Bring back the station wagon!

I've always been partial to the station wagon. Mine hauls like a truck,
handles like a sports model, gets decent gas mileage and looks great. So,
why don't they make them anymore?

 

Because that would make too much sense! I love'em too. But since they
are not to be had, I now have a Grand Caravan.

 

station wagons ROCK- esp. the 1960-early 70's Big Three models that had
the same front end sheetmetal, chassis, suspensions and engines in them
as the musclecars- albeit with stretched frames.

The Vista Cruiser from Olds was cool with 455 power, also the Pontiac
Safari Wagon with 455 power.

 

Useless gas hogs all crushed into scrap now. Who wants a car that
gets 8 MPG??

 

Closest you can get now are the "crossover" SUVs, mostly Japanese. I
think the Ford Contour was the last domestic "station wagon," and it
got dumped because of slow sales.

 

There are small ones which seem to sell fairly well (Volvo, VW, Focus). And
the Magnum seems to be doing OK. But if you mean the big ones, they haven't
sold well since the introduction of the Minivan in the 80s.

I liked my 1977 Plymouth Fury wagon. Built like a tank, the size of a small
aircraft carrier, appetite for gas to match. But it ate its main bearings,
and that was that for big wagons for me.

 

A Chrysler engine that ate main bearings?? Odd...was it a 383? What
happened to precipitate this failure? I've never seen a B or LB
engine do this, and that includes many that endured heaps of abuse.
Perhaps if you were driving it without oil pressure, yes, but I can't
think of any other scenario.

 

LB? Don't you mean RB?

Larry
Behold Beware Believe

 

Durrr...yes, I do.

I do remember a couple of 383s spinning rod bearings when revved too
high, but I don't remember hearing of a single >>>RB<<< losing main
bearings, unless maintenance was non-existant and/or it ran out of
oil.

 

Funny, my 2002 Grand Caravan is only getting 13 to 15 MPG City, and 18
to 23 MPG Highway. And it cannot pull ANYTHING of significance without
ripping the transmisson to shreds! And it ONLY seats 7!

My wife used to have a Safari Wagon with a 350 in it. Easily get six
adults and six children in it. Lots of cargo space inside and on top.
And with that 350, it could haul trailers - both cargo and tent
without any noticeable degradation in gas mileage (as long as you did
not "lead foot" it!)

Mechanically, it was a simple car, easy to work on, using common and
inexpensive components. NO high priced computer modules to break, much
more simple wiring harnesses that had less opportunity to break.

Sure they are scrap now, probably after 500,000 MILES of operation. I
am not convinved that my GC will ever get close to 500,000 MILES.

Heck I used to drive a '68 Nova with a 250 in it. Had a 16 year old
not crashed into me and writtne it off, I would likely still be
driving it. The thing was dead simple to maintain, and got almost 20
MPG city, and about 27 MPG highway!

While camping this summer, the couple next to us had, I beleive, a
1948 Chevrolet. His 250 engine in that car was getting better gas
mileage than my 2002 GC! I will admit that this old chev did not have
all the modern safety features, but geez louise!

 

Reminds me of something I heard about the Model T. I don't recall the
exact figures, but it got decent gas mileage, would do 50 mph
comfortably, and could carry 6 people. We haven't gained much besides
price and creature comforts. I always said that if you could still buy
a brand new Volkswagen Bug today the way they used to make them, they
would probably cost around half as much as the fancy pants stuff built
today, and a lot of people just might buy them.

 

Chrysler stopped building the 383 in 1970 or '71, IIRC. It was bored out,
emmissionized and sold as a 400 thereafter.

 

Europe has seen a big surge in wagons and AWD wagons over the years, sort of
like our SUV boom. I think they sell fairly well in Europe and in fact they
have some sport wagons that handle real well. Yeah, they're smaller than
the old Galaxie 500's with wood grain on the side but some are getting
larger. I've always like wagons, have had a couple too.

============

 

I ate the bearings in my 360 once. 7K rpm with HV pump & stock pan doesn't
work sucked the pan dry

 

HAve you not seen or heard of a Dodge Magnum? A Dodge Caliber? A
Chrysler Pacifica (yeah, its fat and front-drive like a minivan, but its
doors open like a minivan).

 

Maybe YOU should be crushed into scrap....

 

The 400 block is the basis for one of the most popular low-buck
big-block builds you can do: the 451 stroker. The recipe is a 400 block
(common as dirt in the junkyards because no one wants that
low-compression "smogger.") Add one 440 crank with the main bearings
turned down to 361/383/400 size. 440 rods, and "custom" pistons that are
available for this build off-the-shelf from several manufacturers (and
in overbore sizes).

Same stroke as a 440, same bore as a 400, same good rod length/stroke
ratio as the 440, more cubic inches, and a smaller overall package than
a 440 (slightly- its about 2 inches narrower and 3/4 inch shorter, 30-40
pounds lighter.

 

A 360 should never see 7k, PERIOD. That engine has a longer stroke
than a 383, so it does NOT like to rev like a 340 does. And I'll bet it
didn't suck the pan dry either, what happens in the smallblock is that
the oil "misses a turn" shooting down the side gallery at high (> 6000)
RPM and "forgets" to oil #4 and sometimes #3 main. There's a 70's
factory race program tech bulletin on fixing that for sustained high RPM
operation of the 340.

 

The Magnum is not a station wagon?

Thanks,
Scott

 

Show me any GM RWD product with a 350 Chevy in it and I'll show you a
carcass that's had at LEAST 5 engine transplants in it. A 350 Pontiac
or Olds would last longer, especially the Olds, but the small block
Chevy in those days was strictly a 90K mile machine...period.

Chevrolet didn't have a 250" six in 1948. It was a splash lubed 216.
If it was a 250, it was a transplant to the modern 250, which replaced
the final version of the obsolete "stove bolt" six. GM got their
money of that hunk of iron, since it lasted all the way to around
1964. Hell, it was paddle lubed until '54!!