VIN QUESTION

MARCH374

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Going to look at car and i have Vin# Which digit in vin shows what engine it came with. Thanks
 

Mikes5thAve

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Normal 2bbl 318 like pretty much every other m body that age unless its a police car or taxi, then there's chance of it being 4 barrel.
 

kmccabe56

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Eighth character as an "S" would be HD Police 318-4 barrel, "4" was the HD Police 318-2 barrel and "P" was civi 318-2 barrel
If I'm reading the parts books properly, the cylinder heads, intake and camshaft from the 318 police engine are the same as those on the E58 360-4V
 

Mikes5thAve

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That's what they used. There wasn't enough 4bbl 318s to give them their own special parts.
 

LSM360

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The E58 was awesome engine with HD parts as was all Mopar Police engines back in the day really.
Special coated HD valve springs, Double roller chains, windage tray, better cams, poly coated fuel pump eccentric as well. They have a deflector inside the timing chain cover too. The ones with an oil cooler used a special bolt on the fuel pump that was hollow. The return line from the oil cooler fed oil through that bolt back into the timing chain. Nodular iron cams, sodium filled valves, special anti scuff oil piston rings, and the list went on and on. I have several "Police/Fleet vehicle" brochures and they list out all these upgrades that Ma Chrysler use to do on their Police Package cars all the way from the 318 through the 440. That all ended after 1989 and now the Charger Pursuits really don't have the upgraded internals. Bigger brakes, HD cooling, suspension, oil coolers, heat protection and some other things but the engine is exactly the same.
 

LSM360

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My '80 Aspen E58/A38 had been beaten to death when I bought it. TONS of mileage (speedometer/odometer broken) quite obviously from every aspect of the car. Had first seen road patrol then been turned over to EVOC (emergency vehicle operations course) at academy for recruit training so it could get an extra beating. Poor car and did not run well when I got it. Mechanic pulled the heads and cam and said lobes were wiped. I went to his shop and he said "come out here, you gotta see this". He wanted to show me the remarkable condition of the cylinder walls. Like new! Clearly no rebuild; the cam and lifters were wiped; not a roller setup of course. This car had perfect compression across all eight and just needed valve job and new cam and lifters. Ran so good after the valve job and lifters and cam! WOT was such a beautiful sound and VERY impressive acceleration for a smog era car!!! Granted no cats just stock manifolds through dual exhausts and OEM style mufflers.
 

Mikes5thAve

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I had a high mileage well abused roller 318. Blowby was so bad there must have been a quart of oil in the air cleaner. When I popped the heads there was no ridge and you could still see the honing marks. Those small blocks were some good engines.
 
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