Hi

Had the following experience - same car same caravan same route lots of trips with slant six later lots of trips with 318 V8 - the 318 used the same amount of gas as the slant - sometimes in windy and hilly conditions less

Reason -I would say - 318 had more reserve power and torque - did not need to be pushed as hard - slant was working harder doing the same job

AND it was years before the internet and wonderful slantsix.org info "cam" along

BTW did a dizzy re-curve on the 318 as well ...............GOOD GRIEF it is frankly scary - time for wider rubber has 5.5J going to 7

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Regards,
Fanie Gerber
It's never junk, it's just a part you're not currently using

http://www.valiant50.co.za
Just say I own a few Mopars

Have you spoke with Gear Vendors on your trans goals? I thought I could do the same thing but you must convert your auto trans to a full manuel to run the 6 speed. Thats what GV told me and the same from SMR trans.
Also the fuel useage from 198 to 225 is almost nonexsitance. If that was the case I think during the 70's gas crunch the would have replaced the 225 with the 198. :shrug: .

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it's like a vw, sounds like a million miles an hour but goes really slow. (for now)

You have to manually shift the trans to experiance the 6 gears.But you dont have to do anything for overdrive but hit the button on your dash.Also there in no converting anything on/in the trans.Just get the right adapter remove tail peice and replace with the gearvendors unit.I thought the 198 was obsolete in 74,so wouldnt that mean it wasnt even an option durring the "gas crunch"?

You will have to run a manuel valve body in you trans. You WILL shift it and then split the gears. If you go 1st then split the regular valve body the trans will freak out and not shift correctly. As I said I wanted the same thing but they all said the samething. I used to live down the street from GV in Santee when I lived in San diego.

And they would have brought back the engine, slant wise, to be better of thats all I meant.

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it's like a vw, sounds like a million miles an hour but goes really slow. (for now)

The advice to go with a 225 is good. Depending on your skill and budget levels, you may want to consider fuel injection. It's cool and nifty to be able to say you have six forward speeds, but there's no practical reason to use the GV overdrive as anything but a 4th gear, and as the others have mentioned, doing the 6-speed thing requires a bunch of manual shifting, which is a damnuisance with a gear selector meant to control an automatic transmission. The lockup torque converter gains you about 5% highway mileage and cannot be used behind an unmodified '67-down slant-6 crankshaft.

What kind of driving will this car see? Mostly city, mostly highway? What kinds of highway cruising speeds?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I would say 60% highway 40% city.Cruise speeds anywhere from 60-80 m.p.h...its So.Cal gotta go with the flow of traffic.

mopardemon71-

Not sure who you talked to,but when I talked to them they make no mention of running a full manual valve body.Also every artical I read about a gearvendors install,they dont make this swap and they run it through all six gears!

Do the math.

Gear Vendors overdrive is, IIRC, somewhere between 25% and 30%. Let's take the middle of that range, 27½%. Subtracting that from 1 and rounding gives us 73%.

Gear ratios on a Torqueflite like yours are 2.45, 1.45, 1.00

2.45 × 0.73 = 1.79
1.45 × 0.73 = 1.06

So your six ratios would be 2.45, 1.79, 1.45, 1.06, 1.00, 0.73. Yep, that's six ratios alright, but they're spaced pointlessly close together. There's no usable difference between first-over and second, nor between second-over and third. The only usable difference here is between third and third-over.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Plan out your costs and savings carefully. It's fun to build "paper tigers" in your head, multiplying a bunch of swaps and mods by each other to arrive at fantastic fuel economy, but at what cost, and with what real result? How long will it take you in fuel savings to make back $1k in mods? $2k? $3k?

For your planned driving parameters, it looks to me like a good setup would be a 225 engine, lockup automatic transmission with the ordinary rather than the later low-ratio gearset (no, there would still be no point to your six-speeds idea even with the low-ratio gears), overdrive unit, 3.23 rear axle, and P205/70R14 tires. The 3.23 gears with 205/70R14 and a well-tuned 225 will be lively and economical around town, and in third-over your final drive ratio will be around 2.36, giving you an engine speed of just under 1900 rpm @ 60 mph, 2500 rpm @ 80 mph. With careful cam selection and installation and thoughtful configuration of the rest of the engine, this combo should return very good mileage. Note that if your present transmission is in good condition, there's little point in building up a lockup unit just to have the lockup. Not cost-effective; wait til the present trans needs replacement.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

The point of the GV unit for me is not the gear splitting.Its the overdrive,whithout the insane modification to put in a A-518.Like I said this car is orignal,and its my dream car,so I dont want to hack it up. Also Im the kinda guy that if I wanted 6 gears,I would put a T-56 in my car. This is not a race car,but a fun daily driver:Hence the reason a 67 Dart with a slant is my dream car Its just a neat little novelty that I 'could' shift 6 gears with my little 904

Thank you for the clairfication on the need for the lock-up.I will build one only if/when I need one.

Also I plan to run a set of coys 17in. wheels on the dart,made of lightweight alloy and painted gunmetal, will look bitchin on my factory silver Dart. What tire size would you reccomend for a 17x7?

I'd never run 17" wheels on a Dart, so I can't recommend a tire size for you.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I found a tire calculator online looks like a 205/70/14 = about a 215/50/17

Or a 235/45/17 to get a little more meat on these wheels

Gent, I was only tring to help so I know how it feels when someone seems to bash. But I'm not I want a gear veanders so I can run 4.10 at the strip or around town and drive home on the freeway with 3.20's. I was only giving you a heads up with what the salesman told me.

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it's like a vw, sounds like a million miles an hour but goes really slow. (for now)

17's (and 18's) look great on an A-body.:




215/45-17 front, 235/40-18 rear. Looks even better in person. Dan's just old school. But then, I hate 14" Cragar S/S's with a passion. To each his own!

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vm

I would run 225/50R17 on a 17x7" wheel. That's 25.9" tall and won't look too small. The 245/45R17 like they run on Mustangs needs an 8" wide wheel.

The Gear Vendors OD in OD is .78:1. So the ratios of a close ratio A904 using gear splitting would be 2.45, 1.91, 1.45, 1.13, 1.00, .078. With the wide ratio A904 you would achieve 2.74, 2.13, 1.54, 1.20, 1.00, 0.78. With 3.23 gears and the wide ratio A904 you'd have a starting ratio of 8.85:1 and an overdrive ratio of 2.52. On "paper" the wide ratio lockup trans and the GV OD looks pretty sweet.

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Joshua

I didnt feel like you were bashing at all! I really appreciate your input! I was literally asking WHO you talked to,so I might be able to get ahold of them and rack their brain.It seems like they should mention this on their website,not so much a plug and play after all!

I personally LOVE the looks of bigger wheels on old muscle! As long as you dont go over 18's! I want the 17's because they have a HUGE selection of tires,and they do not cost as much as 18's+ do.

My favorite part about cars I own is being an underdog(slant six Dart) with GREAT handling. While I am going to keep the interior and paint/body stock,I want to update the suspension as much as my wallet can afford! Im thinking of going with bigger T bars in the front,add a sway bar,all new bushings,better shocks,and disc brakes(with the caliper adapter plate so I can run the B body 11.75 discs.)Out back I would love to run the RMS Srteet-Lynx system if I can ever afford it.

I am a true slanter,with big dreams and a little pocket book!I mean I am lucky I can even buy this Dart. But I am just getting some ideas down,so when and if I can afford this stuff,I I know what I want.