Good luck Oregon Guy. I'm not too knowledgeable on this design, but what little I know and have heard has always said to pay particular attention to the front suspension, especially around the torsion bars mount. Course Mike's car MAY have had most of his problem cause his wife was over 400 lbs too......

 

floors and truck area are a key area. the whole underside and wheel wells should be looked at as well. If you can find a 318 and tranny to sway in, it would make it a lot easier. You won't get the sa,e kind of mileage though as you will with the slant 6.

 

welcome OG and for 900.00 bucks who cares if it has a slant six but like 78 says i would try and find a donor car with a 318 in it so you can take most everything you need to change it over but you will have to go with different mounts and a drive shaft but it would be worth it and i would also look in the trunk and under the passengers side carpet as they sometimes had coolant and windshield leaks and it would rot out the floor but that again is a easy fix >>>><<<< lets see the pic's if you get her ok

 

headers
manifold
carburetor
thats the simple stuuf
if you wanna go drastic, you could go cam, but that engine isn't weak

 

And tho it's rare, there's even an all aluminum, 4 bbl version of the slant six out there. I think it was around 62-65 Dart GT's that had them...

 

a friend of mine built up a slant 6 back in the day. He would tell me storys about how he was able to keep up and sometimes out run some of the chevys with 350s.

The slant 6s are a tough motor. they can take a pounding and come back for more.