I found and purchased a 1972 340 yesterday, wish it would have been a1968 - 1971 but I know that would have been in a whole different price range. Appears to have been in to before, had a performer intake and Holley carb, don't know much more about it other than they said it sounded like it had a mild cam in it?? Oh yea, it came with a 904 tranny, as well!
cool! what are your plans for it?
Thinking about putting it in the Coronet to see how, and or, if it runs. It is missing a few things, and it probably hasn't been started in a while. Guy I got it from had it in a rat rod, he was working on! I think we are got to do a compression test on it, sitting on the floor, before I decide on anything permanent. If it needs work, I may try to get it back to some of the pre 72 specs.
update
well did a compression check, has 125 on 4 cylinders, 160 on another, 35 on two and notta on the last one, so I tore it down. apparently it had water in it longer than the previous owner knew about, but everything looked good. The rings was stuck down to the pistons, on the low cylinders. had 1 bent pushrod, but I think we did that spinning it over. Heads, valves, and bearings all looked good. I think a good honing and a set of rings and it will be alive again. It had a .030 bore, with the older style pistons in it, should be the 10.5:1 compression, all looked to be cast, and it has the 72 small valve J heads on it. So, the plan is to get the block looked at and honed if all looks well, new set of rings, get the heads looked at, and put it all back together and see what happens. it did have a Earson Cam #TQ20H, think it was a 449 lift and 260 something duration, think it is around the factory 340 spec cam? It's crazy, I got 1 car, 1 engine, and 1 tranny, a year ago, now I have 1 car, 3 engines, and 2 transmissions, but still what I got to begin with in the car!
sorry to hear about the problems with the engine. it could have been much worse. a stock 340 cam, going from memory is .444/.429 lift, not sure of the duration numbers. so at .449 it sure sounds like it could be a stock 340 cam.
you think your collection is crazy? since I bought my first car in 1991, I now have 4 cars, 14 motors, and 11 transmissions and a garage full of junk.
Sounds like you can fix it, which is great. And don't worry about extra parts, it goes with the territory.
65rbdodge Wrote:sorry to hear about the problems with the engine. it could have been much worse. a stock 340 cam, going from memory is .444/.429 lift, not sure of the duration numbers. so at .449 it sure sounds like it could be a stock 340 cam.
you think your collection is crazy? since I bought my first car in 1991, I now have 4 cars, 14 motors, and 11 transmissions and a garage full of junk.
working on that one!
ws27 Wrote:Sounds like you can fix it, which is great. And don't worry about extra parts, it goes with the territory.
yes, that is a good deal. going to go the cheapest, safest, way for now then we will see where it goes. I got a friend that helps me out all the time, I am learning about the value of extra parts. We just got his 66 / 67 Satalite with a 75 440 motor home motor in it.