DIRTY STUFF

MY OLD mate Kev had a Valiant, a VC station wagon that was a tad tired and needed another engine.

- WILLIAM PORKER

The original gas-guzzling slant-six was wheezing, blowing smoke and using good oil like it had a hole in the sump.

Then he heard the auto recyclers up the road had just got hold of a later-model Mopar, and the engine in that was okay. He was off like a shot with a wallet full of the folding, checked out the engine and the entire front crossmember, and bought the lot.

Got all that back to his shed, planning to graft the crossmember onto his VC so he could use the mounts. As Valiant Hemi-six engines sit bolt-upright (as opposed to the VC slant-six, which lays over to the driver’s side to make room for Chrysler’s long inlet manifold designed for ram-charging), he figured some things would have to change. But he was a handy lad, and when he discovered the new crossmember was too wide to fit the VC chassis mounting points, he reckoned he would just cut a piece out of the middle until it would fit, then get this shorter version welded back into one piece.