So I thought I would post something here for information sake. Normally I just randomly come across stuff on Craigslist and found something not unusual, but uniquely diffrent. Replied to an ad with a 360 for sale. Showed rattle can black paint, a vintage weiand intake manifold, and a-body spool mounts. Pretty much a long block. Ad reads that it has a purple cam, big valves and was stored in a garage since 1993 which was on the newspaper dates that was crammed into every hole. I was looking for a core to build up into a stroker for one of my cars and figured a 360 I don’t need to pull from a truck was worth the advertised 200 bones. After some talking with the owner, came to find out he had it in a 1974 dodge dart that he had wrecked and pulled it before scrapping the car with intentions of putting it in a boat. 30 years later, it ended up finally leaving his moms garage. After an addition $300 for an engine hoist, cradle and two hours of assembling the most difficult Harbor Freight engine I have ever seen, we were on our way to a friends shop to a buddy that wanted the heads off this engine for a 340 I sold to his wife. Pulling off the weiand intake and crusty Edelbrock valve covers revealed and absolutely shimmy, cross hatched cylinder walls, nearly shinny .300 cast flat top pistons, a purple shaft and a valley pan! This motor is so clean on the inside, I decided not to build a stroker and just drop it off at the machine shop and have them upgrade it, ad some performance heads and run it in a street car. Here are a few pics. Not completely cool, but interesting nonetheless.

Are those pistons really that deep in the hole? If so, BLOWER MOTOR!

My buddy does have a pro charger for sale. 😂

Nice score. We picked up a '69 340 out of the Mercury News for $350 back in the late 1980s. It looked better than it was. Both heads had typical X head cracks in every cylinder. Wound up selling the heads to a buddy of mine (he owns a machine shop) and traded the short block for a 727 rebuild. But, from that same guy I got four good big bolt rallye wheel centers (cone style) and most of an A-body four speed for another $40...

Looks to me the pistons are not at TDC..

Joe

Still shocked to see a valley pan for a small block, let alone one that looked brand new in there that was 30 years old. Probably why the underside of that intake looked like new.

think I'm going to reuse the intake. Looks like it will make some nice torque.

those intakes were a pretty good design back in the day.
should work out good for what you are doing.

Everything im seeing says 90s build for sure. Its also saying someone with not a ton if any, engine knowledge ordered everything the local speed shop had or could get for it within a day or so. Thats probably an 8.1 engine with tasteful upgrades. Still, great score, and congrats!

Looks to be a 1977 short block they slapped the earlier heads on. Currently at the machine shop waiting for my turn. Steve will take care of it.

I'm not much into small blocks, but is that valley pan something you can buy, or did someone fabricate that pan? Never seen one on a small block before.

Moroso 25150, Milodon makes one also but its gold iridite.

I have one of those valley pans always thought it was an Ed Hamburgers pan.

Not sure who made that pan. Seems like overkill for a street engine.

Just thinking out loud and not being an mech expert… but that valley pan could be good to keep more of the splashed oil around closer to the camshaft and dropping down back?.

The intake is about worth what you payed for the motor! If it's a Weiand 8007, it is a small port intake. It might be best to gasket match it if you get a set of Edelbrock or Seedblaster heads.