Someone told me my Dodge van would be faster with a 360 in it…

…yet when I put this in the back of my Grand Caravan, I got slower!

I keed, I keed. But the 360 seen here, is more or less complete, cost me $400, and after a quickie refresh will get dropped into my Dart. I’m aiming for about 300hp at the torque converter in my ‘64 Dart GT convertible – last weekend’s drive around convinced me that most of the 273’s 180 horses were still in the stable, and while I don’t need to (or want to) set NHRA records with it, I’d like it to get up and go when I ask it to. That power number should be a dawdle with this block, even with 9:1 pump-gas compression. Or so I’m told.

It’s a .030-over ex-truck engine (judging by the oil pan, anyway), although I got a car pan for it. Came with an Edelbrock intake and a 600cfm manual-choke carb (I’ll be looking to get my paws on an automatic choke). It’s missing a cam; I plan on the least radical bumpstick in the Summit catalog. There’s also no distributor or ignition; suffice it to say that I’ll be doing some form of electronic ignition, whether it’s a hidden Pertronix or something snazzier. One of the attaching holes for the timing cover is apparently getting eaten away, but I’m told it’s the same part as on my current Dart’s 273. It’ll need a balancer, of course, and I don’t know whether my ancillary components – really just an alternator in my case, since there’s no power steering or A/C to muck about with. And I got a new oil pump and a double-roller timing chain with it, which is cool. And it’ll be orange when it goes in the car. Maybe it’ll be a Muscle Machines tech story; maybe not. It depends on a couple of things.

Yes, I know more power and torque against the relative fragility of my pushbutton 904 (and my unit-body convertible chassis) isn’t terribly wise. But with any luck I’ll be able to drive it to the tranny shop not long after this lump is installed. (It might be a tossup between the trans shop and the exhaust palace, come to think of it, since the manifolds are apparently legendarily restrictive.)

I’m also thinking about subframe connectors under the floors, which will be criminally cheap and easy to bolt together given a lift and a welder, and perhaps some cowl-to-shock-tower braces that can hide inside the front fenders, a la XV Motorsports, but not theirs since they don’t do A-body stuff. Most of this is a long time off; I still need to muster the manpower to get the block out of my van and into my garage downstairs.

So then, what to do with the 273 that I’ll be pulling out? Undetermined for certain, but since I don’t have a surfeit of engine parts clunking around, it may get repurposed and bolted into that Model A coupe that’s still waiting for me in my father-in-law’s barn in Idaho. We shall see.