5 Best Unknown V8 Engines From The Muscle Car Era

There were many great performance v8

engines

from the golden

muscle

car bug, the Chrysler 426 Hemi Chevrolet ls6 454 Pontiac 455 h0 Buick stage-one 455 and the Ford 427 v8 are just a few of the great v8

engines

from this original

muscle

car time period car with so many high performance engines were produced during this error. Many good V8 engines were forgotten. Some of them it is understandable why they have been forgotten as they were not true performance engines, but there are some that provided a lot of performance but have been forgotten. over time due to the shadows cast by their larger displacement, high performance siblings, here is the list of the top five unrecognized muscle car v8 engines from the original muscle car mistake the ford k-code hi-po 289 v8 is easy to see how Ford works The fantastic 289 cubic inch v8 small block K code was lost in the fray and forgotten by many, with most sports car fans focusing on the classic Ford cars powered by the Ford's 429, 428, 427 and 390 cubic inch big block V8s, there's just no room. for the love of k code, add to that, the 1969 to 1970 302 cubic inch v8 small block took away what little attention k code had, it didn't let the lack of love for you, k code be one of The top-performing Ford B8 produced during the 1960s produced a whopping 271 gross horsepower and began life as a late-1963 Fairlane engine option.

It was the Mustang's high-performance engine option from 1964 and medium until 1967. The K code is the same as the 289 standard. It had a large 4 inch board and a small 2 point eight and seven inch stroke, the K code had solid lifters, a hot chamber, a compression ratio of ten, five to one, high performance exhaust manifolds and a 600 CFM automatic lightweight carburetor, the K code also ran the 1965 to 1967 Shelby gt350 and all Shelby Cobra 289 models on these cars. Shelby modified the K-code to provide 306 gross horsepower. A 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 went 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.7 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds and 98 miles. per hour Shelby also offered in 1966 and 1967 a supercharged version of the K-code that generated an incredible 390 gross horsepower.

The nickname given to K-code in its day was hypo, which means high performance, in fact that is exactly what it was, although K-code may have been forgotten by many for decades. Fords equipped with the K code are now highly sought after by car collectors. The Chrysler 340 v8. Now here's an engine getting disrespectful treatment from Rodney Dangerfield. Chrysler may have produced the engine but had little interest in it. To promote it, the Chrysler 340 was launched for the 1968 model year and remained until the end of the 1973 model year, when it was first released. It was the perfect bedroom.

It had a gross horsepower of 275 from its inception through the end of the 1971 model year. In 1972 and 1973, the 340 was detuned to run on unleaded fuel and its power was reduced to 240 net horsepower. It was the 340 from 1968 to 1971 that gave those who did not have a lot of money to buy the large displacement Muscle Cars the opportunity to still compete with the 340 from 1968 to 1971. The actual rated horsepower was a little over 300 horsepower. brute force. What made the 340 so powerful was that it was a lightweight small block v8 that was part of the super reliable Chrysler engine family the v8 series by which it was overshadowed.

Chrysler's 426 Hemis for the 40 and 383 were all big-block v8s that were available in most of Chrysler's muscle car offerings, but don't let that fool you, there were plenty of 340-equipped Mopar muscle cars that put the 383 to shame. electric mopars and others. Large displacement muscle cars, not to mention the 340, had a huge weight advantage over their big block siblings, allowing for better handling. It had a big 4.0 4 inch board and a 3.31 inch stroke. The 340 had a compression ratio of 10.5 to 1. Free-flow heads and a Carter ABS four-barrel carburetor for 1971 Chrysler reduced the compression ratio from ten point five to one to ten point three to one;

However, it now had J-headers and a new higher-flow four-barrel thermal quad carburetor to compensate. The end result was the 1971 340 was the most powerful of the 1968 to 1971 340 v8s; Actual power was rumored to be around 325 gross horsepower; I'm still not convinced that the 340 is a diamond in the rough. Hot rod magazine tested a 1971 Dodge Challenger with factory-original 340 engine and got a 14-point 1/8 second quarter mile for comparison Super street car magazine tested a 1971 Dodge Challenger equipped with a six-pack 390 horsepower 440 v8 engines and earned a 14 point 1 second quarter mile time 1968 to 1971 340 Mopar muscle cards are still very affordable compared to most classic muscle cars, but offer fantastic performance, the pontiac 350 hov 8 mention the pontiac 350 cubic inch v8 and conversation and most people will say the confusion is understandable since the pontiac 350 is Pontiac's forgotten v8 engine if the pontiac 350 is mentioned in conversation passenger This is usually the 1974 GTO.

The Pontiac 350 was the only engine in the GTO for that model year. Everyone is familiar with the legendary performance of the Pontiac v8, the 389, 400, 421, 428 and the 455 cubic inch V8, but not the 350. The 350 was. First introduced for the 1968 model year, it had 3.875 inches for and 3.75 and stroke; however, it is the high performance or HL version of this engine which was a true performance engine that was only offered in a few Pontiac models including the 1968 Firebird, the 358 show. which was equipped with a Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor produced a very healthy 320 gross horsepower for 1969. Gross horsepower increased to 325 due to the addition of new high-performance heads and a camshaft taken directly from the Ram Air Three hundred and four hundred Pontiac, the 1969 350.

A chosen compression ratio was ten point five to one, the 1969 358 was able to achieve half-14 second quarter mile times in the Firebird Storm at LeMans. Just a few adjustments are needed to reduce the quarter-mile time of the 1969 358 to the 13th Oldsmobile. ramrod w31 350 v8 during the original muscle car bug also became known for its high performance 404 55 cubic inch big block V8 also built small block v-8 offerings were relegated to duty and Oldsmobiles more pedestrian cards, the The main exception was when Ozan Bill released a high performance 350 cubic inch small block V8 engine for the 1968 model year called the Ramrod 350 or better known as the W 31.

It was offered exclusively in the Olinville Cutlass and F 85 models from 1968 to 1970. It sold very small numbers during this three model years run for 1968 and 1969, most of the w31 cutlass models were understated and looked like any vanilla two-door cutlass and not the flashy 1970 442 based muscle car cutlass. which had changed the w 31 and had most of the exterior and racing styling cues. stripes found on the 442, w 31 equipped cutlass models from 1968 to 1970 all had ram air induction. The 1970 was the only w31 model to have functional dual air intakes on the hood, while the other w 31s had air intakes under the front bumper.

The W 31 produced 325 gross power and had a compression ratio of 10.5 to 1 It had a stroke of 4.0 5 7 inches 4 and 3.3 to 5 inches The W31 had a high performance cam and a four-wheel carburetor Performance-calibrated Rochester Quadrajet cylinders The W31 used the same headers and exhaust manifolds as the other also built 350 engines of the same model year 1970, an aluminum intake manifold replaced the cast iron intake manifold used on the W31 cars. 1968 to 1969. A 1970 w31 powered Cutlass was tested by the popular hot rodding magazine and scored a fourteen point six two second quarter mile with performance like this there is no doubt that the w31 was a genuine automobile engine , the Chevrolet L 79 327 v8, among the

unknown

car engines, the Chevrolet L 79,327 cubic inch v8 has become the most well-known for muscles. car fans and collectors over the past two decades, the L 79 327 was produced from the 1965 model year through the 1968 model year, the L 79 was not the most powerful small block Chevrolet v8 nor even the most powerful 327 v8 ever produced However, it was the 327 v8 that got real high-performance power for the people;

It powered many different Chevrolet models from 1965 to 1968. It was even available on the Corvette during this period. It was never the Corvette's top engine option, but it provided plenty of power. The reason the L 79 appeared on this list was that Chevrolet did not promote this engine, treating it as only a very slight performance upgrade over their base 327 v8, as an example. Note that the fuss may have been about the 375-horsepower big-block l78. 396 cubic inch v8 a fast Chevrolet Chevelle SS during this bug, but those cars were too expensive for most performance buyers. However, a buyer could get a Chevelle with 350 horsepower.

The L 79 327 was rated in some applications with 325 horsepower. instead of 350 horsepower. The horsepower drop was simply Chevrolet tweaking the numbers for marketing reasons. The L 79 still made 350 gross horsepower even when factory rated. It had 325 gross horsepower, the L 79 had a compression ratio of 11 point zero to one, a high performance hydraulic camshaft, high compression pistons and a 600 CFM Holley four barrel carburetor for the 1968 model year. , the Holley was replaced by a 750 CFM Rochester Quadrajet. four-barrel carburetor, cars equipped with the L 79 are capable of hitting the 14-second quarter-mile range, but that's not what makes the L 79 so special, it's how easy and inexpensive it is to modify. the L 79 to achieve the 13 or 12 second quarter mile time range