360 - Rebuild - Information & Opinions Needed
I'd put pistons in there that at least attempt to put the crowns into the open chambers, like the 340 pistons did.Or a swap to closed chamber heads, and zero deck pistons.I'm not a fan of decking the block for compression, but rather getting the piston crowns up to the existing deck,instead.With 3.55s it's gonna be a long pull to redline in first gear, so no sense in putting a big cam in there.Nor much sense in hi-rpm head work.I would concentrate on getting the Scr/Dcr just right.
On the other hand if an O/D tranny can be fit relatively easy, and 3.91s or better,are on the table; that would be a totally different engine.Ima thinking 4.30s and a 2.45-1.45-1.00-.69. That would be a starter gear of 10.54, a trap gear of 4.30 and a cruiser gear of 2.97, BaBam!
This should easily get you 106 mph in the qtr at 325 hp, which is a pretty mild build. And it will cruise at 2400@65 with 27s. And it will boil the hides through two gears or to at least 60mph.
As to ET, nobody can say cuz that will depend on your tuning skilz and the amount of money you put into the suspension. But I can tell you that the Direct Connection race Bulletin#40 says that 106 can be mid to low 12s.
325 is easy on a 360, with mostly bolt-ons, and a little attention paid to compression. If you are a little careful you can push 350 plus, even 400, cuz high-rpm is back on the table. If mpgs are important to you,a tight squish and a good cam has been recommended by Rumble, but then think closer to 300/325 hp, which will still be whopping big fun with 4.30s. The 218 cam will make a mountain of torque and so 3.91s might be the ticket(depends on your tire size), which will put your Rs to under 2200 with 27s @65. Your Trap speed might suffer some and your ET will suffer for sure.But your Mpgs will be up. The 3.91s might also require a bit of a TC to crank off the line, it's hard to say; that 218 is some nice off the line with a 4-speed and 3.55s(10.97 starter) , so 3.91 x 2.45=9.58, plus say 5% minimum in the stock TC is an equivalent starter gear near 10.06, so I imagine an 1800 TC (about stock) would be pretty peppy.
Anyways I'm just dreaming about what I would do...