Back in the 60's when I was high school guys had 55 or whatever Chevy cars with 235 sticks.Now to us back then, a 6 cylinder was not considered a "proper engine" so we beat the snot out them 235's.We used to say a 235 doesn't have enough power to rev high enough to throw a rod. A friend of mine regularly tried to hit 60 mph in second gear, sometimes holding the pedal floored for a few miles to hit 60.I bought a beat up 54 Belair when I was 17, it wouldn't do 60 in second ,but tried many times.An older friend told me the engine should have 45 psi on the oil guage not the 10 psi my engine had. Still it wasn't the engine that croaked, I tore first gear out of the tranny trying to impress a young lady.I not saying I would abuse an enginr like that now, but they seemed to survive back then.
