If you love your street staff, gas prices may have got you a little nervous. With prices quickly edging closer to four dollars per gallon, chances are you’re not making that super big haul every day. An overlooked and underappreciated talent available to install on your staff that will save you some bucks is the V6. As long as you’re keeping your electronics in the newer generation, and aren’t afraid to dig around for some of your older cars, some great stuff from your friendly neighborhood junkyard can save you some serious cash. not only in gas, but also in the overall cost. What follows are five excellent V6 engines that would make a good home in a hot rod. While you leave the panache of the V8, the trade-off is often not quite what you expect.
Number five 1996-1998 Ford Mustang GT 3.8L V6. Prices for a complete engine on Ebay usually start around $650, but chances are you can just tow the entire drive at your local tow truck or junkyard. Supercar kits are available as well as great rebuild kits if the engine is really put through its paces in life. Since these wheels drive the rear engine the bolts mount in the same place to fit a 5.0L or 4.6L engine. The right aftermarket parts can be adjusted to the horsepower rating, as well, so you won’t be disappointed off the line because you have two fewer cylinders.
1996-2000 Chevrolet Camaro 3.8L long block. Rather than using Chevrolets 5.7L LS series engines, as they are thirsty, the V6 engines from the Camaro and Firebirds only need the original wiring harnesses that are available with the car. A smaller street-rod such as a T-bucket or a ’26-’34 Ford will happily use the two hundred available. If you want to burn the horses behind the crowns.
The 1992-201 Dodge Dakota Magnum, a 3.9L Magnum may not have the visual or perceived impact of a HEMI, but it will drive you around, and it will never leave you with an expensive part of the bill. While newer HEMI engines guzzlegas at an almost negligible rate, Dakotas will possess good power delivering pretty good gas mileage it can be adapted to any application where a V8 might otherwise be used.
The Chevrolet S-10 has had a V6 engine for years, and the V6 4.3 has been around for about twenty years. One of the longest running production engines in existence, the Chevrolet 4.3L engine has no shortage of replacement parts around local junkyards and a good following of replacement parts at local parts stores. One thing that some people don’t know about the 4.3 is that all the parts are from a Chevy 350, including pistons, rings, lifters, rods, and rockers. If you happen to use some high cylinder parts in your work, they will fit into six parts.
Engine number one to consider hot rods is the mid 80’s Buick 3.8 that could be found in the Grand National. . While the original GN isn’t likely to be found lying around junkyards, its counterparts from Oldsmobile and even the Buick Regal are plentiful. Companies make aftermarket turbo systems to give you the 300+ horsepower found in the GN, and like the Ford 3.8, they fit in the same place where the Chevrolet 302 and 350 fit.
A few short years before V8 engines will become far too expensive to drive every day, especially those large displacement engines whose Fiber economy in each He wanders through his fingers. Powerful six-cylinder engines will once again push street rods, even if the gas price goes up to five or so dollars per gallon .
