I bought a 22,000 original mile '73 Fury 2-door back in '02. It had a 360 in it. Problem was that the car had been sitting in the barn so long that the 360 spun a rod bearing when we fired it up.

A friend had a 318 that had been SITTING IN A FIELD FOR 2 YEARS WITH NO CARB ON IT. With some work, it turned over. The next day we pulled the 360, drained the MUD out of the 318, bolted it in, put fresh oil in it, and fired it up. It went into fast idle, the lifters ticked like crazy... I figured it would either blow up or smooth out.

15-20 minutes later, it was running smooth as silk. I didn't even shut it off, just filled the tank with gas and drove it 450 miles home!

It turned out to be a great running, low maintenance engine. It got 17-18 MPG (remember, it was in a '73 C-body), never required oil between changes, and was deeeeependable.

I sold the car about a year later, making sure to tell the buyer about the engine story. He drove it for a couple years after that and never had a problem with it. Sadly, the Fury was killed with about 35K miles on it by a drunk illegal immigrant... if not for that, that "junk" 318 would probably still be running!