360 Question

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Calipag

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My son and I built a 1970 Dart with a 318 over last winter. It is his daily driver and we continue to do upgrades as he saves more money. We sent the 318 to be rebuilt and I really didn't have the opportunity to share the experience of rebuilding an engine with him. This car is my first Mopar and there was a bit of a learning curve as those who have helped us know.

I'm always cruising the local sale site for cars and such and found a 1972 Dodge van with a 360. It's showing 63,000 on the odometer and I could get the whole van for about $600-700. My thought was to buy that and go thru it with my son and do a bit of a performance build. We did not do that with the 318.

What are your thoughts on the price of the entire van?
Any thoughts on my idea?
Is there any pitfalls that I may not know about in possibly putting that in the Dart in the future? That would be our end goal.

Thank you all,
Matt
 
The first 2 years of the 360 (71/712) had flat top pistons. I had a similar find out of a 71 Fury that got wrecked It had 38k original miles on it. (this was in the very early 80's) I put a 4bbl intake on it Holley 1850 600 vacuum carb headers and duals and it went into my Ramcharger Boy it was a torquey engine It would have been very fun in an A-body. The heads on the early 360's are good to work with as well. You'll need a 360 car pan and either add washers to the motor mount (1 side is different on the 340/360's) and a car oil pan and pick up. If the 360 turns over easily its worth grabbing for sure.
Good luck!
 
Sounds like a good idea. Get the van, park it while you figure out your build on the 360, have an end goal in mind and have it at the beginning and stick to it. Know how much you wish to spend and be wary of those who wish to spend your money. The enticement is "for a couple more dollars you can do...bla, bla, bla". It's always great if you have the "few dollars more".
 
Well, if $600 or so gets you the whole van, it sounds like a pretty good deal to me. You get the 360 with the transmission for your Dart, and sell parts off the rest of the van to make back some of your investment. Win/win.
The only issues to putting that 360 into the Dart are basic- it will need a 360 passenger car oil pan and pickup, 360 engine mount brackets (the 318 ones will work too, with a couple of quick modifications- lots of threads on here about that, it's no problem), and the need to address the engine balance difference: the 360 is externally balanced, the 318 is internally balanced. There's a couple of ways to address this, depending on the Dart and the van transmissions. If they are both 904s, just run the torque convertor that came on the 360, or run the entire van trans in the Dart, which is a good opportunity to do a freshening and mild performance build on the trans. with the boy, too.
 
Not to sound like a dork but the value is the time spent teaching your son this process..... Mopar, ford, whatever that's the value.... Glad to see dad doing this. It's a lost treasure in the world today.

That's a great deal. You get everything for the build except the performance stuff. As for what you do, well it comes down to the interest your son has in the project. Keep him engaged and hold him accountable during the process and set a hard date to get it done.

JW
 
Not to sound like a dork but the value is the time spent teaching your son this process..... Mopar, ford, whatever that's the value.... Glad to see dad doing this. It's a lost treasure in the world today.

That's a great deal. You get everything for the build except the performance stuff. As for what you do, well it comes down to the interest your son has in the project. Keep him engaged and hold him accountable during the process and set a hard date to get it done.

JW
The build and hobby has been a great experience for both of us. He just bought a set of Dougs headers for the 318 and for Father's Day we hit our local car show in the morning (J&M Speed Center in Riverside), him in the Dart and me in my 54 Ford Wagon,he bought me lunch/breakfast and then we installed them. That day lined up with his days off and mine. Most of our neighbors and friends think I'm crazy but in reality it was one of the best Father's Day I've ever had. The header install was a bear but we got her done and he is very please with it. Although he loved the way the open headers sounded; my neighbors are happy that the rest of the exhaust system is now hooked up!
 
The build and hobby has been a great experience for both of us. He just bought a set of Dougs headers for the 318 and for Father's Day we hit our local car show in the morning (J&M Speed Center in Riverside), him in the Dart and me in my 54 Ford Wagon,he bought me lunch/breakfast and then we installed them. That day lined up with his days off and mine. Most of our neighbors and friends think I'm crazy but in reality it was one of the best Father's Day I've ever had. The header install was a bear but we got her done and he is very please with it. Although he loved the way the open headers sounded; my neighbors are happy that the rest of the exhaust system is now hooked up!

Your neighbors and friends don't understand the deal lol.... If only they understood the "car guy" mentality they would probably have been over helping.... I stayed isolated these days but there was a time when about 5 of us were were on our cars together and it was probably the best time in my life. Wish my dad hadn't been so busy at that point in his life but it's all good...

JW
 
If the van runs and not just a core, that's not bad. It will most likely have a 727 behind it. I'd sell the 727 to recoup some $. SB 727's are not readily available as they used to be. The 904 can handle a 360.

You could put a cam and intake on the engine, have the headers already and have a good 320-350HP deal in no time. Do some home porting on the heads and reassemble, make a bit more. Recurve the distributor at home, get it running hard. Pretty simple deal.

The van might also have a Dana 60 in it. Or maybe an 8.75
.
 
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If you know tranny is good I would keep it altogether and install it. The only thing would be a driveshaft change which would keep all running gear together and not having to change so many things. I put a 79 Van 318 & 727 in a 70 Dart and was very happy with the end result.
 
I will add if you need to shorten the drive shaft the one from the van will work, the one from the car will not. Car drive shafts are double layered with a rubber layer in between. Van/truck drive shafts are all steel. I learned this 25 years ago when I took a drive shaft to be shortened.
 
I will add if you need to shorten the drive shaft the one from the van will work, the one from the car will not. Car drive shafts are double layered with a rubber layer in between. Van/truck drive shafts are all steel. I learned this 25 years ago when I took a drive shaft to be shortened.
Some are, not all. You can see the ones that are rubber insulated. They look like one tube slid inside another tube with a rubber ring in between. They were mostly on '66-7 automatics.
 
I too would start out using the 727, but, I'd also keep the 904 with it's driveshaft and yoke in case I wanted to make the change later. If you can get the van started, do it. That way you can test the transmission and rear end too. If the van has an 8 3/4 in it, you might want to keep that and have it narrowed for your Dart. Chances are your rear end is a 7 1/4 and not the greatest for higher horsepower.
 
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