new car!

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rabius75

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for those who remember my old activities, i had a 1975 plymouth valiant custom (4 door) 318 car. since my last postings, i have graduated from technical school, and now i work on german cars in an independant shop.

anyway, traded the valiant straight for a 74 'space' duster with a 360 4 barrel. it was originally a 318 car.
he told me it needed to be rewired, but he had bought a painless harness and was sending it with the car. no carb, but i have a carter competition 625 to go on it. the car didnt need to be rewired, it just needed a new pickup in the distributor. Since he screwed up the wiring by partially installing the harness, it does need to be rewired.

I fired it up with a standalone ignition board a buddy of mine made, my carb, and a "new" distributor. the carb is old and dried out, but a self proclaimed "king of carbs" co-worker is going to rebuild it for me (he is a porsche mechanic of 32 years.)

ill get some pictures, the car is rough, but straight as an arrow. im going to straighten out all the minor problems with it and then start the build up to a fierce street machine.

one problem i cant decide on though... do i build the 360 and the 904, or grab a wicked deal on a running, presumed rebuilt 400 and big block 727 from a van, and build that later on.
 
Sounds like a good trade. Car has 360 in it already, why switch. You can get tons of power from the 360. Post some pics for us to see your new ride.
 
360 would be a lot easier.... Would love to see some pics...Dont see many "Space Duster's"
 
Lucky find in deed,you should be extremely happy!

I have to agree though, build the 360, save you alot of headaches and you can easily keep power steering and such.
 
SCREW THAT! Go with a big block. :headbang: You will make much more power! A 400 with stock heads, and RPM intake and a an XE284 cam will make 475 hp. And this is considered a mild street engine. Get a set of Edelbrock 84cc heads and you will be making 550 hp. The 100 lbs weight penalty is worht the extra 50-100 HP you will be making. Remember, the SB Edelbrock heads flow as well as stock BB heads. If all things were equal, the BB will always more power at lower rpm, under less stress and with more torque. I am talking from experience, until the 383 I just got, I have always built 360's, now I am a big block believer.

The last 360 I built was with fully ported (by Koffel's) Magnum heads, roller cam (220/228 @ .050/ .528 lift), M1 intake, and 9.1:1 compression. This engine dynoed at 301 rwhp and 320 lbtq, which translates to 370 hp and 400 lbtq. This engine cost about $6500 to build, the 383 cost about $5000 and it dyno'd at 458 hp and 450 tq. Granted, the cam was a little bigger, but the displacement is more, so the engine needed a little more cam.

Also, if you go balls out and decide to stroke the engines, it will cost you about $2200 for the rotating assembly for the 360 to get a little over 400ci (406 @ .030) while a balanced assy for the 400 will get you about 500ci and cost about $1600 complete.

If you figure a general rule of thumb for mild street engines of 1.2hp/per ci with med duration camshafts and good flowing heads (appropriate to the engine size), and a good flowing intake.

Then this is what you get:

360: 432hp Ported Magnum heads
406: 487hp Stock Edelbrock heads

383: 459hp Stock head casting
400: 480hp Mild bowl ported stock heads
440: 528hp heavily ported stock or stock Edelbrock
500: 600hp Edelbrock Victor
 
well.. what i didnt mention is, my buddy is getting a 77 pick up 3/4 ton HD... with 3 extra big blocks and 5 sets of heads, not to mention the stacks and stacks of parts he has, and his machinist friend loves mopar... so if i pulled out the big block duster, it would be a 452. bigger inches, lighter engine, better engine clearance.
 
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