Mis-information on the 165hp, 3.7 170 470

[bksah2]

Hi everone,
I think theres some mis-information about a few motors commented on these posts. Or perhaps im totally wrong.

1. 165hp is an inline gm, 6 cylinder motor.

The 3.7 normally refers to one of the next 2 motors.
- 170
- 470
These motors a closed cooling system and are 4 cylinder.

The question i have is, most people say that the 6 cylinder, 165hp inline gm motor is inadequate for the V 20.

But yet other posts say that the 3.7, 4 cylinder (470, 170) are more then adequate with top speeds of around 40.

So, how can one motor rated at 165hp and one motor rated at 170hp..be so different?

Thanks,
Confused.

[THEFERMANATOR]

The 165 I-6 is heavier than the 3.7L 4 cylinder. Also the 165 6 is flywheel rated whereas about half of the 3.7L's are propshaft rated. The combo of less weight with equal or more HP makes a difference. Also you have to remember that underpowered to one person may be overpowered to another.

[spareparts]

just to add, the 3.7 was offered as a 165(3.7L), 170(470), 180(3.7LX), 185(485), and 190 hp depending on the year, where the hp was rated(prop or flywheel), carburator( 2bbl or 4bbl) and timing spec. Like Ferm said, whats under powered to some is plenty to others. I'm not sure about the exact weight, but know for sure that 3.7 is not that light. The I6 250 was a good engine, I've seen them push some heavy boats, but fiigure the newest one of those could be is over 30 years old. They are probably pretty tired. Proped right, the old 250 in good running order could hang right with a same hp 3.7, and was probably a little better on fuel. The biggest advantage of the 3.7 is that it came standard with a closed cooling system, at the time it was a rare factroy option that few dealers would order on another engine set up due to cost. The 3.7 had some issues, but most were wroked out in the later years. The worst thing was teh charging system. We had a 3.7 2bbl that was pushing a 17 Stingray to mid 50's on a radar gun(before gps). There wasn't anything internally done to the engine. If I didn't have so many other things to do, I'd love to build one of those engines with an after market aluminum head and good rockers. Some guy around Atlanta used to run one of those engines in a dragster. He modified the engine quite a bit. IMSA even allowed Ford racers to use the engine(they had to destroke it) in some classes because it came with a current Ford head. Now parts are getting scarce for either engine, teh 4.3 is becoming the popular replacement for either one of those old engines

[cfelton]

I've got the 170 4cylinder in my 77 V thats a 85-86 model motor. Its been bored .040 over and I replaced almost everything but the block, crank and intake. It runs great now ,but has taken awhile to work out some bugs. I changed it over to electronic ignition and that probley helped the performance more than anything.Its been changed over to an external alternator and I've had to change out the cam seals, but hopefully all the troubles are behind it now and were cheap and relatively easy to fix. Last summer it ran 42 at Oregon Inlet with 5 adults onboard, trimmed up and tached out. I love my little 170!!