The demise of the rear wheel drive/Police intercep

MossRoad · Nov 13, 2001

Is that the straight six or the v6? Just curious.

<font color=green> MossRoad </font color=green>

Hillbilly · Nov 13, 2001

It is the V-6.

MossRoad · Nov 14, 2001

I've got the 4.3 V6 in my Chevy van. It's a 3/4 ton with the short wheel base. It does all right also, but you do have to put your foot in it on hills on the highway.

<font color=green> MossRoad </font color=green>

RobertN · Nov 15, 2001

Scruffy,
Those silly Chevies tend to get all the attention, camaro's and mouse motors, ect. But... Some of the other guys came out with a few hot things that just plain romped!

My Dad has a 69 Javelin in the barn that he fires up occasionally. It has a punched out 360 with 390 heads, balanced, cammed, carbed, ect. It has a built 727 reverse valve body, gear, and a posi. That thing will seriously suprise a Camaro or Mustang!

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

RobertN · Nov 15, 2001

Bird,
The 440 Polara CHP interceptor has to be the fastest law enforcement car made. Those things would really go! I know a few in N. Calif ran even better; a certian partsman I know would order bigger cams for them if they needed engine work/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Most of the big engined cars, Roadrunners, Torino's, ect, were made to run. If you were just putting around, they would load up like crazy. Part of that was poor fuel management with Carb's. If those engines benefitted from fuel injection like we have now, they wouldn't have that problem.

All this talk on the subject, I think I'll have to pull out "Vanishing Point" and watch it/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Did you know it was actually a Camaro that they crashed into the bull dozers?

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

RobertN · Nov 15, 2001

Were'nt Holley's with those power valves notorious for blowing up from a backfire through the carb? I could imagine the mess it would cause, a backfire with flame, and then fuel feeding it from that blown power valve.

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

MikePA · Nov 15, 2001

When I lifted the hood, strings of fiberglass were 'dripping' from the underside of the hood. The vacuum lines burned so the headlights came up as did the cover over the windshield wipers. The Chevy dealer where my car was taken said the fire got hot enough to warp the heads.

scruffy · Nov 15, 2001

RobertN, wouldn't surprise me! My favorite AMC was the 64 Rambler American! Crazy? I don't know. It had a stock 192.5ci inline six w/2 brl carter carb, twin stick tranny (manual shift 3 spd with a manual shift 3spd overdrive). That thing would chew small block chevy/fords w/2 barrel carbs and automatics. The nice thing though, a 327 Chevy v8 would bolt right up to the tranny!! Motormounts, radiator and you were ready to seriously surprise someone! Cracked me up when you would do a little poaching on some vets territory, and the look on their face when they hit 4th gear, and you were shifting again, and then again! Had a few people pull me over to find out what I had in it!
The 343's and 390's were fine engines 'out of the box', and factory stock 10.5 to 1 compression ratios, 4 speed tranny's etc, made excellant street machines. Didn't take a lot of tweeking to make a strong contender in ANY circuit! The weakest part on them was the rear axle to hub setup. What a joke, but a little arc welding cured that issue!

Jag · Nov 15, 2001

Robert, I did not know that about the camaro in Vanishing Point need to check it out in slow-mo... One of my uncle's had a 440 Polara CHP interceptor. It was in a Kansas City railyard when a derail happen next to it, an angle iron went down one side. He got from the insurance company. The only thing I remember other than it had some power, how much I could not say, he never opened it up when us three little kids where in the car... it had a 40 gallon tank.

Jeff396 · Nov 15, 2001

I have heard that they can be quite a problem. I myself have not had any problems with the Holly on the Vette but am instead in a constant state of torture with the Ford carb on the T-bird. I do know that it is quite common to get bad power valves in carb rebuild kits making it necessary to check them before installation. I've had the Vette for over 4 years now and have yet to mess with its carb! As an aside, I found out that the carb on my matching # Vette is a service replacement. When I got a price on a restored carb with the correct #'s I about passed out.....$1200.00!!!!

Jeff