Looking at a couple 360's this weekend - tips?

-
tnts72

tnts72

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Messages
661
Reaction score
67
Location
Illinois
Might be making a 7 hour road trip this weekend to look at two 73 360 engines. One 73 is torn down, but complete and one is still assembled, it sat for about 3 years and was just removed. It's supposed to have 65k miles on it out of a minni winnebego. Haven't done any Mopar engines yet, have built several small block Chevy engines - including race engines. Anything to look for in particular on the Mopar 360's - core shift - where to focus, main webbing cracks, things of that nature?

Main diameters 2.50" and rod journal diameters 2.125"?

Plan on at least pulling the pan and the valve covers on the complete one and rolling it over to make sure the valvetrain is intact and it builds compression etc...

He is asking $300 on the complete engine and $175 on the 73 in pieces. He is also willing to throw in the transmissions with them for those prices so I may be rounding up all of it, 7 hour drive - would like to make it worth my while.
 
Drive to your local wrecking yard or look on CL and get a 5.9 magnum for $300-$400 instead, much better engine, bolts up to any SBM trans, factory hypereutectic pistons with moly rings. 1.6 ratio rockers, roller cam, serp belt w 130A alt.
Throw away cam and heads, install bigger cam, EQ heads and let er rip. easy 400HP. Check out cover of CC mag in next week or so, OU812(member) built the engine and it rips! Stock 5.9 SB, big cam and EQ heads over 450!

You wont want 360 RV, double odometer for RV, they kill engines and have crap compression due to weighing as much as a water tanker. Thats about $250 for all around here if you wanted it. Look up magnumswap.com for info on swap, lots of info.Lots of info on my site as well.
 

Attachments

  • murdermotor.jpg
    38.7 KB · Views: 243
Good information guys, thank you. Not sounding like its worth driving 7 hours for! Local CL is full of magnums I could pick up reasonably enough.
 
Yeah I can't say I'd drive more than 30 minutes for a 360 lol. Which I didn't and still ended up with a grip of them here in a pretty desolate mopar land, can't believe you have to pull a 7hr round trip in Ill! I'd do the Magnum thing.
 
I picked up a 360 complete for $50. Car motor oil pan, motor mounts, and threw in the working 904 transmission. And here's the kicker - 20 blocks from the house!
I know I got lucky, but they're out there. Just be patient and collect parts, but it will help to make the magnum or al decision.
 
Nice thing about a 360 out of a minnie-winnie is that it could be a 360-3. The block is supposed to have a higher nickel content and they have forged cranks and double roller chain. In the truck world they are well thought of and reasonably desirable. The compression will be lower but that isn't too hard to remedy. (out of curiosity it wouldn't happen to be a Winnie-wagon would it?) Many swap magnum head onto them and cure some of the woes. If you want to get over .500 lift you will have to ditch the rotators.

Now I say this, coming from the truck perspective. I prefer torque to hp even in my cars. Perhaps there is some drawback I'm not aware of otherwise as it pertains to cars, but I can't imagine any.

Still 7 hours is a long drive. Not sure I'd do it if I was sure it WAS a 360-3. They aren't "that" type of rare. If you do go to look at it, on the valve cover there is an emissions sticker that will say which engine it is. If it's not there, you can check the part number. I'd be willing to bet if it came out of a Minnie-winnie then it's a 360-3 as it would be on an MB-300 chassis, which all (to my knowledge) would have used a 360-3.
 
rc_brooks said:
Nice thing about a 360 out of a minnie-winnie is that it could be a 360-3. The block is supposed to have a higher nickel content and they have forged cranks and double roller chain. In the truck world they are well thought of and reasonably desirable. The compression will be lower but that isn't too hard to remedy. (out of curiosity it wouldn't happen to be a Winnie-wagon would it?) Many swap magnum head onto them and cure some of the woes. If you want to get over .500 lift you will have to ditch the rotators.

Now I say this, coming from the truck perspective. I prefer torque to hp even in my cars. Perhaps there is some drawback I'm not aware of otherwise as it pertains to cars, but I can't imagine any.

Still 7 hours is a long drive. Not sure I'd do it if I was sure it WAS a 360-3. They aren't "that" type of rare. If you do go to look at it, on the valve cover there is an emissions sticker that will say which engine it is. If it's not there, you can check the part number. I'd be willing to bet if it came out of a Minnie-winnie then it's a 360-3 as it would be on an MB-300 chassis, which all (to my knowledge) would have used a 360-3.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, I didn't know any of the 360's had anything but cast cranks. I planned on building it anyway 9.5:1 or 10:1 build with ported heads or possibly aluminum aftermarket. Car is going to be my wife's first Street / strip car. 318 will be what she starts with - 360 is a down the road deal.
 
All 360 had cast cranks from the factory.....
 
The -3 denotes industrial or heavy duty. There is a 440-3 and 318-3 as well. I don't know much about the 440-3, but I do know the 318-3 does have a forged crank at least until 77.
 
skizzo said:
Yeah I can't say I'd drive more than 30 minutes for a 360 lol. Which I didn't and still ended up with a grip of them here in a pretty desolate mopar land, can't believe you have to pull a 7hr round trip in Ill! I'd do the Magnum thing.
Click to expand...

Might have to hold off for a bit and keep looking. Last 6-8 I have found are already bored .030 over late 80's blocks and worn out - cranks turned .020 here .030 here = junk!:wack:
 
GM made them cranks for Chrysler? Them's fightin' words on this forum! Only thing on a Mopar that I was aware of GM was the 85 Rotenchester carb. I had a 318-3 crank once, forged, true: but so was my 273's crank. Interesting.....if proven.
 
yes..GM casted cranks for chrysler 360s...but they are all cast cranks...
 
74 and earlier 360's used the same core as the 340 and had thicker cylinder walls and can take a .030 over bore and still be thicker than a 340,if no core shift.
But I would go the Magnum route as there plentiful and work great,eq heads for sure.
 
Sounds like plenty of quotes from the debunked books of the 80's. :)
 
I may be hallucinating entirely, but all the -3 motors were supposed to have HD cranks. And it seems like the 360-3 Crank was an extra weird bird.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top