I'm assuming the engine is off-set in the 4wd's to make room for the front diff, but is it not centered in the vehicle on the 2wd's as well? Mine's a good 2-3 inches to the passenger's side.

 

nope its like that on all of em, mines 2wd and its offset too

 

Interesting.

 

I think they do that to keep the engine from rocking the entire truck under throttle,
remember the old muscle cars w/ V8's, they rocked to the side when you gave it gas
try that with an offset engine and the rocking is limited
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Marijuanadispensaries/clones

 

That stinks. I like the rocking. I had no idea that why they did that.

 

safety,
the big problem was that people were losing control because when your car rocks at speed, the steerability of said vehicle took a hit
my brother had an old nova with a big engine (i don't remember what it was)
he was involved in three accidents, all under heavy, throttle during a turn.
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Vanila4u live

 

hm, I would have thought it was to help clear the front differential in the 4wd, but easier having 1 crossmember/fan shroud/etc instead of different ones for 2/4wd.

 

Doesnt sound like a design problem there. More of a lack of driving skill.

 

thats most likely a big part of it too. but all his accidents were during left turns, and the result of losing control to one side of the car, like all the weight was off those tires so they didn't respond

but in clearing a differential that isn't there in a 2wd requires yet another drivetrain setup.
I'll bet that it's actually a combination of things.
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Vaporizer video

 

thing is, corvettes motor is centered, Vipers motor is centered and they have ALOT more HP than any stock dakota. My sonoma's 4.3L was centered even with 4WD. My dakota was teh first time I ever seen a offset motor. More than likely its due to what horatio said. Just a design quirk of a dakota so they dont need too many different designed parts.