Well now that I have my Dart looking real good, inside and out, it’s time to think about a change under the hood.
My current setup is as follows:

71 318, bored 030 over new pistons of unknown origin,unknown type
340 auto camshaft
Edelbrock performer intake manifold, and Edelbrock 600 cfm carb (1406)
69 340 exhaust manifolds, dual 2-1/4” exhaust all the way back, with walker quietflows
Heads are “U” heads, which I’ve been told are the same as “J” heads, basically 360 heads with 1.88 and 1.60 valves.
Mopar perf electronic distributor

This engine was built 17 years ago, but only has about 5k miles on it. It sat for a long time.

Car has a 904 auto with stock convertor, 8-3/4” rear with 3:23 gears, peg leg 225/60/15 rear tires.

The problem: This thing is a dog, it won’t hardly spin one tire from a dead stop on dry pavement. It seems to run pretty good once it gets wound up a little, but nothing to write home about. No low end torque.

I think part of the problem, is it’s pretty low compression, (360 heads on a 318), and I have no idea what kind of pistons the machine shop gave me when the engine was built. They said they had to use chevy pistons or something cause it was the only thing they could find with the right dimensions that used a floating wrist pin. This pistons have valve reliefs in them, but are in the wrong place to actually be functional.

I have no idea how far in the hole the pistons are, or what cc’s my heads are. I know when I did a compression test last spring I got numbers ranging from 105-120, quite a variance and not high enough.

So, I’m trying to decide on the best way to get some power in my car. First I need to pull the heads, measure deck height of the pistions, cc the heads and find out what they are and proceed from there.

Options I’m considering include:
New pistons, probably KB167’s which will give me a near 0 deck height, thinking no need for machine work since the engine only has a few thousand miles on it, Just a quick hone and install the new pistons.

A magnum head conversion, to get better flowing heads, with smaller combustion chambers to raise the compression up out of the dumps.

Have my current heads shaved to raise compression ( how much can I shave and how much will it help?)

Or maybe just pull this motor and replace it with a used Magnum 360.

Also if I get the compression up I’m thinking of a cam swap too, maybe a comp xe262h

Intended use for the car is cruising and the occasional spirited driving, not a drag car, I just want a little more power so I can peg the fun-meter !

Whatever I do to it, I’m only working with a budget of $1200-$1500 bucks. I think I could do a magnum head swap for that, or even a used 5.9 magnum swap.

So see the poll, and I’m open to any ideas you have to make this thing run as good as it looks.

How do I proceed
multiple choice
Votes accepted starting: 03/06/15 03:00 PM
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