, up, down, blind corners, not many places to pass Buba in his pick up so when a passing zone came up you had to make your move. At 55 mph in 3 gear direct, you just pulled out and drove around, no big deal, seemingly no effort. If you were in 4 th OD, you needed to be going about 75 mph to be back into the sweet spot of the torque curve.

He told me about one time he was out on I88 beating on the car cuz it was pissing him off and just working out some frustration. He spotted a Beemer and decided to put the grill of the Dart, at a respectful distance, in the rear view mirror of the Beemer. Beemer speed up, he sped up, Beemer change lanes, he changed lanes, still same distance, he broke it off when they were on the out skirts of Albany going over 90mph, he started in Sidney.

Dare to be different..............
 
I wouldn’t do it. I appreciate any car that old that’s preserved. I’m not too impressed with slant sixes but it seems not too many show up anymore and it kinda makes them cool because they were so uncool.
I would keep it as is for a bit then if it’s not exciting enough sell it & by another that already has a V8.
 
diymirage said:
best move i ever made was junk my leaning tower of smoke

now, keep in mind, if you swap out the /6 for a 360, well, the rear end is likely to give out
then you may want to consider the added weight and power of the 360 may be too much for the brakes you have now
Click to expand...
I have an 8 3/4 rear end and 727 tranny waiting to go in . The brakes are something I'm going to up grade regardless of what I decide .
 
Can't replace the sound of a V8...…… :)
just my opinion
 
The answer is obvious: keep the Duster slant as it is and buy another car that is a v8 roller in need of a drive train!
 
DFX 340 Duster said:
The answer is obvious: keep the Duster slant as it is and buy another car that is a v8 roller in need of a drive train!
Click to expand...
Us Mopar guys have a hard time owning just one!!!!! Not every on has space for them no doubt.

Here is my take. I have owned them all, Hemi's on down. I enjoy them all, slants on up! The slant now days gets attention at shows. I have never in 30 years taken a car to a show. I enjoy going, seeing cars, and meting some people. The slant in an unmolested car, especially, will get plenty of lookers, and yak. You can not swing a dead cat without hitting 5-6 people that have pulled the slant for the V8 usually a SB> They simply want more power, and it does not always make $ sense to spend it on the slant. If, you or someone might want to put it back original. You pull the slant to drop in the SB, keep the slant and all related parts, engine/trans DS, radiator, rear.
Right now I have 3 slant cars, and I miss the power of a v8. Going Mon to look at a 67 dart post. It comes with the slant that had been pulled ( condition unknown), good running 360. I will put the 360 in, buy the sb rad., $200), schmacker mounts $200, add 8 1/4 $ 200, good driveshaft $200, add pedals $150 , and my A833, new clutch $350, etc. Or just drop i the slant for nothng!!!!????????
 
hoosierdaddy said:
Hey everyone I'm looking for some opinions on my motor situation , in December 17 I picked a 72 Duster /6 out of Florida and its in incredible condition . I bought a 360 (new build) Mag a few months ago and I'm slowly getting all the parts to do the V8 swap . I finally made it to a local car show ( I don't do many) and the response to the / was pretty amazing , it seemed everyone had story about their / and yep I was the only one there .This was a Chevy heavy show and I got my fair share of attention against a lot of nice cars . I've been on the fence about the V8 swap but I finally decided to do it but now I'm back on the fence again . I also ran into guy that put me on to another guy the apparently has a large stash of Mopar parts and heavy on the / parts . There is no replacing V8 power with my motor but I can tweak it some and make it fun . What bothers me is I can't seem to get fully vested in V8 swap . The ultimate decision is mine but I would like some opinions .
Click to expand...


I ran a slanty in my '68 Barracuda convertible for just over 10 years. I had the motor rebuilt by Doug Dutra with ported big valve head work, his smaller spec'd cam, 2bbl intake and his Dutra Duals. It ran strong, but I woke up one day and ripped it out of my car.

I had already swap the car over to the big bolt pattern hubs, added 4 wheel disc brakes and stiffened the chassis with a US Cartool complete chassis kit. One of the biggest performance improvements I did to it was to re-curve the distributor so I could run 22 initial with 32 total degrees advance. Once set, I then ran the vacuum advance to manifold vacuum it transformed the power delivery.

The car would spin the tires from a takeoff after that. It wouldn't even come close to that with the ignition timing set up the way most "slant 6 experts" will tell you, but they will stubbornly admit they have never tried it to verify for themselves. Then again, that's the same thing I find with many experts. I hope I never become one.

One last thing. I swapped a fuel injected 5.9 Magnum in my car after the six was out. It was massaged very slightly with a new cam and springs, modified beer barrel intake and headers. Turns out it had a bad ring pack in one cylinder. The motor was still way more powerful, got significantly better mileage, was more fun to drive and sounded way better.

I've since put in a 408 stroker Magnum with ported aftermarket heads and am running a 200R4 overdrive with a 3800 stall converter with lock-up clutches that puts out 382 hp & 525 ft lbs of torque, gets 14 mpg around town and 17 mpg on the freeway at 70 mph with the A/C on and top down. I would never go back to a slant 6 again, even if someone paid me.
 
Similar story for me, my 71 was bought with a bad slant, so I swapped in a good one with aluminum intake, small four barrel ect, 904 and 3:23 gears. I drove it that way for a few months, and got tired of the slant, swapped in a carbureted bone stock 5.2 magnum, headers and duals, and it gets BETTER milage with probably twice the power of the slant, sounds like what a muscle car era car should sound like. The slant is cool if you wanna sit around and wax nostalgia about it, but I drive my junk, and I'd NEVER use a slant again.
 
No new car or modified old car will ever capture the same feeling and experience of cruising down the road with an original slant six.

I daily drive a slant and it is not very fast nor very powerful but to experience the sound, smell and smiles can never happen with anything else.

I bought a valiant for the specific purpose of building a slant six car and to one day drive it on a long road trip. Just because
 
When I was in my early 20s I had a 74 duster with a slant. I fell victim to watching bullshit fast and furious movies and made up my mind that I had to have a fast car. I swapped the slant out and put a built 360. After it was all swapped and modified, I wished I had my car the way it was but that car as I knew it was gone.

So i bought another slant car to daily drive and now i am in my early 30s and i got over the fantasy movies and I don't need to prove anything ( not implying that you do ) and I enjoy my slant every day on the commute back and forth to work.

I have a valiant that I bought to build a hot rod, ever heard of a slant six hyper pak. :)
 
I have had them all from 426 Hemi and max wedge on down to the mighty slant. Had all bodies pretty much but a wing car and turned my buddy down in '94 when he offered me my choice of 3 440-6 v code projects. (yes $5000 each! each was missing a major part, ie wing, or nose, or fender etc) ). OK so I never liked the wing cars too much.
MY point is, not what I have enjoyed over the last three decades, but to try to explain that I enjoy driving and working on them all. I also find things about every model that I like and that I don't like. If a person has never gives the slant a chance, he (or she) would never realize that they like it ,...or parts of it. I would prefer it would have more power stock and easy, I dislike trying to work on parts ( dist., oil pump, fuel pump, on that leaned side! I love its coolness, longevity, cost, simple dom, etc....
Example: I love the looks of a 70-1 E body......BUT . I hate the long heavy doors, the sorry door panels, the rattles, the huge dash, its costs, the plastic cuda grills, etc etc. (I hate plastic grills period!)..
Part of what brings us to want a certain car, is maybe related to our personalities????? Ego? Sense of competition? Status? Sometimes we just find ourselves with a certain car, and $ wise that is where we are for a while or forever!??

Dain ! What was the original question!!!???????????????????/
 
I've had slantys in hi,low, and medium performance, and as soon as I got financially able, I sold or parked them or ripped them out. I'm an SBMer for life now; more specifically a hi-compression aluminum headed SBMer. It can do everything a slanty can do, just faster, stronger, and better.
I couldn't care less about car shows, attendee opinions, or originality. When I press the go-pedal, dangit, something more than slanty-pace better be happening. I'm done with those forever.
'Course I'm also done with; 273s, 318s,and 340s; you need some cores? hit me up,lol.
 
It's your car... Do what you feel you want. Any swap is bolt in. FYI - the slant and V8 are virtually the same weight, and the 383 is only 50lbs or so heavier. So worries about brakes or torsion bars are mostly because they read it - not they drove the cars hard enough to really notice. The V8 IMO will be worth more to a larger market, faster, and more fun at least for me. I have modded sixes before too. Sometimes doing it to be different isn't a good enough reason - and a slat buil for me is just not enough return on investment. So I sold all my slanty stuff and the car's getting a 413. The guys that say a slant is cool at a mostly chevy show are only saying that because a V8 might be a challenge for them...lol.
 
slant_6_cut.png
 
I agree the car will generally be worth more $ if you sell. with the v8 than with the slant, UNLESS it is a total slant survivor in pristine condition, then the right person might give more, maybe. I admit to loving the slant and in general were are a cheap bunch!!!!
For those of us that has swaped engines/drivetrains a few times, we can do it in our sleep. My age is keeping me from wanting to do some things I admit. . Me, I get a kick out of getting any old Mopar running and back on the road yes, even the slant! I smile like a total nutcase tooling down the road in one of my slant cars. Would I smile more in a stroked small block? NO because I could not stand to think I had that many $ in the darn engine!! How bout a cheap stock 360, 4 speed an 3:55 gears? OK so that I could stand! LOL
Yes I have done the BB swap to many slant B bodies and never changed the t bars, I could not tell any real problem, but I never went around curves at 90 either.
I have always told wanna be newbies, to find a fellow Mopar guy and get to drive his car, and see if that is something he would like. By the way, NOoooooo you can not drive my car!!!!
Like the cowboy told the city slicker, NOooooo, you can't not ride my horse, and NO I don't want to wreck your car!!
 
I enjoy seeing the collars and cuffs match, nothing gives me more pleasure then seeing a buzzin ½ dozen in a classic nowadays. The engines are work horses, and were used in many applications besides the automotive industries.

We all know with regular maintenance the engine will certainly last as long as the car. Back in my early years, I knew my /6 would always start and get me to work and home again. The performance pitfalls the engine had, for the better overrode my late night hasty decision making. LOL

If I was lucky enough to find another mopar with an /6... it would be in the car as long as it wanted to be. Simple.
 
6's just work, nothing special. they get you where you need to go. A 6 at a cars show is something many people dont see in a 99% V8 market. Do you go to a show to talk shop or oggle at other peoples V8's? You wanna go fast? Drive a EVO or a WRX, JHC those cars are quick. 360's going to need the trans convertor, the rear and the exhaust retrofitted.
 
The older I get the more my opinion on this changes. When I mash on the go pedal I want to be laid back in the seat. But if it's in incredible condition like you say, leave the old girl alone. Driver it for what it is. The cool part is that it exists as it was. Like someone else said find another roller with no motor and beat on that.
 
Yank that Slant... DIBBS! :lol:

I thought a few times about V8 swapping Hoopty but that's what kinda makes the truck what it is. Plus everything that would have to follow just for it to "work" *sigh* But, I do still have a turbo Slant in the back of my mind haha

It is funny when you go to car shows tho. Somebody always asks what it has for power and when you say "Slant" they wanna see it! And yes, a story always follows.
 
I think you should stay Slant. Why? Because then you will need a spare motor to build, and I can sell you the one taking up space in my garage.
 
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