[George Bongert]

Greetings again TJ, and everyone else in the Club!

As to why I disfavor the 292 I-6, I'll try to be as brief as possible. My Dad bought that '63 Chevy C-30 in 1966 with 42,000 miles on the odometer, and at that time with three new pistons in the engine. After putting on another 3,000 miles, he came home with the engine knocking like crazy. This was in 1968, and I was in high school at the time, taking an auto mechanics course, and I diagnosed the problem (correctly I might add) as being a rod bearing knock. We dropped the oil pan, and it didn't take long to determine that the # 1 rod bearing was totally pounded out. We ordered a new (not rebuilt) short block from our local Chevy dealer, and installed it in an unheated garage in 20 degree below zero weather. Now let me tell you that you only worked on it for about 15 minutes at a time, and then had to go in and get warmed up before continuing to work on it on and off until it was completed. Now, as to problems with the new short block, the engine ran pretty much quietly except for the fact as more miles were racked up, and by the time there was 10,000 miles on that new block, that 292 developed a serious case of piston slap. Remember me mentioning earlier that the original engine had 3 new pistons in it when my dad bought the truck with 42,000 miles on it? It didn't matter whether the engine was cold, or at operating temperature, you could hear every piston in that engine slapping merrily away. Dad turned the truck over to me, and when there was about 70,000 miles on that 292 replacement engine, I knew at some point the dam* thing was going to leave me stranded high and dry somewhere. A neighbor had a 1962 GMC 3/4 ton pickup that he had retired mostly due to the body being pretty rusty. I bought that truck and took the 305 BB V-6 out of it and put it in my '63 Chevy. Putting that BB V-6 in my truck was the best decision I ever made, because it was an engine that I could count on getting me from point A to point B and back without the worry that I was going to be hoofing it for help because of an engine failure. So now you know why I have little faith in the reliability of the 292 I-6 and why I think they are best suited for use in a light (1/2 ton) truck, or better yet, a car. That's why I called it a glorified car engine.