On April 1, Stellpower ran a story pointing out that some potential truck buyers felt the twin-turbo in-line six-cylinder GME engine would not be suitable for pickups, especially the heavy duty models which currently have a choice of Cummins diesel or a special 6.4 liter Hemi.
The story talked about a 3.7 liter engine with “an odd 30° tilt,” referring to it as the “inclined six.” Some noted the date the story was released and correctly labeled it an April Fool’s hoax, and many even concluded this was none other than the 225 slant six, which indeed used to power heavy duty pickups—and, thanks to the wonders of gearing, even heavier trucks.
The slant six had a 30° tilt, mainly so accessories could, instead of being mounted on the end, be moved to the side; it also made room for a “bunch of bananas” intake which provided a small supercharging effect and proved to be quite efficient for the time. Early literature referred to it as the “inclined six.” To avoid giving away the game, we used the same name.
The photo above, with the original caption provided, is actually from around 1990, and shows a new V6 line at Trenton Engine from an upcoming story.
Ram is indeed planning a hydrogen fuel cell option, as we pointed out. .
The patent drawing shown above is from the wedge-head slant six. The “special fuel delivery system” we referred to (“installed by dealerships”) refers to the old Hyper-Pack. Two series of diesel slant sixes were indeed explored, with very promising results, but they were not put into production. The slant six did have an aluminum variant for a time, part of the original plan, but production was too slow for Chrysler’s needs and customers didn’t seem to care, so they dropped it.
We referred to the new engine as being coded “Reggie” because the 225 slant six was coded RG. The basic 170 was the G engine, and the 225 had a raised block—Raised G—RG—“Reggie.” Though we don’t believe it’s ever been called Reggie.
