New with 1975 Malibu 250 inline

by jimmyess333 Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:28 pm

I'm picking up a 1975 Malibu in 2 weeks with a straight six, bench seats, and column shifter.
Now before you tell me how to upgrade these items I'll admit that those are the features that made me want the car in the first place.
I'm a huge fan of inline six engines and bench seat/column shift.
The main thing I hate about new cars is you can't get them with this combo.
Although, I wouldn't mind a tall curved pickup style 4 speed shifter poking up in front of the bench seat.
It won't be fast but I don't care.

BTW, I'll be picking up the car on a visit to Philly and driving it back to Texas.

by 1973 454 MONTE Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:46 pm

Welcome

by WyldeBill66 Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:14 pm

I like inline 6 motors too. I love the Mopar slant 6. I rebuilt one in a 63 Dodge I used to have. Fun motor with a hotter cam. Enjoy your new vehicle.
Welcome to the site, fellow newbie.

by pila Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:44 pm

Welcome ! I had a '73 Chevelle, with the inline six, for a short while. I switched the six out for a 307 I had sitting here. Mine was a plain-jane car, no tinted glass, rubber floor mat instead of carpet, no radio etc. The 250 six had plenty of guts, but I removed it for the V8, to put the six in a friend's pickup
The problem you may have with the column shift, is the linkage etc at the bottom of the column. When that detent, or slot, between the reverse & 1st gear positions, and 2nd & 3rd gears, gets worn, the arm for 2 &3 can drop down into 3rd gear, when the shifter is still in neutral.
Then ya have to shut the engine down, ( so you can let the clutch out), open the hood, and pull the shifter arm back up to neutral !
Going to a floor shifter is the only cure that I know of Question

Have fun with the car !

by BK-75 Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:21 am

Those inline 6 ‘s are stout! Adding a manual shifter poking up in front of the bench seat is on my wish list too.

Post up some pictures of the car on the road trip back!

by 77mali Thu Oct 25, 2012 7:28 am

I think I remember reading somewhere that the Malibu inline 6's are rarer than the V8 power combos. Good luck & do post some pics when you can. I really like the old "bare bones" cars.

by jimmyess333 Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:42 pm

WyldeBill66 wrote:I like inline 6 motors too. I love the Mopar slant 6. I rebuilt one in a 63 Dodge I used to have. Fun motor with a hotter cam. Enjoy your new vehicle.
Welcome to the site, fellow newbie.

I've had several late 60's Darts and Valiants with the slant 6.
2 of them ended up with 440's in them for racing, some were parts cars, and the 69 Valiant stayed a slant six for the street.
With the exception of a 1970's Super Six 2bbl intake and carb I left that six stock for the 7 years I drove the car.
A set of Outlaw II wheels(small bolt pattern) topped it off nicely along with the upgrade from 9 inch to 10 inch drum brakes in the front(No disc? Hey, I already had the parts).
I had some Clifford 6=8 parts for the engine that were given to me but I never put them on. The combo I already had seemed perfect for long term reliability.
Speaking of reliability, I'm well versed in the potential problem areas on a slant six but not on the Chevy 250.
Most of the Chevy's I owned were when I was a teen and they all had 350 power for street racing.
Now I'm twice that age and I see the beauty in simplicity.
So, what do I need to look out for on the 250?
BTW, I only JUST found out the 250 is a gear drive cam(no chain). How cool is that?

My "performance" plans for the Malibu include a flat fiberglass hood and maybe trunk, lightweight 15x5.5 centerline rims, elimination of all sound deadening material, light weight 15x3(or 4) spare tire, and a true cold air intake by ducting the air cleaner to the rad support(not the K&N inside the engine bay. I'd like to find a used aluminum intake at a swapmeet and make a plate to mount the stock carb on it. Maybe a header exhaust with a quiet muffler too.
Beyond that I plant to restore the outside of the car to very clean driver quality and the interior all the way to like new.

by jimmyess333 Thu Oct 25, 2012 2:54 pm

77mali wrote:I think I remember reading somewhere that the Malibu inline 6's are rarer than the V8 power combos. Good luck & do post some pics when you can. I really like the old "bare bones" cars.

Thanks.
I have no plans to put a V8 in the car so the car will remain basically original.
If antything I plan to lighten the car up while still looking stock, kind of following the footsteps of what Mopar did with the Dart Lite and Feather Duster. That should increase go power AND fuel economy.
This car will never be a race car, especially when I put 5.5 inch rims and 215/75-15 tires all the way around, but it should be fun and comfortable.

Does anyone know how to lighten up these massive bumpers without going to fiberglass? Are there aluminum replacements? I also hear GM used aluminum drums on some cars, is that something I can get for this one?

by WyldeBill66 Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:02 pm

I know most guys like lots of horsepower. but a good torquey inline six can be fun. Put a better cam in it and a header, and it can be a lot of fun. I almost bought a 74 Camaro with an inline 6, but it had rust and engine issues.

Have fun with it, and don't let anyone talk you into dropping a V8 into it, unless you want to do it.

by 77mali Thu Oct 25, 2012 10:24 pm

A friend of mine in CT had one in his 70 Malibu 4 door. It had an Offenhauser intake w/ 3 deuces (late 50's vintage hot-rodding), welded his own exhaust manifold- I swear it felt like the thing had 300 horses.

by pila Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:12 pm

Not a thing wrong with keeping the inline "stovebolt" six. Very Happy

Your weight reduction ideas may be an exercise not worth doing though. If you removed 200 lbs ( not likely) , you wouldn't feel much difference in performance anyway. Perking the engine up with a few items would do more.
Changing the rear end gears to a bit higher ratio, would help a bunch. Your rear-end ratio code is on the front side of the right axle tube, fairly close to the gear casting. Scrape/wire brush the tube off, to read the code, and we can tell you the ratio from the code.

Have fun, regardless of what you do !!

BILL

by JB2wheeler Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:34 pm

Clifford Performance specializes in six cylinders and they seem to work magic with them. I used to have a 64 Dodge Dart convertible with a six and a four speed tranny. It was a go getter. JB

by jimmyess333 Fri Oct 26, 2012 9:15 am

pila wrote:Not a thing wrong with keeping the inline "stovebolt" six. Your weight reduction ideas may be an exercise not worth doing though. If you removed 200 lbs ( not likely) , you wouldn't feel much difference in performance anyway. Perking the engine up with a few items would do more....
BILL

That makes sense from a strictly performance point of view but my goal is to make the most efficient use of the power I already have without doing anything that increases fuel consumption. If anything, I'd like to increase fuel efficiency.
The header and aluminum intake would be for weight reduction only.

I always wanted to do the same stuff to a 67 Camaro because of all the low starting weight and all the light weight body panels available.

by Tom77 Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:39 pm

jimmyess333 wrote:I'm picking up a 1975 Malibu in 2 weeks with a straight six, bench seats, and column shifter.
Now before you tell me how to upgrade these items I'll admit that those are the features that made me want the car in the first place.
I'm a huge fan of inline six engines and bench seat/column shift.
The main thing I hate about new cars is you can't get them with this combo.
Although, I wouldn't mind a tall curved pickup style 4 speed shifter poking up in front of the bench seat.
It won't be fast but I don't care.

BTW, I'll be picking up the car on a visit to Philly and driving it back to Texas.

Not to bring up the obvious by buying in Philly and taking to Texas???? I went the opposite way. Bought in Texas and brought to Indy. I thought all the good ones were from the south. Guess I was wrong. affraid

by Mcarlo77 Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:13 pm

There's a '74 Malibu with the 250-6 cylinder at my favorite salvage yard. Auto tranny, though. Someone had a sense of humor as it was wearing "400" fender badges.

by Graham Perkins Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:35 pm

Welcome,

You don't see many chevelle/ malibu's with a 6 banger. Be sure to post some pictures when you pick your car up.

Thanks Graham

by jimmyess333 Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:00 pm

Ghost Rider wrote:

Not to bring up the obvious by buying in Philly and taking to Texas???? I went the opposite way. Bought in Texas and brought to Indy. I thought all the good ones were from the south. Guess I was wrong.

Philly is my home town and I'm going home on a visit. I found this car for a friend dirt cheap back in 1991. At the time I threw in the old "If you sell it give me first divs". Well, it's now 21 years later and he's holding true to his word and he's giving it to me at the same price he bought it for. It sat in his garage for the past 10 years but he recently got it back on the road with new tires, shocks, battery, and some other stuff. I guess all the work I did to his cars over the years is coming back to me now.
It's a pretty straight 2 door car but it's mint green with a green interior. It also has some dated late 1980's Pontiac wheels on it. A paint job and new wheels are in this car's future. I'll put up some pics when I get back to TX with it.
It seems most of these cars have the small quarter glass but this one has the larger quarter glass.

by jimmyess333 Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:38 am

I didn't want to be that guy who just drops off the forum with no explanation so I thought I'd give everyone an update.
My friend with the Malibu completely flaked out so I didn't get the car.
I was up there anyway for a wedding and to visit people so it wasn't a wasted trip but I'm still pretty pissed about the car. If he told me straight up he was keepng the car I would have planned my return home differently.
But instead, he kept insisting everything was good until the last day then avoided me. THEN he played dumb and texted me the next day to ask if I was still coming over. I was already on my way home. I bought one of my sister's old cars just to get home since last minute plane tickets are very expensive and would have cost more than her car and gas combined. Some people just suck. I thought we were cooler than that.

by jimmyess333 Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:40 am

BTW I told him repeatedly when I had to leave by.

by Mcarlo77 Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:21 pm

You know...that just sucks! Especially, when it's one of your life-long friends that does that to you. Apparently, he's one of those who seems to have no moral ethics when it comes to honoring his word. Pretty hard to trust someone like that as a friend...IMO

Okay...so now, we need to help you get back on track by finding you a '73-'77 and dumping that car you bought from your sister! Smile

by pila Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:18 pm

Like said, that really sucks. That so-called friend belongs on your Sxxt list for sure.

by jimmyess333 Thu Nov 08, 2012 4:05 pm

I still want an inline six car but now I'll step back and wait for the right one. It's hard to find a I-6 car that wasn't converted to an 8.
My wish list consists of a Chevy I-6 of any of the following:
Malibu - any year
Impala/Biscayne/Bel Air - 65-70
Nova- Any year(Hatchback a plus)
Camaro- 67-68

Non Chevy I-6 interests:
Chevy twins - Skylark, Ventura, Apollo
1970 Plymouth Sattelite(slant 6)- yes, rare but they made them.
67-71 Dart/Duster/Scamp/Valiant (slant 6)
64-68 Furd Mustang
Furd Maverick
Furd Falcon/Futura
Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen(slant)
All inline six/2wd Jeeps -Wrangler/Cherokee

I may have missed some but thats the basic list.

by Brainstain Thu Nov 08, 2012 6:24 pm

I don't know about down there but there are always a sh*t load of Mavericks for sale around and here in Indiana. Except for right now I'm sure. Since I said that.. Lol

by JB2wheeler Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:11 pm

I have had many Mopar sixes over the years
, and loved them all. JB

by Brainstain Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:19 pm

There's 5 on Craigslist that I've found her in Indiana.. This one seems like your style.
http://mattoon.craigslist.org/cto/3360963898.html

I know it's far away..

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