Why has the magnum been forsaken? The engine itself seems to be a pretty good platform to build upon. When it comes to finding OEM & aftermarket parts and info... I'm glad I buzz my hair to 1/8", cause if not I'm positive if I could grab a hold of it I would've snatched each and every one out. Countless hours and countless gigs of data, 5 hens teeth, minimal relevant results.

Let me preface this with; I am not completely broke, I'm just cheap and budget minded, now. Horsepower is expensive. Fact. Anyhow, carrying on.

Intake. 1st off I don't want a carbureted engine. If I wanted that I'd build an LA. . Everybody says "get an m1." Ok, I'll give it a shot, seem to be popular so should be easy to find and hopefully under $400, I mean brand new edelbrock intake for the LA can be found for less than $350, so I don't want to pay much more than that. After about 3 hours of diligently searching I finally found part numbers for EFI 2 bbl & 4 bbl intakes. Good, now we're in business. Should be easy, I'll have an intake on the way within 5 minutes. Type in the part number for one of them, select the link, click buy now, take a sip of bourbon, enjoy the rest of the night, right? WRONG! It actually works like this; select the link, get "product unavailable" message. No problem. Select the link below it. Same message. Repeat this process 40 times. Sipping quite a bit of bourbon by now. Well, guess the 4bbl is more popular, so I'll go with a 2bbl. Nope! Same thing happened as with the previous search. Well that royally sucks, guess that's life. Let's make it easy. Search for "360 magnum efi intake manifold." first result is Edelbrock. Think to myself fine, I'll break down and just buy an edelbrock, sure hope it's an air gap design. Sweet! It is an air gap. Sh*t! It's for a carburetor. Are you f'n kiddin me. You would think a bolt on replacement manifold for an engine that has a throttle body and injectors... would actually be for TB and injectors. Or does that make too much sense? (side note: Obviously a one stop shop eddy top end kit is out of the question.) Still would love to have a good high flowing intake. Found one brand new one (one, single, lonely EFI intake), and it's $600, before tax and shipping. Building an LA is starting to look better and better. But now it's a matter of principle and pride; this will be a fuel injection build. Have heard that the magnum FI system isn't good for performance, with a good too end to include TB and better injectors, why wouldn't it be. Maybe I'll just mod my own kegger for the time being.

Heads. Lots of options here. Lots of posts across various forums, and plenty of tech articles. Good. But there's still a grrrrr factor. Flow bench test results from article to article vary greatly (unless it's the exact same article on 15 different web pages.) Many choices, let's do research on a few 1 by 1. EQ & Edelbrock seem to be a good bang for the buck. But... Need some work to get the most out of them. Really? Well over $1k and now, on this NIB stuff I need to break out the dremel to remove casting flash, do some porting, or change valves, etc. Nah bruh. Don't sound right to me. Since I haven't hit the Powerball just yet, no need to spend all my beer money on something like this if I don't have to get. So how bout I just port a set of stock magnum heads in the mean time. Thin, prone to cracks, yada yada yada. Can pick up a set for less than $100 all day long. Add 2 cases of beer and I'm up to a $136 investment for ported stockers. Never ported magnum heads before, best do some research. Ooh, they have a Mopar porting template for magnum heads. Very nice, I like you how much. Even found the part number. I know right, it's akin to finding a unicorn. This should make it a lot easier. Search for it, click it, buy it. Easy. Well, if you think it really was as simple as it should be; then you, sir, do not fully understand the struggle. Yet again we play another round of 53 card pick up.

Rotating assemblies. Actually had decent luck with stroker kits. Sometimes it got a little stupid finding some of the subtle differences in various kits, materials used, cam recommendations, etc. With this new found stroke of still-bad-but-not-quite-as-bad-as-it-was luck, I'll try searching for a crate engine.

Crate engine. Dozens and dozens of 408 strokers out there. 450+ hp, 500+ tq. Ahh yea boy, it's on now. Yea... The only thing that was on was my blood pressure. Don't want an LA, and don't want a magnum with a carb, dammit! "Turn key" "complete" "dressed" "drop in" my @$$. Apparently the term "drop in" has many definitions. I did not know this. My version of drop in is a lot different than the company's that make the so called drop in crate engines. My thought process: drop it in, engine mounts, connect tranny, exhaust, fuel line, electrical, hoses, then fire it up and start the break in process. For this to happen it would have to be complete on each axis. From the fan to the flex plate, from the throttle body to the oil pan, from header to header. Anyone read that and hear the mission impossible theme song miraculously start playing?

Exhaust. Headers. I think most folks agree that long tubes are the way to go, if possible. You know what's not possible; figuring out how far a particular brand will protrude down. Then reviews. One guy says perfect fit, easy install. Another guy with a similar truck, had to heat this, bend that, cut this with a sawzall, shoot that with a 10 gauge... Then there's the shorty header guys. I agree, anything is better than the stock manifolds. Can find a set that will work in the interim. I can rig up my exhaust to hook to the headers for now, it's "dual exhaust" already (actually it's the insanely idiotic crossover Y pipe (that makes me puke a little every time I think about it), single cat, 1 in 2 out delta 40 muffler), just need a sawzall, some flex pipe, clamps, and the right flared flange connector. That connector... Found only 1 that will work, and it ships from England, and it costs 28 British pounds, plus shipping. Wtf over.
Muffler. Website wants to know for what vehicle. Irrelevant, but ok. Find a muffler, I like it, I've seen it, I've heard it, I want it. "Not compatible with your vehicle". F U buddy. Doing my own pipes and welding, I assure you it's compatible

 

Gotta remember that the last of the magnums rolled out of the factory something to the tune of 14 years ago...... so, a LOT of the aftermarket support has dried up.

The M1 intake was originally designed for the LA blocks, and was adapted/changed to suit the EFI magnum engines. They are still out there, just incredibly difficult to find. (which you have already learned. )

Hughes still sells the Edelbrock Air-Gap manifold for EFI, of course, it's 600 and change, and requires some finessing of the fuel rail to make it work properly.

Shorties vs. Long Tubes: Shorties are better for low-mid RPM power. Longtubes are better for upper RPM power. Just depends on where you want to build your power. Keep in mind, that the kegger intake runs out of breath right around 4K RPM, and that's on a 360, put it on a 408, and it will choke the engine even sooner.

Also keep in mind that the high-horsepower crate engines are ALL designed to build that power in the upper RPM range. Not exactly what you want for a truck...... Your truck weighs north of 5500 pounds, (or thereabouts) so, if your build is rather anemic down low, you are not going to get good performance out of it. (unless you compensate with deeper gearing....)

As for the various stories on "fit".... Yeah, I've seen that too. I attribute most of it to what the different folks define as "good". For some, that means they don't have to tweak anything, for others, that means they didn't have to cut/section the frame to make them fit. It's all a crap-shoot. Sometimes they will just drop right in like they always belonged there. Other times, you begin to wonder if you got the wrong parts....

For exhaust, you are quite correct, with the proper equipment, you can make ANYTHING fit. Go for the exhaust you want, and have a chat with local exhaust shops to make it happen. Friend of mine used to own an exhaust shop, so, I was able to pull my truck in there, and do whatever I wanted with it. That was convenient.

 

I loved my 5.9l but you think the aftermarket support for the magnum v8 is bad (which to a degree it is), try and find parts for the v10. Just my $.02

 

You can find headers, cams (if you look REAL hard), and rockers. The rest is just stock replacement parts, and even some of those are getting hard to find....... On the OBDI fellers, coil packs are pretty much non-existent. So, if you wanna do a stock rebuild, you can, but, if you wanna do much else, you are outta luck.

 

Lol this thread is funny, thanks for the laugh. It's funny because it hits so close to home for me having gone through an identical struggle, essentially line for line. I'm content to say that I've reserved myself to no longer being hell bent over building a motor. It ain't worth it for this old slow heavy beast. If I ever do a bottom end rebuild in the distant future I will stroke it and that's it. I too enjoy performance on a budget and have realized this is not the engine to do it on as part availability, selection and prices for parts are poor. When I have room for a second / summer vehicle it will get the performance goodies, and it surely won't have a Magnum powerplant. (ahem, Ford 302)

This being said I do however scour classifieds every now and then to test my luck. So far it's proven successful and I've snagged a set of headers and a throttlebody for good deals. The stuff is out there you just have to have patience and a horseshoe where the sun don't shine.

 

Not quite as abandoned as you're thinking but pricing does suck.

Bigger throttle bodies can be sourced quite cheaply through Hipotek. (Screw Hughes big gulp)

Intake manifolds your only REAL option is the Hughes Airgap.... or so most think. It is definitely the most economical and convenient. However, you can run an LA Edelbrock Super Victor manifold. Like $350 and already drilled for mpfi.... but you need LA bolt pattern heads. Supposedly need their fuel rails too but I'm pretty sure the spacing is the same as magnum

Speaking of heads, for a budget minded head setup you can get pretty nicely worked over EngineQuest heads, in both LA and Magnum intake pattern for whatever manifold you choose, through moparmagnum.com and at a pretty reasonable price for the most part.

Headers, yeah longtubes are better. Only ones available are Pacesetter and there's been a lot of controversy on fitment in a 4x4. 2wd there's zero issues. 4x4 the front driveshaft and t case are an issue. Mine fit with an inch or more clearance everywhere.... until i installed the y pipe. When the engine would twist under tq the y pipe would contact the driveshaft. I redneck engineered a hanger/grommet combo to keep it held away and absorb the vibration. Works as intended.