Made up my mind about more HP, now a ?

[Flatlander]

I've decided I'll be moving up in hp on the Dart. One of my friends operates a machine shop, is a mopar-or-nocar guy, and has several operating engines in storage. I'm going to look at them and he has 318s, 360s, a 383, and a 440. One of his 318s is a stroked one he did for his old service truck and only has 5k on it(I like). On the other hand he has a 383 which is also appealling to me but I don't know how much harder it would be to fit it into my Dart. Opinions???

Not really wanting to run headers and monkey with adapters or cutting up the drive line.

 

[66dartgt]

Small block is the way to go if you dont want to go through the pain of cutting up your car. A big block will be a tough deal to fit without cutting the fenderwells for headers etc. The stroked 318 might be my choice. Depends on whats inside it, comp ratio, cam, heads rods etc. If its stuffed with upgraded parts then why not ? Make sure its got the engine mounts that will work with your car, in the event that its a later 318 -ie magnum or something like that. I think they changed the mount system on the later engines for trucks sometime in the last years of the 318 motor.

Keep in mind that the 273 exh manifolds for these cars are pretty restrictive, you'd be much better off using the shorty headers from spitfire.