Yankee Iron.....or V8's if you like. (1 Viewer)

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Lucky13

Forum Mascot
47,608
23,725
Aug 21, 2006
In my castle....
Being a huge american car fan (up to the 60's or '70, '71 anyway) or most old car and bikes, I was wondering who of the Big 3 built the better engines? Never mind the hp (Mopar will always have the Hemi), was there any of them that could take more of a beating than the others, that made working with them, maybe not a dream, but not as much as a hassle while working under the hood (bonnet)? What about the rear axle, which were stronger?

Remember reading an article once, by some guy who used to work for Chrysler and the streetraces at the lights that they used to have in Detroit back in the day, in the '50's and '60's.....must have been fun!
 
Jan, as far as the rear axles are concerned the Dana 60 is probably the most bullet proof of the bunch with the Ford 9" coming in a close second. As far as the engines, a stock Hemi with two four barrel carbs felt like a 318 two barrel off the line until you got it to about 4,000 rpms, once it got to 4grand though you had better have your $h!t together cause it was going to start hunting a ditch in short order. A 440 Six Pak could out run a Hemi in the quarter mile hands down. Both being factory stock. Probably the most brutish package ever released from Detroit was the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport with the LS-6 454 cubic inch motor. These cars were rated (underrated) at 460 horsepower. That's all I can come up with for now. Wish I could remember the torque of the LS motor.:)
 
Tough question...they all had thier merits and thier shortcomings. By the way, don't forget that AMC built some street contenders.

Chevy's big block and small block engines were easy to work on and very interchangable. The downside was trying to do distributor work or R&R the starter, especially if just the solonoid needed replacing. Any V-8 between 1956 and 1973 would be a keeper, regardless of cubic inch...

Ford's engines were good overall, especially any Cleveland block. The Windsor blocks were good to a degree and buildable, but the Midland blocks were heavy pigs and prone to dumping thier cranks because of crappy castings.

AMC had three very good engines, the 401 , the 390 and the 304. Downside was that alot of thier parts were from other auto manufacturers that varied by year (pain in the a$$ when trying to get parts for 'em)...

Chrystler did have some good engines, but they also had some real dogs. I think that the 340 was actually thier best all around performer, easy to work on, easy to get parts for and real dependable both stock or built up.

As far as rear ends go, a narrowed 9 inch is the way to go for a decent street rod...if you're going to get medieval, then consider a Dana since they're virtually indestructable.
 
"... don't forget that AMC built some street contenders."

I'm not interested in street contenders, but I'm on my 3rd 4L - 200 hp inline AMC 6 with iron block and hydraulic lifters - half a mil Kms on each of the first 2 Jeeps, @ 253K on the third (driving now - Red Jeep Cherokee sport).


American iron is the best iron - it was built to be re-built, not trashed like today's multi-valve aluminum timing-belt driven sewing machines.

Fuel economy isn't everything. :)

MM
 
Last edited:
chrysler had some interesting engines. the hemi of course but also the 429 semi hemi which was a wedge head. they put that in stock furys. the 383 even with a 2bl carb had some balls.

fords cobra and boss engines were pretty big. the boss was a PITA to change plugs on if i remember right. you either had to jack up the engine or drill holes in the wheel wells.

still love a 327 chevy. its my all time fav. that with its little sister the 283was a mainstay for a long time. great overall engines and could be hi-poed a ton of different ways.
 
without a doubt the 265.283,327 350 series from GM the best Mopar was the slant 6
 
Personally, the most brute force, bone-stock V-8 I ever owned was an L-31 409 (from a '63 Impala SS). That "W" head config topped with Offenhauser finned valve covers and a six-pack intake (topped with Niccson Engineering clamshells) made for one good looking engine (and kickass performer)!

The most fun I've ever had with an engine was my L-6 racing engine project based on a 1962 194 C.I.D. straight six.
 
Lucky, way back in the day, 1961, I bought a mercury marauder with a 390 V8. we removed the engine bored the cylinder .030 over bore, stroked the crank, shaved the heads, used a copper head gasket, a 3/4 race Isky cam plus oversized valve springs. Initially I had 3 - 2bbls but balancing was always a problem. Went to Holley's 6bbl carburetor, but finally settled on dual quads. A 4-speed trans with Hurst shifter and a 454 posi rear end. Used to easily run 11s quarters at the US 30 drag strip. Would only burn Sunoco 260 fuel at $0.39 per gallon without knocking and could not be started while hot. Mileage was usually 4 - 5mi per gallon. Ate hemis and 409s for breakfast
 
I like the Ford 351W over the Cleveland myself and also the Chevrolets.The Cleveland has 2.5" mains while the Windsor has 3" mains plus the Clevelands valve guide setup sucks after some running turns into a shifting pattern.In the years I worked in a machine shop I seen a few Pooprolets(shop name) sh*t all over themselves with the #1 rod out the side of the block.This occurred I believe just that it was the furthest away from the oil pump but you have the same on any engine.The other thing with chevs is that the the two center exhaust ports are in the center of the head next to each other alot of heat if it's going to crack it is here seen that a bit.I could almost bet my last dollar if a customer brought me an intergrated 6cyl head or a Chevette head 90% of the time it was cracked for that very reason.The Ford guys I think screwed up in the early 80's when they came out with the hollow 302 cranks we saw a couple of those come in broke slap in two.I do appreciate the way Chevrolet internally balanced there engines as opposed to Fords being balanced by a matching harmonic balancer and flywheel.Finally Chevy is cheap to build for sure but I build a Windsor since the block and crank is similiar to Nascar.The crank on a Windsor when you p/u is almost as heavy as a 429 crank(i have built both) and torque is weight in moition and to get big block torque almost out of a small block w/hp and revs is a big plus in my book.To much info I guess,I digress.
 
Yep Aaron, he's right-on with that. A 429 Windsor is an overlooked powerhouse...not sure why everyone gives a Cleveland block so much prestige...

Probably the same reason people think 454 as a beast but completely overlook the wicked 455.
 
Jan, have you ever seen a Flatty look like this? And look, it's got the 3 twos on it to.:)

0811rc_02_z+h_h_flatheads+356_ardun_aluminum_engine.jpg
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back