360 sound good still?

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Orionsax7

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I am thinking of buying the following '71 360 engine as a starting point for my build. I emailed the guy selling it and this was his reply. Is this something that is fixable with the .030 over bore?

"Yes, I do still have the 71 360 longblock.
It was a 63,000 mile engine that haed never been apart, but it got some water down it and it mildly froze.
I got it broke loose and found some rust pitting in 2 cylinders, which will clean at .030 over.
If you are interested, call me at (***)-***-xxxx and I can give you more information, if needed."
 
Good starting point :thumbup:

Mine is a 73 360
.030 over
kieth black flat tops
zero decked
stage 1 rods
new crank
crane 278 Cam

yada yada yada...


good motor ;)
 
can he garantee no cracks from the freezing? i always say" if it is so good why are they selling" you might be getting someone elses nightmare. Just saying be carefull when you here stories like that!
 
Be wary of rust pitting. It goes deeper than you might suspect. I had to sleeve 4 cylinders in the 340 block I bought because of rust.
 
I'm concerned about the "mildly froze" part. Put if they were able to break it loose than it may be fine.
When i first read this I thought you meant "froze" as in ice. But seeing you are in TX i guess not. I live in cold and ice country and have seen many times what "freezing" (as in cold) does to an engine, crack city and not just small cracks either some big gaping cracks too. This isn't what they meant by "mildly froze" is it?
 
Well he lives in Lincoln, Nebraska but is heading down here late next month and may be able to drop it off. He has many engines he needs to get rid of for the space. 69 340, 71 360, 72 360, i think there was one more too. I was assuming that he meant froze from the rust and he broke it loose. I'll email him and ask. Does it snow there?
 
I don't know if it snows there or not but they sure grow a lot of corn.
 
rust pits are funny..They are deeper than they look, every time. It may be ok, butthe only way to know for sure, is to bore the holes in question. I had a 440 recently that measured out (indicator in the deepest part of the pits, block had already been shot blasted) and would be fine for .040 oversized. Needless to say, I now have a rough bored .055 over block. Also, keep in mind, many great 360s or 360 based blocks are running around at .060 over with no trouble.
 
His reply when I asked him about the meaning of "froze," he replied:

"'Froze' in that context meant 'Stuck' or 'Siezed' due to mild rust, which cleaned up quite easily. I have both 360s, still."

He has the 71 that "froze" and he also has a 72 that was running when it was pulled for $50 more.
 
id go with the 72, why save $50 when it may cost you more in the end?

steve
 
The 71 block was a thick wall casting that can usually be bored safely to .060. Maybe more. This is a great engine to build. Most 72 blocks are thick wall also. I've heard some rebuilders say they have seen late 72's that were thin wall casting. These can only be bored to .030 usually. But every block should be sonic checked before boring much just to make sure it don't have any thin spots.
 
I'd buy them both..lol. The '71 is a thicker nlock casting, because it's based on the 340 sand cores. As was said, sometime in '72 they began using a different sand mold. The later blocks should be sonic checked if they are going to be stroked to see how thick they realy are.
 
If I had the money(and the storage room), I'd buy them both! I wasn't expecting to start buying for the build yet but this is a pretty good deal and I've been looking for the thick wall casting so I may as well buy it and hang on to it.

-Alex
 
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