I saw a guy who took one of the early Dakota R/T's (93ish) and removed the 318 magnum and dropped a stroked 340 bottom end to it. A 340 will stroke out to an easy 392 (love that 4.04" bore) with room for more. The later magnum heads are retrofittable to the LA blocks with the right parts. The big downside is to keep the FI you have to go custom ( I think he had an Accel DFI on it). He got a ticket on the way to the car show for barking the tires because he hadn't quite got the tranny calibration down yet. Damn near every 1-2 shift it would bark.

 

So I'm pretty new to dodge engines. Well I don't have much internal engine knowledge period. Whats a "LA" block? Is that short for magnum. Do I have a magnum 5.9 or is there even a difference?

 

check this out, should answer your question http://allpar.com/mopar/318.html

 

here are some sites that have parts
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...115+4294888794
http://www.jegs.com/
http://www.hensonmotorsports.com/merchandise/index.php
http://krcperformance.com/
http://www.mopartsracing.com/parts/ram.html

 

Thanks fellas. I got a lot of reading to do. Liked the idea of a super charger, but if I stroked it out to all motor power. That would be that much sweeter.

 

Alot of the R/T guys are getting the 360 made into a 408 stroker..There is potential there to make some nice power with that engine, hell nascar uses the 360 block, so it must be good

 

A engine = old polysphere 318 (pre 67), it's a semi hemi, and physically larger, very few parts interchange
LA engine (LA stands for Light A, block & heads redesigned for packaging and weight savings) = 273, 67 & up 318, 340, 360
Magnum series 5.2, 5.9 = 318 and 360 redesigned for roller cams, weight savings, etc. Heads redesigned from rocker shaft to pedestal (like sm blk ford/chevy/amc). Stock magnum heads DO flow better than any old style LA head. To retrofit them, you have to get hollow pushrods and AMC style lifters. When the head was redesigned, so was the way it was oiled. It went from oil coming up a gallery to the rocker shafts to the oil coming straight up the lifter through the pushrod.

The 273 was a mild performance engine in the early early Barracudas, with solid lifters and good cam for the size, although it was limited by size and port size. The 318 was the run of the mill standard 2 bbl V-8. The 340 was the beast, big bore, short stroke, big valve heads, 10.25:1 compression ratio and forged everything, with a cam only slightly milder than a 440 Magnum (at least from 68-70). The 360 was originally designed to be a work engine, pushing trucks and c body land yachts around. It's also a one off weirdo, with different main bore size and stroke than the 318/340. It was never designed to be a performance engine, although it is well suited for torque. I replaced the 318 in the 72 Charger I had with a 360. Moved the car much better, almost made it fun.

 

So, let me ask this. Other than the normal bolt ons, like CAI, Full exhaust, and a chip. Is there something else i could do to get some extra horsepower without bleeding my wallet dry. Like can I just get some 700 or 800 dollar heads and get an extra 75 horse by bolting those on? Or is it a lot more complex than that?

 

More complex. You get some hogged-out cyl heads, then you need a cam to take advantage of it, a better intake manifold to actually GET that much air into the heads, and computer reprogramming to make it all work right. You have to think of everything working together as a system. The only thing that will give you instant speed and gratification is nitrous oxide. I've never used it, but from what I've heard, if you don't go hog-wild with a kit, the engine will live awhile. If you DO go hog-wild, you WILL see the inside of your 360 on the OUTSIDE. A safer alternative if you want to increase you acceleration is to change your rear end gears. You probably have the 3.55 or 3.92? Going to a 4.10 or 4.56 will wake up the truck. It will also destroy any semblance of gas mileage you may get.

 

Speaking of reading, buy this book before you spend a lot of money:

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Big-Inch...957&sr=1-1