Hey everybody!

I had a pretty good year with my new setup (360, 4 speed, 4.10 dana rear) and put about 45 track passes and probably another 50 on the street testing However, it seems as usual my luck can never hold up and a couple weeks ago on the street i either spun or ate up a bearing big time...Hard 1-2 shift, car wanted to die, very SERIOUS knock coming from the bottom end ( I have tested everything else with a qualified mechanic, and we both came to the same conclusion)

My current engine is literally a junkyard bottom end 360 LA motor with a good top end (IMM RHS heads, IMM custom ground hydr. roller cam, intake, carb, etc.) and it runs great! (times in sig, big thanks to Brian at IMM!!) however, now that I have to pull it apart again, im questioning myself on what I want to do here, and here are my options

a.) rebuild what I already have...so that would mean turning the crank (mains or rods not sure which), resizing the rods (if its a rod bearing), new bearings, possibly a line hone on the mains (not sure if that is nescessary when turning a crank?)...At the end of the day though I will still have a cast piston low comp 360, and im not sure i want to spend all that money on machine work to end up where i was before

b.) Go 4" or bigger smallblock. I already have the heads that can support it with room for some growth, but i'll have to peice together a totally new rotator, plus balancing and machine work costs. But I can atleast already use some parts I already have too...was thinking a BPE crank if i go this route since I have spoken with Rod and he is a very knowledgeable guy with a great product for the price

c.) Sell all my small block stuff (which is all in great shape) and go to either Gen 3 Hemi stuff (which I have really taken an interest in lately) or B/RB (although that will require different headers, engine mounts, bellhousing, z bar, etc.)...both are a total changeover, but my reasoning with these is that i could sell all my smallblock stuff as well as possibly some of the big block stuff that I get but wont use

My plans this winter before this happened was to stick a cheater kit that I already have on my 360, but if i go the stroker or new engine route, I would sell all that stuff off to fund this. I wasnt planning on spending big money over this off season, but almost feel like if im going to be in there, maybe I should build it up a little more and satisfy my need for speed...problem is deciding which will be most cost effective for me right now

Not gonna lie, those new hemis have got me tempted...lol

What do you guys think? Pretend your standing in this half broke 22 year olds shoes and tell me what you think the most practical thing to do is and why...im open to all opinions At the end of the day its all mopower to me!

Thanks!

Your wallet is always the final arbitrator.
Cheapest = get another short block from the bone yard.
Least expensive " correct " way is to salvage what you can from the current motor and have some quality machine work done to it.
Next up the money tree would be this approach with a stroker kit.
And it wouldn't be that much more.
After that , it starts getting pricy
But if it were me..........and I were you ........I'd be leaning towards stroking it and using what you can from the current combo.
Now that I don't have the impatience levels of when I was 22 , I can take a couple years to finish my deal.
And it is a forced patience due to costs associated with wanting to be the only kid on the block with one of these.
I will be making laps next summer.........I really hoped to have it together this year , but it won't happen.
And I never would have been able to wait this long at 22.
But if time and money are deal breakers , then a 408 is a pretty nice package.

id go with the b/rb (witch ever falls in your lap)and never look back.

If you go big block you won't have room to work on it and you'll cus it every time it needs work! You have a quality top end that's just crying for a 10 to 1 comp stroker kit. It will give you the power of the big block run on quality pump gas and fit inside the fenderwells. all you have to buy is the stroker kit and gasket set Big block or next gen Hemi will cost a lot more and take more time

408. Everything else costs alot more due to having to switch over to either next gen or BB. Good top end already just build a quality shortblock to go with it.

very shortly around Tax time,you will see a ton of real nice motors for sale

First I would look to see what went wrong on your
set up and look at the repair cost... then if it was
to the point that it would benefit I would go with the
stroker... then while your driving/racing I would start
picking up parts for the next build (which ever direction
you want to go).. its alot easier to pick up parts when
your not laying out money and time to get your currant
ride back together

Matt I would suggest a 408 with your current top end and use your current block (providing no damage and inspection for power upgrades). Keep a reasonable compression ratio so you can still run pump gas and drive it. Find a good local machine shop, I don't know of any out your way tho. Take a look at what other guys on here have done and put together a stout, street friendly combo. Good luck man!
Steve

1. Go buy another JY 360 short block and put the car back together ASAP.
2. Do the post-mortum on the current short block, and determine if it will handle a stroker heart.
3. Gather parts to do a real solid short block over time and build it right.
4. Swap it out and fix any other little bugs before next season starts.

Stroke it...You have a good top end for a nice pump gas small block stroker. That's the route I would take.

this is just an example of whats out there...

http://www.racingjunk.com/Engines-Components/2334504/Mopar-R5-P7-358-Arrington-Engine.html

Buy a decent stroker crank, doesn't have to be high dollar forged steel unless you want more HP and RPM later, buy a decent set of good rods and rev that rascal up We have made over 525 HP on pump gas with similar parts, mildly cleaned up W2 heads with a solid cam, 1969 Barracuda runs 11.0 on pump gas

well mhsred i would bet keeping smallblock would be cheeper due to the heads you have and the bellhousing/mounts that are already setup for the la engine.
you have to try and decide the howfast question that you will be happy with. going low 12s and driving it like a jetta on regular is a lot nicer than a trailer expencive fuel setup.
if you go bigblock i would do a stroker 400 with the 440 crank. those blocks will handle a good bit more power than a LA or 440 or 383 block.
for the anti bigblock guy here the only pisser is the plug changing at times. with engine ears it goes in easy and bell housing bolts are easy also. but then you need a whole pile of spare parts to build from. but on the other hand i was going 10.30s on a stock block stock rod stock crank 440 with the old smaller indy heads on a 262/265@.050 630lift solid cam. you will not do that with a 360 with a stock crank and stock rods. you just need good pistons and good heads.keep it around 630hp and stock will do.

before you buy anything people are unloading stuff like mad. i could of gotten a shortblock that with 440-1s went mid9s for 2500 bucks. look around and take your time.

For sure I would go the smallblock stroker route. They flat out run good. I am very impressed with the 408 and up smallblock strokers. I see A-bodies in the 10's all the time with them and still streetable. Dont get me wrong I love my BB stroker but in my heavy B-body I like the extra torque. The smaller cars (and even some B-bodies) run very well with the stroked smallblock. They have great heads out there for them and they make good power. It would cost you to much to switch over to BB or the new Hemi. If you cant afford to stroke it now and still want to race then throw it together and add some juice if you have to go faster. Good luck , Ron

Stay SB and stroke it if you want to keep it more streetable. It will save money in the long run.

Hey everybody,

I appreciate the opinions!

It seems like a small block stroker is the favored peice among most here, and yes, it definitely makes sense to go that route considering i already have a top end foundation for it (Thats exactly what i was thinking when i bought the heads and valvetrain, that I could use it on a stroker motor if this thing ever broke...just didnt expect it so soon)

Reason I considered the big block is because my dad has one in a 69 dart, and even though they are huge in there, they make insane amounts of power with very little done to them in a lightweight car like an a-body...My biggest thing would be getting a new bell, z bar, headers, and mounts to go with it...The new hemi, well they are just plain cool and dont need much done to them to haul the mail, but once again headers, mounts, and other things like that expensive drag pak intake are kinda what are making me re think what the cheapest option would be...I know with the SB stroker i'll have a good 2k into the rotating assembly when its all balanced and ready to go in, plus another 800-1000 for machine work, and then id like to do a another custom cam from IMM to get it working the valves like a champ...so I figure 3.5k when its all said and done- not sure i could do a bigblock swap or hemi swap for that little

The season here is over...we are going to be getting snow in a month or two, and i need new tires anyways (my chords are showing through on the et streets ) so i wasn't planning on trying to get it fixed for this season. My plan is next weekend to yank the motor out of er and start in one direction or another...I have all winter to collect parts and being assembly on whichever motor i choose, i just have to decide

As much as I am bummed about having to redo a good working combo, im also excited that im going to be upping the power

It will more than likely end up an SB stroker, but i dont want to rule anything out yet