Father, Son, and Grand Father project. 1963 Valiant

Makes sense--and when budget weighs heavy on the build, well...like you said, dollars and sense. I'd kinda like to get another B engine, but I have a bit of a mad scientist idea for my Scamp. As with yours, budget will play a role, but I have a pretty good friend that can get great deals on a particular non-mopar type of engine that just happens to have multiple overhead cams, and I'd like to see that **** happen. But realistically, I have other much more important things to do with the car with sheetmetal replacement, chassis stiffening, rear axle upgrade, suspension, brakes, glass, etc., etc., ad nauseum, and right now, the 5.2 Magnum does run, albeit tired, but does run.

You know how they say a bird in hand is worth two in the bush; all my desires may just come down to rebuilding that 5.2 with new pistons, better heads, and one of those new FI Tech or Holley Sniper systems. It already has the RPM airgap intake and a set of hedman shorty headers (they work fine, but if I had it to do over, I'd go with dougs or tti). I'd really dig being able to row through the gears too, but converting from auto to the 5 speed I want would quickly add anywhere from $3500-5000...on top of my rebuild.

But, I bet I could find a good running aviator 4.6 DOHC (or possibly a navigator 5.4 DOHC), slap in cams, shave the heads, weld up custom headers (this same friend is pretty good with TIG), fab mounts, sit a T-45 behind it, get a new driveshaft, mate the current exhaust and be running (with factory EFI) for less than what it would cost to rebuild my current engine and transmission.