Perry's 5th build, the Super Slant 6 Super 7

[horchoha]

Well after taking a 3 year hiatus from building Super 7's I started demolition on my next build. I'm using a 1979 Plymouth Caravelle with a Super Slant 6 and auto trans. Reason for posting this build is that in my part of this continent we get snow and we get cold. I want to get this car stripped down while the fall weather is still nice.
I've still yet to finish the Topolino interior and I have to pull the trans on the S10 Super 7 to replace the worn out 1-2 synchro's. BUT I don't think that will take me all winter to do hence planning ahead with this build. Some pics.

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Edit: Added Super before the word Slant in Subject line

[JackMcCornack]

Woohoo! A Super 6 Super 7!

[Bent Wrench]

Leaning Tower of Power

[horchoha]

Yep the 225 sure had a lot of nicknames. Now can anyone tell me why the engineers 'slanted' the engine? I heard a story many many years ago why they did.


Anyhoo, I discovered something today whilst pulling the eng/trans from the car.......I'm not 30 years old anymore As I sit here pecking at the keyboard I hurt, a lot, sucks, even Capt'n Morgan is having a tough time consoling me.

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Once I pulled the eng/trans I noticed that the rear diff/suspension is what we call underslung (the spring pack is bolted under the diff axle tube).
Well I sure didn't feel like fighting that setup while on a creeper. What to do, what to do?
https://youtu.be/01XEJiFLTXo

[Lonnie-S]

Yep the 225 sure had a lot of nicknames. Now can anyone tell me why the engineers 'slanted' the engine? I heard a story many many years ago why they did. . . . <SNIP>

I'm going to guess it was to lower the hood line of the cars it was installed into. The first application I remember was the Valiant, which was a smallish, "compact" car of its day.

Cheers,

[ngpmike]

Woohoo! A Super 6 Super 7!

Wouldn't that make it a Super 13 ???

[rx7locost]

Or a Super^2

My build happened to be a 7^2

[Trochu]

Alright, I'm for sure finishing mine before you finish this one....

[horchoha]

Thanks for the replies Mike, Chuck, Josh, Jack, Bent Wrench, and Lonnie.
Thanks for the reply to my question Lonnie, thats one of the common answers, there's 2 or 3 more, BUT what I was told when I had hair about 40 years ago was that MOPAR engineers designed a slant engine to offset piston thrust on the power stroke, this was to eliminate cylinder wall wear. Means these engines would last forever. I could have been told BS, who knows.

Anyhoo, today I went out and started removal of the diff whilst the car was in the upside-down position. All was well UNTIL I separated the spring pack for the axle spring perches. After taking a screw driver and using it for it's rightful purpose as a scraper and scraping away a bunch of rust and scale I noticed the axle tube looked pretty rusted as was the spring perch. I took a center punch and hammer to test the integrity of of tube - fail

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So now I'm sourcing out another diff for this build, good thing I'm not on a set timeline here.

[JackMcCornack]

...MOPAR engineers designed a slant engine to offset piston thrust on the power stroke, this was to eliminate cylinder wall wear.

I ain't buyin' it. Do V8s get twice as much cylinder wear on the cylinders on the left side?* But as far as making the engine shorter, altitude-wise, that's easy to demonstrate. If they designed the Slant Six for any other reason than lowering the highest pint of the engine, it must have been an amazing bolt of serendipity when some engineer who was not on the project said, "Hey, guys**, when we put your engine in this car, we can lower the hood about two inches."

* A rhetorical question. The answer is: nope, they don't.
** MOPAR did not have woman engineers doing engine design back then. So I can say "guys" as a historical reference.

[Sean in CT]

Uncle Tonys garage (UTG) on youtube talks a lot about the slant 6. Pretty interesting
The Mercedes 300 SL also had a slant 6 (with 2x as many moving parts tho). Mopar prob got the idea from them.
I am not aware of an earlier one tho its certainly possible

[horchoha]

I ain't buyin' it.

lol, that's ok Jack, I ain't selling it

[Mnot]

All of the BMW 6's that I have worked on (and the 4 in my 7) were slanted.

[Bobber]

At one time, offset piston pins were used to minimize side thrust.

[Lonnie-S]

Alright, I'm for sure finishing mine before you finish this one....

Ha! That's what I said when he started #2 build. Now he's on #5. I think we'd have to drug him to slow him down, so he doesn't start #6 before I finish.

Cheers,