360 vs 440 79 coachman

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Casca 2525

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Once the 360 is running and mobile and the house rebuilt I am wondering what the 360 will be like on hills and onramps etc, is it going to be a dog? Would a 440 swap make sense?
If so what would I need to move over? I know from looking at rock auto the motor mounts are different so do I need to take the the bracket off the frame?, is the trans cross member the same? Do I need to move it? Is the drive shaft the same splline /length? Assuming the swap is made the potential donor is a running driving 76 sportsman, we are getting it to gut the house interior and for the bunk over the cab as it's a 1 piece fiberglass design, I like it a lot better than our coachman but the frame is Swiss cheese, atm asking for ideas, for a preswap checklist, or advice yay/nay on the swap overall
 
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If the trans is a SB727(it should be), the driveshaft would be fine, motor mounts shouldn't be a difficilt swap. The oil pan may be unique, or truck pan, radiator capacity would be biggest concern.
 
Enough of them came with a 440, so it shouldn't be too difficult to scrounge up the swap list. Depends on the size of unit you have, the 360 should be fine as long as you aren't pulling anything heavy. My brother had a mid 70's Dodge motorhome/camper with a 360, it did fine even going in the Rocky mountains. It's not going to shoot from 50 mph to 80 up a steep grade.... lol
  • what might be a nice upgrade is the 5.9 magnum in place of the LA. You'll gain torque and HP and it would be a straight up bolt in basically. Put a nice, small 4bbl on it.
 
no ignition or other changes required to go from efi to 4bbl?



Oh, and no trailer going to nova scotia for the summer, just a 4ft tray on the back (welded to the frame, not in a receiver), for the propane, genny etc, however ever there will be a 26 or 28 ft box trailer when we move to BC
 
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Killer6 said:
If the trans is a SB727(it should be), the driveshaft would be fine, motor mounts shouldn't be a difficilt swap. The oil pan may be unique, or truck pan, radiator capacity would be biggest concern.
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Unless the pan is different between the years a coachman and a sportsman are pretty much the same except the sportsman had more options, like the 440, ac, bigger alt, plusher interior etc forgot to include radiator, was already planning to move it from the sportsman to the coachman either way, the coachman is I think, 2 or 3 row and the sportsman is 4 row, not sure if the dimensions are the same, but since the 440 was an option on the coachman it should be a bolt in swap
 
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Like 318WR said, you could swap in a 5.9 magnum and if you want more than that, you could stroke it to a 408. That’d give you closer to big block torque.
 
Casca 2525 said:
I thought magnums had an ecm? How would I deal with it if they do?
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That’s just to run the factory fuel injection and ignition. You can bolt a carbureted intake and the front cover and all accessories from an older small block on it to convert it back to the b-belts (if so desired) I’m currently running a carbureted 5.9 magnum in my Duster and someone would be hard pressed to be able to see that it’s not an la motor.
 
75slant6 said:
That’s just to run the factory fuel injection and ignition. You can bolt a carbureted intake and the front cover and all accessories from an older small block on it to convert it back to the b-belts (if so desired) I’m currently running a carbureted 5.9 magnum in my Duster and someone would be hard pressed to be able to see that it’s not an la motor.
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Hmm interesting artical left me with a couple questions that I haven't googled yet, why would I have to use a mini starter or grind the block for clearance if I use a std size? Wouldn't I keep the stock starter? And #2 if I need to use my la oil pan do I have to change the timing chain cover?
 
I couldn’t tell you about the starter since I’ve only ever run mini starters on mine. As for the oil pan, you can run either timing chain cover with either oil pan, but if you are using an la oil pan, it needs to be a 360 pan (which you already have)
 
75slant6 said:
I couldn’t tell you about the starter since I’ve only ever run mini starters on mine. As for the oil pan, you can run either timing chain cover with either oil pan, but if you are using an la oil pan, it needs to be a 360 pan (which you already have)
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Ok, what are the pros to using a mini starter? Also any insight on whether the drive shaft length needs to be changed?
 
Mini starters are a lot easier to get in and out (especially with headers) and are also higher torque.
Driveshaft would stay the same if using the same transmission.
 
75slant6 said:
Mini starters are a lot easier to get in and out (especially with headers) and are also higher torque.
Driveshaft would stay the same if using the same transmission.
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Oh OK, thank you, I was worried that the 440 was longer than the 360 and would have to sit further back to clear the rad
 
Casca 2525 said:
Oh OK, thank you, I was worried that the 440 was longer than the 360 and would have to sit further back to clear the rad
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Oh, I was talking about if you’d be using a 5.9 magnum. If you swap in a 440 and the matching transmission, it may or may not change the driveshaft length, I really don’t know either way.
 
75slant6 said:
Oh, I was talking about if you’d be using a 5.9 magnum. If you swap in a 440 and the matching transmission, it may or may not change the driveshaft length, I really don’t know either way.
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I was looking at magnums and they go for like 1500, no trans, since the 440 powered rv with the Swiss cheese frame is right besides the one that has the 360 iits the logical swap for me atm
 
Not a motorhome but I pulled the 318 out of my 1976 dodge van and built a very nice 360 for it back around 1980. It tow great and this was a heavy I beam car trailer. Inside the conversion van was lots of wood, refrigerator, sink, and bed.

38586148865_9b9b9eabce_o.jpeg
 
My dad had a 1977 Avion dodge motorhome with a 440 in it. I built him a real nice 440 with an RV cam and ported 906 heads. He towed a car behind him. This thing was an animal.

IMG_4508.jpeg


IMG_4510.jpeg
 
Casca 2525 said:
I was looking at magnums and they go for like 1500, no trans, since the 440 powered rv with the Swiss cheese frame is right besides the one that has the 360 iits the logical swap for me atm
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Oh, well if you’ve got a 440 donor RV on hand already, then absolutely I would do the 440 swap over a 5.9 magnum swap.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Not a motorhome but I pulled the 318 out of my 1976 dodge van and built a very nice 360 for it back around 1980. It tow great and this was a heavy I beam car trailer. Inside the conversion van was lots of wood, refrigerator, sink, and bed.

View attachment 1716196949
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Was this a maxi? It's hard to tell from the angle, I don't think they had them in 76, but I could be wrong, I had a heavy B250 maxi, use to load it up with 7800 lbs of news print grocery flyers then go delivered them to kids to delivery door to door, it had a magnum in it, it's was a complete dog loaded, (it had the v6, lol)
 
Casca 2525 said:
Was this a maxi? It's hard to tell from the angle, I don't think they had them in 76, but I could be wrong, I had a heavy B250 maxi, use to load it up with 7800 lbs of news print grocery flyers then go delivered them to kids to delivery door to door, it had a magnum in it, it's was a complete dog loaded, (it had the v6, lol)
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Better pictures

38586143995_d6b239ce59_o.jpeg
 
pittsburghracer said:
Better pictures

View attachment 1716197001
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I think it is longer than the standard b250 I had 1st with the leaning tower of power, I think yours has a longer wheel base, but not as long overall as the maxis were, kinda sucked, I had just bought a maxi with a 318 in January of 2017, and the company folded in march
 
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Still a lot of weight on a 5 bolt semi floating axle! Really wanted a b350 with 8 bolt full floating axle, and full frame, but the only one I ever saw for sale around here was a shorty):
 
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