360 swap from van to 74 Duster

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canadianviking

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I have been looking to upgrade from a slant 6 to a 360 for my 74 Duster. A guy in town says his friend has a 360 in a 70s or 80s Dodge van. He said the transmission is a long tail. What issues will I have making this combination work in my Duster. I realise the driveshaft will probably have to be shortened. Will the wiring harness from my slant 6 work. If the wiring harness needs to be altered, what exactly will need to be done. Will the starter relay, ballast resistor, electronic ignition control unit, etc. all work or will they need to be replaced as well.
 
Is it an automatic trans or manual?

You will need to get a car oil pan. The Van on is either a rear sump or a mid sump, but either one will not work.

What part a Sask are you from?
 
you should be able t omove the wiring around to make it work,all the stuff you asked about wi be the same ballest resistor,,etc...do some measureing on the tranny,,,see where the cross member mount falls,if its the same style,i for got what year van you said was going to be the donor,,,

if you choose to get a short tail shaft tranny,,a 727 some times is a tight fit in an early A,.. usually all you have to do it snip and hamer the seam flat in the tunnel,, the 360 uses a balanced torque converter. if you find a short tail shaft tranny,, thats not from a 360 and it has a good converter you can get a flex plate from B&M that wil make it all work correctly,,

then the oil pan as mentioned,, must be from a car,, and must be from a 360.
the 273/318/340 motors oil pan interchanges between them but doesnt interchange with the 360,, good luck,, this is the place to find info,,,great site
 
since you have a 74 duster a normal 727 (long tail if that is what you want to call it) will fit fine....you will need to shorten the drive shaft since the 727 is approximately 3.5 inches longer then the 904 that came with the /6....


get the output yoke from the 727 also...904 yoke is a small different spline...
 
hey i have the same problem. i have a 77 dodge sportsman royal with the 360/727 combo and i have a 1970 swinger with the /6, i want to take all the stuff out of the van and put it in the swinger. will this stuff all fit or am i going to have to manhandle my floor/wiring to make it fit? thanks!
 
Get the mp parts oil pan kit. Comes with a pan,dipstick,tube and pickup. Then you have a brand new pan and you know it's right!

You will need conversion mounts.Schumacker.

What diff do you have?

Dont expect that 7 1/4 to live long.
 
needsaresto said:
You will need conversion mounts.Schumacker.
Click to expand...

Correct, if you can't find a V8 K-frame, you can get /6 to V8 conversion engine mounts from here:
Schumacher Creative Services www.engine-swaps.com

You may want to consider a drum to disk brake upgrade and possibly change to some heavier V8 torsion bars.

Jerry
 
turtlejr111 said:
if only useing a small block,the 6 cyl. bars will work real good. save the v8 bars for the big block guys.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. The \6 bars are even too small for a \6.

IMHO, what you really want for a small block v8 are the big block torsion bars, at the very least the .870 heavy duty small block bar that came in AC and 340 cars. It will prevent bottoming of the suspesnion, firm up the ride without being harsh and make a dramtic improvement in the handling.

\6 bars with a v8 are only good if the car is going to be strickly a strip car where they can help with weight transfer. This weight transfer is also a bag thing on the road as it works the other way under braking and you get excessive nose dive.
 
dgc333 said:
I beg to differ. The \6 bars are even too small for a \6.

IMHO, what you really want for a small block v8 are the big block torsion bars, at the very least the .870 heavy duty small block bar that came in AC and 340 cars. It will prevent bottoming of the suspesnion, firm up the ride without being harsh and make a dramtic improvement in the handling.

\6 bars with a v8 are only good if the car is going to be strickly a strip car where they can help with weight transfer. This weight transfer is also a bag thing on the road as it works the other way under braking and you get excessive nose dive.
Click to expand...

YES SO VERY TRUE,,ALL DEPENDS WHAT YOU PLAN ON DOING
 
First time I did the switch the engine came from a van. I used the drive shaft from the van, cut to 49" betweem centers and a bastard rear U joint to the 7&1/4 rear.
Speedo gear, oil pan, timing cover, water pump, angle oil filter adapter, oil press. sender, throttle cable, kickdown linkage, are most of the items that you'll need. I surely forgot something. Good luck
 
dgc333 said:
I beg to differ. The \6 bars are even too small for a \6.

IMHO, what you really want for a small block v8 are the big block torsion bars, at the very least the .870 heavy duty small block bar that came in AC and 340 cars. It will prevent bottoming of the suspesnion, firm up the ride without being harsh and make a dramtic improvement in the handling.

\6 bars with a v8 are only good if the car is going to be strickly a strip car where they can help with weight transfer. This weight transfer is also a bag thing on the road as it works the other way under braking and you get excessive nose dive.
Click to expand...

i agree with dave 100%. for a car that sees alot of street time, you want the .870 or the .890 bars. under hard braking they help keep it from nosediving and during cornering they help prevent excessive body roll. i went from the 318 bars (.850) to the .890 in my car and it helped ALOT.
 
My 70 Dart has 318 bars.Way too much body roll. Used to scare my passengers. I temporarily solved it with stiff KYB shocks. They helped quite a bit.

A sway bar does wonders too.

Get the Shumacher mounts. Way less work than swapping a K frame! And a good used v8 K frame goes for about what you would pay for mounts anyways.
 
Unless you luck out and make a straight swap for a V8 K-frame to a guy that wants yours off the slant six - like we did.
icon10.gif


Can you say "SCORE"?

Jerry
 
needsaresto said:
Get the mp parts oil pan kit. Comes with a pan,dipstick,tube and pickup. Then you have a brand new pan and you know it's right!

You will need conversion mounts.Schumacker.

What diff do you have?

Dont expect that 7 1/4 to live long.
Click to expand...

where can i get the MP parts oil pan kit? and i have a 7 1/4 rear end, i wasnt to sure how long it would last with a 360, but i am having a hard time finding a different rear end. i may have to go scout the old car junkyard up by my house. thanks for the help!
 
Who knows how long the 7&1/4 will last. A bigger better is nice but not needed to get out of the driveway. If you have a long tail shaft trans and a 7&1/4 rear the vans driveshaft and front yoke goes to the car with the shaft cut to 49 ? 49&1/2 ? Anyway when you do get something like a 8&3/4 rear the rear U joint and the tailshaft housing gets changed and happy moparing again.
 
the 360 that you got out of the van will more than likely have the Truck exhaust manifolds ! the driver side will not fit i believe. I'd suggest finding exhaust manifolds off of a car 360, unless you'd like to get headers.
 
My son Aaron (DartThis74) has been going through all of this himself recently. He can chime in on current prices. In the last few weeks, he has gotten his oil pan kit from Summit Racing and the Mopar Performance aluminum valve covers and air cleaner from various dealers.

We do still have the van drive shaft, and I'll just say... it's huge. I'm waiting to hear back from the guy we traded K-frames with to tell me he found the drive shaft from his V8 parts Duster. I would prefer to use it.

Jerry
 
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