I know that this question has been asked alot on this forum but I wanted ya'll's opinions. I have a 200 i6 in my maverick right now runs pretty solid nothing wrong with it. I live in texas so we have a lot of trucks most of them are just rednecked out but a few of them are built for speed and are pretty fast, chevy 1500s mostly I guess I live in chevy country we have some rice racers but again being texas not many I guess I just would want to give those guys a run for their money. I want to be fast but at the same time I want to be original and I don't drag race so I don't need a v-8 and nothing says original quite like a i6. I just want a daily driver with enough horses to keep up with one of these (at least for a while). If I build a 200 i6 right will I be able to be semi competitive against say a mild '01ish chevy 1500 and by your estimate how much would it cost? I really dont want to swap a 302 in but I know that would cheaper.
In a word, no. 200s are great, but speed isn't their strong point. The integrated intake manifold really makes it hard to make power with these engines. Short of turbocharging (if you know how to go about it) you're just wasting your time. If you gotta keep a six, slip in 300 truck motor(not a direct bolt in, but not THAT hard) with a 4 bbl, headers and maybe a shot of NOS. It won't be cheap, but paint everything blue and most chevy guys will think it came in there. I'd build a roller 302 and disguise it as an original Mav 302, blue valve covers, air cleaner and all. Be cheaper in the long run I believe.
nitrous would be the easyest way. or a home built turbo kit www.theturbofourms.com will have all the info you would need on that. you could dump a lot of money into building the i6 but it should cost less to convert to a v8.
Maybe if you swap over to 250 six cylinder you might have a chance. Gene Fiore has a built up 250 in his Maverick grabber. I forget what all he did to it but he drag races it and is quite respectable for a street car, especially for a 6 cylinder.
It all depends on how much you want to spend. If you check out www.classicinlines.com they have all kinds of go fast goodies for the 200/250 motor. Mine runs 15.40's in the 1/4 mile and is fun to drive. There is also an aluminum head available for these engines from the above site, but again it's all about how much you want to spend. I do not have the aluminum head.
Big fan of inline's here. When I win the lottery I'm hoping to turbocharge it or swap to a 250 and do the same. It'll cost more than the traditional v-8 route but it's helli-cool to open a hood and see a straight six these days. I always pass this link along to show what's at the upper limit of possibilities with a little 200!
I have I6 performance parts and motors. I love the I6 over the V8. Why? It's difference. The main thing is the head, carboration and cam. I have have multi-carb set-ups, ho cams and rebuild parts that I will sell. Sent me PM if interested. I am in Forney, TX near Dallas. You need to come and see me. Rick View attachment 46576 A sold set-up View attachment 46577 My ranchero View attachment 46578 My ranchero
Anything is possible with money. Do I feel its worth the money spent on a 200. Nope. Thats me though. I had a friend years back that restored a 67 Stang. Did a beauty job and went all out on the motor. Had head work done,custom cam built, 3 carbs etc... spent a small fortune. Took it to the track and couldnt break 17 seconds in the quarter. Ran side be side wtih my little smogger 255 V8 81 Mustang. It takes a lot of know how and a chunk of change to get the little I6's moving. You certainly wont compete with a decent ricer car. Worlds apart in technology. Just build something your happy driving. Thats my advice. Dont build it to beat other cars. Thats not realistic. Always somebody out there faster than you. Those little ricers annoy the hell out of me to but some of them really make power. Lots of them around here would leave my 302 Mav standing. Doesnt bother me. I actually get a chuckle out of it. Its amazing how much power and abuse those little motors can take. I drive a clunky old iron headed,push rod V8. Sounds nice but I dont expect it to make the power ratio that a modern engine is capable of.
i agree, keep the six for a get around motor, they were built for decent mileage and reliability. you can hop up a six of course, i would recommend the fordsix handbook as a starting point and fordsix.com for advice. theres little things to pep the motor up and tricks for cheap power. it does get expensive fast when building a six though, but is a different route to take. I agree with darren, dont worry how fast other peoples cars are, just keep the old iron on the road
Sixes can run as well as any other engine. You have to replace the weaker parts (remember they are the bottom of the line from the 70s) with stronger ones and you have some obstacles to overcome but it is fun to do and more fun to run. To the original poster: the 200 is limited two ways; 1. the cast-in intake is parts of the head. 2. sixes are long and have a rev limit around 6200 rpm. The good part is it has seven main bearings and a fairly short stroke. The cast intake can be machined for a 2 to 2 barrel adapter and using a Ford or Holley 2bbl carb you can get nearly the same flow as the expensive aluminum replacement head. You can use the adjustable rockers from the early 170s. To make more power you will need a cam that lets you turn to 5500 rpm before reaching maximum power. That will let you turn to 6000 as a redline. Without strokeing the engine you can use pop-up pistons to get the compression up near 10:1, use a cam with 214 duration @.050" with a max lift of around .4 - .46" at the valve. balance the entire rotating and eciprocating engine assembly to get all the power that it makes to the flywheel. Choose a good full length header with dual outlets, collectors that are half the length of the primary tubes and dual 2" pipes with no connection between them. (no "H" or "X" pipes. combined with the two barrel adapter and a Ford 2100 you can get close to 230 HP. To make it competitive swap in a 3.7x - 3.8x : 1 rear end ratio. Get your traction down to hold and you can be competitive on the street.
The cylinder head is usually where you'll get most of your performance inhancement.Toaday's aftermarket is producing a lot of parts for the straight six Ford. ALUMINUM high flow heads with bolt on intakes, 2v or 4v, and you don't have to turn the engines to death to get the power out of them.Ive seen dyno test results that show over 300 h.p. andover 300 lb. ft. of tourqe at less than 4,000 r.p.m. on the 250 c.i. Get a good head like one of these, and do your homework on your engine's weaknesses and characteristics. If you study your engine and the parts sources web sites, you will learn alot. http://classicinlines.com/alumoverview.asp
Yeah I've been lurking around classicinlines and fordsix forums reading a lot of stuff for the better part of a year. Are their aluminum heads based on the aussie design? it seems like they are but I don't know for sure. Thanks for all the advice. I have a question regarding torque it is my understanding that the more torque you have the faster acceleration am I correct? thanks again
