Small block T56?
Lear, to be quite honest, I haven't performed the swap, I was thinking about doing that to my coronet before I sold it. I heard through the rumor mill that the viper motor has the same bellhousing bolt pattern as the RB series engines. From a corporate standpoint, it seems like it would make more sense that the viper and truck V10 would more likely be based on the 360, which was in production when the engineers were building the v10 back in the late eighties/early nineties.
So to answer your question lear, no. The closest I came to the swap was pricing a T56 from a Viper dismantler, and they ranged from $12-1600 bucks. Ouch.
To be quite honest, as I stated before, I would be more inclined to build a small block Challenger. It would be a better balanced package than a heavy 440 hanging over the K-frame, and everybody and their mother is putting 440s in sb cars! The 318/3 speed Challenger would be an easy base to start with. Throw in the fuel injected 360 (Mopar performance is slated to introduce a plug 'n' play setup for the modern motors, meaning I can get my hands on a wrecked Dak or 'Rango R/T and splice the ECU along with that Magnum between the Chally's frame rails!!! Woot-woot!) Magnum Force's badass from K-frame, Air ride's rear four-link setup. Come to think of this, I think i have posted about this before...
Anyway, a bit of historical trivia for you guys: Harry Cheeseborough and Lynn Townsend instructed the product planners that the 383 was going to be the largest engine in the Chally in the fourth quarter of '68 or the first of '69, until a crazy Chevy dealer started stuffing big block Rats into Camaros. To add insult to injury, despite Chevrolet having a displacement ban on their smaller cars (Now we know only 200 Z-16 396 Chevelles were built in '65!) a few 396 Camaros got the 427 transplant in Flint, and were ushered out the back door under the "Central Office Production Order" guise! So being that the new E-bodies were sharing the cowl, engine compartment, and underpinnings from their corporate cousins-the B-bodies, it was natural for Ma Mopar to slip that big elephant in...
Now, another reason why I make my case for the Small Block (besides the fact that I want to go for more than a straight line) is a story (tell me if I have told you guys this one before) of an engineer that took one of the early big block pilot cars home one night. The next morning there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, and the car just spun. In the words of John Sloan, "The HD suspension was not very slick".
Later kids
KFD