I think you are right Bob, about those Chitty Hp numbers.......The 350 chev in my 83 class C motor home makes a whopping 165 hp, and the 454 in 83 was barely 200hp. In 1975 I bet that Monte Carlo's 454 was making about 190 hp!........

 

Where oh where did our buddy 6.6 go? Must be a lot of hay needs cutting........Engines have really progressed since those "dark" days,Dave! Plenty of small 4 cylinders make 165 Hp these days,and nowadays a 200 Hp 6 cyl. is considered underpowered,and most of the competitive V8's are making at least 275 Hp,with lots pushing quite a bit more.....Of course,even if that old 454 only put out 20-25% more hp than some 4 cylinders,it still had pretty good torque #'s........

 

Totally off the topic,as far as engines go,but i will admit im rather impressed with how heavily my newest addition to the Fleet,an 80 Chevy K20 has its rear leaf springs set-up...After all,the old Highboys arent exactly softly sprung,i went out in the driveway and the 72/75 has 8 rear leaves,probably a 2-3/4- 3" stack,on top of a 4" block. The Chevy has NO rear blocks,but a 4" thick stack of 11 main leaves,with a set of 5 leaf overloads,and it appears factory! I would assume this has to do with GVW,as the Chevy is at 8600 lbs,and i seem to recall that max GVW for a 75 F250 4x4 is at around 7700 lbs

 

Yeah, I don't know the exact numbers on Ford's 4.6l or GM's 4.8L but when I was lookin at '09 Dakotas the 4.7L is now up from its original 230hp to 304...

 

6.6 liter is defending one of the worst POS engines GM ever put out, the stock SBC 400 chev. will never be known for much more than overheating, warped castings and cracked cyl. heads. The 350 or the 402 BB were far better motors.........I dont know, Bob maybe 6.6 took the same writing class as Shipboy.

 

Dave,have you ever heard of "Lake Creek rural fire District"? its roughly West of Eugene/Springfield,and its where the Chevy was trailered down from by the guy i bought it from............Regarding the Dakota,with 300+ Hp,that thing ought to just about be able to actually fly!

 

Lake creek RFD is about 50 miles west of me in the coast range, VERY rural, beautiful country with a great salmon/ steel head run on the Siuslaw river.......The area Ken Kesey wrote about in "once a great notion"....(Never give an inch) movie with Peter Fonda about loggers.

 

THe First 4 trucks i ever owned were all either 1970 or 1968 GMC's,a 70 1/2ton 2wd Suburban with a 292 6cyl,and a 4 speed(great torque,esp. at low rpm) a 70 3/4t 2wd w/ a 327,and a 4spd( fairly Quick),a 70 3/4t 2wd w/a 350/Turbo350(probably quicker than the 454 powered Monte Carlo) and a 68 3/4 4wd w/ a 327 4spd and 4.56 gears(not quick,no top end thanks to 4.56 gears,HARD riding,potentially thumb and wrist breaking thanks to manual steering,but it was fun off road). In the years since ive owned a little of everything,last time i tried adding them all up on a sheet of paper,i counted 35 total cars and trucks,of which only 4 havent been either pickups or SUV's....

 

Flyin is about what it'll do if you get the optional 3.92 rearend. As for the heavy leaf springs, I was considering it for my F-350 but then I figured I'd make a field repair truck out of it. Throw an air compressor on the motor, put airbags in it for the gooseneck, put tanks on it for running an impact and air jack... That ought to shorten up the work day, then I wouldn't be stuck out in the field all day makin hay like some illiterate 400 SBC connesseur.

 

Tell ya what Dave,if i manage to make it up your way one of these days,i will let you know ahead of time,and maybe we can get together for a Beer,i seem to recall a brewery or two in the Eugene/Springfield area,probably one of the McMenamins.....My ex-wife and i made a road trip up thru Oregon in 2002 for two weeks and loved it,and my Current wife and i took our Honeymoon trip up thru your Beautiful state in october 2007,and enjoyed it a bunch. Nice people in your state,we noticed that Oregon's liberals are typically less angry than are California's......oops,Admin,i will avoid the dreaded "P" word in this area,dont wish to get this rather entertaining thread tossed

 

Hey Riflemen,there's possibly a reason 6.6 hasnt been back,with his choice in engines it may very well have over-heated and seized up in the field,so he may very well be walking! If so,wont he be P.O'd if he gets picked up by a Ford driver with a 460 powered rig

 

Darn its Friday night,i'll bet that 6.6 found a real purty sheep to take to the bar tonite.....Good luck 6.6!

 

Sounds great, Bob!..........Mc Menamins is pretty lib/ yuppie, good food but kinda uptight.
I can steer you to some other watering holes that you might feel even more comfortable in!..................Bring your pole October is the middle of salmon season on the rivers!...You will have a free guide!

 

When the sheep hear a 6.6 SBC rattling up, they run the other way very fast!

 

For some reason,the Fire dept decided that the truck needed a little heavier than normal front bumper,so they fabbed one out of 3"x12"x1/4" rectangular tubing,and welded it to the frame,i found a site that lists weight for this tubing at 24 lbs/ft. it stuck down too far,so i cut it off and am in the process of putting a Ramsey chrome winch bumper and a RE10000 worm gear winch on it. The Combo had been on a late 80's-early 90's full size Dodge,and i traded a 79 Dodge w200 club cab for it and a set of 35"BFG's on Weld rims,after i took the Dodge's better tires/wheels,camper shell,and lumber rack and put them on the 72/75 Highboy......Thats what i like about a lot of the late 60's-mid 80's trucks,lots of stuff either easily interchanges,or requires little in the way of fabrication to fit