Andrew Snip " What is the interest in the 252 other than History. The engine dates " back to 1934 and it developed 75 hp at 3200 rpm. A real power house in " it's day and application I am sure, sporting a compression ratio of " 5.54:1 and 217 cu in. It was in production for a long period of time as wasn't there also a straight-8 version, or was that of the family it replaced? Snip AFAIK the straight 8 used in the Nash was not related to the I-6 other than they were both made by the same company. Where as the I-6, this one anyway morphed it's way through the ages until the late '60's in one form or another and a variety of sizes. , including flat head and over head valves. What is interesting to me is that the last versions had a relocated water pump in the front of the block. I have a new water pump on a shelf that I bought based on the reputation that it is an AMC or Rambler water pump. But after needing a water pump this year and checking it closely it is nothing like the water pumps used on the 232/258 engine. This location was pretty much universal for most cars, but then again, a lot of the '30's designs of engines were based on the size of engine compartment that they had to live in rather than whether they were a sound mechanical design or not. Not that they were the only one's to play that game. The last of the Studebaker I-6's were overhead valve versions of the flat head and if I remember them correctly still had the side inspection plate installed that was removed to set the valve lifters as needed as a flat head. Proprietary engines powered a lot of '30's cars but in the Kaiser, they still using a proprietary engine in 1954 when the went out of production. If I am not mistaken so did the Checker through the '50's some where. A part of what I find interesting about that era is the number of manufacturers that used the GM hydramatic at that time. It kinda makes me wonder just how universal that transmission was in it's applications. The MOPAR slant -6 replaced the old flat head which I think was first designed for the Plymouth when it came out. Or close to that time anyway and was used up until 1959 in MOPAR cars and after in industrial applications, fork lifts etc. That engine as I remember form high school era was prone to throwing connecting rods all over road if pushed hard. The biggest problem at that time was again, more paved roads, heavier cars and faster cruising speeds. In the 40's and 50's it was two different blocks and four different sizes. John. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20070605/7c27f908/attachment.htm _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list