You're correct. Cadillac (alone among all the GM lines) tried the V8-6-4
thing back in the early 70's, a horrible period for Detroit as federal mandates
to meet rising standards for emissions and gas mileage had all mfgrs struggling
to find the technology to make it all happen. The results were some of the
worst running engines ever to hit the market which could not be after market
"adjusted" to improve performance and still meet the standards. Cadillac
offered on their front wheel drive El Dorado (and maybe other model lines??) this
feature wherein at certain road speeds in certain gears and with a predetermined
amount of engine vacuum (to evidence how hard the engine was working) the
engine would be recycled from a V8 to a V6 allegedly to reduce poulants and
increase mileage. There were legendary operating problems and lots of warranty $'s
spent trying to make unhappy customers happier. GM quietly withdrew the
feature after a short run not unlike their diesel option at about the same time in
some Olds lines.
The 19mpg reported in the recent posting for a new Ram w/Hemi is very
impressive. Way back in Chrysler's original venture into a hemi V8 (51 Chrysler, 52
DeSoto, 53 Dodge) only the Dodge version which was the smallest was able to
produce better than average gas economy in fact to win in either 53 or 54 the
Mobilgas Economy Run which was no small achievement in those days. That little
hemi was just 241 cubic inches and rated @ 140hp. My folks had a 54. It was
a rocket in its day in addition to 20-24miles per gal
Paul Sahlin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:46:28 EST