I agree on the 360 statement. I had a neighbor building a 72 swinger, he kept on about putting a 340 in it. I told him a 360 built right would smoke a 340, and a 360 turned into a 408 stroker would smoke a 340 even worse. He just couldent get it out of his head saying that the 340 was better for some reason. Yep its essentially an overbored 318 with thicker walls, bigger valves, a 4bbl, and a hot cam.
US car tool rad support stiffener is a pricey piece, but if you can weld and fabricate, why not make your own out of 2x3 box steel like i did. Sure it costs you in time, but if your bucks down then use the time. I personally think my 2x3 box core support is probably way stronger than the us car tool add on to the stock support. I wanted to show a nice way to make corners with boxed steel rhat you may want to copy. I cut out for the radiator to set down in the new radiator lower support, then flipped the cut out piece, and used it to box the crossmember back in. Last pic shows it doesnt hang too much lower than the stock crossmember. Once painted black it wont be seen anyways. I also trimmed and fitted what was left of the stock lower support back in place.
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