Where's the 340 crate engines???

Riley Craig said:

Hi, my name is Riley and im really new to all this... but i seen this post and i was really hoping that there are people still following this thread. My father-in-law died this past year and my wife and I finally started to clean out his house. When we started in the garage i noticed his Plymouth Duster he built. Well when we went to pull it out i noticed a what i thought was just a bunch of plastic in the corner but to my suprise there was a motor that appears to be new. He had purchased it online and had it shipped to the house. Im not sure if it was crated or rebuilt? But its just a case with heads on it. When i read the stamp i had never noticed the numbers. It appeared to be a 340???? I just need some help trying to figure out what exactly it is and what its worth? All i know is its bolted to a board thats on wheels still and just sitting in the corner... its got light rust on the case but the heads and valves appear to still be lightly oiled and rust free still? I added a pic of the numbers if anyone can please help me figure it out! Im completely lost to what i have here

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thats a 340. have any more pics of thr short block and heads?

Welcome Riley, my condolences to the passing of your father in law.
The #'s on the side of the block definitely indicate that it is a 340 and worth $$.
The # immediately after "340-", appears to be a 1. That number is in direct relation to the mold # used to cast the engine block. Extremely rare. A "-1" is highly sought after(cream of the crop). Also see the round silver "plug" below the numbers? That is a frost plug. Usually 90% of the time they will have a "decent" amount of rust on it. That is a good sign. It means it was stored properly.
To put a value on it based on 1 pic, I would say $1500 minimum.
Good luck!

Riley Craig said:

Hi, my name is Riley and im really new to all this... but i seen this post and i was really hoping that there are people still following this thread. My father-in-law died this past year and my wife and I finally started to clean out his house. When we started in the garage i noticed his Plymouth Duster he built. Well when we went to pull it out i noticed a what i thought was just a bunch of plastic in the corner but to my suprise there was a motor that appears to be new. He had purchased it online and had it shipped to the house. Im not sure if it was crated or rebuilt? But its just a case with heads on it. When i read the stamp i had never noticed the numbers. It appeared to be a 340???? I just need some help trying to figure out what exactly it is and what its worth? All i know is its bolted to a board thats on wheels still and just sitting in the corner... its got light rust on the case but the heads and valves appear to still be lightly oiled and rust free still? I added a pic of the numbers if anyone can please help me figure it out! Im completely lost to what i have here

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The 340 was dropped because of expense and a production 360 was substituted with the good 340 parts. It's as simple as that. 340's had the rep as many of us ran them and cleaned house against anything near it's size.

20 cubes at 2000 stall is easily worth more than ~5% Gear change so from say 3.91s with a 340, to 3.73s with a 360
said another way, with the same rear gear, the 20 cubes is worth easily 400rpm stall, say from 3200 on the 340, to 2800 on the 360.
For a dual-purpose machine, these things are important.
You can easily punch an early360 out to 4.04, so that argument don't hold water. 4.04 x 3.58=367 cubes; now yer 22 over
4.07x3.315=345
My 367 with 505gram hypers goes 7200 anytime.The Hi-C factory 340 slugs were 745 grams.......IIRC.... They can both run 318 bushed rods.

fishy68 said:

This has turned into one of those "Can of worms" debates that really never ends. You can't compare stock 340's to stock 360's just like you can't compare apples to oranges. There's just to many differences. Compression, valve size, cam size, carbs, exhaust manifolds, etc.... The shorter stroke of the 340 naturally revs higher but produces less torque than the longer arm 360. The longer stroke 360 produces more low end torque, period!! The larger 360 mains have a little more friction that take away a little power so that's a deficit to the 360.

For a street/strip car give me the torque anyday. I like to iniliate tires.

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I'm not sure how block availability got into 340 versus 360 conversation but come on man you're comparing the best small block that Chrysler could build to a truck and van motor low compression cast crank non-floating pins generic nothing special. Can you build a 360 to be awesome absolutely they just didn't come that way. So it has that in common with just about every other motor out there. And don't get me wrong I know 360s can be built into Screamers but when you start changing all the components that can apply to any motor.

When the 340 hit production it was underated for HP and cubes were kept down to compete in NHRA. A young kid paid by the HP rating and cu in when the insurance companies got their money. I never could afford to insure a big block when I was young. All the small blocks are good motors.

SwingerMan said:

You saw correct Mopar is coming out with three different 340 based crate engines one of which is the six pack your talking about. THe one that has my interests peeked is the 440 CI stroker based of the new 340 block that is utilizing the new "Commando" heads (supposedly a cross between the W2's and the magnum heads. Supposed to be a 500+ horse motor :headbang: , they have part numbers but they have not been release for sale yet. I will have to dig up that issue and post the details.

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Interesting , dont know how old these posts are , but u can bet ur A$$ , THEY WILL BE PRICED OUT OF SITE !

If you want to compare the 340 to the 360, compare apples to apples. The 360 4bbl came out in 73 or 74. Compare the small-valve low-C 340-4bbl of 73, to the small-valve Low-C 360-4bbl of 74 ..
The 360 had gobs more torque in the rpm range most street engines spend the vast majority of time in, namely, idle to 3500 or so.. So much so, that I would wager a guy could run the 360 with 3.23s and still out muscle the 340/3.55s,on the street.
I've had stock examples of both and on the street, the 360 is/was, gear for gear and pound for pound, way more fun. It's the perfect engine to put the 340 cam into, because the sudden loss of low-rpm torque (versus the 2-bbl cam) is mostly compensated for by the extra cubes.
When I was planning what engine to build for my Barracuda, the 340 never even crossed my mind, even tho, at the time I had 5 complete 340 shorts and 9 big-port heads, at least 5 of which were 2.02s. And only two 360 engines; Never mind the gaggle of 318s.
The stock 340, IMO, is not the dynamo people make it out to be. It came, it went, it's gone, and I don't miss it...... And you know what, in my neighborhood that must be the general consensus because in the 50 or so years that I have had these, nobody has made an offer on even one of them..
But the heads are mostly gone,lol.

if they are coming out with a "reissue" that may effect prices of the originals out there, but then again maybe not...an original is an original especially if it hasnt been rebuilt and machined twice

AJ/FormS said:

20 cubes at 2000 stall is easily worth more than ~5% Gear change so from say 3.91s with a 340, to 3.73s with a 360
said another way, with the same rear gear, the 20 cubes is worth easily 400rpm stall, say from 3200 on the 340, to 2800 on the 360.
For a dual-purpose machine, these things are important.
You can easily punch an early360 out to 4.04, so that argument don't hold water. 4.04 x 3.58=367 cubes; now yer 22 over
4.07x3.315=345
My 367 with 505gram hypers goes 7200 anytime.The Hi-C factory 340 slugs were 745 grams.......IIRC.... They can both run 318 bushed rods.

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Would ya please tell the 318 crowd this? they ganged up on me ,beat me up and threw me out of the 318 thread...bad thing is I own and have ran a 318...