Having been through this thought process before, I think I'd go with a 360 next time. Mind you, I love my 340, but for messing around on the street the cubes are better. I would have a 360 now, but a 340 came with my Barracuda and it was recently rebuilt, so no need for heavy machine work. Even with a mild 272 Crane cam, it runs GREAT and is fairly torquey for a low squeeze engine. HOWEVER, the 360's that keep getting built on Moparts just plain WORK, and are making an easy 100lb-ft over my 340. You'll feel that behind the wheel, and see it on the time slips.

There's something to be said about a 383 or 400 in an A-body... they both act like REALLY big bore 340's with good heads, BUT, there's a weight penalty, a space penalty, and the iron heads aren't THAT much better than modern small block units. Put an AL head on the small block, and they're better than most any iron big block head right out of the box. I love a big block A-body, but a balanced chassis is more important to me now than it used to be, so I'm all about keeping weight off the nose any more.

If you can get a good deal on the 340, flip it and put the money towards a 360.

Clair