Worth the effort?

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greven

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Hello,

I'll start by saying a few things about myself, I have Zero experience with American Muscle Cars but growing up on a farm has taught me the basics of mechanics and I do have some skill at internet research... :)

I would like to expand my experience into V8 and American Muscle but at the moment just about any interesting model (not just limited to mopar) is out of my reach, but an engine is not.

I've realized that 360s are rare in Sweden but I've found this fire damaged one, is it worth getting and using for practice and hopefully restoring?

My intentions initially is just to clean it and start tearing it down and documenting the process while following various guides.
Ideally the engine is worth building on and in which case I would like to assemble it as an EFI engine.
After that I would like to bring it up to 360-400hp.

The wrecker says it turns and the oil looks good...

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First of all, do not take what the wrecker says for fact or as the truth. If are not already planning to, go and inspect it yourself to make sure that it is what the wrecker says it is. Then if it is what the wrecker says it is, decide if you want to actually go through with buying it and think rationally about it for a little bit. A lot of the time excitement gets in the way of the reality. Personally, I would not touch it as you just do not know the extent of the fire damage or of anything is warped or something like that. Fire does some pretty destructive stuff. Do you have a car ready to put the engine in? Are you absolutely sure of parts availability? If a STOCK engine is hard to find, performance parts must be damn near impossible if you don't want to import anything.
Good luck, I hope you find this useful.
 
My thinking is that the fire was not that intensive in the engine bay given that the belts and hoses could have been worse.

the reason 360s are rare is probably because people hold on to them, Muscle Cars are quite popular so parts are not that hard to come by.

but your pointers are valid I will consider them.
 
If you are going to take it apart it shouldn’t matter if it doesn’t turn unless you suspect a broken crank or the rods are hanging out of the pan.

If it turns over I say go for it. You can’t learn if you don’t get something and take it apart.
 
I'm assuming that's a Jeep with a Magnum version small block Chrysler? If you are set on working on a 360, make sure it's not a 318!
 
Having bought and worked with may fire damaged vehicles, that burn doesn't look bad at all. If you're going to take it apart and rebuild it, you should have no problem with the basic long block. The intake, throttle body and many of the accessories might not be any good however. The valve covers should be steel and will probably survive if you can bead blast them. If you are thinking to get it running the way it is, I'd check for water and any other firefighting stuff inside the engine before I tried to fire it up.
 
Having bought and worked with may fire damaged vehicles, that burn doesn't look bad at all. If you're going to take it apart and rebuild it, you should have no problem with the basic long block. The intake, throttle body and many of the accessories might not be any good however. The valve covers should be steel and will probably survive if you can bead blast them. If you are thinking to get it running the way it is, I'd check for water and any other firefighting stuff inside the engine before I tried to fire it up.

It's a learning project, it will get torn down first and checked, by me my camera and the internet as well as by local motor heads. then it will get assembled and whatever parts damaged by the fire will get replaced.
 
Valve springs tend to loose their strength in hot fires.
Yes, but, this fire doesn't look like it got that hot to hurt the valve springs under a steel cover. You would have seen more items melted down for that to happen. I mainly see plastic, rubber, and wiring damage....and mostly on the driver's side. There are some items on the passenger side that didn't even get damaged, including the plastic oil cap in the valve cover. The upper radiator hose is still there, and the battery might still be good.
 
Is it that expensive to get one sent over from the states?

JW
This engine will cost aprox $350 (which is probably expensive compared to your pricees), shipping alone (with vat and customs) is $1300 plus cost of engine (and vat and customs) so what's the normal price for a 360 magnum in the states?
 
This engine will cost aprox $350 (which is probably expensive compared to your pricees), shipping alone (with vat and customs) is $1300 plus cost of engine (and vat and customs) so what's the normal price for a 360 magnum in the states?

Something you can rebuild 200-500. Something usable I don't know. That shipping cost is nuts... Sux. If you were in my back yard I would tell you to back your truck up and take a 360 home with you....

JW
 
Something you can rebuild 200-500. Something usable I don't know. That shipping cost is nuts... Sux. If you were in my back yard I would tell you to back your truck up and take a 360 home with you....

JW

Would have been wonderful but I'll have to make do with your advise instead...

Shipping engines from the States to Sweden kind of requires a group effort filling an entire container and splitting the cost, that would get me down to like perhaps $200-$300 for shipping and possibly even tax for the actual engine, but I don't know enough people well enough to be let in on such a project... sadly.
 
Would have been wonderful but I'll have to make do with your advise instead...

Shipping engines from the States to Sweden kind of requires a group effort filling an entire container and splitting the cost, that would get me down to like perhaps $200-$300 for shipping and possibly even tax for the actual engine, but I don't know enough people well enough to be let in on such a project... sadly.


I had to ship some documents from the U.S. to Hungary and they had to be there on a certain date. We had 14 days to get them there. FedEx was the only one who would touch it. They guaranteed to get it there in 10 days or it was free.

Of course, they didn’t arrive for 20 days, and I got my $245.00 back.

My point is I can’t image what a nightmare it is for you in Europe to trade with us here. It shouldn’t be that hard. And it sucks for you guys especially.
 
I had to ship some documents from the U.S. to Hungary and they had to be there on a certain date. We had 14 days to get them there. FedEx was the only one who would touch it. They guaranteed to get it there in 10 days or it was free.

Of course, they didn’t arrive for 20 days, and I got my $245.00 back.

My point is I can’t image what a nightmare it is for you in Europe to trade with us here. It shouldn’t be that hard. And it sucks for you guys especially.

10 days is still pretty lousy for a company like FedEx with an armada of airplanes going everywhere just about every day...

Lighter and or smaller stuff kinda works, stuff that would go by the normal snail-mail channels and or FedEx-like parcel handling, but once you go outside those dimensions then all kinds of special crap kicks in..

Importing a $9000 car costs about $10-11 perhaps a little bit cheaper if you're experienced and have good contacts, but probably not by much.
 
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Greven.

That car is going to need a LOT of parts....which will have to come for the USA. You will be in the same situation I am, paying a lot for shipping.
I think it is too far gone & not cost effective, probably cheaper to import a running jeep. It is not as if it is a rare car......
And don't use Fedex. I have just gone through the mill with them; had my last shipment delayed for nearly 2 weeks, while asked for asbestos declarations, quantity, price & use of every part. I dealt with call centres in 4 countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Australia & Philipines. I bought the parts from Summit & they refunded me the shipping cost because of Fedex's treatment.
 
I say do it! It will be a great learning experience and when you are done you'll have an engine ready to go in the car you decide to purchase later!!
 
Greven.

That car is going to need a LOT of parts....which will have to come for the USA. You will be in the same situation I am, paying a lot for shipping.
I think it is too far gone & not cost effective, probably cheaper to import a running jeep. It is not as if it is a rare car......
And don't use Fedex. I have just gone through the mill with them; had my last shipment delayed for nearly 2 weeks, while asked for asbestos declarations, quantity, price & use of every part. I dealt with call centres in 4 countries: Malaysia, Singapore, Australia & Philipines. I bought the parts from Summit & they refunded me the shipping cost because of Fedex's treatment.

I have no interest in the car just the engine, like I explained earlier I don't have the money to buy an interesting car and go from there, I can only afford an engine and treat it as a learning experience in rebuilding V8.
The parts needed for the engine are available in Swdeden, obviously not at US prices but still manageable.
 
It looks like it would be a good project, and for the money its probably not too bad. If the oil looks good (no water, fire extinguisher foam) and it turns over smoothly then itll probably be just fine. Fire extinguisher foam does pit aluminum pretty bad, but a cast iron block and heads are going to be pretty indestructible. You would eventually need a run stand, or a car to put it in to see if you rebuilt it right, and truly enjoy the fruits of your labor! Driving a car with an engine you BUILT is definitely a special feeling.
 
By my research this engine has the stock iron magnum heads, which are not blessed with impressive flow, nor impressive potiential flow (please say correct me here :) ). What are the next step up in flowing heads that suit this motor but are cheaper than shelling out $1000+ per head for Edelbrock RPMs or Trickflow heads.

somehwere on my (usually) right shoulder sits a little nasyt saying that I need about 400+ hp and 450+ ft-lbs which by researching I'm (hopefully wrong) convinced that the stock heads won't support.
 
There are heads that are available for under 1000$, but I would just port the stock ones to keep it simple and with a big enough port, they will support 400hp with little effort. But that depends on if they are cracked or not.
 
There are heads that are available for under 1000$, but I would just port the stock ones to keep it simple and with a big enough port, they will support 400hp with little effort. But that depends on if they are cracked or not.

Good, then time will tell if the heads are worth the time and effort, and if cracked they will be excellent for practice...;)
 
Good, then time will tell if the heads are worth the time and effort, and if cracked they will be excellent for practice...;)
If they are cracked, they are going in a dumpster. You could maybe repair a crack if it is super small, but any significant cracks an they should not be used.
 
If they are cracked, they are going in a dumpster. You could maybe repair a crack if it is super small, but any significant cracks an they should not be used.

Yes, but they can still be used for actual porting training, given that 2 stroke pistons and cylinders is all I have ported before
 
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