Originally Posted by LantanaTX

Weekend update:

I finally found some aluminum brightner on Friday night. Saturday I primarily worked on cleaning up the engine. I first washed it down with some Simple Green and then sparayed it with Aluminum brightner. The stuff worked pretty good at cleaning the oxidation. The aluminum brightner is a Phospheric acid based cleaner. after rinsing it. I used 87 degree Texas sunshine and compressed air to dry it. Today I sprayed most of the aluminum with high heat ceramic clear paint. This will help prevent the oxidation come coming back and make it easier to clean in the future. I didn't paint the valve covers as they will be getting painted or powdercoated.

HDDP supplied me with some critical measurments from his SRT engine that is on an engine stand. This made it easier to compare measurements with my V8 that is also on an engine stand. Thank You HDDP!

What I confirmed after measuring was pretty exciting. This may be a simple bolt in swap!

The auto trans is all the same and will bolt right up.

The location of the engine mounts where they bolt to the block is the same on both the V8 and V6. I will have to bolt up the mounts from the V6 to the V8 block. The engine will bolt directly to the stock mounts!

The exhaust manifold exits sizes and bolt pattern is the same for both the V8 and V6 (this suprised me).

With the C43 exhaust manifolds I should be able to bolt the exhaust right up. (I will go to true duals in the future). The C43 exhaust manifolds don't have the bung holes for the o2 sensors. I will have to have these welded in.

I will be spending this week locating some needed parts and familiarizing myself with the wiring and all other connections so that everything is ready when I make the switch.