Any reviews on a 360 magnum crate motor P5249499
Since it has been sitting a while, I would suggest checking almost everything. Many of these were slammed in and run out of the box, but It's easy to check before you install it.
I have Mopar Magnum short block in my truck that has 100,00 miles now with no issues at all.
I also currently have a Mopar short block my brother aquired some time ago and sat around until I recently took it over. This one had a piece of wire from a wire brush or wire wheel stuck under the head of one of the rod bolts. I was taking it apart anyway to enlarge valve notches in pistons and also found the camshaft bearings binding badly enough that the short block was hard to turn over with a long breaker bar. Could not turn it by hand even with timing chain removed.
Finally, the oil holes in the crankshaft are very sharp and are tearing up the rod bearings pretty deep even though it's never been run, just rotated by hand with the breaker bar.
As a side benefit while disassembled, those heads are worth cutting down the guides, since they will be brand new castings, then you can run a much better camshaft. That camshaft was a weird compromise because of the short retainer to guide clearance.