My 360 rebuild adventure.

I just found this post and figured I would share my experience. I am going through my own 360 adventure right now as well. Just like the original poster I don`t have a ton of experience with engines.

My story begins with a 360 I found on Craigslist for $300.00 description of motor 360: early 70's chrysler 360 v8 engine. It needs to be rebuilt. It comes with adjustable pushrods, 1.6 rockers, performance camshaft, aluminum weiand 4bbl intake, and chrome moroso valve covers. after looking at this ad for a while I realized I knew who had this motor I saw it about a year before at his shop. The seller told me he knew it had one bad piston a chunk broke off it and he shut it down to avoid further damage. He didn`t know much about this motor since it came in the car he bought but felt aside from the bad piston it was ok. He bought a crate motor for his Dart and set this motor aside.
So I took a chance and bought it hoping for a mild street engine at an awesome price I really don`t think the seller was dishonest or anything like that.
Now the fun begins after about a week and a half the machine shop finally gets it apart and gives me the diagnosis. It`s not good, bad piston check I knew that plus 3 other pistons had cracked rings cam and lifters worn out crank has been turned can`t turn it anymore basically the crank is junk, heads were cracked and repaired machinist advised against using them so the heads are junk ok didn`t expect all that!
Basically I bought a block with a .030 bore,aluminum intake rocker arms and valve covers for $300.00. Now my great deal on a motor has turned into an ok deal on some parts.
A few more weeks pass with me deciding what i`m gonna do. I have decided to stroke it out to a 408 there goes $1200 for the kit. I also went with Indy cast iron X heads with the S/S 2.02 valves "boom" another $1200 gone. It will probably be another $1200 for the cam/lifters and mach shop work when all is said and done. Plus another $225 already spent on an electronic ignition setup and distributor from Mancini, and I still need to buy a carb! Another week passes...
So the heads arrive the other day and I go to the mach shop to drop them off and I ask how the progress is going and i`m told the stroker kit shipped today it`ll arrive tomorrow but were on vacation next week and wont be back untill July 9`th! :angry5: At least when this is done it will be a kick *** engine and i`ll know exactly whats in it!

Oh yeah one more thing! The seller knew someone who wanted the Moroso valve covers and I had no interest in them and took a pair of Mopar Performance cast Aluminum valve covers with the black wrinkle finish instead, and found a crack in one the other day! :banghead:

Here is a pic of my 360 $300.00 deal!
And a pic of my valve covers I stripped and media blasted them to bare metal, V`ed out the crack and a little JB weld and voila! I think they came out BITCHIN!

Lastly I got a couple questions on my old pistons and rods if anyone cares to chime in.They are Keith Black Hyperutectic Pistons 7 of them are still good are they worth anything to anyone? Same question for the original heads they still have the valves and springs in them and the crack was repaired I just didn`t want to risk using these heads on my build. Are they worth anything or should I just junk them for scrap money?