426 Hemi
- Thread starter jerseyguy357
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SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Those early 340s were/are loved to this day by many gearheads.
Still very much in demand these days by the resto crowd.
That's pretty sad considering my 1972 Nova with a 307 and open headers ran a 14.9 at island dragway in NJ back in 1990!
It had 3.42 gears and posi, No spare but had a back seat.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
We owned a 72 Malibu with the 307cui engine that we really liked. No true racing or anything with it. We just found it to be a really solid great running engine that was very good with the mpg numbers. I must confess that I set up some closed Hooker headers on the car and out the back thru oem style dual exhausts just for fun. I did that to several cars
. Yeah, young and foolish with money to burn back then.No kids or mortgage at the time so.... I also did most of the wrench pulling (out side in yard-no garage) those days since things were not quite as outrageous expensive yet. Wife's car that she loved and allowed me to experiment with all the time.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
While there was certainly some fudging going on, SAE GROSS numbers were all over the place due to a lack of standardization in testing and this would have a big impact on how the engine actually performed in the vehicle because of variation in how much stuff was added to it when it was placed in the actual chassis.Yes indeed, Dodge / Plymouth have been well known to fudge the Hp numbers as far back as the late 60s. Ford and GM pulled the same thing many times too.
This is why the SAE NET standard was developed, to try and better make the testing conditions match up with how the engine would actually perform in service, being dressed in the same manner as it would be in the vehicle. This dropped numbers across the board (by wildly varying amounts), but this also happened just as we began to enter the "smogger" years, which confused and confounded things further.
This is why there is such a divorce between the power numbers (advertised or otherwise) that are recalled from this period vs what those cars actually trapped in testing, which tells us a more accurate story as to how they compare to modern examples and thus can allow us to extrapolate what those numbers look like by modern standards.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
YES. The North American auto industry certainly has had more than its share of wildly swinging ups and downs thru the years. So many things that can be pointed to as the causes. Some not even under their control. One of the biggest ones folks point to (I think deservedly so at times) has been uninspired and very poor management (plus treating their hard working employees like dirt) from the top all the way down. I do realize the UAW are no saints either.
At the least, it does appear that they are finally doing a much better job? Or is it just somewhat more consistency?
My mother bought a new 1974 Chevy Nova with a 350 V-8. That thing was a total dog with fleas that couldn't get out of its own way.
I drove it from Chicago to Florida and back, and averaged a bit over 10 mpg. I believe it was 1971 when Chevy dropped the compression on many of their engines to 9 to 1. Which really killed performance. The 70's were a horrible decade for American cars. Big, heavy, thirsty, and slow.
Waiting for my Tesla is a 10 sec car I can drive to the grocery store in. 
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
This wasn't confined to North America (though the Euros and the Japanese had their own standards), but simply due to a lack of meaningful standardization in how power was measured.
This was addressed with the introduction of SAE NET, a standard that has since been updated, revised and refined over the following decades. We now even have "certified" HP, the LS7 in the Corvette being the best example where GM was originally aiming to advertise it as 500HP, but this was changed to 505HP after the engine was tested. IIRC, the LS7 was the first engine to be tested, and advertised, under this new standard (Certified SAE NET HP).
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I miss those days. The hemi in my truck runs so smooth I forget that its a Hemi.
There was a time when car makers would fudge the HP numbers lower for insurance purposes. Back then some insurance rates were set by HP and they would state a lower number so people could get insurance on them.Dodge/Plymouth were certainly not the only auto maker to play around with Hp numbers for various reasons.
Dodge really told some fibs when it came to the listed Horses on the famous & wildly popular LA 340cui engine. Many folks at one time thought the "LA" had something to do with LA California.) I always had assumed it meant it either had originated or was produced in some California Mopar manufacturing facility. The nickname actually has something to do with the auto maker doing things in engineering/manufacturing it to lighten the engine weight.
One example was the 1970 LA 340cui engines that they famously listed as 270hp for Uncle Sam and the Insurance industry. It has been reported by many engine builders, dyno shops, long time Mopar employees, drag strips and race teams that an original factory prepped LA 340cui in 1970 put out near 340hp. In the Mopar world there are many other instances where the manufacturer had the Hp in sales literature always listed lower than real world ratings. FORD and of course GM did the same thing. Just not as famously well known as Dodge and Plymouth.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Read 'em and weep @Trav There's a lotta technology in modern cars.Waiting for my Tesla is a 10 sec car I can drive to the grocery store in.
I miss my '66 GTO. When it ran right it screamed! What a car! The 7:75-14 bias ply rubber had no chance against the '89 torque monster.
The Goat is why I can't get American performance cars outta my blood. Once bitten...
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SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
The insurance is why Chevy finally changed the name SS on some vehicles. Some to the Type S3. Of course by then the engines were so choked down / de-tuned they hardly had enough horse to get out of their own way.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Thanks. Just another car I have lusted over for many years. I only saw (1) anywhere ever on the streets. All looked real. YET. Now, I have to wonder typing this if some one did not create their own GSX out of another Buick. Lots of stories from car shows of people turning up with what appeared to be the GSXs but then they disclosed that they are really clones. I would bet not many true ones left in existence. Certainly not on the streets or drag strips. Far far too valuable these days. GSX was one very special car GM put out.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
What engine? Did you have the triple carb 389 or the single carb 400cu? Probably dumb question because I can't imagine letting a triple 389 go. Loved that model too. The GM made GTOs made their Chevy Chevelle cousins look like plain Jane boxes on wheels.
The 389 was used from 64 thru 66. My car had the AFB. 1966 was the last year of the 3-2 Roach setup.
The 400 started in 67, with a slightly larger bore and same stroke. The Q-Jet replaced the AFB.
No one knew what these cars would be worth.
I actually drove one at a dealer and it was fast.
I agree with you about not being many left. That boost and acceleration would wear the things out fairly quickly. I don't know what the boost was but it was a powerful one. Wouldn't think the engine would last long because it invited one to push on the accelerator.
