Advice around 170 slant carb and engine swap
Hey sorry I should have been more clear. The car was running a couple years back and during our latest attempts my father in law and I have confirmed that the battery, starter, ignition components, and fuel pump are all in decent working order. The rubber is also in decent shape (no signs of dry rot and still has tread).
The biggest issue is the carb since we believe that is keeping the car from starting and running. My first goal is to ensure I can start the car to pull it out of the garage to access storage in the garage when needed.
The next level after initially having the car be movable would be ensuring that it could be driven somewhere safely and for that I believe brakes are for sure the most important item from my initial looks at the car. Again, brakes were working "okay" a few years back but on the latest visit the brake fluid is gone so will need to look at that.
As far the the engine swap I was hoping to be able to hook the 360 up to the 904 torqueflite in the car currently. I did some initial searching and it *seems* possible. All your tips are VERY helpful in understanding what I will need to get and what it will end up costing.
i'd be inclined to throw a carb kit at it and see what shakes out.
brakes are easy, but tedious. and easy to screw up too. again, i don't know the level of mechanical aptitude or experience that you have so i can't just say: get thee to carquest and grab some fresh shoes, hardware kits, cylinders and knock that bish together.
assess what you have, where you eventually
want to be, and what your constraints are: time, money, experience, etx.
if the brake system is totally shot, it's a worth while to upgrade everything to disc brakes. but that's money, time, parts, and expertise you might not have right now and if the more pressing issue is "to make it move" then you just have to settle with probably having to do things twice.
anyway, brake fluid doesn't just go away. find out where it's leaking from. then inspect all the rest of the system and figure out how much of it needs replacement and repair. personally i would spend as absolutely as little as possible on the drum brake system-- just enough to make it mobile and safe-- knowing that i'd be upgrading to discs in the future. likely, you'll just be replacing a few leaking wheel cylinders and cleaning up the system.
get yourself a FSM over at mymopar.com and pore over the technical data and operations for repair, also watch a grip of u-tube vidyas and you should be on your way.
as for the trans: V8 won't hook up to /6. if you want to keep pushbuttons, then you'll need a V8 trans from that era, along with the correct torque converter and adapter ring, or a conversion kit for later trans to the push button box. both are spendy propositions.
get it running first. get it safe. then get it driving. collect the parts for the swap while you enjoy driving it. worry about the pushbuttons somewhere else down the line.
