Damn, I guess those of us with the big engines are just stuck. I sometimes think it might be an English design and just marks it's spot.

 

You mean BIG engines. I think a 408 is big.

Anyway, guess you'll just have to carry a pan like the Harley riders do.

 

Well, in 1962 we thought 409 was a big engine, then by 1970 there were 500s. Of course mine is actually 466.

 

Hey, if we are doing a stroll down Memory Lane, in 1958 a 358 was a big engine. Had one. Beautiful big W-shaped valve covers. Shame I didn't turn it into a 409, but I was in college and money was a huge object.

However, there were 383's and 390's in my future, so I kept going up, but have never topped 400 - until now.

 

I think you are referring to a 348 that was the big Chevy engine until the 409. Did you have a Turboglide with it? I drove a 1961 Impala with a 348 and Turboglide when I was at Camp LeJeune. The NCOIC of the shop had been caught once to often DUI and needed the car ferried of base to his house. Someone else drove him and brought me back. Strange transmissions, those and triple turbine Dynaflows.

As for having larger engines, I had a 390 in my 77 F-150, when I was at Old Dominion College, we had a 1966 Polara with a 383, in high school we had a 1959 DeSoto Shopper with a 361 high compression 2 barrel. I had a 1971 Colony park with a 429 2V I converted to 4V, had a 1958 Country Squire with and ex NASCAR 430 .030 over with a nasty mechanical cam probably from a 59 Thunderbird that had Algon injection on it. I took that of and put a big AFB on it. it would light the rear tires after rolling one car length. Had an early Hydra-Matic on a Transdapt adapter and a 2.69:1 rear. I had 235/75R15 Michelin radials on it. I was building it for the Cannonball Baker sea to shining sea memorial dash. Planned on probably 60-70 gal fuel capacity. Ran the info through a simulation program at NASA Langley, if it would pull the redline in 4th, speed would have been 205.7 mph. I had 1973 Galaxie front discs on it so it would stop decently well.

 

My bad - meant to type "348". No, it didn't have the Terribleglyde, it had the Powerflush. But I didn't have it long and I swapped for a 3-speed manual. Huge difference.

Butt, you have me beat on other cars. Wow! I'll hang my head and slink off now.....

 

I think both of you have done rather well!

 

biggest i've drove dealt with gas wise is a 534 superduty... such a beast at 3mpg with a 5x4 trans you gotta know what your doing.... next step down is the 500 ci caddy i played with for a few days then my 460 .030 in my 78 ranger.... but i have rode in a 500+ ci mud truck and it was beyond fast....that 408 is going to be a big step up compared to that 351m in Dads Truck and i venture to bet it won't lose much mileage either

 

If your going to go there, the biggest I drove had a Continental RD602 in it, got 2 mpg except when we were towing something with it, then it dropped to 1. This was in a USMC M40 chassis with a Holmes 850 Twin Boom wrecker. This had a 5 + 2 setup, but 1st and low range in the transfer, it didn't move, it rotated the earth! Red line was 3200 if I remember, but we had big red stickers on the tachometer warning not to exceed 2500 or risk a clutch explosion. BTW, this was an in-line 6. One year I had to put head gaskets on one of the M54s, thankfully they had two heads rather than one long one.

 

Eli, good to hear from you. How are the wife and son? See you in September? [end of hijack; sorry ]

 

Well, I can't top any of these my-engine-is-bigger-than-yours stories, so I'll go the other way. My engine was smaller than yours. It was an .049 CI diesel in an airplane that went around in circles.

 

I had one of them too
Smallest motor in a car was a 817 cc water cooled in a Fiat 850 sedan, no not a racer or spider a sedan.
not mine but had the same wheels from a 124 spider.

next would be a VW bug at 1200cc


Biggest 472 Cady
Dave ----

 

Oh, gosh... neighbor kid when I was a kid had one of those... ***? Testors? I forget. I at one time got my own, a P51 Mustang with the same .049 engine... but I forget the brand name (but I want to say *** for some reason).

 

Yes, *** was the brand of my Piper Cub. My brother had a *** P51 Mustang with that engine. And Testors was the brand of fuel. I can still smell and taste it.

 

Mine was a trainer yellow & blue.


How about the car that had a plan prop on the back. You would use a string hooked to the car and a large nail in the ground and let it run in circles.


IIRC the fuel was called nitro or something?
Dave ----