1985 360

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1970-dart

1970-dart

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got irons in the fire but picked up this 360 was supposedly rebuilt 1000 or so miles ago and last ran 6 or so months ago. Kid said got it from a old family friend that has no contact with anymore and no info on the specs. But at the end of the day i dont really care about all that as i got a good deal on it and its worth the time to put new gaskets( set came with it) in and see how it runs.

i dont know much about these thins and no clue on the type of heads they are but the paint dont look to awful old and the inside is pretty clean. heads and stuff seem to be mounted with what looks to be pretty new ARP bolts. I also got mopar valve covers and a holley dominator intake and what looks to be the correct oil pan for my car. (i bought a oil pan and pick up but this one looks pretty much the same as the one i bought)

so let me know what you think

thanks
 

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this is the front of one of the heads and im gonna take the water pump and timing cover off as well as the oil pan for all new gaskets also and to see if i can find any info on what the cam is and get some pics of the bottom end early next week



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Clean the ridge off of the top of the cylinders with a wire wheel and a drill...
 
That last picture is the temperature disc on the freeze plug of the head. The center is melted out as an indication that it has been over heated.
 
any other thoughts on those heads ?? would i be better using a set of j-heads
 
1970-dart said:
any other thoughts on those heads ?? would i be better using a set of j-heads
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They are J heads. They happen not have the J cast on them. They are exactly the same. Intake valves look like they might be 2.02. Hard to tell. Can you get a good picture of a piston instead of a crappy one?
 
looks like double springs in there too no?

only reason to do that is to run a bigger cam
looks promising but that heat snitch might be alarming
 
diymirage said:
looks like double springs in there too no?

only reason to do that is to run a bigger cam
looks promising but that heat snitch might be alarming
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One can only hope but Prob have to wait until its fired up because there is Prob no way to tell otherwise. lol.

But I will be at least getting it apart to put the new gaskets in. I have other heads if need be and they are pretty easy to change.

I will also be getting better pics of the oil pan and comparing to the one I bought cause they look the same so maybe I can just resell the one I bought.
 
As rusty already stated, 587s are the same as the 915 Js. I actually have a set of 72 587s off of a 340 that have a J cast onto the underside. Id use them
 
It looks like you bought the engine I found for you from half way across the country?!?
Good, I hope it works out for you. It looks promising. The ARP bolts are a good sign. Pull the timing cover and let's see what type of chain they used and how tight it is? I see a good crosshatch in the cylinder shown and what looks like a flat top piston? Hard to tell. Pull the oil pan and use some Plastigauge to check clearances and show us the bearings. Hopefully the temp disc thing that RRR pointed out happened before the engine was rebuilt and never replaced.

How much did you end up paying for it and what all did he throw in? We all love a good Craigslist score even if we're half way across the country!
 
LOL Brian yes I bought the engine off craigslist and I had seen it numerous times but never really thought of it as an option because I already had one motor and was supposed to purchase the other one but it fell through. so while I had seen that motor months ago or weeks ago anyway just never really checked up on it.

It came with just what you saw in the picture which also I believe has an oil pan on it that I can use so I can sell the one I already bought and it came with Mopar valve covers the black ones the coil alternator Holly intake other miscellaneous stuff all of the rockers and whatnot. Plus the car that needs to be rebuilt I have a holly the need to be rebuilt as well so I have a couple options had a Holley dominator intake with it I also have a Nother intake it's a torker 340 or something I bought at the car show. Neither of which it either intake is ideal but I have two of them so I'm going to use one of them just not sure which one yet I will get them is on that later on. And it came with a complete gasket set as well.

The guy I think he mentioned something about the site so he either knows about it or he is a member one of the two I don't know but either way I got the motor for $450 including the engine stand which is brand-new. I traveled five hours round-trip to get it but he treated me right it was a nice guy. It was an engine that a buddy or old family member or something had in a 74 charger and it up with it for a duster project he was working on and then sold the duster

Hopefully the heads will be okay as far as that temperature thing but as I said I have access to other ones and they are not a hard job to change it with the motor in the car so I think it's worth a shot.
 
I don't really know much about tolerances and glances and what not but I will get you guys better pictures of the cylinder walls and it Pistons which are flattops and also maybe I can ask you if you would rather message it'll information on clearances and how to check them
 
1970-dart said:
any other thoughts on those heads ?? would i be better using a set of j-heads
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Not really. Just block off the little holes under the exhaust ports. thread them and use a 1/4 x 20 set screw and be sure to get it past the exhaust manifold sealing surface.


You can also get 2.02" intakes installed to replace the stock 1.88" ones if you wish...

Those heads can "clean up" fine...
 
1970-dart said:
I don't really know much about tolerances and glances and what not but I will get you guys better pictures of the cylinder walls and it Pistons which are flattops and also maybe I can ask you if you would rather message it'll information on clearances and how to check them
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I'm no expert by any means but I know how to check clearances. So does this guy and he'll help you!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3pHb-qXZc8"]How To Use Plastigage -EricTheCarGuy - YouTube[/ame]

Let us know what you find and someone will chime in. You'll find out a lot about the engine when you pull the pan. If you find a layer of sludge in the bottom, someone lied to you. If it looks pretty clean, then you'll probably be fine.
 
BrianT said:
I'm no expert by any means but I know how to check clearances. So does this guy and he'll help you!

How To Use Plastigage -EricTheCarGuy - YouTube

Let us know what you find and someone will chime in. You'll find out a lot about the engine when you pull the pan. If you find a layer of sludge in the bottom, someone lied to you. If it looks pretty clean, then you'll probably be fine.
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Thanks a lot later on tonight when I get home I will go ahead and watch The video and do some other research. The kit I bought the motor from seeing pretty honest and straightforward he did not know a lot about the engine as he bought it from somebody that he kind of knew or a friend of the family or something. He pretty much told me what he knew it was straight up on us in the back and he didn't know much other than what he was told when he bought it

I will get the pan off tomorrow get a good look at it and figure out where locally I can get bus stop to check the clearances.
 
I bought an engine off of CL a while back from a local guy that goes by Mopar Brian (go figure). He buys and sells a lot of Mopar stuff locally. He was selling a used 360 crate engine and I was looking for something temporary until I could get my stroker built. He advertised it as a full roller motor (whatever that means) with very low miles. It supposedly came out of a buddy's car that went big block.

When I got over there, I asked did he mind if we popped a valve cover to see what rockers it had on there. He didn't mind but sure changed his story when we found stock rockers in place. He knocked $100 off of the $500 he wanted and even wrote on the receipt that he guaranteed it to be a "kick *** little hot rod motor". When we got it home we blew it apart just to check things over. The timing chain was so loose it was about to slip, the M1 intake was rotten away from the inside and hidden by epoxy, and there was a layer of sludge in the bottom of the pan 1/4" thick. When I called him back and told him about what I had found, he got all defensive and wanted to yell and scream at me. Just like when I catch one of my children doing something wrong, the first thing they do is get mad to deflect from the fact that they screwed up.

Long story, short, I sold EVERYTHING but the roller block and made all of my money back and then some, and basically got a 1990 360 LA roller block for free. My point is, trust no one until you see it with your own eyes.
 
Why are you so anal about the heads? They appear to have 2.02 valves, good springs and they are good castings. Take them to the machine shop and get them checked. If they aren't any good, then worry about it. Stop bein so negative about something that looks so promising. The are good castings. How many times do we have to tell you? Don't junk them till you know they're bad. damn
 
RustyRatRod said:
Why are you so anal about the heads? They appear to have 2.02 valves, good springs and they are good castings. Take them to the machine shop and get them checked. If they aren't any good, then worry about it. Stop bein so negative about something that looks so promising. The are good castings. How many times do we have to tell you? Don't junk them till you know they're bad. damn
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Wow not sure where that came from or who it's directed at but if it's me please show me where I have been negative about the heads.

Early in the thread I asked a simple question " so you think I should use these or another set of j heads I have" and i was told "( by you non the less) they are j heads and other than a few small concerns they should be fine. So from that point on my stance has been " I will run them and if they turn out to be bad I have another set and they are easy to change.

If that statement was for somebody else dis regard this but if it was for me please once again show me where I was negative on the heads.
 
BrianT said:
I bought an engine off of CL a while back from a local guy that goes by Mopar Brian (go figure). He buys and sells a lot of Mopar stuff locally. He was selling a used 360 crate engine and I was looking for something temporary until I could get my stroker built. He advertised it as a full roller motor (whatever that means) with very low miles. It supposedly came out of a buddy's car that went big block.

When I got over there, I asked did he mind if we popped a valve cover to see what rockers it had on there. He didn't mind but sure changed his story when we found stock rockers in place. He knocked $100 off of the $500 he wanted and even wrote on the receipt that he guaranteed it to be a "kick *** little hot rod motor". When we got it home we blew it apart just to check things over. The timing chain was so loose it was about to slip, the M1 intake was rotten away from the inside and hidden by epoxy, and there was a layer of sludge in the bottom of the pan 1/4" thick. When I called him back and told him about what I had found, he got all defensive and wanted to yell and scream at me. Just like when I catch one of my children doing something wrong, the first thing they do is get mad to deflect from the fact that they screwed up.

Long story, short, I sold EVERYTHING but the roller block and made all of my money back and then some, and basically got a 1990 360 LA roller block for free. My point is, trust no one until you see it with your own eyes.
Click to expand...

I hear you and as I said so far everything he had told me that the other guys told him has Checked out. So we will see what the lower end and timing stuff looks like tomorrow.
 
Looks like you got a good one. Although an 85 360 is not a roller, its still good. You got flat tops, double springs with dampers and the cylinders look good. Id keep the heads, Mopar big valve heads were 95% the same flow wise across the board X,J, T/A's included off the line. Pretty clean. I used the same year 360 for my FI stroker project.
 
Post to come back, this is the same 360 year I have. good info :glasses7:
 
sorry they are not the best because the lights in my garage suck and the flash from my phone makes them worse in most cases but here are a few pics from tonight. I did not get a chance to do any clearance checks because of other things but at least got it apart.

The top of the pistons were black ( some worse than others) so i cleaned them up some but the bottom of the pistons and cylinder walls look brand new. The oil pan and rest of the bottom of the motor are as clean as the rest of it. I did not measure the bore size and the pistons had no info on the top but had the number CP 4017 on the inside bottom and the bottom of the rods look like they have been ground down.

and as you see the crank has a couple different numbers on it. the timing chain looks new and dont seem to have much slack in it.


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