Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback so far:
-I have to switch heads and waterpump because of the heavy duty coolant setup from the motorhome any suggestions on casting #'s?
HEADS 346 or 452 are fine, you will not need any of the PREMIUM casting numbers. What I have done when using a motorhome engine is use those steel shims (instead of the thicker head gaskets) from Mopar that bump the CR a bit, depending on how far down in the hole the piston is and what heads you end up using.
WATERPUMP HOUSING anything will work, Mother was good about that, just make sure you get whatever brackets from the same engine (Driver side or Passenger inlet, which also dictates which radiator you need) that you pull the housing off of. Are you running A/C if so try and get ALL of the pulleys, brackets, shims, nuts and bolts. Don't forget the alternator adaptor that goes on the front of the cylinder head.
-I also have 8 3/4 rearend, driveshaft, and some linkage from a 1970 fury 440 police issue.
LINKAGE There is a lot of room on the 70-72 C-Bodys for the kickdown, the 3 pc works as well as the 1 pc kick down, make sure you get the transmission linkage off of the trans if you don't pull the trans with it.
- anyone suggest a particular motor mount manufacturer or are factory fine?
MOTORMOUNTS I ran MOROSO solids with a Poly trans mount from Energy Suspension (it holds up to trans and oil leaks better)but Schumacher makes a nice kit but,the engine mounts come with factory style rubber isolators (http://www.engine-swaps.com/) for information. Solid mounts will NOT jar your teeth out or hurt anything like the urban legend say.
-I have my current driveshaft, the 2 piece motorhome shaft, and the shaft from the 1970 440 car, and a great drivetrain shop where I live so this shouldn't be a problem.
DRIVESHAFT The 440 shaft should work fine or be close depending on the WB of the doner vehicle (I am not 100 percent on that. which is why I have 12 driveshafts from C-Bodys in my garage
)
-I budgeted already for an aluminum radiator thanks for the heads up on the shroud
-I have a great salvage yard near me that i should be able to find brackets, pulleys, exhaust manifolds, and linkage from what years and models do you suggest (c body only?) I know they will need to be big block
BRACKETS I think any Big block model will do (B/E or C), BUT the engine mounts are different after 73/74
-Thanks for answering my next question about the torsion bars, this car will be street driven often, will big block torsion bars give me more adjustability?
TORSION BARS, I ran mine on the street for two years without any problems, If there is a lot of adjustment left on the bars now you should be fine. I think the shocks may even be the same from SB to B/RB
-The wiring changes won't be a problem either
Thanks helping me understand what I have to do here, this is my first mopar project and some people scared me to death when I first started asking ?'s on this. I can do most of the work mentioned here but someone told me I needed to change my front end (k frame?)
MISC The nice thing about C-Bodys is you do NOT have to change K-Frames, that is/was a problem for B/E guys before the Schumacher mounts came on the scene.
B Body headers WILL NOT WORK without some major tube damage, ask me how I know!
C-Body driver side HP manifolds have a weird curve to the exhaust which can give you exhaust sealing problems unless you have a good pipe bender doing the work. I have seen B-Body HP's used on C's but I do not remember what other mods were needed.
if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to contact me via Email PM
