CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

scott wrote:That example would of been fairly close to the last CM Valiants, would of been a late 1979/early 1980 build. There are more old Torque road tests on YouTube, including one where he gives the HJ Holden a scathing review.
The last CM was came off the preduction line in August 1981, but I heard once that the South Australian Police Dept had around six built from leftover body shells and parts and delivered in 1982, the same year as the VH Commodore and XE Falcon were being made.
ABC News today uploaded his review on the XC Fairmont GXL in November 1976. He was far more glowing in his review of that. He gave the HJ a thorough roasting, that's for sure. Would still buy one.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Coover »

This has been preserved by the Queensland Ambulance Service. It was bought by the then Beaudesert QATB and currently does the rounds at various events. One of a growing fleet of retired Queensland ambulances. This photo was taken by me while it was still in use in about 1989.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by TA3001 »

Where may the photo in question be found?
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

CHRYSLER'S ECONOMY NO GIMMICK

By David Robertson, Motoring Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 4/12/78.

I've just proved that Chrysler Australia's claims are true for it's space-age computerised fuel economy system.


Around Sydney I got an incredible 13.7 litres per 100 km (20.6 mpg) from a 4.3 litre six-cylinder Chrysler Regal automatic complete with power steering and air conditioning.
The Chrysler electronic lean burn system is, I believe, much more than a gimmick. It works.
Introduced on the CM Chrysler Valiant and Regal six-cylinder models in September, the ELB system is claimed to result in an improvement in fuel economy of between 20 and 26%.
The heart of the system is a computer developed by Chrysler scientists in the United States as part of the space program -which is mounted beside the air cleaner. It measures only 20 x 12 x 5 cm.
This black box analyses five critical engine functions -throttle position, engine temperature, manifold vacuum, engine speed and crankshaft position - and relates these to the driving situation. It then releases a spark at the best possible moment for combustion.
The computer can differentiate between highway and urban driving conditions and can advance and retard the spark to ensure optimum ignition timing.
It is coupled to an improved carburettor which provides a very lean fuel/air mixture to maximize fuel economy and reduce emissions. The system does away with many complicated pieces of anti-emission equipment.
The system is greatly assisted by the fact that 4.3 litre Hemi six engine -indeed all the Chrysler sixes -are among the most modern and efficient engines in the world. With their hemispherical combustion chambers and cross flow cylinder heads, the Chrysler sixes have been the least affected in terms of ability in the scramble for cleaner running.
With transistorised ignition and improved suspensions the latest Valiants and Regals have under the skin, at least, improved dramatically over earlier models.
The basic shape is a little reminiscent of American sedans of the late 1960's. Big and bulky on the outside, they are big and roomy on the inside and for larger families and those who tow caravans and boats, must be considered in any new car purchase.
Attention to finish has been a major part of Chrysler's Adelaide manufacturing process. Panels fit, paint finish is excellent and little things don't fall off.
The Chrysler Regal I had was comfortable to drive and and to travel in. Large corduroy-covered front bucket seats and rear bench, with pull-down central armrest, were firmly sprung, doors were well padded and thick carpet lined the floor.
The driving position could be adjusted to suit most people, with good fore and aft adjustment and a reclining squab. The large steering wheel had a padded surround and all instruments were easy to see and reach and handsomely mounted in an imitation walnut fascia directly before the driver.
The power steering was far too light to be positive, yet was very direct and required only 3.5 turns lock to lock.
The suspension changes made earlier this year to Chrysler's big cars have made the ride a little stiffer, although still comfortable.
Although the car still basically under-steers, it does so in a much more controlled manner with much less plough up front and with obviously more road adhesion. You don't get the feeling that the back end is going to break away suddenly like you did before, and the car responds much better to throttle and steering commands.
In line with its premium price, the Regal gets premium equipment. Standard fittings good quality steel belt radial tyres, a tinted laminated windscreen, quartz halogen high beam headlights, retractor seat belts in the rear, 6 in. alloy wheels, a radio-cassette deck with twin speakers, heated rear windscreen and remote-control exterior mirror.
The engine starts easily, runs freely and feels flexible and powerful, producing a maximum 120.4 kW power at 4,400 rpm and a maximum 305 Nm torque at 1,200 rpm. It marries well with the three-speed automatic which makes jerk-free changes except under full throttle.
I got 13.7 litres per 100 km driving the car gently in city. On a run I would expect to get 10.6 litres per 100 km (26 mpg) cruising at a steady 100-110 km/h. This would give the car a cruising range from it's 77.4 litre (17 gallon) tank of 716 km (442 miles).
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

ENTER- THE SIX POT PETROL SIPPER

Motoring writer Bryan Hanrahan is impressed with this car, Melbourne Herald, 1/12/78.

I have just driven back from Adelaide in an automatic four-litre full-size current model Valiant. It averaged 25.09 miles a gallon (11.2 litres to 100km).


And, crewing with Sydney writer Phillip Christensen, we didn't spare the horses. There was no pussyfooting it economy-run style...we drove up to every speed limit when it was safe to do so.
The 760 kilometres (472 miles) was done in 8.5 hours, an average of 89.4 km/h (55.5 mph). The speed limit in South Australia is 110 km/h (68.3 mph).
The big Valiant was one of three prepared by Chrysler Australia for a run from Adelaide by the Western Highway to Melbourne and then on to Sydney by the Princes Highway. I left the party in Melbourne.
No cheating was allowed. The cars were inspected by the South Australian Automobile Association and declared to be substantially standard.
No crude tricks like blowing up the tyres rock-hard to cut down rolling resistance were tried. But my car did change into top gear under heavy throttle at 35 km/h (15.5 mph) and it wouldn't kick down from top to second at more than 60 km/h (37.2 mph).
Come to think of it. I probably wasted quite a bit of petrol trying to make those accelerator down-shifts.
The weather was hot for half the distance from Adelaide, not good for economy because the air is thin and the cylinders can't gulp as much as when it is cool. Rain over the rest of the run thickened up the atmosphere and let the engine breathe deep.
How have Chrysler managed this light car economy with an old-fashioned overweight body touted around by a big cast-iron engine? The Holden and Ford equivalent models would be going extra well to touch 20 mpg (14.1 litres to 100 km) over the same course.
Well, the Chrysler sixes are very efficient internally.
When exhaust emission regulations came in they did not have to use exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to clean up the engines, while Holden, Ford and most other makers did.
Chrysler squeezed by with special cam-shaft timing which, with a crude carburettor, didn't help petrol economy.
EGR routes part of the exhaust gases back through the cylinders for re-burning to remove pollutants that were not properly consumed the first time.
It is rather like a human adulterating his diet with his own waste products. Weakening to say the least.
And that's just what EGR does to engines. Efficiency is reduced and that puts up petrol consumption.
Chrysler have developed a system they call "electronic lean burn".
A sensor in the exhaust gas flow detects when it is getting too dirty with unburned petrol and passes the message to a little black box in the carburettor. The electronics then reduce the amount of petrol in the mixture so that burning is complete enough not to need EGR...or the special camshaft timing.
And so one car maker has already solved the problems of serving two impossible masters...conservation of oil resources and clean air.

TAILSHAFT: The other Valiant crews reported 26.75 mpg for my car on the Melbourne-Merimbula leg, 27.5 mpg from a 4.3 litre automatic. The equivalents are 10.6, 10.3 and 10.7 litres to 100 km.

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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Heihachi_73 »

It's a shame the Valiant couldn't survive the 80s, but by that stage Mitsubishi really didn't have anything competitive to replace it with.

As of 1981 Chrysler (US) was on the K platform at the time which was designed around medium-sized front wheel drive cars with 4 or 6 cylinder engines (and who knows if they were even able to convert them to right hand drive), and Mitsubishi (Japan) didn't have a large enough model to sell in place of the Valiant - the 2.6L Astron in the Sigma was probably one of the largest 4 cylinder car engines in Australia at the time, but unfortunately a straight 6 based on this engine (which would have been 3.9L) was never designed so there was no way to compete with the 4.1L/250 crossflow in the Falcon or the 4.2L/253 V8 in the early Commodores, let alone the larger V8s.

Having Mitsubishi import a K car from the US would have been pointless as it would have directly competed against their own Sigma and the similar-sized rivals such as the Corona and Bluebird (and as of 1982, the JB Camira, before the cars fell apart and tarnished the name despite the later JD and JE Camiras being fairly good cars for the time), without being close to the Falcodore in size or engine range. Additionally, some the American K cars even came out with the same engine as the Sigma. By 1985 Mitsubishi had moved to the front wheel drive Magna anyway (which itself was an enlarged version of the new-shape Japanese Sigma), although the TM ended up being junk and didn't have a station wagon yet so the old Sigma had to keep being made anyway.

The Valiant's "successor" really only appeared in the early 90s when the Magna/Verada gained some weight and finally received a V6 (which I believe was from the Pajero), although of course the modern successor to the Valiant would have to be the Chrysler 300C.
Last edited by Heihachi_73 on Tue Jun 30, 2020 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Funny thing is that luxury compact transverse front drive Chrysler New Yorkers in the 1980s and into the 90s used Mitsubishi sourced 3l V6s and they sounded like the V6s used in the TR and TS Magna in the early 1990s.
Makes me wish I had bought an immaculate TS Verada for sale down my street!
I have heard people claim the 4.0 litre inline six used in Jeeps sold here during the 1990s were essentially fuel injected hemi sixes. I can hear a similarity to their sound. They were a very renowned engine.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

TV car dealer ad for used CM Valiants.
https://youtu.be/69xrkzVhwJk
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Wikipedia states that the 4L Jeep sixes were an AMC design that pre-dated the Chrysler takeover (at 242ci it's also slightly smaller than the 245 Hemi).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_straight-6_engine#4.0
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

I wondered how it would fit into the story. Thanks for clarifying. The Jeep engine does sound like an ELB hemi though.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Came across this advertisement for the 77 CL on which the CM is based. These had a revised camshaft and other measures to meet emissions, all of which were avoided with the ELB on the CM.
CL 318 V8s were actually the first to get ELB.
CLs got the same handling improvement package as the CM sometime during its last production year in 1978.
https://youtu.be/MC1aE6unNlA
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Heihachi_73 »

Saw a blue Valiant station wagon with a Chrysler by Chrysler front in Bedford Rd Ringwood last night. Had some nasty rust on the tailgate though. No idea what model it was due to the non-standard front and being a "late model" wagon (VH through CM wagons all have the same tail lights).
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

A lot of lower class Australians buy classic Australian Chryslers and butcher them with stupid non originating add ons. You can get an approximate model year by the shade of dash bored board colour, although anything could have been swapped in it's life time.
I miss the days when the Mediterranean set mainly bought them. They were well kept and original.
Young Anglo Saxon owners butcher them too much.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Another example of an overseas model showing what a drab car scene we always had as well as buses.
https://youtu.be/1OHa0vWXIL8
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Frances »

Yesterday I saw a CM (I'm pretty sure that's what it was) Valiant sitting in the front yard of a house in Winston Hills. Sandy beige in colour. It looked as good as new.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Saw one the same colour in a tyre place at Gosford a few weeks ago. Passers by were turning their heads to glance at it.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Heihachi_73 »

There's a CL Valiant ute on the Movember ad right now, with a bonus weird-looking bus for good measure.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Heihachi_73 wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 4:04 am There's a CL Valiant ute on the Movember ad right now, with a bonus weird-looking bus for good measure.
Didn't take long to find it. At first I thought it was a wagon until I realised it was a ute with a canopy. Never seen one on a Valiant.
The bus is a Bedford VAL from the 70s with either a CCMC out PMC step deck body. Two vals of a different kind!!

https://youtu.be/YtkY9BIjpQ8?si=6tU7xUMGO-VDNgst
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

WAS THE FUEL GUAGE WRONG?

By John Clydesdale, Perth Sunday Times, 19/11/78

Today is a fantastic world of electronics. Of tiny microcircuits, microcompressors that are total computers in miniature.

They have spread out to reach right into the heart of the motor car to control it, improve it and take over from old fashioned mechanicals.
These micro-computers have solved one of the automotive engineer's biggest headaches -how to make car engines burn cleanly.
Today, on the new range of Chrysler Valiant vehicles, electronics make the car's engine burn cleanly and at the same time more efficiently for a better performance.
It was a most surprising experience this week to have to tap , tap on the fuel guage on a brand new car to make sure it was working.
Yet this was the case after driving more than 100km in a big, heavy six cylinder 4.3 litre capacity 1978 Valiant equipped with Chrysler's Electronic Lean Burn system.
The guage just sat right past full. Was the guage wrong?
No. The Valiant returned the amazing economy figure of 13 litres per 100km or 21 mpg.
And this was for mainly city, suburban driving a test vehicle operating mainly with air conditioning.
It was 28 per cent better than the superseded car's performance.
This is typical of the sort of performance from the new ELB Chryslers which has revived much interest in the Valiant range of cars.
Included in the CM line-up is a limited edition Valiant GLX Special which has such standard equipment as four-on-the-floor manual transmission, hot-wire cast alloy wheels, special paint treatments, cloth seats, roof console with map lamp and rear seat retractable belts.
The GLX sells for $7870 plus delivery charges. The airconditioning in the test car was an extra $650.
Otherwise the basic Valiant car is $6850 rising to $12,002 for the super-equipped Regal.
The system is the product of space-age technology having been engineered at Chrysler Corporation's Huntsville, Alabama, Electronic Division during the corporation's participation in the US space program (NASA).
The heart of the system is a computer mounted alongside the car's air cleaner and it measures only 12 x 12 x 5 cm (or 8 x 4.5 x 2 in.).
It releases a spark at the best possible time for combustion inside the engine after taking into account driving conditions and emission levels, and providing for the best fuel economy.
Lean burn combustion introduces a new technique for meeting the emission requirements--lean petrol-air mixtures.
Research showed that two emissions, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide drop to low levels at an air-fuel ratio of 15.5 to 1, but the third emission, oxides of nitrogen, peak at this point.
If air/fuel ratios near 18 to 1 can be used the NOx falls dramatically due to cooler combustion and the presence of excess air.
This is the basic premise of the ELB system, to control NOx by using lean mixtures.
The carburettor was modified to deliver an air/fuel mixture in the lean 18 to 1 ratio at cruising speeds and about 15 to 1 at idle.
But since lean mixtures are hard to ignite, and burn cleanly, they have to be ignited at precisely the correct instant.

The precise instant when ignition takes place to ensure complete combustion changes continuously depending on engine speed, manifold vacuum, engine temperature and air temperature. Even the carburettor throttle position and throttle rate of change are factors that can affect timing.
To meet all these factors, the spark control computer supplies a continuous stream of all these conditions from five sensors and from this the spark timing is set.

The computer in fact senses when the car is at idle, when on a long highway run or when accelerating hard and alters the exact spark timing to suit.
Compared to the conventional ignition system, the ELB system is required to provide much faster control than is possible with a simple system. The ELB system reacts in milliseconds to signals from the sensors.
All these variably have an effect on performance.
An engine needs advanced ignition during acceleration.
But with conventional engines, the requirements of emission control do not allow all of the advance desired for acceleration.

Conventional engine timing advances with speed only, in effect, after the need for the advance.
Driving the ELB Valiant shows immediately the difference in the engine's preformance.
Acceleration is felt to be brisker with signs of more punch in every firing of the cylinders.
This is a feature that can be proven on the electronic tuning system or on a dynamometer, but just driving the car one can feel it.
It shows up in moving off from the kerb, or pulling out to pass another car. It shows up instinctively because with the present emission-controlled engines, one gets used to an ever-so-slight hesitance in these situations.

In actual preformance, the 4.3 litre six cylinder engine in the GLX test car had enough power to push the car from stand-still to 50km/h in 3.9 secs, yet the car weighs more than 1½ tons.
Because of the state of the art of electronics manufacture, the system should outlast any mechanical or any other part of the car. It is virtually indestructible through normal use.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Merc1107 »

Ahh lean-burn. Wonder how long the spark plugs, and coils lasted on those ... as it's certainly not a selling point for lean-burn, turbocharged CNG engines!
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Never thought of that angle. As for the computer module itself, I read about 20 years was their life span. Being in the hot engine bay didn't help. They were known to die before then. Modern ECUs are located within the vehicle itself out of the engine bay.
Many were disconnected with a conventional carburettor setup fitted in it's place.
Here's a very good video from the U.S detailing the system's quirks. Wish I had known when I had a 1980 CM Regal in the 1990s. Would have explained it's behaviour.
https://youtu.be/JBmFF4WrqvA?si=wys65pH4oHv6j5u4
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Merc1107 »

Swift wrote: Wed Dec 27, 2023 5:15 am Modern ECUs are located within the vehicle itself out of the engine bay.
Or in the case of my former BMW, under the gutter for the windscreen, which if blocked, will promptly flood your ECU and cause frustration. Certainly did for me. Luckily drying the computer out and a quick hit with contact cleaner smartened it up.
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