375-400hp 360?

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MoparloverMatt

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I am wondering what to do with a 360 I am buying from my cousins, I plan on spending no more than 2500-3000 dollars on this build and am hoping for 375-400hp if that is possible. I am a first time engine builder and have done a little research to see what I am getting into. I would like to stay with the stock heads if that is at all possible.
 
Rumble fish posted the Chrysler cheat sheets somewhere on here.

For your level the best thing you can do is follow what Chrysler said and you'll get what you want.
 
You can also buy "How to rebuild your Small Block Mopar", and "How to hot rod your small Block Mopar" books. The information in there is dated I'm sure, but the basics haven't changed.
 
Compression 9.0-1-10.0-1 pump gas friendly, cylinder head work and a decent camshaft will get you there.
 
Click the link in my sit at the bottom of the post.

Otherwise, a simple way of doing this is to copy the create engine from years past. The 360/360 used the 284/.484 cam (or your Hyd. cam @ around 240@.050) in a 9.0-1 short block (You can use the KB-107 slugs) topped with the then OE head (308/576 IIRC) w/2.02/1.60 valves, M1 single plane (use the Edelbrock rpm instead for better torque and no Hp loss worth mentioning if that even happens!)
750 carb & 1-3/4 headers. (TTI would be good!)
If you have any money to I nvest after the basic work above is done, spend it in the heads with porting or Edelbrock heads. But that blows your budget as listed with porting the heads.
 
MoparloverMatt said:
I am wondering what to do with a 360 I am buying from my cousins, I plan on spending no more than 2500-3000 dollars on this build and am hoping for 375-400hp if that is possible. I am a first time engine builder and have done a little research to see what I am getting into. I would like to stay with the stock heads if that is at all possible.
Click to expand...

Its possible...if you already have a lot of the parts.
I have near that in machine work costs alone... plus the days I spent with a die grinder porting heads...plus all the parts...
Without head work I believe you'll need a power adder (NO2, turbo, supercharger) to get to your hp number.
 
Dartswinger70 said:
You can also buy "How to rebuild your Small Block Mopar", and "How to hot rod your small Block Mopar" books. The information in there is dated I'm sure, but the basics haven't changed.
Click to expand...

Go to the “post your 12 sec. combos” thread under the drag races section. Those engines will all be in that power range and some will be near that budget.

I would get the cylinder heads potted and bigger valves installed, call up a cam grinder and give him all the info he needs and see what he recommends, then add an air gap intake with headers and a 650-750 cfm carb.

If you want to spend a few more bucks then go to a flat top piston.

That combo got me to a 13.1 with 3:55 gears.
 
Stock heads is going to take a bigger camshaft.

With a true 9.5 and decent bowl ported and cleaned up heads flowing 240ish, you can get 375hp with as small as a XE268 or Voodoo 268 camshaft. Larger camshaft, more HP

Heads will make or break the deal and require a smaller cam than with stock flowing heads.
 
Read the porting tips in the sticky at the top of the forum and see if you are up to it
What chassis- how heavy did you just get the motor ?and will this be a daily driver or weekend only or...what trans, converter, gears or is that TBD also
stock heads and bigger camshaft kills your low end and does not give you much more up top- narrows your power band- not a good tradeoff on the street
you may have to use a bigger cam to get the same horsepower with small heads but your low end...It's not about HP it's about a big fat torque curve
heads is where the power is
a quick comparison of the Voodoo vs the comp is like MOPAR vs Chevy let us know what you come up with- way too early for cam suggestions
things to do -
When you pull the motor cc all four corner chambers (has this motor been rebuilt before ? shim gaskets or aftermarket?
then measure how far down pistons are at all four corners when they are at TDC- see if the block is square and to help with piston selection
 
Wyrmrider said:
Read the porting tips in the sticky at the top of the forum and see if you are up to it
What chassis- how heavy did you just get the motor ?and will this be a daily driver or weekend only or...what trans, converter, gears or is that TBD also
stock heads and bigger camshaft kills your low end and does not give you much more up top- narrows your power band- not a good tradeoff on the street
you may have to use a bigger cam to get the same horsepower with small heads but your low end...It's not about HP it's about a big fat torque curve
heads is where the power is
a quick comparison of the Voodoo vs the comp is like MOPAR vs Chevy let us know what you come up with- way too early for cam suggestions
things to do -
When you pull the motor cc all four corner chambers (has this motor been rebuilt before ? shim gaskets or aftermarket?
then measure how far down pistons are at all four corners when they are at TDC- see if the block is square and to help with piston selection
Click to expand...
Ill be putting a 727 transmission behind it that doesn't have a torque converter, it will be a street cruiser /take it to the strip and try to embarrass some people. By gears do you mean reared gears? If so I was tossing up either 355's or 373's.
For heads did mopar make many factory performance heads that I might be able to get used for cheap? I know engines like the 440 had 906 heads but did the 360 have any?
 
I recommend the cheap Summit headers for a guy on a budget but I must be still on a budget cuz I still can't afford those tti's!
 
No all 340 360 heads are pretty much the same except the late 360 you have are better, some like the late 318 heads but they takes some work
Magnum heads are better but they crack
W2 if you want to be picky but aftermarket is less expensive
go only .020 if possible
1 5/8 1 3/4 TRI Y or long tube see if you can find some FOR YOUR CHASSIS at a swap meet
don't try and do too much at once- save the rear end swap for later what gears now? Too much can mean it never gets back together
BTW street cruiser and embarrassing at the strip are mutually incompatible get your street gears and B happy it can still run good
Try and find a stock 340 360HP converter others please tell him what to look for you will need balance weights for your 360
I like a benchmark before spending money on a converter
BTW 906 are nothing special all BBM 67 and later are about the same- differ in details
Take a look at the KN 232 and 363 (if using open chamber factory heads)
from here click on the picture of the piston
Chrysler : United Engine & Machine Co. Incorporated, Performance Pistons
 
Id just go with 9:1 cr 4bbl 650 or 750 headers and a comp or voodoo 268 cam.
With gears and stall. Better the heads better the outcome.
 
A good performance rebuild, performance (hyper) pistons, a performance valve job and head set up, and a cam of at least 230@ .050 with a decent intake and carb, and a set of cheapie headers will get you there.
 
To reach the HP goal, then more needs to go into breathing parts (valves and port work or better heads, intake, headers). But, the Speed Pro H405CP's are the least costly pistons that will bump the CR up at all (that I know of) and that won't require a rebalance and that associated cost (which will be several hundred $$ if you just let a shop do the whole thing). If you use .028" thick head gaskets, and those pistons your CR ends up around 8.5 for stock chambered heads. That is not a bunch more than the stock CR so with a larger cam to get high RPM breathing up, the bottom end torque will be compromised to some degree, and that is not good for street cruising.

So you are kind of at a crossroads on this type of budget: put more into the bottom end parts to get CR up more and help the low RPM torque , or let that go and live with the less torquey performance on the street. Too much sacrifice of low RPM torque with the stock torque converter is going to end up with a low RPM range where the performance combinatoin is sluggish. If the compression stays low, then the cam can be made smaller to bring low RPM torque back up, but then with the stock heads, the high RPM HP will drop and you won't meet your 375-440 HP goal.

SO IMHO, it would be good to think about what you want the most: street torque or that HP number. Is the car mainly for drag racing or street cruising or commuting to work, or???
 
U can run a voodoo mopar cam one size smaller adv duration than the comp chevy cams and still have more area under the curve
 
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