Abe, Years ago I bought my 360 horse 360 for a non-Imperial from Mancini Racing. I've always been happy with their service. However, any Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealer can get the crate motors. The A/C hardware doesn't clear the intake, that's why they have the disclaimer. The higher horse motors usually aren't too happy sitting in traffic with the A/C on either. There were some quality problems with the factory crate motors over the last couple years. I believe they were resolved, but I don't know for certain. Most of the horror stories were based on the Hemi motors. I wouldn't necessarily recommend their 390-395 horse motors for a street cruiser Imperial. Depending on how you want to use the car, those motors might be a little temperamental. They will want higher stall converters and steeper rear gears. Having done the crate motor thing in one car, I actually lean toward building a motor (or having one built). This way the motor can be built to the use of the car. A nice torquey 360 would make that '81 move. I'd recommend building a stock bottom end, aim for around 9:1 compression, maybe go for a pair of Edelbrock heads with one of the RPM manifolds, and one of the smaller Comp Cams Extreme Energy cams. Something with a healthy lift, but lower duration. The other option would be to start with a Magnum 360 from a '93-up Dodge truck. They have better heads from the factory (this is what the crate motors are based on), and if I remember correctly 9.5:1 compression. Change the intake, add a Comp Magnum cam (same idea as above) and away you go. Edelbrock offers an RPM manifold for the Magnum heads (the bolt pattern is different than the pre-Magnum motors). Check with Edelbrock, but their manifold might clear the serpentine belt system (and A/C compressor) on the truck motors. And they use a cast aluminum bracket system that polishes up real nice. This is a little bit of an oversimplification, but the basic rule of thumb on a street car is torque. Especially a heavy street car. You can build a nice torquey 360 for under $5000. By the way, that's a pretty mean looking '81. I'm partial to black cars myself. Rob McCall '67 LeBaron - Heading out to the garage to work on it now '68 Barracuda Fastback - Black with early 360 crate motor, now has Edelbrock intake and Comp Cam, it ate the MP cam. -----Original Message----- From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Abe Mantell Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 12:30 PM To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: IML: 360 Crate Engines & '81 Imperial Any other advice will be GREATLY appreciated!!! Many TIA!!! Abe Mantell - mantell@xxxxxxxxxxxx 2 '81 Imperials (down from 5!!!) :-/ ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm