M230 H.P rating ?????

[Reg Evans]

I got this Suburban over the weekend and was pleased to find out that it has a very quiet and smooth running flat 6 engine in it. The engine number is M230 ####. I think it's a 59 Dodge truck 6 but can't seem to find a listing for that engine or it's h.p. rating. Anybody have a listing for it?

[greg g]

59 Dodge 230 in the car was rated at 135 HP, in 59 Plymouth rated the 230 at 132 HP, in 57 Plymouth rating was 131 57/58 dodge was 138. Gotta wonder what accounted for the diffeence as the engine specs were the same.

Maybe the water in the dynomometer was denser or something?????

Wonder if the M is for military spec??? As dodge and plymouth were still using D and P designation for model/engine numbers???

This site has a numbering system for Dodge truck engineering codes 59-6* with flatheads being used in trucks.

http://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/19581968engines.html

[woodscavenger]

That is a sweet looking rig. What plans do you have?

[Reg Evans]

Thanks for the info Greg. If you look at the second table he shows a list of Dodge truck engine numbering that seems to be more accurate. It does show the M23 or M230 as being a 59 Dodge truck 230. No H.P. rating though. What ever the rating is it's gotta be substantially more than the original engine.

[Young Ed]

Well if its in the 130s as those other 59 engines are thats about 33% extra power over the 49 engine.

[Reg Evans]

That is a sweet looking rig. What plans do you have?

The first thing I'm going to have to do is replace the floor boards front and rear. It's a Flintstones car now. Once that's done I'll probably do the body and paint myself and soup up the engine with a 2 barrel and dual exhaust headers. Oh....and then there's the interior and the wiring and glass and.......... I guess I'll refurbish it and make a dependable driver.

Anyone need a 51 or 52 Suburban project. I'll be selling some cheap now.

[Young Ed]

Do you deliver?

[Reg Evans]

Do you deliver?

NOPE, but I know a guy that will.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I just brought home my 58 dodge Truck..100 the engine in it has no letter prefixing the 5 digit seriwal number...it is a reman engine..is this customary to shve the original number...for the record the reman tag serial is different than the block serial...

[Reg Evans]

It was done a lot back when. Frustrating isn't it. My 50 Chrysler engine had all the numbers ground off and was left with a clean slate.

Your 58 was an L series and the engine number would have started with an L

This engine in my 40 Dodge panel has this tag on it and some numbers stamped on the boss that make no sense.

[greg g]

Read on the all par site that Chrysler sold un numbered bare blocks to the Jaspers of the time. These were then to be stamped by the rebuilder with their number.