SBC or stock mitsu motor? what do yall think?

so, im debating on droppin a 350 in my mighty max, or goin back to a stock motor. any thoughts? i plan on bodydroppin the badboy on 16 or 17" Centerlines and goin witha old school paintjob and a tweed interior, so id like it all to flow together well

also, any performance mods out there besides header and custom exhuast? im guessin imma have to get the head port n polished, but what about intakes and/or carbs?

Can go either way and make it badass.

If you're going to keep a Mitsu motor at least put the 2.4L fuel injected motor in there, its not as much of a dog as the carbed motors. I used to have the 2.0 and 2.6, and gladly switched them out for a turbo'd Eclipse 2.0. But I guess it all depends on what you really want and how much you want to spend/do. I would probably do the 350 just because you're going for the old school feel and that will fit it nice. Keep us updated on whatever you do, and check out and sign up over on mightyram50.net, tell em DroppedMitsu referred you if you sign up.

I feel like the 350 swap is pretty common. I kind of like the stock motor. I am building a Mitsu now with a stock motor, it has a tuned equal length header, and a Weber 32/36. I am going to shave the stock intake of all the smog stuff, and smooth it out a bit, and modify the valve cover. We will run some old school plug wires, and make it look good.

Side drafts would be cool, not sure anyone makes a manifold for them though. But a custom manifold is always an option.

This is the header I built.

thought about doina EFI swap and runnin a Turbo eclipse motor, but think id rather keep it carb'd and old school. i like the idea of a custom intake and sidedrafts, wonderin if that would help with clearance for a bodydrop

It would help a lot. The truck I am building the only thing close to the hood is the air cleaner, and a stud on the valve cover. Which if you don't run the stock air cleaner, you do not need that stud, so we will be shaving it. This truck is also body dropped 1.5" into the rocker, so I dropped the motor as much as I could.

As you can see here, nothing above the hood.

For the stock hood to close as is, it would need a small corner of the internal support trimmed. Since I would prefer to avoid this, for cleanliness and strength, I will be making my own carb adapter to drop the carb down another 3/8" and will provide just enough clearance. However, side drafts and cutting off that knob, would make keeping a stock hood much easier.

If you really want a V-8, and plan on driving it, I would go with an LSx swap. Fuel injection, good power, and good fuel economy. A small block, while awesome (and I'm a huge SBC fan...lol), like Seth said, has been done. And frankly, with gas prices not going down any time soon, you're gonna hate filling that thing up. I would probably opt for the 4-cylinder at this point. I actually completely changed direction on one of the builds I'm doing right now, ditching the 350 for a fuel injected 4-banger just for the sake of drivability

would the eclpise turbo 4 bolt up to a auto trans?

jay, a chevy motor in an import? c'mon dude..