News (Stellpower)

Trenton Engine: Production of V8, Slant Six, and Four Cylinder Engines By Year

Photos provided by Dave Van Buren

Trenton Engine started out making V8 engines—9,858 of them in 1957 as production started. Straight-six engines were being made by then in the brand new, highly automated Mound Road plant; Plymouth needed serious mass production and low cost, so the new “A” series engines were also at Mound Road.

At Trenton, V8 production rapidly grew, with nearly 200,000 V8s pumped out for the 1959 cars; by now, the assembly plants were no longer trying to make engines (Canada did have a separate facility). (All years in this report are model years, not calendar years.)

The 1960 Valiant had spurred the creation of a new straight six engine at long last; the old flathead six was well and truly obsolete by this time. The engine created for the Valiant was not used in that car first, though; and it was available through the entire product line, save for the venerable Power Wagon, almost immediately. Trenton made 411,680 slant sixes in that first year, doubling production from the year before. But you can see it all in the chart:

Chrysler Trenton Engine production chart (V8, slant six, four cylinders)