Hi, a guy that my friend knows and bought 2 scouts from for $50ea has a Plymouth Trail Duster that he want to get rid of.  The body is in good condition, very little rust,  it has a full roll cage, nice wide rims,  automatic tranny, I dont know what the axles are or ratio.  He thinks it has either a 383 or a 440 in it, the thing still has the plastic Thermaquad carb on it (That's getting ripped out and putting an Edelbrock on it.) The only problem with the Trail Duster is the timing chain broke and broke the front part of the crank off.  I figure replacing the crank change the cam so it cam handle 4 valves if possible or jsut swap out for a diesel.  magnaflux the block to get any and all metal pieces out of the block and do a general overhaul on the block.  I plan to sleeve the cylinders so I wont wear the block anymore upgrade the heads to 4 valve from 2 (if possible).  Now with that said.  Doea anyone know where I can get upgrade parts for it?  Like lift kits, bumpers, rims, ect.  I was thinking about using this as our tow rig so we can tow our trail rigs.

Cheers,

Scrat

        Lets back up a space or two. It's an 1980 something Plymouth. Well Mopar stopped building the 383 in 1971, then went to a 400 *** B block mid year 1971. So if you do have this engine, who did the transplant? I want to say from the factory the 400 would have been the the big engine but it would have to be no newer than mid year 81. after that the 360 was the big dawg, very lame in factory trim, about 150 hp. Is the dist. in the front or back of the engine? 273, 318, 340, 360, A blocks are in the back, B & RB blocks are in the front. 361, 383, 400, are B block, 426-weg, 440 are RB blocks. If the casting of your block is flat from the block deck to the base of the dist. is a B block. If the block deck is raised above the deck the dist. sets on RB (raised deck big block) If you have the kind of money its going to take to build a one off set of 4 valve heads for this let me know how it comes out , You are talking 10s of thousands of dollars. Mopar did build a handful of twin over head cam 4 valve Hemis in 69, 70, didn't work out so well, Ford did the same with a few of the Boss 429, also a bad idea. Per say it is a big block, with a good solid rebuild, 9.5 comp. around a .450 lift cam, 750 cfm carb. headers, duelplane intake 400 hp is easy, on pump gas. That engine will have more low end grunt than that (if its still there) Dana 44 front axel will be able to deal with. The rear axel could be anything, 44, 8.25, 8.75, 9.25, or a Dana 60. The front could very well be the Mopar 8.25 also. As far as lifts go, The Ramcharger, and half ton pick-ups all same same. That basic truck has been around for 30 some odd years, everyone who's anyone makes a lift for them. They are good solid work horses, as long as you don't try and out think the guys who designed them in the frist place. Buddy of mine just sold his 84 Ramcharger he bought new last fall with 360,000 miles on it, only prolem, lost rev. gear once, other than that, motor, transfercase, axels were never opened for any repairs. This is a 318, 727, truck, thats still plowwing swow. I've spent a lot of time with Chrysler mills, and tranys, your best bet, is always start with Mopars after market , and the guys at the 800 help me I screwed up number, that have forgotten more than most of us will ever know about ringing that last bit of real world power out of these blocks. They are not at all like building a Chevy. Right now along side my Jeep I own a 4900 pound 1971 Chrysler with a 383, and a 2bll. carb that will run the quarter mile in 15.1, no NOS, just all Mopar, don't let the white walls fool ya, she'll cover the frist 100 feet in 2 sec. on a 3.23 gear. Mopar, I drive them I race them, I have beat them to what you would think is with in an inch of there life, Gotta lov'm!