340+ for the STREET

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doogievlg said:
Interesting question. I have only driven a couple hot stick shift cars and they were fords but I could not imagine using a performance clutch in the snow or even daily driving. We got stuck in




You prefer driving with slicks in the winter? I am not a tire expert but that does not make since.
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He meant STICK SHIFT cars, not slicks. Slicks would be ridiculous.


I prefer manual transmissions, but my wife can't drive one, so I'll probably do a torque flight, maybe with a Gear Venders thrown in. Not sure there. In the past, here in Iowa winters in the past 12 years or so, I've driven year round the following: 2005 Mazda 6, manual, 2007 Mazda Miata manual, 2011 Mini Cooper JCW six speed manual, 2013 Mini Cooper JCW roadster six speed manual, 2015 BMW m235i six speed manual. Only the Miata gave me any problems in the winter, although I survived it. The problem with that car was that I kept the Summer tires on the front, with Winter tires on the rear. It was interesting one early morning driving on I-80 with 10" of snow on the road and no snow plows had been through. Other than that one scary time in keeping the car straight on the interstate, I've never had a problem.

The key is to take your time, no hurry, have the correct tires on it, on all four wheels, and don't spin the tires. Not all that difficult.
 
hemisedan said:
He meant STICK SHIFT cars, not slicks. Slicks would be ridiculous.


I prefer manual transmissions, but my wife can't drive one, so I'll probably do a torque flight, maybe with a Gear Venders thrown in. Not sure there. In the past, here in Iowa winters in the past 12 years or so, I've driven year round the following: 2005 Mazda 6, manual, 2007 Mazda Miata manual, 2011 Mini Cooper JCW six speed manual, 2013 Mini Cooper JCW roadster six speed manual, 2015 BMW m235i six speed manual. Only the Miata gave me any problems in the winter, although I survived it. The problem with that car was that I kept the Summer tires on the front, with Winter tires on the rear. It was interesting one early morning driving on I-80 with 10" of snow on the road and no snow plows had been through. Other than that one scary time in keeping the car straight on

the interstate, I've never had a problem.

The key is to take your time, no hurry, have the correct tires on it, on all four wheels, and don't spin the tires. Not all that difficult.
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People who don't drive in snow regularly just don't get it. It's not hard.

What sucks is people moving to an area that gets snow who come from an area that never snows. It's a real dog and pony show.


Google Portland Oregon snow driving and be prepared to laugh your *** off for hours. All the California folks who've never seen snow will stop in the middle of the freeway and leave their car. People trying to go down hill hitting parked cars like pinballs. Sad really.


But damn funny. Unless your stuff is getting doinked.
 
yellow rose said:
People who don't drive in snow regularly just don't get it. It's not hard.

What sucks is people moving to an area that gets snow who come from an area that never snows. It's a real dog and pony show.


Google Portland Oregon snow driving and be prepared to laugh your *** off for hours. All the California folks who've never seen snow will stop in the middle of the freeway and leave their car. People trying to go down hill hitting parked cars like pinballs. Sad really.


But damn funny. Unless your stuff is getting doinked.
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I went to a MAC Tool convention in Dallas years back 3 days after a ice storm. The interstates looked like a cemetery. 4 of us rented a Cadillac at the airport and had a blast. My youngest calls it drifting. I call it fishtailing and fun. When you grow up in Iowa on a farm you get used to the gravel roads and snow and ice. Have fun with it.
 
I can remember 2 wild characters in our small town who would run down mainstreet wide open..hit the brakes and crank hard! About 3/4 through the turn put the pedal to the floor and head back 180 degrees tires smokin' on a hot summer night ...no snow!
Crazy!
 
My oldest daughter lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and when they get snow or ice storms, she stays in. Crazy and some of the worst are transplants from the Snow Belt who have relocated to that area. They instantly forget how to drive in slippery stuff.

The worst car for winter driving that I ever had was my 69 Dodge Charger 500 that I had new. The GoodYear Wide Treads were impossible in snow and ice. Back then, I didn't realize that there was such thing as Winter tires, I just drove what was on them. I had traded in my 67 GTX for that car and the GTX was easy in the snow. I had a set of Casler cheater street slicks. Yes, they worked great in Winter, but wore out quickly. I, just remember with the 69, being in an alley behind my future, now ex wife back then, and got stuck on a level patch of ice snow. I finally got three guys to help push me out onto the street where I could get "some" traction. And get this, it was an automatic, but with a 4:10 dana rear. Terrible car in snow.
 
Net or gross horsepower, street or track motor, the biggest advantage I would say the Magnum engines have is sequential Multiport fuel injection. Even though the stock ECUs aren't all that great, I would imagine having the hardware already on the motor is nice. If you want driveability and mileage, I say go EFI so that you can start your motor in any weather and have it run like a top.

Secondly, an OD transmission is a great idea. If you want a manual, get an A833OD unit. You may want to beef it up depending on how strong your motor is. If you want an automatic and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a gear vendors, get an A518 or an A500. They're just torqueflites with ODs (727 and 904, respectively) and lockup converters.

If it helps any, that's the route I'm going. I've got a '68 notchback with a 360/904 and 3.23 rear gears and 27 inch tall tires. Gets terrible mileage now (8 mpg city), but that's because it isn't tuned worth a damn. I'm putting an A833 OD in it this winter (and actually properly tuning it as well), and later down the road I plan on putting EFI on it. I drive it every day during the summer, the only reason why I don't drive it in the winter is the defrost doesn't work, and I don't quite trust other drivers in the winter :D
 
Lots of internet smart asses here on this thread. I've been driving for 40+ years in the same weather as the original poster and I KNOW for a fact that rear wheel drive cars SUCK in any amount of snow. I commute an hour each way 5 days a week and I see it every time we get a dusting of snow. There's always some tough guy or dumb *** in his Mustang or Camaro trying to pull away from an uphill stop light, just spinning and holding up traffic.

My 408 puts out 400 hp at the wheels and I would hate to try to drive it with Blizzaks or any other type of tire when there is snow on the ground. I'll take my front wheel drive econobox any day of the week and save my Dart for the summer.
 
BrianT said:
Lots of internet smart asses here on this thread. I've been driving for 40+ years in the same weather as the original poster and I KNOW for a fact that rear wheel drive cars SUCK in any amount of snow. I commute an hour each way 5 days a week and I see it every time we get a dusting of snow. There's always some tough guy or dumb *** in his Mustang or Camaro trying to pull away from an uphill stop light, just spinning and holding up traffic.

My 408 puts out 400 hp at the wheels and I would hate to try to drive it with Blizzaks or any other type of tire when there is snow on the ground. I'll take my front wheel drive econobox any day of the week and save my Dart for the summer.
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I've never owned a FWD car in my life. I can drive a RWD in the snow just fine.
 
yellow rose said:
I've never owned a FWD car in my life. I can drive a RWD in the snow just fine.
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I've owned plenty of both, and I've got around just fine in both. Different for sure, but not a problem with either. Front wheel drives certainly have their advantages, but drove RWD's to work in back 40+ miles one way in the hills and curves. Never been stuck with 'em, and lots of snow storms up here.
 
318willrun said:
I've owned plenty of both, and I've got around just fine in both. Different for sure, but not a problem with either. Front wheel drives certainly have their advantages, but drove RWD's to work in back 40+ miles one way in the hills and curves. Never been stuck with 'em, and lots of snow storms up here.
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I've driven both, front wheel drive I hate. Why you ask? In downhill slipping and sliding what do you do? In rear wheel drive it isn't fun either, but you can steer onto the slide. With front wheel drive I use to say, let go of the wheel and let it stop, then drive off. In other words, I don't have any control. Maybe others have different thoughts on this scenario, but this is the way it is for me. Lately we haven't been getting all that much snow anyway. But in saying that,
WE ARE OVER DUE!
 
I’ve never owned a fwd car either. Although I vividly remember driving my dart to high school and a huge snow storm rolling in while in class. With worn out radial ta tires the car did awful.
 
Preference other than 4 wheel drive, FWD manual. But anything will get me there, even if it’s a 2 wd pickup with summer tires.
 
273 said:
It's not necessarily hard to build fuel mileage. As long your expectation are in check. Plus there's 2 types of mileage in town and highway. Everyone seems more concerned or talks more about highway.
Highway is fairly easy to obtain just add OD.

Even modern cars similar to our cars can't break 20 mpg in town.



We all know the benefits of larger cubic inch
But it's not a free lunch everything comes with trade offs.

Compare 340 vs 416

Both can make the same power say 450 hp.
Torque both are gonna make about 1.2 lbs-ft which equals out to 408 lbs-ft and 500 lbs-ft.
A 340 with 3.91 gears will equal the torque to the ground of 416 with 3.23 gears. And both engines will pump the same cfm at the same speed. Similar mpg.

So both would have similar performance and mileage but the 416 would be considered more steerable.

Sure you could put the same gears in both but the 340 will gain mpg but lose performance compared to 416.

Obviously this is generalized.
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One more option- put an overdrive behind the 340 so you can have your cake and eat it too.
 
For performance WITH economy, IMO, overdrive levels the playing field especially with a hi torque,long-stroke, SBM. To me that means an A500 with a 360 and say 4.30s so you can hit 60 at the top of second; and still cruise at 65=2400.
The longer 3.58 stroke will let you run one size bigger cam before losing bottom-end. A 360 also lets you use a cam one size smaller for more bottom end, or one size smaller rear gear, for lower hiway rpm; compared to the shorter stroke family.
>Manuals suck in snow and ice, especially with a lowered front end. Yet I ran one for many years. I keep a tow-rope in the trunk, and welded a hook on the front.
However, a manual will let you hit 60 at the top of second with 3.73s to 3.91s, whereas an auto might require 4.88s..
>I got excellent hiway mileage with a 223/230/110 cam in a 360 with a manual trans and overdrive at 65=1600,just saying; and it still went [email protected] in street-trim in the qtr at 3650# with 3.55s. I bored mine to 4.04 and called it my little 340 stroker.
In a lighter weight like you are contemplating, it wouldda been even sweeter. Then again, 300pounds less would make a non-360 do ok.
>Course with 4.30s you could run a stock 5.2 or even a a stock LA. or a 340 done up with a small cam; oh heck with 4.30s you can run whatever and have a really great time. Just try not to do it with a 3.09 low MT and a 360,lol unless you love tirespin and don't mind shifting before you get across the intersection. Yeah/no that wasn't my finest decision,lol..............Couldda been awesome at the track tho........
>360s have many,many piston options, and 2.02 heads fit pretty good..
>The A500 overdrive lets you run pretty much any rear gear you want. It's more than just one extra gear. It can actually function sorta like a 5.5 speed. You can run a hi-stall, and vastly increase your starting line power thru the internal Torque Multiplication which automatically decreases as the car gains speed, then you have the 3 regular gears. Then comes overdrive. And finally comes Loc-up, dropping another half-gear or so.
>If you really want a manual, then my recommendation is for the 3.09-1.92-1.40-1.00 model WITH a GVOD behind it, wired for gear splitting, and 3.23s out back. This will cruise 65=2034. The starter is 9.98 and you can hit 60@5800 in first/OD.
Spitting first and second you get ratios of 3.09-2.41-1.92-1.50 and splits of .78-.80-.78...... and 1.50 ratio will get you 96mph@5800 . If you do this with a 360 and a small cam this is pie, and the cruise rpm will be a pleasure while returning excellent economy.
You could do this with a 340 but it will need a bit more cam and won't make the mileage. But it might trap a lil faster.
You could do this with a 318 but it will take more cylinder pressure,more cam, and better heads.
With the above philosophy,I have been able to coax my small-cam 367 iteration into the 30s mpgUs, with overdrive;point to point. But my 360 does not do well in town. Guess why,lol. Cuz it's so dang much fun to wind it up all the time!!
 
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Non OD uses a 2.76 or 2.94 gear & a small cam. I’d yield at [email protected] w/2.94’s. You could go 1 step higher with an Overdrive. High stall converters are expensive with lock up transmissions.

Free flowing intake, air cleaner, TQ carb, dual exhaust with manifolds or headers & a MSD to get all the fuel fired off.
 
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