Jeremy Noye <jjnoye@rogers.com> wrote:
: Hello to everyone!
Hi Jeremy, welcome to the DML! :-) Sounds like your truck
is going to be quite the show piece when you are finished with it!
I espeically like the fact that you're not just building it to be
a show truck, but to have some bite behind the bark. :-)
: Where I would really like some input from you guys who
: know the Dakota and have done the V8 swap is on my ci
: selection. I've heard the 360 is surprisingly hard on
: gas, which is why I was leaning towards the 318. This
: is going to be a daily driver with about a half hour
: drive to classes. With the way the fuel prices are I
: don't want to be spending every penny I have on gas.
: So is the 360 as bad as I've heard? I'd rather have
: the 360 because as the old saying goes, there's no
: replacement for displacement!
Since it sounds like you are going to be building up
whichever engine you go with, it probably won't make a great
deal of difference. I would definitely go with a Magnum 318
or 360 though; they have a nice economy and performance
advantage over the old TBI or carb motors. Even if you have
an older LA block you are planning to build up, it is
apparently not a big deal to install the Magnum heads and
valvetrain. I notice you were planning to go with a carb; that
can equal the peak output of an EFI system, and as long as you
keep on top of it, you can do fairly well with a carb as far
as fuel economy goes, but economy will always be a bit of a
compromise when compared to EFI. EFI allows you to be "dialed
in" all the time; both at WOT and when cruising, you don't have
to compromise power in one area for efficiency in another. In
your situation, I would be tempted to go the Megasquirt route
(http://www.megasquirt.info/). I have not yet had the opportunity
to play with Megasquirt, but I plan to at some point, and others
on this list have experience with it. (Check out the web site
for full details but basically its a DIY fuel injection system
which doesn't cost a whole lot of money.) Anyway, since you
will be building up the motor anyway, I don't think you will see
a big difference in power or fuel efficiency between the 318 and
360; they can both be built for either (or both). :-) It will
probably be more a matter of stumbling across a good deal on a
particular engine; wether it is a 318 or a 360, you will probably
be happy with it. :-)
Once again, welcome to the list!
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| '70 Barracuda, '90 Dakota Convertible, '92 Ram 4x4, '96 Dakota |
| '96 Intruder, '96 Kolb FireFly, '99 Cherokee, '01 Ram 3500 |
`----------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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