Ok, fellow Mav guys and gals...here's the deal. I just got Mav #2 here in the stable. It's a '76 4 door with a 250 and auto, ps. It's a Southern car so you can imagine what I don't have to deal with, but there is a problem I have to rectify in the short term. The car is going to be used as a daily driver unlike the Stallion. The car has high mileage and the motor has suffered as a result, bulletproof as the 6 bangers are. Bottom line is that it needs an overhaul or replaced. The rings are basically shot though since I did a tune up and put Lucas in the oil (changed) it runs strong as I found on the 6 hour ride home with it. The gas mileage sucked, though, and it has to go. A rebuilt engine costs too much ($1800 for a Jasper, $1500 local rebuild of my core and that's with me doing the removal and install on both, or $2400 drive in/drive out) and I'm not equipped to do a rebuild myself in a couple of ways. I have an opportunity to get a 200 with desirable features like low mileage and some servicing having been done to it. I realize that this is a departure from what y'all usually do as I'm going backward on size, but economy is a consideration as it's a daily driver. Cost is a big one, also, or I'd just get the rebuild and be done with it. I'm also unable to drive many hours to get one for sale like the 250 rebuild in Illinois posted in the "for sale" thread recently because of my work schedule. I'd sure appreciate some productive feedback as this is a bit of a quandry.
wes, my 4dr with the 250 gets 20-21 mpg on the open road and 17 or so in town. your 4dr might do worse cuz of the extra weight? bumpers etc. my 70 has a 200 engine and its mileage isn't much better. i think we got around 22 coming to carlisle. as far as dropping a 200 in your new car, all i can say is this. "woof"! my 70 is a real dog. yours will be even worse cuz of the heavier car. if you are ok with a dismal performance and the 200 is cheap i say jump on it. looks like that's what i have to do.. i told todd to run our 4dr every week or so since we don't drive it now. last week he ran it in the garage and out of nowhere the engine froze! it had oil too. anyhow once we drop the 302 in our 70, the 200 is going into our 4dr.
If the 200 froze suddenly, it may not be going anywhere in anything. You probably are right and the mileage may well suck with the 200 as the car is heavy and that would be self-defeating, but I just need to figure out what to do as $$$ is the biggest consideration with this dilemna.
well if it were me and it gets through inspection ok without a bunch of smoke, and the compression is relatively even, i say use real heavy oil and run it till i breaks!
Wes, breakthrough idea here. Convert to small bumpers and get the 200. Itll still cost less than getting the 250 rebuilt. Yet it will still retain decent gas mileage and well I cant say much for the get up and go part of it cuz there wont be. ( get headers for the 200, that'll help, hehe) Good luck with everything Wes. Which one are you going to bring to the pa meet? Oh man if you still have the four door next year I think we could get the numbers way up there. There will be two from this house!! -Todd
Sorry, Todd. I have no intentions of getting radical with the 4 door. I just want to fix the engine problem and do the other restoration things it needs, and maybe a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion, though. It's just not in the cards.
uhhhh.....wes??????? this extra mav is getting your priorities all messed up. the most important thing is to update your info on this site. 76 stallion etc. etc. and my new 4dr! everything else seems to fall right into place after that.
Wes, I have a used, freshly rebuilt (about 2000 miles on it) 250cid inline six that I'd be willing to sell to ya for $450. Heck, I'll even throw in the extra, newly-rebuilt carb that I never had to install (hey, but it was a great bargain on Ebay!). I rebuilt the engine myself with all of the good parts, so I know it was done correctly. I yanked it out so I could put in a CHP V8 Also, forgot to mention, it smoked the tires on my two-door before I took it out! Let me know if your interested! Tracy
250 to 200 = not an exact drop in There are some minor differences that will add up to some extra work to swap a 200 in place of a 250. First of all, the bellhousings, flexplates, and torque converters are different. The 200 has a smaller bell housing pattern, so you'd need all of that stuff to convert your transmission. Next is the cooling system. The upper and lower hoses are slightly different, so plan for new rubber. The 200 uses a different water pump and pulleys. The engine is shorter, so the exhaust pipe will end up 1 1/2" lower than before. Make sure that's not a clearnace problem. The starter is different too, so you'll need that. The oil pan and timing cover don't interchange so you'll need those. The motor mounts are not exactly the same, but you should be able to make the ones from the 250 work. Frankly, the cheapest, easiest option is to try to score a good 250.
Just change (or clean) the plugs every 750-1000 miles or so and you won't have any problem. That's what I did for 10,000 miles on the car and it got me to and from work for 2-1/2 years.
If it were me, I would have Peagsus ship that 250 to my door. But if you do deciede to go with a 200, I have a 200 c-4 here that you could use the bellhousing off of. Russ
speaking of 6-cylinder engines... I drove my buddies '98 24 vavle Dodge Cummins diesel today to the gas station, and I was under the impression those things had some power. I can not believe how slow that thing is!! even though it was a 5 speed, it felt like worse than a geo metro running on 1 hole! Turbo lag was unreal....did not really spool until around 2400 RPM, then it did "ok". You guys have any diesel experience? Seems like my boss's powerstroke has about twice the power, loaded or not
slow and steady. That Dodge may be slow, but hook it up to a big heavy trailer, boat, tree or small city and it'll go at just about the same speed. hehehe
Hey Wes, what you do is sweet talk Doug into putting the 250 on the front of his trailer, then sweet talk me into transferring it to my trailer at the roundup, then come down here and pick it up.
