i've got a 74 dart swinger. originally a slant 6 car. i want to put a built 360 in it. hoping for around 450hp or around there. wondering if anyone has any good ideas on where i should start with it?

 

We once had a ('72 I think) dart that we dropped a 318 into and everything fit pretty good using stock exhaust manifolds etc. in fact, generally felt like a stock car--put together nicely--just went a little better of course. You could do like my father is doing now--he's had a '61 Lancer wagon since new that in the late '80s got a 318 in it. On tiny little 14" tires he ran some 14.5's and 14.6's and was using a VERY mild cam and 4 speed. He's now got a 360 block and a 4.00 stroke aftermarket crank. I believe with bored pistons he's got the CID up to 408. now this set up would be much more torquey than high HP and I suspect you'd have to spend well beyond your budget to build 450 HP. However, if you can assemble the engine yourself (how much experience do you have?) and you spend a grand to 1500 on the crank I think an EASY 300 to 350 in a VERY streetable 408 with 400 + lbs ft of torque would do you just fine.

I would recommend you do that and go sorta mild on the compression ratio. Then you can run pump 87 and see if you like all that torque in a relatively light weight car. If you still feel like you need the 450 HP (why'd you pick that number--some late model car you're comparing to and want to make sure you have an edge on--you probable have a LOT on them already just in weight savings?) then you could browse Ebay for a month or two until you find just the right price on a Vortech, Powerdyne or magnacharger supercharger. The first two are really nice for that setup because you can be essentially naturally aspirated below 3000 RPM and have all that torque from a very large displacement small block and then along about 3000 the supercharger kicks in and you get all kinds of power--yes, probably about 450.

If you run carburated, the supercharger you buy could be just one of these 600 or 800 dollar head units, make your own brackets, add an inline electric fuel pump and pressure regulator and then there are kits out there to run pressure from the pressurized intake to the carburator bowls so that as the pressure rises the floats are accurate for fuel supply needs. IE: it doesn't have to be a $5000 kit like new electronic controlled vehicles.

One last option if you like the idea of forced induction: Check in with STS turbo guys from time to time--they're the ones that make rear-mounted turbo kits for camaros and other things. A couple months ago I saw they intend to develop a "universal kit" that you might be able to make work like the super I just described--probably quite a bit more expensive but at least the majority of the parts would be in their kit and as your horespower freak meter goes up you can dial up a max psi with the right components as you need--IE: start with a 8:1 CR in your big displacement and when you get a little more money later on tune in a 18 PSI turbo setup--make sure you get forged pistons and rods to go with that forged 4.00 " crank.

Good luck.