The block is cracked on my 360. I have been on the phone all day calling different wrecking yards and engine supply shops. Nobody seems to have one. The regular wrecking yards don't even want to mess with me and the classic yards don't have anything past 1975. Where can I look for one of these.
I don't know if you e tried this...
Car-part.com is an online marketplace for searching JY parts
A lot of Mopar forum may have leads too.
John Welsh said:
I don't know if you e tried this...
Car-part.com is an online marketplace for searching JY parts
The first one that got back to me wanted $1.500 for a core and $950 for an engine block. I paid $500 for the entire truck. If I can't do any better than that, this project may end really fast.
Any chance the a 5.9 Magnum short block would work, or are there too many changes? I'd assume there are a lot more of those still around.
eastsideTim said:Any chance the a 5.9 Magnum short block would work, or are there too many changes? I'd assume there are a lot more of those still around.
When I first got the truck I thought it was a Magnum and then found out it wasn't. What is the difference, other than the year? I take it the Magnum came in later cars.
Is your truck fuel injected or carbureted? The Magnum 5.9 had port injection but otherwise I believe it's the same architecture.
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
I think (but am not 100% certain) they bolt into the same mounts, and can bolt to an older transmission like a 727, but the heads/intake are different, and it has different front end accessories.
Tony Sestito went through the conversion and had a build thread for his 1st gen with a Magnum 360:
If you want to keep it cheap, you want a roller cam 360 short block from '88-92. You have to be lucky enough to find one in a truck or a van.
If you are willing to swap to a carb, you can run a complete 360 from an earlier year, but you would need to backdate the ignition and fuel system, as well.
You could also swap in a complete 5.9 Magnum, including the harness, fuel system, and computer, but only if you really love the truck. (It is truly the way to go for power, drivability, and ease of repair, but only if you feel the need for the added power, and are willing to put in the extra work)
I don't recommend going the route of an aftermarket EFI on a Magnum engine, as it costs twice as much, you end up with fiddly tuning issues, and don't have the luxury of replacement parts at you FLAPS.
I am planning on swapping a complete Magnum 360 V8 into one of my vehicles (probably the '78 D100), and swapping a TBI 360 into my '89 2wd Ramcharger, which has a seized TBI 318 in it presently. I will likely run a carbed 5.9 Magnum with an air gap manifold in my 1981 Chrysler Town & Country wagon if I find the 318 in it has a cracked block as the seller stated, though I suspect that it has a leak in the aluminum timing cover.
IIRC the Magnum was never used in cars, only trucks. If it was ever used in cars it would have been some very very rare Diplomats.
I don't know if there are any block changes significant enough to prevent putting LA heads and accessories on one. But the main difference is that LA engines have shaft rockers while Magnums have pedestal mount rockers that look for all the world like Ma Mopar bought out Ford's old stock of 351C valvetrain parts.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The 5.2 Magnum came out in '92. The 5.9 Magnum in '93. The last model year of the Dodge Diplomat was 1988. It was also the last MoPar V8 passenger car until the LX platform cars came out.
LA oils the rockers through the block into the rocker shaft, while the Magnum oils through the push rods. The heads are not interchangable. Likewise the intake manifolds are drilled at different angles when they bolt to the heads. The rockers were based on the AMC architecture, as many of the AMC engineers after the buyout ended up in the Magnum engine development.
In reply to Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself :
Somehow I remember reading (maybe the old Allpar site before they turned it into a blog looking format) that the final year Diplomat police cruisers had a pre-Magnum version of those heads. But I didn't think the timing lined up because I was sure the Diplomat did end long before the trucks got the Magnums. Hmm.
That the absorbed AMC engineers developed the Magnum only solidifies the visual idea that they were Ford based 
I remember an AMC fan who I worked with who used to glow that "AMC used the best from everybody!" with respect to how they would source components from Ford, GM, and Chrysler.
I really don't want to backdate to a carb. I have had enough problems with my 318 motorhome that I actually thought of an aftermarket fuel injection conversion for that one.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
There are rumors that they used the high swirl heads, which are the heads on the TBI motors that OP is looking for.
The components were external, not internal. (PooraSpark ignition, GM alternators, Torqueflite (actually TorqueCommand and TH400 transmissions with AMC behousing patterns, etc.)
This should be what you need. Unfortunately, I don't think it's close to you.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bpsm3D52K/?mibextid=wwXIfr
In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :
The only way I would use aftermarket EFI is if I carried spares or cross referenced factory part numbers for all of the likely failure points. Which I have done in the past on my Jeep Scrambler.
In reply to Motojunky :
That's a great price. If I was closer, I would buy it for the DRW kingpin D60 front. Don't know how easily you'd get it out of there unless you had a spoolgun to booger the frame back together, though.
A 91 should be an LA 360, but with a roller cam. A whole Magnum engine should swap in with a little work if needed and might be easier to find in a junkyard at this point. Externally, the Magnum will still accept the LA style motor mounts and your distributor should swap in as well.
Intake manifold mounting is different between an LA and Magnum, but there are 4bbl intakes with the Magnum bolt pattern that would let you keep the existing TBI setup (assuming that's what your truck has).
Internally, the Magnum has some differences. There's no mechanical fuel pump drive, the valvetrain is different (oiling to the heads is handled differently and Magnums have paired pedestal rockers instead of the LA style shaft rocker setup). All Magnums are roller cam. The factory heads don't flow great, but they're better than just about all of the factory LA heads. Most factory Magnum heads are cracked between the valve seats on one or more cylinders, but most never crack deep enough to leak anything (so you'd never know until you pull them).
Bellhousing pattern is the same, so you can run the same trans behind an LA or Magnum. In both generations the 360 is externally balanced, but be aware that the external balance is different for an LA vs a Magnum 360. Magnum 318s are internally balanced, can't remember for the LA 318 (or 340).
If you decide to up the power any, magnum blocks and internals are fairly strong. Weakest link is the stock pistons, but even those will take a good bit if you keep it from detonating. Somewhere in the 700 - 800hp range supposedly the blocks split down the middle like a Ford 302 with the theory being that the vertical intake manifold bolts make the setup weaker (as the manifold is basically wedging the head apart). There's some merit to that theory, as I have seen a case of someone over tightening the intake bolts on a Magnum, at which point the head gaskets promptly stopped sealing and required the heads to come off.
The info in the quote below is all solid, although IIRC it is possible to drill the oiling holes in the block deck to run LA heads on a Magnum block. And I've heard mention that some early year Magnums had them drilled from the factory.
Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The 5.2 Magnum came out in '92. The 5.9 Magnum in '93. The last model year of the Dodge Diplomat was 1988. It was also the last MoPar V8 passenger car until the LX platform cars came out.
LA oils the rockers through the block into the rocker shaft, while the Magnum oils through the push rods. The heads are not interchangable. Likewise the intake manifolds are drilled at different angles when they bolt to the heads. The rockers were based on the AMC architecture, as many of the AMC engineers after the buyout ended up in the Magnum engine development.
I bet I'll never need it, but I appreciate the knowledge being shared in this thread.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Believe it or not, I've been biting my tongue to keep this from going into the weeds with reams of unneeded info for a thread where a guy just needs a replacement TBI 360 short block.
I appreciate all the information I can get here. Taking lots of notes before I head to the wrecking yard.
My take is, any time a used once common part is hideously expensive, there's got to be a reason why. How many cores would you have to buy before you got a usable one?
My vote: magnum 360 longblock. Use your timing chain cover, water pump, accessories, distributor, and tbi setup. Aftermarket cheap Chinese 4bbl intake and a tbi to 4bbl carb adapter solves that problem. There will probably be some throttle linkage crap to muddle through, but nothing serious.
Should make it as close of a cheap junkyard solution as you can get with readily available parts and minimum of berkeleyery.
The 360 crank balance on the magnum is different than the LA. When I put a crate motor in my barracuda back in the 90s, B&M had a flex plate for it. I can't remember what I did for a flywheel when I manual swapped.
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