Decision making was never my strong point...HELP lol
Bill I understand that since you want more of a driver than a drag car. My big old Cordoba needs all the help it can get. metallicdart sorry for hijacking your thread.
Lol no problem! I like reading, its not a hijack, its an addition!
I have the ability to go big block but after a lot of research and seeing what a small block can be built to do I said forget that.
Thats always been my way of thinking, too. Not many mopar guys in my town (me, my brother, my dad, and a buddy Ron. My brother and I get called "the dodge boys" lol). But I have done sooo many la builds, I guess I just want to do something different. This was my first magnum, but it wasn't too much different than the la stuff. Just a little more planning and research.
Basically, for me it is the bang for the buck, similar, again, to the recent low comp 440 build. Between a 360 and a 440, if I port the heads on both, spend the same coin on a cam/lifters/springs, same RPM style dual plane, headers, etc, I am willing to bet a 440 would be faster. Other than the headers, I know I could do it for the same or cheaper, it seems like there is a ton of good used bb stuff out there.
Then again, I could sell the magnum, and put that towards the heads on my 422.
Now hold on a sec. I've seen some fairly warm 383s with thermoquads get 17 plus on the road with decent gearing. It's still a big block.
You are right on that! Heck, my 455 Cutlass with 2.45 gears got 16mpg with a Carter 750. I doubt that my 440 would be mild enough to get any mileage tho lol.
I guess it comes down to what you plan on doing with the car. A cruiser you can take on out of town trips without costing a fortune? Small block. Tire shredding Saturday night special? Big block. That's maybe oversimplified, but you get the gist of it. :)
Not oversimplified, you hit the nail on the head for me! I miss the look of awe when you tell someone "its a big block". I want the car to have a general feeling of badassness. I just made that up.