tylerwhite

Good afternoon, very new to this site and forums in general so any help is great!

Doing a engine swap on my 68 dodge dart the 360 is pretty much fully rebuilt and ready to be dropped in I am attaching a 904 trans and going to be using a flext plate (read multiple palcese that flex plate is fine) however I am curious as to whether the drive shaft will have to be cut I dont believe so because it seems like everything will match up.

Second thing is I am gonna have a big struggle with the wiring aspect of the swap so is there anyone with detailed insturctions or pictures that can link me up with in order to maybe help the process

dont forget this is my first ever motor swap and rebuild on my own so no need to rip me for simple things


thanks!!!

TVLynn

There is a lot to consider with a swap
Special shumacker motor mounts or a K frame swap
904 trans is fine, Need to balance the 360 either by a special B&M flexplate or a 360 balancer converter
rear end 7 1/4 Need at least a 8 1/4 or an 8 3/4
drive shaft
4bbl carb linkage
Radiator
wiring is the easy part

440roadrunner

Especially if you have the miniscule 7 1/4" axle, you'll want to change that

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...miA0PWDtBI.jpg

It might be better if you could find a donor / junker V8 car for parts. It does not have to be the same year, but it not, or if a Duster, etc, stuff like the drive shaft probably won't fit

What I'm getting to here, is if you can find a junker 73 or later with factory disk brakes, this will do a couple / three things........

1...Swapping the later V8 K member will solve the engine mount problem, and will be the superior "spool" engine mounts

2...The 73/ later K will accomodate the later model "inside the K" factory sway bar This is not an issue with aftermarket bars

3..A 73 will give you all the "stuff" you need to convert to 'big bolt pattern' wheels, as well as disk front brakes

4...A V8 donor will have at the very least an 8 1/4 rear axle

Whether or not you do the above, you'll have to get proper headers or manifolds TO FIT the body style.

"Flex plate." You did not specify, if you do not have a 360 compatible torque converter, you'll need an aftermarket such as BM weighted flexplate to balance the 360. To put this another way, ORIGINAL factory 360 torque converters or replacement /race converters that are DESIGNED for a 360 will be WEIGHTED to work with that engine, with a factory style flex. BUT if you have a converter out of a 318, etc, that is NEUTRAL balanced, then you must use an aftermarket WEIGHTED flex.

Also be careful as some early transmissions had SMALL snout converters for the 273's. These require a bushing ring to "upsize" the converter snout to the later engines

Your /6 torqueflite will NOT fit.

Everything being "equal" a V8 904 will take the original driveshaft

A 727 torqueflite is a tad longer than a 904 and requires a different / custom shaft. In either case, the factory rear crossmember and mount work

Kickdown/ throttle linkage. I've always been able to fabricate or modify factory throttle brackets. Kickdown is another matter. If you don't have ALL the matching pieces / bracket for the proper kickdown to fit the manifold, etc, you are probably better off going to Lokar or similar.

Wiring is probably the LEAST of your worries..........Go over here

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/...p?p=1970088617

and also to the tech section of "MyMopar"

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=31

and download a factory shop manual or two

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=109

CAVEAT about MyMopar. Some of the charts and lists posted there about casting numbers, etc, has errors, and this includes rear axles. Take that with a grain of salt. "Pretty much" NATIVE Mopar info, such as the parts manuals listed, are OK except for minor mistakes over the years, that is, misprints.

tylerwhite

@440roadrunner thanks ALOT!!! I have already purchased my custom mounts from Schumacher! Pretty cool ya I mean I will only have about 280-300 hp with the 360 for now so I was told by a few guys that the 7 1/4 will work as long as one wheel spins however the cost for now to get an 8 3/4 is kind of expensive especially because I want to get an A body custom 8 3/4 rear end because it comes out to the same price to get a B body 8 3/4 and then to have it cut and balanced don't you think?

moe7404

the best use of a 7 1/4 axle is as boat anchor..............do NOT have the auto trans bang into 2 nd gear hard. be sure the 2 nd gear acclimatior has the lightest spring in it, with a heavy duty shift kit.

440roadrunner

"Guys will hate" but I went a different route. The problem is finding (or maybe they don't exist) an 8 3/4 in the large bolt pattern which I wanted.

So I scored a couple of factory rear disc 9" Ford axles out of Lincoln Versailles, which were a worked over Fairmont, basically. So now, with 73/74 front disc conversion, I have 4 wheel disc brakes, big bolt pattern wheels, and a nice strong 3rd member axle.

These are not cheap to buy either, but you have to figure building or narrowing some other axle to fit.

I wanted a 3rd member so I could quickly switch gears if I so wanted. The Versailles rear is a bit wider than a Dart, but is taken up with wheel offset. At the time of the photo, I had earlier 'Stang "Bullitt" wheels on the rear with no spacers--bolted right on. These are different backspace than the later wheels.