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Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like poor craftsmanship...I'm gonna go test drive the larger V-6 this weekend and see what it's about. I might be dissapointed as usually is the case with american cars. The quality of the plastics is usually cheap.
The plastic on Japanese cars is just as cheap.
In fact, I've never seen "quality" plastic! Plastic is plastic! I prefer steel and wood.
One thing for sure... you won't be disappointed when compared to the trouble-prone Euro cars like Mercedes, Audi, VW and BMW.
But also it was because insurance companies were starting to nickel and dime to death anyone who wanted to own a high powered car, so naturally the auto manufacturers began to "under rate" their engines. Probably in hopes of keeping the sales going without the would-be new car buyers having to worry about insurance costs.
This, I bet, does have a lot to do with the reason they claim the horsepower dropped so much. EW
I've "Owned" a lot of muscle cars in that era and here in California we did notice a drop in performance... all of the new cars had to be detuned to run on lower octane California Unleaded fuel.
From the Chrysler side... I've had a Super Bee, Cuda 340-4spd, a Dodge Dart with a 340 and 17,000 miles, Road Runner with the vacuum hood scoop and a Challenger. this was over 30 years ago... so it is hard to remember all the particulars.
I started getting into antique cars when the second energy crisis hit... I was getting tired of lining up on odd and even days to buy my 10 gallon limit of gas.
That maybe true but the engines were still down graded in HP. They did this because of new emission laws at the time. They lowered the compression ratio and used a different cam. After 71 I believe the 440 high performance engines were also gone. I knew this because when my buddy rebuilt a 440 from 1973 (the older engines were already hard to find in the 1980's) he had to get a new crank and cam to get the HP of the older engines. He got his information right from Chrysler. The only way the cars from different years could have ran the same time depends on the transmission and the rear end. EW
For the record: all 440 Magnum engines till the end (1978) used the same HP cam, had dual exhausts (1975-78 twin Catalytic Converters as well) as well as freebreathing air cleaners atop their 4 barrel carburetors.
The two biggest things that hurt the power were dropping the CR from about 10.5:1 down to around 8:1 starting somewhere after 1971 as well going from 3:23 gears to 2:71's.
Still; the top speed ranged from 125-135 MPH for all cars fitted with the King Kong motor
Quarter miles ranged from mid 14's (1969) down to 16.3 for the late 1970's------still haulin' ass though.
For the record: all 440 Magnum engines till the end (1978) used the same HP cam, had dual exhausts (1975-78 twin Catalytic Converters as well) as well as freebreathing air cleaners atop their 4 barrel carburetors.
The two biggest things that hurt the power were dropping the CR from about 10.5:1 down to around 8:1 starting somewhere after 1971 as well going from 3:23 gears to 2:71's.
Still; the top speed ranged from 125-135 MPH for all cars fitted with the King Kong motor
Quarter miles ranged from mid 14's (1969) down to 16.3 for the late 1970's------still haulin' ass though.
Thats not true because my 72 had factory 3:93 rear end and if you look at a 440 its stamped above the water pump on the block, it will read either "440" or "440 HP" the hp means a solid steel crank and a different cam. And I've already said compression ratio ratio was the reason why. I worked at a Chrysler dealership and there were different cams.EW
Thats not true because my 72 had factory 3:93 rear end and if you look at a 440 its stamped above the water pump on the block, it will read either "440" or "440 HP" the hp means a solid steel crank and a different cam. And I've already said compression ratio ratio was the reason why. I worked at a Chrysler dealership and there were different cams.EW
Let's see... the gears available for '72 (I think) went as low as 3.55:1. I think the real low gears, like 3.91s and 4.10s were gone by '72.
There was also 2.76, 2.93 and 3.23.
Let's see... the gears available for '72 (I think) went as low as 3.55:1. I think the real low gears, like 3.91s and 4.10s were gone by '72.
There was also 2.76, 2.93 and 3.23.
I've "Owned" a lot of muscle cars in that era and here in California we did notice a drop in performance... all of the new cars had to be detuned to run on lower octane California Unleaded fuel.
From the Chrysler side... I've had a Super Bee, Cuda 340-4spd, a Dodge Dart with a 340 and 17,000 miles, Road Runner with the vacuum hood scoop and a Challenger. this was over 30 years ago... so it is hard to remember all the particulars.
I started getting into antique cars when the second energy crisis hit... I was getting tired of lining up on odd and even days to buy my 10 gallon limit of gas.
I still have mine!.......... Sorry, I had to do it 1970 340 Duster, 4 speed, 3.55 dana
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1970 340 Duster, 4 speed, 3.55 dana
