1973 360 upgrades

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IMO at your power level, any dual plane four barrel intake >= the Performer will suffice, including a stock iron 340 intake which you can usually find used under $100. Headers are worth the effort and add a 2.5” dual exhaust kit. That should be a good start to build off of with bigger cam and head work in the future. Torque converter and gears Will make a difference too.
 
This is what I would do for a level one upgrade.

Dual exhaust off of the manifolds with an H pipe.
An early factory 4bbl intake.
Carb of choice. I used a Edelbrock 600
A cam change would depend on what the gear ratio is, tire size, converter stall, compression ratio & weight of vehicle. If the vehicle is heavy, as a truck is, a duration @ .050 of no greater than 210. That will work with a low compression engine, Hwy gears and a tall tire. I’m guessing your tires are about 28 inches.

A “Stage II” kind of build would move to headers, 2-1/2 exhaust piping, H pipe, aluminum intake, 750 carb, slightly larger camshaft not more than 224@050. 3.55 minimum gear ratio, 3.90’s are better. Change the torque converter. Burn rubber!

An ingnition upgrade, air cleaner upgrade would be good.


85D150 said:
I’m going to be picking up a 1985 D150 with a 1973 360 in it. Owner claims the following

Newly rebuilt 1973 360 built with hastings moly rings, and king racing engine bearings, has a summit racing billet distributor and ignition box good for shift points up to 6500 rpm, small RV can do not know the specs on the cam other than that. Reused stock pistons.
Has dual exhaust with the factory exhaust manifolds. And still the factory intake with a 2 barrel carb.
My questions are what can I do to make more power with this? Headers? Obviously a 4 barrel swap. What intake should I use? And carb? Thinking about maybe a 625 Street Demon Carb? Would like to make more power but stay on a tight budget.

Would maybe do a cam swap in the future? Don’t know if I have the skills to do that though. Truck also has a suregrip don’t know the gear ratio and a 727 tranny. Wanna make it a fun truck. Another thing would I be better off just putting a 5.9 Mag in it- converted over to carb? I can do the intake swap. Any suggestions highly appreciated!!!!!!
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rumblefish360 said:
This is what I would do for a level one upgrade.

Dual exhaust off of the manifolds with an H pipe.
An early factory 4bbl intake.
Carb of choice. I used a Edelbrock 600
A cam change would depend on what the gear ratio is, tire size, converter stall, compression ratio & weight of vehicle. If the vehicle is heavy, as a truck is, a duration @ .050 of no greater than 210. That will work with a low compression engine, Hwy gears and a tall tire. I’m guessing your tires are about 28 inches.

A “Stage II” kind of build would move to headers, 2-1/2 exhaust piping, H pipe, aluminum intake, 750 carb, slightly larger camshaft not more than 224@050. 3.55 minimum gear ratio, 3.90’s are better. Change the torque converter. Burn rubber!

An ingnition upgrade, air cleaner upgrade would be good.
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It has dual exhaust but stock manifolds. That’s why I’m thinking headers or maybe magnum exhaust manifolds from 92/93 maybe. Has a ignition upgrade now. Supposed to have a cam- small rv cam but I’m just gonna say it’s stock cause I don’t know for sure if it’s been swapped or not
 
Pic of motor

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I myself would skip the Magnum manifolds since there gain is not big over the stock parts. A noticeable gain is not what they would provide unless you thought out the build completely. Headers would be the way to go.

From a member here, who followed his suggestion and purchased Hedman headers because they fit. Thanks have a set of next name headers, a Summit knock off or reselling another brand, IDK, but it required the previous owner cutting the frame rail to install. Pictures below where you can see the drivers side frame cut and grinder on. Big time. Spend for the Hedman’s. See how much clearance they have over where the frame rail was backed up? It’s huge!

Off of the header I ran 2-1/2 exhaust pipe I cut & welded myself. Depending on exactly how your truck is set up, it can be easy to a bit of a PIA, but easy enough a novice can do it.

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My crap welding and slightly You wacked pipe route…
Just simple straight and 90* bends into a Dynomax D muffler (glass pack style) into 2 Dynomax super turbos.
Quite, like a mouse. That’s the way I son wanted it.

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The rest of the engine is a 10.5-1 - 360 w/Edelbrock heads, 600 carb, chink intake, a ready to run distributor and a Summit cam @ 218@050 on the intake. 4spd, 3.55’s on. 28” tires.
 
without reading every response....... Here's what I'd try.
  • 750 carb and a dual plane intake.
  • Headers. Hedman fit my truck like a glove with massive room to install
  • Tune and time it - this can take time. See if you are happy, then go from there.
  • I've used a couple of the "knock off air gap" intakes from speedmaster. Both were fine, zero issues. I have another new one still in the box. I also have a new eddy RPM air gap in the box, so I'm not partial ... LOL
 
85D150 said:
What would be my best options for a throttle cable and kick down cable for this swap? This is currently a 2 barrel so I’m assuming that the stock set up will not work on the Demon carb and aftermarket 4 barrel intake.

I’m gonna go with a street Demon carb don’t know whether to go 625 or 750 and I’m leaning toward a aftermarket clone air gap.
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I used Lokar cables for the automatic transmissions.
Ether carb size will be fine. You’ll get a slightly better low end response from the 600/650 and slightly better top and power (10hp would be my max and best guess) from a 750. It’ll feel a little better with the bigger carb. Save a few bucks with the smaller one.

AKA - A catch 22 with no wrong way to go.
 
318willrun said:
I just read where you have 2bbl linkage. I've used the 2bbl linkage multiple times on 4bbl swaps, and that is how my truck is set up now. It doesn't take much at all and all the 2bbl throttle and kickdown linkage works fine.
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What intake did u run on your truck? I’m thinking about like a Soeedmaster air gap clone but am getting mixed reviews…….
 
I’m hoping I will see some noticeable gains going to a 4 barrel….. and a good intake. I may do a cam swap soon also but I need to make sure I can do that.
I may also have the gears changed but I wanna see what’s in it first it does have a suregrip. I’m sure a 3.90 or 4.10 gear may help it???
 
It’ll help on take off and a quick acceleration but limit top end and cruise speeds. (Run with a smaller cam first.)

He speedmaster intakes have mixed reviews. Mine was good OOTB.
 
85D150 said:
What intake did u run on your truck? I’m thinking about like a Soeedmaster air gap clone but am getting mixed reviews…….
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speedmaster is on it now. I had one on the 318 that was in there as well
 
85D150 said:
I’m hoping I will see some noticeable gains going to a 4 barrel….. and a good intake. I may do a cam swap soon also but I need to make sure I can do that.
I may also have the gears changed but I wanna see what’s in it first it does have a suregrip. I’m sure a 3.90 or 4.10 gear may help it???
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85D150 said:
What intake did u run on your truck? I’m thinking about like a Soeedmaster air gap clone but am getting mixed reviews…….
Click to expand...

Another really good and overlooked intake is the Holley Street Dominator. Even though it's a single plane, its design gives up nothing on the bottom end, because of its huge plenum. They pop up here and on Ebay from time to time. Since they are only available used, make sure if you get one it has not been ported or modified.
 
rumblefish360 said:
It’ll help on take off and a quick acceleration but limit top end and cruise speeds. (Run with a smaller cam first.)

He speedmaster intakes have mixed reviews. Mine was good OOTB.
Click to expand...
I’m looking for basically stop light to stop light and some 1/4 mile racing here and there
 
I did headers on my 360 (bought them used) and used 2.5 pipe into a 3" single exhaust on mine. I used the Flowmaster Y pipe for a smooth transition. 3" SINGLE EXHAUST INTO A 3" IN/OUT dynomax super turbo and a late model F150 3" mandrel bent tailpipe out of the scrap pile at work.

The rest was a used performer intake with a quickfuel 650 mechanical secondary.

One of the first things I did was buy a used takeout limited slip unit and 3.90 gears off of Ebay. Should have gone 3.55 but it was a bear off the light with 3.90 gears.
 
496 polara said:
I did headers on my 360 (bought them used) and used 2.5 pipe into a 3" single exhaust on mine. I used the Flowmaster Y pipe for a smooth transition. 3" SINGLE EXHAUST INTO A 3" IN/OUT dynomax super turbo and a late model F150 3" mandrel bent tailpipe out of the scrap pile at work.

The rest was a used performer intake with a quickfuel 650 mechanical secondary.

One of the first things I did was buy a used takeout limited slip unit and 3.90 gears off of Ebay. Should have gone 3.55 but it was a bear off the light with 3.90 gears.
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It has a suregrip now I will have to see what gear ratio it has.
 
rumblefish360 said:
The best one to get!
After that it would be a Weiand dual plane, Edelbrock Performer, then a Chink knock off as far as brand new intakes go.
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Edelbrock air gap is the way to go, why go with a cheap knock off that has quality issues? At least edelbrock still cast their stuff in California
 
Dan the man said:
Edelbrock air gap is the way to go, why go with a cheap knock off that has quality issues? At least edelbrock still cast their stuff in California
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This is what I used to normally say but have since taken my foot out of my mouth some when many many reports have come in with decent fitting chink knock offs.

I still suggest the Edelbrock RPM-AG over everything and if you had decent memory retention, you would know this hands down. NO WORRIES! I suffer from CRS. It sucks don’t it????

The one I got was very good.
Also, a lot depends on not only the wallet, also the intentions of the build at hand. Is it always necessary to purchase the best when your not taxing the build?

That’s your call.

This is my first first chink intake.
I have had a total of (IIRC) 5 RPM- AG intakes pass through me hands.

What I have concluded is, if the build is on the mello side, you’ll never know and be hard pressed to see or feel a difference between intakes. This not only comes just these two intakes as I have had nearly every last dual plane on top of my mills just to see what happens between them and just how they are and perform.

While the internet would have saved me a lot of time and wrenching….. OH wait! ….. there was no internet back then! You ether believed your buddies, believed the MP books, or the muscle car rags or you bought the stuff and tried it out for yourself and tested the item over and over and over again. After I was somewhat satisfied, I modified the intakes. If it was able to be carved out for a TQ, it got carved. Port matching, runner shortening, spacers, plenum mods, etc….!!!! I just could not weld aluminum then. Actually, now that I mention it, I still yet have to try to do so. One day maybe.

Dang! Sometimes, I’m born to soon, sometimes to late!

So on this build, I saved some bucks, actually quite a bit, by buying a “Jegs” chink knock off that was on sale.
 
rumblefish360 said:
This is what I used to normally say but have since taken my foot out of my mouth some when many many reports have come in with decent fitting chink knock offs.

I still suggest the Edelbrock RPM-AG over everything and if you had decent memory retention, you would know this hands down. NO WORRIES! I suffer from CRS. It sucks don’t it????

The one I got was very good.
Also, a lot depends on not only the wallet, also the intentions of the build at hand. Is it always necessary to purchase the best when your not taxing the build?

That’s your call.

This is my first first chink intake.
I have had a total of (IIRC) 5 RPM- AG intakes pass through me hands.

What I have concluded is, if the build is on the mello side, you’ll never know and be hard pressed to see or feel a difference between intakes. This not only comes just these two intakes as I have had nearly every last dual plane on top of my mills just to see what happens between them and just how they are and perform.

While the internet would have saved me a lot of time and wrenching….. OH wait! ….. there was no internet back then! You ether believed your buddies, believed the MP books, or the muscle car rags or you bought the stuff and tried it out for yourself and tested the item over and over and over again. After I was somewhat satisfied, I modified the intakes. If it was able to be carved out for a TQ, it got carved. Port matching, runner shortening, spacers, plenum mods, etc….!!!! I just could not weld aluminum then. Actually, now that I mention it, I still yet have to try to do so. One day maybe.

Dang! Sometimes, I’m born to soon, sometimes to late!

So on this build, I saved some bucks, actually quite a bit, by buying a “Jegs” chink knock off that was on sale.
Click to expand...
I have crs myself. I remember back in high school that a friend of mine put a power glide torque converter in his 67 tempest with a turbo 350, it's the poor man's stall converter. He rebuilt the q jet carburetor and deburred and smoothed the entire inside of the carburetor and it ran great.
 
Just for the record...... Edelbrock has their issues with core shift as well. I've seen some scary looking castings. Just say'n....
 
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