Car of the Week: 1978-’79 Dodge Lil’ Red Express

[dodgechargerfan]

Muscle cars were an extinct species in the United States by the end of the ’70s, leaving sports cars to carry the performance torch. There was, however, one street machine that could smoke a new 1978 Corvette or Trans Am: the Dodge D150 Adventurer Li’l Red Express truck.

In addition to sky-high insurance premiums and the oil embargo of 1973, muscle cars had also been strangled with clean air devices. However, the late Tom Hoover, known as the father of the 426 Hemi, found a way around government emissions regulations during the late 1970s — the pickup truck. Hoover discovered that he could make a muscle machine from gaps in the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules on emissions using a truck. At the time, light-duty trucks did not need a catalytic converter if their gross vehicle weight rating was above 6,000 lbs. Hoover also detected modifications could be made on an already-certified engine without redoing the EPA’s 50,000-mile recertification. With this knowledge, Hoover could work his magic on a regular Dodge D150 Adventurer with a step side bed.

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[Not A Duster]

Sigh..... I want one so ​bad........

 

[Dr.Jass]

Chock full of inaccuracies, this one.
The "E" in E58 stood for nothing except possibly "engine" since all Chrysler engines were sales codes of E: E44, E56, E87, E74, Etc. The "Express" on the doors meant it was fast... duh.
Though originally slated to get the hot '68 340 manual-trans camshaft (a one-year only beast), it got the standard E58 360 camshaft which by that time was a far cry from the high-perf 360's 1974 heyday, where it used the standard 340 cam.
The "Super-Flow" cylinder heads were non-specific, unmodified 360 castings, the same thing that could be found in Aunt Edna's 2-barrel Cordoba with the exception of higher-rate valve springs. The original Li'l Red spec called for W2 heads, but that would've required EPA recertification, as would the '68 4-speed camshaft.
The engine was a bread-and-butter cop small-block, same engine as used in countless squad cars, Super Coupes, Kit Cars, Magnums, Cordobas, and the 1979 300. The only difference was that this was the only time it was built after 1975 where it didn't have catalytic converters.
The Tuff wheel was not standard either year.
There was no crossover pipe in the exhaust. The crossover was part of the original spec that didn't make it to production. These trucks weren't particularly loud, either. Hemi mufflers are fairly tame.

 

[Not A Duster]

Still want one.....

Mind you, mine would be about as original as my Demon is.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Oh, yeah, it doesn't diminish what the truck was one bit: the fastest-accelerating regular-production vehicle available in the North America in 1978. Even the 911 Turbo couldn't hang with it to the century mark.

It's just that people keep quoting the SAE paper on the proposed engine as if it were built. It's actually more impressive that a "shelf" engine accomplished what it did simply with deleted converters and a fresh-air intake, in my opinion. 2WD or not, a D150 isn't a lightweight vehicle.

 

[restoman]

I owned a very rusty Warlock - which was supposedly similar to the L'il Red truck - back in the mid-eighties. It was a fun truck to blast around town in... it could light up the rears pretty easy.
After I traded it, it met its' demise in the back of a J.A.Ford transport trailer a few miles from here.
A high school buddy's' much-older brother had a L'il Red. I lusted over that truck!

 

[74DartSport]

... a D150 isn't a lightweight vehicle.

Or aerodynamic. Mount a 4'x4' sheet of plywood to the nose of the 911 then see whats up.