swap or not to swap that is the question

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Mrkidd

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ok...i have a 69 dart that has a slant 6 in it.....and im wanting a 360 in it and my father in law says i should just keep the slant beacuse it will be unique.....and it would cost to much to swap it over . he said its bettter to just buy a whole new car thats already a v8 and sale my car......
this car isnt going to be a track car just a daily driver but i would like so get up and go.....what do you guys think ive put alot of time and money into it and part of me doesnt want to sale....so my question is how much would it cost to do the swap and will my car handle like crap because of the heavier wieght....? feed back please

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Do you still have manual drums and steering on the car?

I swapped my 69 from a slant six to a 318 and it was pretty cheap and handles fine. I also upgraded it to disc brakes and power brakes. I'd say go for it. You can get conversion mounts that will bolt the 360 right to the k member for about $150 from schumacher.

Getting a new car means you open up a whole new can of worms. You won't know what quirks it has, whats about to go wrong, etc. whereas your current car is a know entity.

I'd say swapping in the 360 will be far less exspensive than buying a whole new car, especially if you sell the parts you are swapping out of it.

Just my $0.02
 
Yes, your car is unique and slow:lol: It ultimately depends on what you want. Not everyone is a power monger. Buying a finished car is usually cheaper than building it but not many can run out and do that. Sometimes you are better off upgrading the car if you already have done alot of work and know what you have. You can always look around and see what it would cost to buy another car that has the upgrades you want and subtract the price of your car. Compare the difference to that of building another power train yourself. Perhaps you want to keep the wheels though. Many of us don't have the cash to just go out and buy a finished car so upgrading yours can be done slowly as you can gather the parts gradually.
 
i would agree with your father in law on the 6 being unique. that is part of the reason why im keeping my car a 6. the other reason being gas prices that will most likely hit $4.per gallon soon. i plan on doing a mild build on my 6 by milling/ porting the head with bigger valves, cam swap, and the super 6 setup with free flowing exhaust. my last motor i built was a 340 that was very powerful, but i could never of afforded the gas if the prices were what they are now.
 
Justin Hughes makes a valid point, and I agree on the gas prices...But why even build an old car with a powerful v8 and worry about the price of gas? If that was the case, you can go buy a Prius and be happy...I say keep the car because it appears to be very clean, and you already know the ins and outs of that car, and you know what it needs and what it doesn't need. To swap over to a V8 is relatively cheap, and easy. Don't worry about how it will handle, because it will be just fine! Get the Schumacher S6 to small block conversion kit here: http://www.engine-swaps.com/
I'd also recommend some V8 torsion bars or get some from Just suspension, they have a sale every now and then on Ebay on their 1.0" torsion bars from $159-$189, which is a good deal.
 
This is what the engine compartment used to look like in my 68 Barracuda.

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Yes it was unique and it got a lot of attention when the hood was up at shows and cruise nights. It went OK but you could never call it fast, it would out run Corrollas (and similar cars) unlike a stock \6. But if you were talking to someone about the car and the weren't looking at the engine the look of let down on their face when you told them it was a 6 was quite ego deflating.

Anyway, when I first went down the path to getting an old car my goal was having a "muscle car" and the plan was always to swap the \6 for a v8 when I purchased the car. But I want to do it in stages so the car was not off the road for a long period of time. I upgraded the suspension to handle the V8, installed a 4spd, swapped in disk brakes and a bigger axle all while it was still a \6. During this time frame I picked up a complete 360 to rebuild for $50 and collected the rest of the parts for a v8 swap. The upgrades I mentioned cost less than $1000.00. I rebuilt the 360 and have $2500 into it and the remaining parts (headers, bell housing, K-member, radiator, etc) was another $500 or so.

This is how my engine compartment looks now and I do not regret it for a second.

EngineIn1.jpg


I beleive for what I could have sold my Barracuda with the \6 plus what I spent on the v8 swap is less than what I would have had to spend to get a v8 car in the same shape.

BTW, with the \6 i got 19-20 mpg around town and 22-23 on the highway. With the 360 I get 17-18 mpg around town and 21-22 on the hiway. I also went from an estimated 195 HP with the \6 to approximately 370 HP with the 360.
 
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