Inliners International Forums General Discussion MOPAR Slant six engine limitations?

Hi everybody I have a question to do with the slant six engines, what years were the best years to get.?

I understand from a mechanic I deal with that 1977 and newer slant six motors are all made in Mexico and have much more quality control problems with them then the older engines, he said timing gear problems was one issue and valve problems is this true or not.?

1976 or older slant 6 at the wrecking yard is harder to find these days, I was also wondering
how good that engine would work out in a one ton dump truck that has a standard transmission
for hauling roof shingles to the dump, would it be ok for that, or would there be not enough
power there to handle that job.?

I had trouble one time, I had a 1973 slant six in a Dart and my engine eat the oil dipstick, I pulled it out one day and there was 2 inch chunk of the stick missing.

I heard or read there was a "Hyperpack" slant six four barrel aluminum intake & so on, high perf, 225 engine I think somewhere around 1965 year?
I have not heard of any real problems w/the mopar 225 slant six, but then again, I'm a Chevy 250 6 man myself :-)
The 225 slant six is not really a good torque engine for the type of hauling you are thinking about. But you can get good miledge.

There's a thread on the Moparchat forum about Slants eating up their dipsticks... don't know how it was resolved!

Here we have a lot of trucks still running around with 225 slants in them. I wouldn't be afraid to use one for this purpose at all.

Can anyone post the link from "Moparchat forum about Slants eating their dipsticks".?

Without the torque in a 225 slant six, compared to a the 292GM or 300Ford I am not sure if it
would do the job satisfactory.
I am not an engineer but I figure an engine without much torque for pulling would probably just use a great deal of gasoline, and have extremely sluggish performance that I will not like using it to haul heavy loads.

I might have to go to a chev instead, Ford 300 engines leak too much oil and crack exhaust manifolds all the time.

How about a 265 Hemi Chrysler? Could probably find one or two of them for you...

http://www.moparchat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93871

On the subject of power to do the job, this is the kind of truck commonly fitted with slant 6s here and they never seem to have undue problems. They're probably up to three tons:



Slants were very common in trucks here, though the larger trucks had 318s and some Perkins and GM diesels.

When you say 'standard transmission' I assume you mean the truck 4-speed? The one with the granny low? Or do you mean an A230 3-speed?

Frankly, if the poor thing's tasks are only hauling a ton to the local dump, I don't see what you're worried about. Neither fuel nor time should be too much of a concern, in ten miles you wouldn't lose a minute over a bigger engine, surely?

As for the slant 6 and torque, I thought they were noted for their torque? I was just looking at a pile of old 225 blocks and engines yesterday, none of them newer than about 1969 because that was the last we saw of them here.

It would cost you a unnecessarily fortune to tour the outback in that truck you posted anymore
at todays gas prices Ray, thanks for the link about the dipstick issue, I am using a bull low transmission.

The axle gear in that truck must be very low, like maybe a over 410 anyway, that means high RPM that’s the only way that a slant 6 will function properly in that truck to be any good to anybody, otherwise under load the engine would start to lug and you may end up busting something.

You say 1969 was the last year that you guys in Australia got the good lot of engines from Dodge before the cheapened cranks came out in 1976, depending on how many were sold 36 years ago it must be starting hard to find them anymore in Australia.?
Since rust there is not such a big problem you maybe you can score some abandoned 225 core engines in the bush or in the desert and then rebuild them again or the 250 or 292 GM ones did they use the GM inlines were you are too.?

After reading that link I am not sure if it’s the best thing for me yet, might go to running a GM engine and forget about the Dodge 225.
I won't have to worry about my dipstick being mutilated, also someone told me a long time ago that a slant six engine was just a gutless wonder so if I go to a GM 292 I don't think I would end up missing anything if what he told me were true.

I fail to see that the 225 is gutless, really. These trucks get along fine.

Not many of them 'tour the outback' any more though. But I find it easy to pick up 225s. I was looking over about five or six of them, just the other day at one place alone... and the guy there wants to give them away if anyone needs them. Well, maybe not the good runner, but the 'core' engine types.

The wrecking yards still have them in small numbers, especially if you go to truck wrecking yards.

And there are quite a few floating about in Case 700-series combine harvesters. Have you got any of them around where you are?

See... here's one now!

Farm equipment a combine ok, anyway in response we have inlines both GM and slant six in
farm equipment but we have crooked dealers around here, this is how it works here they either want to sell you the stuff way
overinflated in price or in your vocabulary they try to put your nickers in a twist, or if they can't manage to do that they just destroy it.

Farm places give nothing away here.

As far as auto wreckers it be nice if the people in North America were more conservative with
old car stuff like you say they are down under and keep more old stuff at the wrecking yards
longer.
The people that own wrecking yards around here would rather destroy slant six and other old
inline engines instead of realizing the new ones with all the electronic junk on them that fails
after a few months of use are the ones they should be focusing on destroying first.

If I was to ask 100 auto wreckers in my area for a 1969 or older slant six engine I might find 2 or 3,perhaps.
I seen a mid 1960s core the other day 70 miles away.

Don't you guys have a spider and scorpion problem there, somebody told me there big and a nuisance and crawl into stuff and surprise you if you don't check first for them.?

We have some spiders, yes... but no rattlesnakes... just death adders and carpet snakes...

Not every wrecker is so keen on the old stuff, and many don't have anything over ten years old. But there are always those who keep old stock, have plenty of room or even those who make a living out of taking dead cars out of backyards. I guess it helps that our basic 'national fleet' has a much older average age than yours.

When you're looking for old farm equipment stuff, you don't go to dealers. I learned this very quickly when I started my hunt for 318 Poly V8s, which are in the 1010, 1020 and 1060 combines. You have to go out and scour the farms, find the farmers who never throw things out, never trade old machinery on the new stuff.

Then you stand a chance. They are aiming at seeing things used, not becoming scrap, so you coming along wanting something they no longer need fulfills their desire to see nothing wasted.

The 60's/70's RG block 225 motor would be perfect for your 1 ton truck. That motor is well know for its realibility and durability since it has a forged steel crank(up thru 76)and rods. Main bearings are the same size as the Chrysler Hemi V8. The truck motors also had shot peened forged steel cranks and roller timing sets. From 72 on the valves were induction hardened for unleaded fuel. They all had solid lifters until 1980. Stay away from the 80 and up smog motors. The 225 motor has a nice rod ratio that made for great low end torque. Used in many commercial and farm application as well as marine use. Many of these engines were/are still in aircraft tugs, school buses, combines etc. A good 225 will outlive your truck! Some people even run turbos or nitrous on them with the cast pistons. (not recommended)

Besides, used 225 oil dipsticks are cheap these days..

It's actually the valve seats that suffer with unleaded fuel (or LPG), not the valves, so no doubt it was these that were changed. Or these were changed as well.

Even without changing the seats you can overcome that simply by using a tin canister (fuel catalyst) in the fuel line just before the carby.

Unfortunately the problem still is Dodge slant six motors eat dipsticks, that to me is bad it should be regarded as a serious engine design defect that can result in a damaged engine even if you put a big speaker magnet at the bottom of your oil pan, they don't always hit the oil pan first, maybe it damages something first.

Just like the Dart that I had were after it broke it just made a hell of a racket.

The only way around it that I can see is to keep the dipstick out and maybe use a very sensitive oil pressure gauge to check your pressure, and just cap the outlet for the dipstick somehow, or make a plastic or fiberglass dipstick to put in its place that won't damage the engine if it breaks.

When I had a 1979 Dodge half ton truck with a slant six and a overdrive transmission I could not get any more speed then about 90km an hour with the peddle right to the floor, and the hills I had to shift down, with a one barrel carb, now is that a good definition for a gutless wonder.?

Check before you buy anything with a slant engine if its oil dipstick is not the original one from the factory then the engine may be damaged or at least suspect.

Well, you could just get a second dipstick, cut it off at about 6" length, keep the full length one somewhere in the engine compartment and leave the partial one in the place in which it belongs.

I hardly regard this as a serious engine defect. Not one percent of the engines suffered from it, I daresay (I've never heard of it until just a couple of months ago!), and there's really little chance it will damage an engine.

Okay... I posed the question on an Australian forum, asked others to look in here and, in particular, if anyone could give you first hand experiences of a Slant in a truck...

Read this one:

Cheb?
Well I figure living near the outback if that’s were he was from that it really does not
matter, after all who is going to pass you there is probably hardly anybody on the road were he
was hauling to,so if he had a sluggish engine what does it matter that much as long as you get the job done.
Maybe people are real laid back down there he says "Was passing cars going up grades
with it on petrol" maybe he forgot to say they were all going 30 mile an hour.? anybody would pass them even bicycle.

Diesel is not my thing, price of diesel is close to gasoline now anyway and I don’t like breathing
diesel smoke or emissions its not healthy.

Well ok Ray you guys convinced me leastways that the slant six engines before 1972 may be the way to go, they have more compression then the newer ones 1973 and up, I would not get anything newer then 1976 for certain as the older ones have the stronger bearings forged steel crankshaft and all that good stuff as you say.

I was running an overdrive at that time a A833 and my engine was shaking a little so it might
have had a miss in it,that could be why it was not going any faster then 90km with no load.

Those tubes in the head were the spark plugs are leak oil on the older motors I found.
Can they be replaced why did they designed the head hollow like that on the older Slant six
engines.?
Seem real odd to have a hole in your engine head, maybe the people that enginerred them that way may have had the same problem.

Actually, the KE10 to KE30 Toymotor Corollas had a very similar 'hole in the head'... I will ask my nephew what his solution is to that leaking problem when I get a chance.

As for the 'outback'... Peter was talking about a trip to Windsor, which is on the fringes of our biggest city, Sydney. And he mentioned the freeway, so that meant he was travelling from near the centre of that city, which is full of traffic (4 mill people). Actually Villawood is near Parramatta, a city within that city, to get from Villawood to Windsor does mean a lot of traffic.

The road to Wyong, however, is freeway for the most part. And it's through some of the roughest hills you could imagine, but the traffic along that road certainly flows quickly. It's a 110kmh limit most of the way, and there are a couple of very steep hills.






When you get this truck of yours sorted, you should come pay us a visit, learn about what we have here!

The pictures remind me of the BC interior near Kelowna, BC, very hot arid dry looking
landscape, did not know you guys lived in the fast lane I thought you were 20 years behind down there.
I would love to go there and visit you but I am afraid something might bit me in the middle of the night.

A local person who lives here told me her daughter was living in Australia and every night she has to check the bed and the rest of the bedroom for some kind of nasty spider that has a poisonous bit, and then they have to check shoes too before they put them on, they like getting in there its nice and dark and cool.

I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about since you live there, I don't know what part of Australia she is or was living in.

Then add the large hole in the ozone layer in all seriousness I would rather go elsewhere for that wonderful getaway, maybe you should visit here and get away from there for awhile it might be the best thing for you.

Actually, those photos date back about 40 years... those are during construction of that road, which was progressively opened from about 1964/5 onwards.

As for the spiders, yeah, you could get paranoid. But I've never consciously looked for them anywhere in my home wherever I've lived, though I do take care checking for Redbacks when going through tin cans and rubbish, piles of car parts and the like. Not that much care, but just look out for them.

Anything more than that is just a load of codswallop. Not true at all.

Just to throw my .02 worth in. Over on the slant six dot org board I did a search and found only one question about a "disappearing dipstick". It seems that the top of the dipstick tube can get bent outward from the block and put the bottom of the stick into the crank. The solution is to bend the top of the tube toward the block thus moving the bottom of the stick away from the crank. Hope this helps.
Dan

Ray, here is a story I got off the wire this morning in responce to your last posts.

I Don't know everything about Australia but this story should shed some light on were your from and what things are like there, this story is worse then your spider problem.

Drought-stricken Australia considers drinking recycled sewage
Jul 24 9:37 PM US/Eastern
Email this story

Residents of a drought-stricken Australian town will vote this week on whether they're prepared to drink water recycled from sewage -- the first such scheme in the country and one of only a handful in the world.

The controversial proposal has divided the town of Toowoomba in the state of Queensland, which has faced water restrictions for a decade.


Local Mayor Dianne Thorley, who is leading the "Yes" campaign, said that without drought-breaking rains the town's dams could dry up within two years.

She insisted the 73 million dollar (US 55 million dollar) plan to pump purified wastewater back into the main reservoir for drinking was safe.

"Somewhere, sometime we have got to stand up and change the way we are doing things," she told AFP as the town prepared for the July 29 referendum.

"Otherwise our great grandchildren are going to be living in something like the Sahara desert."


A vocal "No" campaign opposes the proposal, and says there are unforeseeable health risks for the town's 100,000 residents.

"The scientists say it should be safe," said local councillor Keith Beer, one of three members of the nine-strong council that opposes the plan. "That is not good enough for me, for my kids and my grandkids."

Australia is in the midst of the third-worst drought in the country's history. The so-called Big Dry is affecting the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, as well as South Australia and the southern island of Tasmania.

It has cost the rural economy five billion dollars and many regional communities in the world's driest inhabited continent are teetering on the brink of collapse.

You'd get a surprise if you drove through the city of Toowoomba...

It's a flower garden, every year they have a spring festival of flowers, every garden is adorned with colour.

The present drought is terrible, however, and some areas are very dry. I drive through it each month, and have done for the six years the drought has been on.

But you must understand that 'drought' doesn't mean 'no rain'... it means 'much less than usual rain'... so at times it's nice and green despite the fact that the drought hasn't broken.

Singapore, I believe, reuses effluent in their drinking water. I don't think this is anything new, just sufficiently repulsive that people don't do it unless they really have to.

There are very few spiders in Toowoomba, anyway. They are 500 miles from the archetypical home of the funnel web.

Now... go find yourself a nice slant!

If you have an interest in acquiring a slant, I have a '68 and a '72 or '73 with transmissions and an ac unit I have for sale. E-mail me for more info: hurmn@aol.com. Thanks

Its good to know someone is hanging on to some good stuff.!
But one day sometimes the family comes along and looks around and says, Oh ok who can we call right now to get rid of this junk so we can clean the place up before the real-estate comes?.

You can avoid all that if the price is right.