Love that engine. Had one in my early 80's Ram Cargo Van with a 4 on the floor behind it. I don't remember doing any maintenance on that engine at all. (I know I know) Beat the snot out of it and it was still running fine when I sold it due to the classic Southern Tier NY salt rot on the rear spring perches.

My uncle gave me a Dodge Dart to use a few months after I turned 16. After a few months, the Dart had run its course as far as I was concerned. In an effort to force my folks to allow me to buy a new (used) car, I drained the oil from the trusty Dart. Fired it up, ran it until it stopped, and put oil back in.

You can guess the result, thing ran like a champ. I tried this two more times and no change. I swear, it seemed to burn LESS oil after the third try. Uggh!

Workhorse, absolutely!

unquestionably worthy.

A triumph of American technology.

Slant-six... was this just a straight-six with a broken motor mount, or was there something special to make it slanted?

No hate, just ignorance...

Worthy indeed... especially with triple webbers :D

@FreeMan:

Nope it's a slanted six cylinder engine. See link below for an image of one.

[www.allpar.com]

@FreeMan: More info from AllPar as to why it was slanted:

* The center of gravity is kept much lower than in upright engines.
* A low, stylish hood is made possible.
* Engine accessories are more accessible.
* The water pump can be moved to the side of the engine to reduce the engine's overall length.

@FreeMan:
It was made using the same tooling as the V8 engine, to cut production and design costs.
To use an overused phrase, it was a Win- win situation.
I had a '69 Plymouth Valium. Loved the engine, hated the non syncro 3 on the tree.

Oh yes.

I've got a Valiant outside with a dead 225. I'm replacing the block with another slant six.

It'll go rounds.

Could make half of a fabulous V12 in a 21st century Imperial...

(is anyone in Auburn Hills reading this?)

@FreeMan: Just half of a V12. ;o)

Wonderful engine. The '71 Duster I got when 16 survived me, my sister, and my younger brother, and still brought more on resale than we paid for it. The car was falling apart around the engine, but it ran like a champ.

The first/coolest/easiest mod I did with that car was to flip the air cleaner cover upside down; it made the neatest roaring noise when you floored it.

@thunder: great minds

one of my first "bought it myself" cars was a 1960 Valiant (note: NOT a Plymouth, was its own marque for one shining year) with the 170 slant and push-button TorqueFlite. Lovely, lovely car and that motor, even in its smallest displacement and maiden year was sublime.

I have a /6 in my '82 dodge ram pick-up. The engine still runs great. I believe voodoo magic was involved in the production process, which would explain why these engines don't die.

Thanks Jalopnik for doing a story on this engine, most car mags/web sites don't give this engine the credit it deserves.

I was wondering when it would show up, you should also include the mopar flathead 6, it was used forever, all mopar 6 cyls b4 the slant six, marine, forlifts, etc.

Dave

@I-VTAK: @biminitwst: Looking at the picture, it looks like they took a straight 6 and put a tipped over head & oil pan on it. Any other major differences from a I6? Other than Jonathan21's submission of voodoo in the manufacturing process?

@Rust-MyEnemy: @thunder: D'oh! Shoulda thunka of that myself. With that philosophy, could you make a slant 8 out of 1/2 of the Bugatti's W16?

The Leaning Tower of Power!

@FreeMan:

You'd make a narrow-angle V8 with half of a W16.

@biminitwst: It didn't use the V8 tooling (the later 90 degree V6's from the Big 3 did). IVTEK gave the right reasons above.

A sweet and brilliant computer science major I knew during my freshman year (1981-82) at Caltech in Pasadena (seven of us shared a huge old house owned by the university, and adjacent to/ surrounded by the campus) had a mid-sixties Valient with the slant six and the push-button Torqueflite tranny. White with red interior, I recall. I would help her tall, handsome boyfriend (also a fellow student and friend) doing oil changes and other maintenance on it. We didn't have to fix much, ever...

Thus far, this is the only engine that I have really cared about since y'all featured the Flathead v-8. these little slants are great engines!

My brother ran one for 450,000 miles in an 80's Ram D150. Only the water pump had to be changed around 300K. At just past 450K, the head literally cracked in two.

My first driving experience ever was behind the wheel of a '71 Scamp with a non-N2o'd Slant six. The single barrel carb needed occaisional work on the side of the road, but that motor was indestructible, my brother and I tried. A lot.

Ah the Chrysler Slant 6. I was 18, putting myself through college, and worked at a local Pharmacy (Before they all went CVS, Walgreens, Eckert on us) and the delivery car was a 1971 Plymouth Duster with the Slant 6. When I started there the thing had over 80,000 miles, with various 18-20 year old drivers, this thing was beat on a lot. It lasted until someone on the night shift crashed through a customers garage on a night with freezing rain. What did they replace it with? Damn right, a 1973 Valiany 4 door with a Slant 6, then 3 years later, a 1976 Scamp with a Slant 6! They engine maybe indestructible, but the cars still crashed!

I learned how to drive and work on cars on my parent's green 4 dr '71 Dart. 225 slant 6, 3 speed column and the touchiest clutch ever.

I hated that car and kept hoping the thing would die. It would leak oil, the points would be fried, distributor would be put on wrong by mistake and IT KEPT RUNNING!

That engine is a miracle of engineering. Just amazing how that thing just kept going. The head gasket finally blew at 190k mi. They had that thing for nearly 20 years.

While the stockers were wheezy at best, they sure did last.

And nowadays, you see quite a few pulling 8-9second 1/4 mile passes.

Very worthy engine.

Oh, hell yes! The buzzin' half-dozen. My dad had an '85 half-ton Ram with this engine. Awesome, awesome engine. My love affair with the 6 was rekindled by my friend Nan's '61 Valiant. I wish they made more straight and slant sixes...

@pauln:
Thanks for clearing up that common misconception.
The '61-'63 Pontiac slant four was half of the fullsize cars 389 V8.
The Chrysler slant six was a new engine from the ground up sharing almost nothing with its larger siblings.

I had a '75 Dodge half ton pick up with this engine, actually it's still in the field up north at the farm. The body has pretty much rusted off of it, but that slant six will still fire up. That truck was geared so low that it topped out at 60 mph. And I had a Dodge Mirada with the 6, until my brother wrecked it.

@newport413: I parked the truck for the last time the day the floor rusted out so bad that I damn near fell thru it onto I35 in Duluth. I took a few boards out of the box and wedged them between the frame and the floor until the seat was at about the right height.

Most cars leave this world on a hook being towed
to the salvage yard.
When you junked an early Mopar you drove it to the junk yard. The car itself may have been all
used up but that slant 6 keep running

Chrysler execs Press and Nardelli ought to feature this in the middle of the Auburn Hills headquarters: A Slant 6 displayed from a filthy well-worn 1962 Dodge Lancer Wagon that has 500,000 or more beaten miles on it & with the statement: "Chrysler engineering the way it used to be...the way it will be again…"

If Chrysler is serious about finally creating a company with values that will guide it into a solid future, then it needs to remember and honor the best of its heritage and illustrate this to its employers.

Great engine.

@Rust-MyEnemy:

This has crossed my mind before, especially since the Viper V10 is just an old 360 with a couple cylinders tacked on. Of course, they'd have to completely redesign the cylinder heads. Can't very well have the exhaust coming out the center of the V.

@FreeMan:

It is just an inline 6. It doesn't have a wonky arrangement of cylinders like Volkswagen's VR or W engines. The cylinders are all parallel to one another, they just point off at an angle instead of straight up and down. It was given the Slant 6 moniker to differentiate it from the upright inline sixes that most other manufacturers made. There are other longitudinally mounted inline engines that use a slanted configuration for the same reasons, the best known being the Nissan Skyline's 6, and the Honda S2000's 4. The inline 5 in my old Acura Vigor was slanted as well (and, like the Slant 6, similarly indestructible).

I believe that the factory high performance version of the slant six offered in the early Valiants had a long runner "ram air intake" with a huge four barrel carburetor and other go fast options. A four speed transmission was also available. I saw one smoke a late forties I.H.C. pickup with an Olds J2 drive train. I was impressed enough to remember that the six was reported to produce one horsepower per cubic inch. I knew I didn't want to come up against one of them at a red light in my 59 Studebaker Lark 8.

I had one in my '77 dodge 3/4 ton pickup. While I was moving from OK to NE, the #5 piston burnt a hole big enough to stick your thumb in. It still ran good enough to keep up with traffic at 65, towing a tandem axle trailer. later I put in a 318, now I wish I had that slant back! When it was in good form, It pulled harder than that that 318 ever could!