Tech & Auto
These Are The Mopar 340 Engine's Best & Worst Years
By JOE CAPRARO
During the 1960s and '70s, Chrysler made some of the auto industry's most desirable engines, such as the performance-geared Mopar 340 small-block V8.
Chrysler advertised it as making 275 horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque, but Hot Rod Magazine tested the 1968 340 at 320 horsepower and 368 lb-ft.
The magazine modified the engine, like swapping the four-barrel carburetor for the "six-pack" configuration, to produce 376.1 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 408.9 lb-ft of torque.
Those numbers put the 340 ahead of the L79-powered Corvette. Unfortunately, this is where the engine peaked, due to new emission laws in emission laws in the '70s.
In 1970, Chrysler advertised the cars using the six-pack 340 engine as producing 330 horsepower, but Muscle Car Club reports that number to be about 20 horses lower.
The 340 died after the 1973 model year, but some of its parts lived on in the high-performance 360 that persisted.