putting a magnum truck 360 into an a body

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dodgethis12

dodgethis12

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Ok so with the 318 dilemma .. I've gotten to thinking about putting this 360 magnum I have out of a 95 ram into the dart.

What will I need?

Will all the accessories and serpentine belt system fit in the car just the way it is on the front of the truck engine? I would be nice to use the more modern accessories...

I guess I'll need motor mounts ?

(I know I'll need a carb'd intake, carb, and dist.)


What about an oil pan? Is the sump correct?

car is a 70 dart 318 ps auto man. brakes.
 
I don't know about the accessories. I'd probably run the V-belts, or at least I did on my swap.

You'll need 360 mounts. Also need a 360 car pan. You'll need a neutral balance converter and the flexplate off the 5.9. You may have to elongate one of the bolt holes off of the flexplate to match your converter.

Magnum engine definitely seems heavier than the 318 that came out of my car.

If you run Hooker Comp headers you'll have to grind the crap out of the truck engine mount on the driver's side.
 
Do you have an electric fuel pump? You'll need one.
The mag uses a different timing cover and has a short snout cam with no pump eccentric.

You have to purchase the snout extension for it to work as well as the LA cover to accept the mechanical pump if you wish to use that.
 
LXguy said:
I don't know about the accessories. I'd probably run the V-belts, or at least I did on my swap.

You'll need 360 mounts. Also need a 360 car pan. You'll need a neutral balance converter and the flexplate off the 5.9. You may have to elongate one of the bolt holes off of the flexplate to match your converter.

Magnum engine definitely seems heavier than the 318 that came out of my car.

If you run Hooker Comp headers you'll have to grind the crap out of the truck engine mount on the driver's side.
Click to expand...

I run the summit headers on my magnum swap, they fit great!! I'm running manual steering & RHS heads.

The V belts would be the easiest for sure, i went with a mech. F pump & an LA timing cover useing the Eccentic snout kit from Hughes, so far, so good. I also went with the Magnum flexplate with the weights "on it" so i could run "N" balanced converters, my 95 magnum had no weights on the plate, but did on the converter, & yes, he will have too longate one of the holes.

One thing i found is, i had to grind down a boss on the rear part of the block for the starter to fit with the LA tranny.
 
Good information.... I had overlooked the fuel pump problem!!
 
JoeDust451 said:
One thing i found is, i had to grind down a boss on the rear part of the block for the starter to fit with the LA tranny.
Click to expand...

I forgot about this. I did have to do some minor grinding on the block to get my mini starter to fit with the 904. Didn't realize till it was in the car. That was fun.
 
dodgethis12 said:
Good information.... I had overlooked the fuel pump problem!!
Click to expand...

A lot of people I have talked to try to play the swap off like it's a 4 hour job. Ok macho man! lol

There are things to think about. None of them are really problems, but they are things that have to be on the grocery list so there are no suprises.
 
Right. The second or third time you do one of these it would be a lot easier/quicker because you know what to expect, but if you get in a hurry on the first one, you're going to end up unhappy or disappointed or in trouble down the road.

Steve
 
JoeDust451 said:
If & when you do the install, when you get to installing the starter, you'll know exactly what needs grinding on lol, its really not that major.
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I dont remember having to grind anything on my swap.'99 360 in a 74 Dart sport with a 904.It was a 318 2bbl car with a A/T center consule on the floor
 
sbmmustang said:
I dont remember having to grind anything on my swap.'99 360 in a 74 Dart sport with a 904.It was a 318 2bbl car with a A/T center consule on the floor
Click to expand...

mine was a 95 block, maybe they casted it a bit different in 99.
 
POS Dakota said:
A lot of people I have talked to try to play the swap off like it's a 4 hour job. Ok macho man! lol

There are things to think about. None of them are really problems, but they are things that have to be on the grocery list so there are no suprises.
Click to expand...


Exactly!! I heard all this & that about this swap, its simple blah-blah-blah, Also was never told of some of the surprises i incountered, but i will say after doing it that its not that difficult, just a tad bit more time consuming.
 
JoeDust451 said:
Exactly!! I heard all this & that about this swap, its simple blah-blah-blah, Also was never told of some of the surprises i incountered, but i will say after doing it that its not that difficult, just a tad bit more time consuming.
Click to expand...

It's kind of funny, because I'm doing the opposite of you.
I am dropping an oldschool carbed engine into an efi/computer bastardized truck.

If you've read my posts about other things like ignitions etc, you'll see I am using the simplest and most reliable (in my experience) components I can buy...Why? because I basically have to rewire the entire thing.
I dont want a separate distributor, box and coil. I dont want a million wires on my firewall and all over the engine so you cant even see the damned thing.

I have to make the electronic controlled tranny work manually, and the overdrive work with pressure and vac switches....etc.

In the end it'll be awesome to open the hood and have people say "Uh...wha?" so I can stand there and smile. And it'll be easy as hell to tune. It'll also be completely reliable and any store will have parts. But in the meantime I am still buying things and checking with people to see if there is anything else I need to know.

I like doing things that go against the grain. Can you tell?:toothy10:
 
JoeDust451 said:
mine was a 95 block, maybe they casted it a bit different in 99.
Click to expand...

Mine was the last year for the 5.9, whenever that was. I had to grind on mine.

It was pretty minor, just not easy because I had everything installed at the time.

Steve
 
sbmmustang said:
yeah maybe.I changed the timing cover and water pump via 74 to use the v-belt set up.
Click to expand...

You chucked the serpentine setup? Why?
It's one of the best things about a magnum.

I have a 10 year old serpentine belt hanging in the garage that has been through two motors, constant 6800 rpm shifts, flying intake shrapnel from nitrous explosions, and probably crap I don't even know about. I kept it to see how long it would last with a spare in the back...never used the spare. In fact the spare needs to be replaced because it dry rotted before I could use it!

Throw a serpentine belt, I'll shake your hand, buy you a beer and award you with a "POS Dakota is a dumbass" Tshirt.=P~
I have never done it, and I've done some crazy stuff.

Throw a v-belt and I'll tell you "well, that's normal!"

Since serpentines came out, I haven't looked back.
I love them!

I know you are a dude of knowledge, so this is just a question and not a stab.
 
POS Dakota said:
You chucked the serpentine setup? Why?
It's one of the best things about a magnum.

I have a 10 year old serpentine belt hanging in the garage that has been through two motors, constant 6800 rpm shifts, flying intake shrapnel from nitrous explosions, and probably crap I don't even know about. I kept it to see how long it would last with a spare in the back...never used the spare. In fact the spare needs to be replaced because it dry rotted before I could use it!

Throw a serpentine belt, I'll shake your hand, buy you a beer and award you with a "POS Dakota is a dumbass" Tshirt.=P~
I have never done it, and I've done some crazy stuff.

Throw a v-belt and I'll tell you "well, that's normal!"

Since serpentines came out, I haven't looked back.
I love them!

I know you are a dude of knowledge, so this is just a question and not a stab.
Click to expand...

I dont know I just didnt want to go back and forth to get a belt to fit without running the A/C and didnt want to change the P/S pump or the pulley.I had one day to finish it up.
 
i had the same problem with the starter and block, but instead I elongated the starter bolt hole. 96 block/ 904 tranny Funny thing is i had a 727 and the same block and there was no problems.
 
BTW, I had no issues bolting the starter on my engine. 98 360 block, 904, used starter from my old ramcharger. I'm also running a v-belt on my engine.
 
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