360 rebuild, some questions/infos

I have a 78 360 in my 69 Barracuda, and had it milled and short block assembled by the shop, along with the heads milled and 2.02 int and 1.60 ext valves installed.

I went through the same thoughts that you are.
Here is what my thinking was.
For $2500 I now have an engine that with the addition of closed chamber heads and hotter cam should produce over 350 hp.

Spend the money upfront to either re-build the engine yourself or have the shop do it. I don't think you will be happy with the results if you keep the stock pistons and do nothing to the heads, and the shop labor will be about the same. So have it milled and the heads either milled or buy some aftermarket heads. I ended up spending a lot of money on my stock heads and for $400 more I could have gotten some Edelbrocks.

Currently the engine has the following
Speedpro HP116c pistons .030 over
New Clevitt bearings
MP 260 268 cam
Polished Crank
Stock casting heads with 2.02 and 1.60 valves 68CC chambers and ported
And a bunch of other stuff
Comp ratio 9.2

Now if you look at the end result for $2500 you can see that a short block crate engine is not to far off. If I had it to do over again, I would think about a crate engine. But that is because I have already had the experience of building my own engine. I had never done this before, and the experience was well worth it, but if I ever need another engine, I would look at a create 360.

valentek
69 360 Barracuda
86 360 Ramcharger
05 Sebring TSI