Posted by Rick Denney on April 03, 2001 at 17:10:18:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: small cars that carry large tubas posted by Jason Baker on April 03, 2001 at 16:36:50:
The old 350's (I assume you are talking about
a GM 350ci V8) were dogs because of smog laws and carbueration.
Ah, youth. Time was when that 350 was one nice small-block engine. We think 5.5 liters is big nowadays, but then it was a small, reliable engine that was the workhorse of the brand you love. Kind of like a King tuba. The 6/4 engine in the GM line was a 427 or the 454 for the 'vette, and a 455 for Oldsmobiles such as the impossibly fast and incredibly dangerous W-30--a Cutlass on steroids. And let's not forget the 400 big block, in the Cutlass 442. 350-schme50.
350 horsepower? Is that all? The 350 was designed before smog laws, my boy. My 1970 had a PCV valve on it. That's all. And we don't even think of that as a pollution device any more. Any engine will choke when you put a single-stage catalytic converter on it, as they did in 1975. And dropping the octane rating 10% didn't help, neither. It took Motown 20 years to figure out how to get around all that stuff.
I have screamed in frustration at many a Rottenchester Quadrajunk--I'm with you there.
Rick "bringing lots of gas money for this drive down memory lane" Denney