It seems with such a stellar reputation for durability and economical performance that the slant six would make a great engine for a smaller leisure craft such as a houseboat engine or small trawler. Does anyone have any experience in that area? bobs boy

No experience, but a friend in the Seattle area had twin slants in his cabin cruiser.

hmm, I'm nowhere near as knowledged as the other guys in this forum like dan.

But I have heard quite a lot about valiant/chrysler engines in general being absolute _bitches_ when they get wet.... I think here in aust (dunno about where u are) valiant was renown for somewhat crappy wiring.

Pretty sure that there was a valiant ad. here in aust that had a firetruck spray they engine bay of one of their cars. Then some dude started the car up to prove that there was no problem with water.

Wether it was just a myth or not... I don't know, but there was a post in one of the rooms about someone who discovered a slant in a boat that he bought.... might want to check it out and contact him... don't think it went too far.

I'll see if i can find it for you.

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I recall reading the Direct Connection text about the slant six and it mentioned that marine cams were a nice "better than stock" cam before MP cams came out. I also remember Dan writing something for allpar.com about the slantsix and saying it was a marine engine until something like 1991. Would be neat to find out a little more info!

MJ

There were lots of Marine-prep 225 engines, both slanted and laid the rest of the way over on their side, both conventional and reverse rotation.

Not sure where White Ninja is coming from; Chrysler ignition and electrical systems have always been known for their water resistance—it's not as if they're English pieces of garbage. (Not that this matters; a marine engine uses an entirely different electrical system, fuel system, exhaust system, cooling system, etc. compared to a passenger car engine)

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Never said i had any actual experience with dodgy wiring, jus saying I heard it from some knowledged ppl.
Maybe it was an australian thing???
I dunno

Oh well, r u thinking of putting the slant in a boat bobs boy? Or just curiosity.

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I can't reconcile the question of how damp-resistant slant 6 automotive ignitions are. On the one hand, I've seen some cars I've assumed were well maintained, with their underhood splash shields in place, suffer from hard starting and poor running on wet days
On the other hand I observed a company marketing a line of "miracle" engine products running an engine on a display stand, and , among other indignities, dousing the engine with water from a garden hose. Guess what kind of engine they chose to illustrate their product's superiority? Right

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They use slant-6s to demo their "miracle" oil additives 'cause a slant-6, having solid lifters, will continue to run without oil. About 15 years ago, I couldn't resist maneuvering my way to the front of the crowd at one of these demonstrations and heckling the guy. When he got to the part about how amazing it was that the engine continued to run without oil, I said, nice 'n' loud, "Gee, how amazing. Now let's see you do it with an engine that has hydraulic lifters."

Loser-boy hawking the stuff goes "What's a lifter?".

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"What's a lifter?"

I never thought of that! No oil, valves don't operate!

Um, what about that commercial that ran for a couple of years, showing a roomful of identical engines running with their crankcases drained? And one by one they seize, except for the one that was run on Supercrude? Those weren't slant 6 engines, and not many modern engines have solid tappets. Either it was a rare exception (some Nissans, possibly?) or, as I suspect, a sham. The engines would just stop running if they had hydraulics, once the lifters pumped out. This might not happen before scoring a bearing or wall, however...

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That wasn't real life, either. It was television. And the company got busted (bigtime) for false advertising when repeated reenactments of the alleged demonstration came up with radically different results (all engines quit/seized in moments without oil)

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Well, think about where a slant's distributor is! Right in the path of the spray from the right front wheel. Back in the pre-electronic ignition days, and back before silicone rubber spark plug wires and the like, slants WERE a little more prone to die after diving through a big water puddle than, say, a 318 which had the distributor protected way up on top of the engine by the firewall.

But as long as you keep good wires and a good distributor cap on it, a slant's not anymore prone to wet ignition than anything else.

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My experience, after living at the end of a long gravel road filled with pot holes, is if you go thru any puddle more the 3" deep at anything more then a crawl. You will have problems restarting the engine, due to mositure in the cap. I have never had mositure problems on city streets.

Dude, yer doin' something wrong if that's the case. I lived in sopping-wet Oregon, drove through <i>lots</i> of deep puddles at speed, and never butt never had any wet-out problems. Use a better cap, install a cap gasket (Standard-BlueStreak AL-483G), make sure the distributor splash shield is in place, and use good wires.

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Could be. Australian Slant-6s used different (Australian Bosch-made) distributors. I've never been particularly impressed with Bosch's distributors.

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