Chevy 292 Specs
by DarienC
Chevy and General Motors used the Chevy 292 engine in their pickup trucks from 1963 to 1990, with production shifting from the United States to Mexico after 1984. The 292 was a six-cylinder, inline engine that was not interchangeable with the smaller block engines. The Chevy 292 was known for being powerful, durable and reliable.
History
Chevy began manufacturing six-cylinder engines in 1929, with the first line producing a maximum of 50 horsepower. Chevy continued to revise and improve its six-cylinder engines over the years and began using the 292, the most powerful of its six-cylinder engines, in pickup trucks in 1963. While the configuration of the 292 was similar in many ways to the smaller Chevy six-cylinder engines that went before it, there were significant differences that made it incompatible with the smaller engines. For instance, the 292 fuel pump was on the opposite side of the engine from where it was found on the other six-cylinder Chevy engines.
Configuration
The cylinders of the Chevy 292 engines were numbered from the front of the engine to the rear, with the first cylinder always being the forward one. The firing order was 1-5-3-6-2-4. The engine came with seven main bearings, and the configuration included hydraulic valve lifters and hollow push rods to move individually mounted rocker arms that pivoted on ball seats. The distributor shaft drove a gear-type oil pump that provided full-pressure lubrication for the engine. The main oil gallery traveled along the lifter area, passed through passages to the cams and main bearings and then went through lifters and push rods to the rocker arms.
Performance
The Chevy 292 was an inline, six-cylinder engine with a bore and stroke of 3.875 inches by 4.125 inches and a compression ratio of 8.0-to-1. It achieved a maximum 165 gross-horsepower at 3,800 rpm and netted 147 horsepower at 3,600 rpm. It reached its maximum gross torque of 280 pound-feet at 1,600 rpm and netted 262 pound-feet of torque at 2,000 rpm.
