Went to mid michigan motorplex and tested out my new airbag setup, car ran good all night, aside from still having a bit of a tirespin problem. On the last pass of the night, I had a great launch, but my car slowed down 4 MPH for no reason and shut off at the top end of the track. I started it back up and drove back to the pits, packed up and started home. Well, about 5 miles down the road, I take off from a corner pretty hard and as I get to the top of second gear, I lose a ton of power and my engine starts making some nasty noises. Lots of clattering and clunking, finally setting in with a good ol' rod knock. I managed to limp it to a truck stop, then went home and got a Uhaul car hauler to bring it home.

I'm really disappointed. I just dropped like $4500 on a new rear, DS, and clutch, and now my car is sitting AGAIN. So I figured I'd make the best of a bad thing and swap in an iron block 6.0 because I can find them for about $700-$900 at most places. I was just curious if there are any problems with swapping them in, aside from the one alternator bolt hole not being drilled. I plan on swapping all my parts from one shortblock to the other, then selling the extra stuff off the 6.0 to recoup some of the cost. I have a little bigger cam I can stuff in it (228/232), and I'm going to mill my heads to 62 CC to get the compression up around 10.5:1. I figure the increase in power will make up for the extra weight. I cannot afford to do ANYTHING but swap in a junkyard engine, so don't say I need to build a forged 370 or 408. If I could do that, I wouldn't be on here asking about this

 

Just make sure the junkyard motor has the right reluctor wheel.
Also IIRC 05 and later have shorter head bolts.
No need to drill for alternator bolt, I run a 370 without one, no issues.

Your best bet I think is a 2004 and older motor. All else is a direct swap.

 

Sweet, that's what I like to hear! Now I just gotta come up with some funds.

 

I was wondering about this to...good deal