360 Pistons, Myth Busted!

[Jamies440]

Hey all,

on the 440 6 pack challenger post in 'roids, a member posted that '71 was the only year to have flat top pistons. Bong, nope! I tore apart my 360 out of a '72 Truck (factory motor, re-rung and bearinged), it had the flat tops. Motor has a casting date of 6-1-71, definitley out of a '72 Truck. Motor also has J heads on it.

So, there you go, proof that the flat top factory 360 pistons werent '71-only.

 

[v8440]

Jamie,

At the MOST it sounds like some '71 pistons got used in an early '72 motor. I'm not 100% sure that production date would even have been in a '72, it might have originally been in a '71 that got swapped into the '72 for some reason-that's a pretty early date for a '72. Of course, I think you can match the vin with the engine by that time, so you can tell for sure if you still have the vin and the engine.

In any case, I doubt you'd find many '72 360's with factory flat tops. A few might have squeaked through with leftover '71 pistons, but I doubt it would be very many. Part of why I say this is emissions-the compression-dropping crap was done to cut oxides of nitrogen emissions, something the government was getting pretty strict on by then. Kinda doubtful mopar would have released engines that might not pass muster for the model year.

 

[69.5CUDA]

my 73 block had flat tops as well but it was a VERY VERY early 73 and the engine was out of a 45k mile fury ...