Learn me: Plymouth Volare (super six)

Preface: out of the 40+ cars I have owned, I have never owned a big American boat.

I am currenty saving up for the E46 coupe I have been badly wanting. I also realize that I could use a vehicle for more utilitarian purposes; the Alfa doesn't cut it for hauling crap to UPS, picking up parts, etc - and I'm not so sure an E46 would suit that either - so when my buddy offered me his '78 Volare Premier (read: WOODY WAGON) my interest was piqued.

It's a slant six/auto. It is pretty slow. I have visions of it lowered with some tough wheels, a massaged six, and a good stereo - could be a unique hauler/beater, fun in a different sort of way. So, learn me - is there any fun hiding in this thing, or am I wasting my time? Is the 'super six' garbage? Can I make this thing handle better than terrible? How the f*ck does wheel backspacing convert into offset anyways? GRM, answer me!

Sounds pretty cool! Fun is relative. Is being different fun? Is driving a cheap car that you don't worry about fun? Is doing a smokey burnout in a station wagon fun? Hell yes!

The slant six is one of the most durable engines ever made. There is a good chance it will outlive you. There are plenty of power options that I'm sure the more informed will chime in with.

More wheel / tire and a factory sway bar will help handling wise, as would poly bushings. I wouldn't go into it with huge handling aspirations, but you should be able to take most of the slop out. They had "sporty" versions of the Volare so you may be able to find a quicker steering rack if you look hard enough.

sounds like a fun car! Although it isn't that big ........you want big, look at the early 70's Chrysler Imperials or Newports......those are big!

The Slant Six can be a great engine for a parts hauler. I've seen guys try to destroy one and they could not do it.

The Slant Six is basically a truck motor and it was built to stand up to heavy work in pickups and vans. That said, it isn't any sort of performance engine, although you can certainly perk one up.

The usual bolt-one performance tricks apply, such as a header, exhaust system and improved carburation. You might find a better cam for your purposes if you install one designed for more torque, such as an RV cam.

Since Volares are fairly new, they have solid-state ignition, so you don';t have to fight that battle. The only other thing you might do would be to do some head work for better flow and more compression, but that should be an option of last resort.

Just making the exhaust and carburation improvements to let the engine breathe better will make a major difference. Putting a good tune on the engine after those changes will only make it better.

SlickDizzy wrote: How the f*ck does wheel backspacing convert into offset anyways? GRM, answer me!

Divide wheel width by 2 = WW/2

If backspacing greater than WW/2: BS - WW/2 = positive offset

If BS less than WW/2: WW/2 - BS = negative offset

I have to say it.... Add boost!!!!!!!

I have always wanted to take one of these and make it port injected with a custom intake manifold. Then add a suppercharger with about 7the psi of boost.

Very short history lesson on the /6 and why it's bulletproof, IIRC, the engine was originally designed to be made from early 60s grade aluminum, there was a problem with aluminum and 60s antifreeze, so after a few years they just switched to iron with the same casting. The result was one of the most overbuilt blocks in the history of the automobile. I want to say most have forged cranks.

If it survived this long, it probaly is OK. The Volare and other Chrysler products of the day were not known for production quality.

i had a 78 volare for a while. it was not fun. possibly could be, but stock it sure wasn't.

Volare/Aspen are the epitome of the bad days of Chrysler. Horrid build quality, gobs of emissions crap, rust prone...and good luck getting parts specific to that body. You'd be way ahead finding a slightly older Dart/Valiant.

My aunt bought a new Volare Premier in 1978. It had rusted through around the fuel filler by 1979. I have never even seen a Fiat rust that quickly. Good luck.

By American boat standards, the Volare is small. It was considered a bigger compact when new.

Check the front frame rails for rust. Look at the driver's side where it bends under the firewall.

The Super Six is the 2bbl version of the 225. It was a good upgrade over the smog control choked 1bbl. The 2bbl is a nice upgrade on the earlier 1bbl cars too.

The Volare/Aspen introduced the transverse torsion bar front suspension. Not a high point in Chrysler engineering. The geometry was compromised and the K-member was mounted on rubber. The best thing to do with one of them is to replace the stock (and probably shot) rubber isolators with poly or solid ones. That will significantly improve the handling. Mopar Performance used to have cast iron isolators but they went out of production decades ago. Some aluminum ones have been made, but I don't know the current production status.

The front will have 10 7/8" front rotors, and 10x2 1/2" rear drums. The front brakes can be upgraded to 11 3/4" rotors using Cordoba/St. Regis caliper adapters and rotors. You'll need 15" wheels to clear them. For reference a Mopar "cop" wheel is 15x7 with 4 1/4" back space.

SN95 Mustang wheels can be made to fit pretty easily.

A police package Dippy/Gran Fury rear sway bar bolts in and is a big help. The steering box from a police package car is valved better than the regular power steering boxes too. The Volare/Aspen is an F-body, the Dippy/Gran Fury is an M-body. Under the skin they are the same chassis with that transverse torsion bar setup.

There's a lot that can be done with them, but David is right that an earlier Dart/Valiant is a better platform to start with.

Mom had a Volare Premiere wagon when I was a kid. So I have a soft spot for them. I would have no problem bringing a solid one home to mess with. Already have the full build in my head.

Mom's looked something like this: Same color combo and wood grain. But Dad didn't order it with Rallye wheels. Had the full wire wheel covers for a couple months. Then somebody in the mall parking lot liked them better.

It will rust, and after a healthy amount of modding/motor work, you'd be lucky to break into the 15s. The 225 does not flow, does not rev, and is a pain to improve as it is not a cross-flow head. Luckily, the bottom end is pretty tough, and if you want to add boost/efi, you can get them to acceptable levels of performance without too much trouble.

I've had 2 Valiants, and the only way to make a 225 "fun" is to enjoy the reliability and mod the rest of the car, or be prepared to dump a whole lot of time/money into it (and look for very obscure parts or custom fab them). Its not one of those cars where a few hundred bucks spent at Jegs will "wake it up". Despite what others say, they CAN be killed. Easily, in fact, if you just rev it high. The oil system won't keep up at higher RPM. (High for a /6 is like 5k lol). Under normal conditions, they have a service life of approximately forever.

Also, despite some people reporting 30mpg and other crazyness from them, I would expect no more than 18 or so mixed driving.

SlickDizzy wrote: Preface: out of the 40+ cars I have owned, I have never owned a big American boat.

Buy the Volare and things won't change.

Volares were A-bodies. I learned to drive in a C-body wagon. Now there's a yacht.

ddavidv wrote: Volare/Aspen are the epitome of the bad days of Chrysler. Horrid build quality, gobs of emissions crap, rust prone...

There was an era when they DIDN'T make rust prone cars?

Hell, even the new rear-drive Mopars have serious rust issues. More often than not, the upper radiator support will be literally rusted away before the car's paid off, and I'm seeing them with severe rot in the passenger side "body rail" near the firewall.

In other words, the junkyard price of 5.7 Hemis is due to be dropping pretty soon, since the shells are probably going to start dropping like flies.

Knurled wrote:

SlickDizzy wrote: Preface: out of the 40+ cars I have owned, I have never owned a big American boat.

Buy the Volare and things won't change. Volares were A-bodies. I learned to drive in a C-body wagon. Now there's a yacht.

Volares and Aspens are F bodys. Darts, Valiants, Dusters (1970-1976), Demons, and Barracudas (1964-1969) are A-bodys.

Back in my early early MX daze a buddy's dad had a Volare wagon, silver (well, gray 'cause it faded so fast) with a red interior. Bottom feeder, not even a roof rack. Not the same car, but very similar: Slant 6, emissioned to the hilt, slower than slow. But it could pull 2 bikes on a trailer so we used it. We used to refer to it as the 'world's only Ferrari wagon' and yes mood altering substances were involved. It was actually pretty reliable, I can't think of a single time it left anyone sitting. But it did have the typical 1970's Chrysler 'Guess O Matic' steering. I swear in that era Chrysler front end parts wore themselves out coming off the car carriers.

Whenever we'd see* a Volare, my college roommate would sing "Volare" like this guy does:

http://youtu.be/AnWHQCgByWg

• Note that this was a million years ago, back when a few still roamed the earth.

mtownneon wrote: Volares and Aspens are F bodys. Darts, Valiants, Dusters (1970-1976), Demons, and Barracudas (1964-1969) are A-bodys.

Why did I remember the Volares having real torsion bars and not the hockey-stick POS things then?

Stupid memory.

You don't want it, you should instead sell it to me and buy something more useful.

I used to have a Volare with a /6 4-speed. It was slow and got lousy gas mileage. I still have the title for it but gave it to the local Mopar guru.

Joe Gearin wrote: sounds like a fun car! Although it isn't that big ........you want big, look at the early 70's Chrysler Imperials or Newports......those are big!

My thoughts, exactly!

My parents owned a '73 Plymouth Fury III. It was a 2-door hardtop coupe. That was freaking huge. Looked a lot like this one:

ddavidv wrote: Volare/Aspen are the epitome of the bad days of Chrysler. Horrid build quality, gobs of emissions crap, rust prone...and good luck getting parts specific to that body. You'd be way ahead finding a slightly older Dart/Valiant.

A guy I work with bought one of these new and allegedly later noticed that one fender said Aspen, and the other side said Volare. Crossover model? It lasted about 8 years until it was too rusty to drive.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

So what's the scoop? Did you get it?

I think I read on Allpar.com that the slant 6 has loads of performance potential (for a smallish 6 cylinder), but nowadays the parts to get 200+ horsepower out of this engine are difficult to find. When it first "landed" in cars, there was a Dart GT with a package for the engine that included a VERY long ram intake manifold and a 4 barrel carb. Of course, horsepower figures were more optimistic in the early '60s.

IF, you want the epitome of '60s (and '70s?) ruggedness, it would be the slant 6 with an automatic....assuming the auto has been looked after at least occasionally. As others have said, the front suspension was the weak link in this car.

I came close, twice, to buying a Volare when they were new. (Well, one of the cars was 2 years old.) Fortunately, I decided to look beyond the Mercedes-esque front end styling. Odd, Ford and Plymouth had competing cars that looked like Mercedes...from the front. But Chrysler/Plymouth never really exploited the resemblance in their ads.

Buy a Volare with the slant 6 and automatic and tell yourself you are driving a VERY poorly built Mercedes diesel wagon.