I ordered my 340 Six Pack setup and it's supposed to get here tomorrow by FedEx. I can hardly wait. I was going to keep my Holley 3310 for another project, but I've decided to return it because I'm not sure what's going on with it. It was sold to me as a brand new carburetor, and it looks brand new, but there are a couple of things that make me wonder. First, I wanted to re-jet it because they come from the factory calibrated for sea level, and I live at almost 5000' elevation.

I've been doing a lot of thinking (and a little work) on the 360 for my Barracuda, so I've updated my Mopar 360 lens on Squidoo with some of my thoughts on the subject. I'm definitely going to go with a 4" stroke forged crankshaft and I-beam rods. I want the rotating assembly to be as light as possible; the I-beamers are lighter than H-beam rods and at my power level (450 HP estimate) I don't think I need the extra strength offered by the H-beamers.

After much soul searching and mental anguish, I finally decided on a carburetor for my Barracuda. In spite of the fact that it's a fairly light car and I'm going to be running a manual transmission, fairly steep gears, and a big engine, I decided on a Holley 3310 carburetor. Yep, with vacuum secondaries and a (gasp) choke. So why not a double pumper?

I really need to stop visiting EBay. Seems like every time I do, I end up buying something I hadn't planned on. Yesterday I scored a factory stock 2-bbl manifold to add to my stash of Slant Six parts. It's the cast iron version, so I'm still looking for one in aluminum. It doesn't have a carburetor, so I'll have to do some junk yard crawling, or maybe I can use the 2bbl that's currently on the 273 in my Barracuda.

Well, I just can't help myself. I keep spending money on the Slant Six even though my current project is "supposed" to be my 408-powered (stroked 360) Barracuda.

I can't explain it... my job looks good for at least another year, and my wife is back on board with a good engine for the Barracuda. It might be my one chance in a very long time to build the Cuda into a really fast car. And yet, I find myself obsessing over the Slant Six in my 64 Valiant. Got my tax refund last Friday and went to Summit racing to get a 750 Holley carb for the Barracuda... and walked out the door with a 390 (vacuum secondary) to put on the Valiant. It's not like I even need a 4 barrel for it since I already have a dual Weber setup I'm planning on running.

It looks like I'm going to get to keep my job for at least another year, so I'm going to move forward with the engine for my Barracuda. I talked it over with my wife this week, and despite her previous reservations, she's not going to make me get a crappy crate engine.

I had been fairly hopeful of keeping my job for at least another year starting in July. Yesterday, though, I got some bad news and could be unemployed as early as the end of this month. I should find out one way or the other next week.
If I do lose my job, then the 360 is definitely out. In fact, I don't even know if my wife will let me spend the money to get a 318 built for the Barracuda. It would put up huge obstacles to finishing the Barracuda if I lose my job.

At first, the choice of engine for my Barracuda seemed easy. These early A bodies have a narrow engine compartment, making the use of factory exhaust manifolds almost mandatory. I had found a set of headers for a D/Dart that would supposedly fit, but I balked at the price - over $1000 at the time. Since I figured that running the stock exhaust would choke off the engine enough to nullify any power benefits I would otherwise get from running a 360, a 318 seemed like an obvious choice.

Gotta love EBay. Just after I wrote about the difficulty in finding performance parts for the Mopar Slant Six, I found an Offenhauser 4 barrel intake for one on EBay. Supposedly it's new, we'll see when it gets here. I got it for $219.50 plus shipping. Most of the online shops I've found charge between $279 and $350 for this manifold, so I'm pretty happy with the price. I also found a complete Super Six setup (intake and exhaust manifolds and carburetor) on one of the Mopar forums, so hopefully I'll be adding that to my stash of Slant Six goodies as well.