which year best 360 to start with?

There are those that believe that the older (pre-74) motors have thicker castings than the later ones and I have found thru sonic testing that this is not true. I have found some later blocks were actually thicker than some early blocks. Any given block can be thicker or thinner than an other block regardless of year so your '82 will be just fine to use.

Chuck

Thats true.I think the thickness of the block has more to do with core shift,where a casting core would be replaced when it was worn out.Apparently they could just replace whichever cylider was worn,and the core would shift...

Im using a 79 4 bbl 360 truck motor for my Dart.