Low money 360 any ideas

Dont forget that 360 has an EXternally balanced crankshaft, unless you dissassemble it and have a machine shop internally balance the crank you will need to get a torque converter with a balance weight welded to it in the correct spot on the converter shell, or figure out the correct weight of the balance weight, and correct location on your existing torque converter and modify yours.

The 360 is the only mopar small block that is this way.,the 273, 318, 340 are all internally balanced at the factory. Personally i am building a hot mill 318, since it was low mileage and came with my parts car. I dont have the cash to stroke the 318 to a 390, and dont want to hunt around findingfinding a good 360 block and mains as a core. If i come across one cheap down the road i will prob grab it.

The big key to power, is compression, and breathing, ignition not withstanding.

The 318 #302 castings off a late model chrysler 318 (pre magnum) are closed chamber swirl port heads, and with a bit of milling can be brought down to 52cc. Add a nice set of Keith black #167 cast flattops or #844 forged versions, and a thin headgasket , and you have a 'teen with 10-1 compression.

#302 heads are small valve heads but will support 2.02, 1.60 valves, and if you dont mind breathing iron dust port em yourself. An alternate is 56cc magnum v8 heads.

Port match your intake. Id recommend an edelbrock RPM series, as far as cam selection goes, most of the cam companies base the aggressiveness of cam lift off of chevy cams which have small width lobes and whose tappets can only support so much aggressiveness in lift.

Mopar cam lobes are physically much wider and can support a much more aggressive lift cam profile than a chevy cam and tappets can. Some cam companies know this and do grind mopar cams with this advantage in mind. Mopar performance for obvious reasons, i believe Hughes racing engines for another, however i'm not sure about the other usual suspects like comp cams, edelbrock, lunati etc.

Yes as stated in this thread in other places proper matching of parts makes a much stouter engine combination. I am hoping to crack 400 hp with my 318. And in a 2,700 lb street car with a 4 speed and 3.73 gears thats plenty for me.

Matt