By Tim Odell
When was the last time (if ever) that you placed a classified ad, or even read one? Never bordering on forever, I’m guessing. And yet in 2014 2015, writing like you’re paying by the character persists in automotive listings. Normally we try to avoid quoting an ad in its entirety, but our seller’s left us little to prune:
needs TLC. Has great body pretty much all straight and almost no rust. Runs…rebuilt with chevy blazer 440 trans and motor
I once argued wrongly that a friend’s early-70s Ford truck couldn’t possibly have a 360ci engine in it (because that’s a Dodge motor, duh), but I’m fairly confident there were no 440-powered Blazers. Given that it’s typed in two places, I don’t think we’re talking about a simple typo. So, is this an FJ with a Ramcharger drivetrain, or someone confused about what was under the hood of their donor Blazer? We might be able to figure it out from a picture, but of course the seller held back on those too.
Anyway, a FJ55 wagon powered by some form of Detroit V8 (I’m guessing 454) needing some TLC but not having rust? The $3500 seems close to fair, depending on a million details major pieces of information left out of the listing.
1970 Land Cruiser FJ55 for sale – eBay Motors
Jeff Glucker
almost no rust. that just means the entire body is rotted out inside. nbd!
I see an amazing amount of poorly-written ads on CL and even E-Bay. Probably could make a decent living as a copy editor for them, except the clients would be too cheap to pay.
This is the worst one I've seen recently;
tayto – $1000
My biggest pet peeve in used car ads is the infamous 'BMW 325i V-6'. And let's give the old Rambler flathead V-6 proper recognition too.
Has there ever been a flathead V6?
No, not to my knowledge. Cadillac did have a flathead V16, though. It replaced the narrow angle OHV V16 oddly enough.
There are a number of 4.2L "V6" Trailblazers and kin out there too.
4.3 liter v/6
Not in a Trailblazer.
How about the 'reliable and economical Honda V4?'
Perhaps it really was a 440 powered Blazer that was, before having its drivetrain transplanted into the Land Cruiser, involved in some sort of abnormal reverse Chevy 350 swap.
The tow bar could be a very prudent accessory to have…. depending on the sellers definition of "Runs".
I had to get rid of my 440 Blazer…. too hard to get parts for it.
Body parts, perhaps, but for driveline stuff, you can aways scavenge from a Kawasaki.
<img src="http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/armslist/uploads/posts/2013/11/12/2325848_01_kawasaki_440_standup_jetski_640.jpg">
When was the last time (if ever) that you placed a classified ad, or even read one?
My first thought when reading this was "But I read Craigslist ads all the time". It took me three tries to parse "classified" correctly (kept trying to read it as CL). Which should tell you my answer to that question…
I've never posted before today. but I am ashamed you guys didn't see this already. He says "chevy blazer 440 trans and motor" – not a 440 motor, but a 440 trans. I suggest that he is referring to the New Process 440 transmission (a 1-2-3-OD) ahead of the motor from the same vehicle. He does say "440" in the "engine" section of the ad, but even so, I suspect that the ad copy shows that he meant it to identify the transmission.
Maybe, but the GM 440-T4 was for transverse applications.
This one: http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2005/03/01/hm…
Maybe so, but that's still not out of a Blazer.
If it's stock in the suburban and truck per the Hemmings article, I am pretty sure it's reasonable to expect that it was in a Blazer from GM or from some guy with a hoist.
The seller states in the specification section that this truck has a 440 V-8 with 6 cylinders. Does this mean that two are missing as in "gone" or just not operating? I'm very confused.
It's a 587ci V8 with two cylinders disabled 😉
Thank you, thank you…. I feel much better now!
Wow. Never knew that transmission existed (at least as the NP440 as opposed to A833).
Odd that the seller would include that detail but leave out literally every other relevant detail.
I don't care what the bid goes to, I'm going to win that traffic cone!