From: Mike Patterson
Email: mchr@theriver.com
Date: November 29, 2001
I'll likely get some flack from the 6 Cyl owners out there for this one, but here goes. Chrysler Corps flat head 6s did not hold up very well when run hard. They tended to have soft cranks and were prone to throwing rods when hot-rodded. I've read about some process a few years ago for hardening these cranks, which would be highly recommeded if you plan on running one of these engines hard. One of the factors to also keep in mind is that the rear ends in the 6 cyl cars were geared lower than the V8 counterparts meaning the engines had to spin faster to go the same speed,(long trips at 75 MPH can wear them out pretty quickly). As far as V8 swaps, you have got plenty of room under the hood for almost anything (There are more than a few of these running around with early hemis under the hood). Its not a direct bolt in, the 6 Cyl engine mounts on the frame do not work with the V8. It is a pretty simple procedure to cut these off and weld in appropriate V8 mounts. The best sugestion is to look through this post for an idea on the diffrent swaps that have been done. One word of advice on a V8 swap is to stay with a Chrysler drive train on the car. Should you ever decide to sell it there are not many people out there that would want it with an off brand motor in it.
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