How much will swapping out a non oem motor affect price on my Chally?

[oldcarnut]

I bought this Chally earlier this summer thinking I could drive it with just a little tinkering here and there and keep some interest going while my Superbird clone project is taking a back seat to unfortunate life situations being handed to me.  It ended up taking a lot of time and more work than I thought it would and now that it's mostly done and driving ok I'm about ready to send it on its way to someone else.  For the time it took for me to degooberize some of the issues I found and replace other parts I could have made some good progress on the bird    It gets a lot of good compliments wherever I drive it but all the work I did to it just sorta took the wind out of the buying effect it was supposed to have in the first place.  I'm not sure what that effect then was to have been really but I was in a strange sort of mindset when I looked at it  .  Anyway it's an original 70 SE 318 but cloned into a RT/SE 440.  The motor seems pretty stout and according to the former owner about 5K miles on a rebuild but I don't know what's in the internals other than I saw roller rockers under the covers and hear a nice cam.  Aside from all that, my question would be if I swapped another decent engine or size into it and used this one for a while in my RR while I work on the project,  how much do you think it would really matter on value since its no longer a matching numbers anyway?  I'll have a little more than 15K in it before the swap.  Just asking while I contemplate this and haven't got another engine to swap with yet.   Searching thoughts on value effects without original engine if it doesn't matter what's in it now.

[A383Wing]

I think it would sell faster and for more $$ with the 440 rather than still being the 318 SE version.....

Bryan (my opinion)

[Ponch ®]

it may or may not sell for more with the 440 or another engine vs. the matching #'s 318, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't affect the value negatively.

[oldcarnut]

My line of thinking was that different size motors would have a different appeal to an individual buyer but the car would only be worth so much with any of them.  Let's say I put a 426 in it.  It would bring in a certain amount of interest from that group of people but it doesn't make it (to me) any near the value of an original hemi car no more than a 20K paintjob makes it worth 20k more. I guess it might be different if it was originally a 440 RT with a 318 now in it but not the other way around.  I'd prefer a small block in this one for my use currently for a daily driver instead of the 440.  I reckon it boils down to the saying it's worth what someone will give you for it.

[ACUDANUT]

I think it would sell faster and for more $$ with the 440 rather than still being the 318 SE version.....

Bryan (my opinion)

I agree. Who cares about number matching 318 cars anyway..IMO... BFD.

[Cooter]

I think Clones are worth more to buying public because they can enjoy/modify/drive them. Having an original RT/SE is nice, but unless having that "Real" bragging right allows you as much fun as modifying my cars does me, then it isn't worth owning IMO.

[XS29L]

I'd perfer the 440 and I think it drives the value up.  If you still have the 318 offer it with the car so if someone wants the car all O.E. they can change it.  Personally I'd keep the car , screw the resale value , and just enjoy it for the wicked machine that it is.    

[oldcarnut]

If I can find a 440/383 locally then I'd prefer to put that back in.  The original 318/904 drive train is long gone. Everything was changed over to big block including the rear differential forward. If I was planning to keep it for everyday driving use I'd shoot for the 318 for the better economy. This one sucks too much gas for as much as I like to drive it.  I drove a little over an hour one way last night to go look at a complete running 440 and tranny only to end up a 413 from a 78 motorhome with half the accessories, carb. and brackets missing    At the end of the day my goal would hopefully to be able to sell the car with the swapped stocker motor for around what I got in the car and come out ahead with the current 440 to put in the project so I can get to enjoying that wicked machine    That way I can put off the 440-6 motor I have to build for a while longer and concentrate on the body work.  Would also be nice to not having the concerns of breaking in a new motor and new tranny and tune the 6bbl all at the same time and then have the tranny and carbs ready to go.

[Ghoste]

But if you do want to put a 318 back in it I'm sure I can find one to trade you for that 440.

[hatersaurusrex]

Obviously the 440 is killing the collector value.    As a purist, I can't let that happen.   I'll be there this weekend with a cherry picker to help relieve you of this offense to Mopardom.   I won't even charge you that much to haul it off.

[69_500]

So are you looking at selling the Challenger or just the motor?

[ACUDANUT]

"How much will swapping out a non oem motor affect price on my Chally?"
This makes no sense. It's not original to begin with, so how would another engine affect the price.

[oldcarnut]

So are you looking at selling the Challenger or just the motor?

Eventually I'm going to sell the Challenger.  I wanted to keep this motor to use in the RR and put a different one in its place if I could swing it and try and sell the Challenger for about the same price I paid for it with the 440.  If doing so would cost me too much to offest the difference to make it worthwhile then I'd leave it as is but it would sure make things somewhat smoother to get back some progress on my RR. I was just seeing how folks felt about what thoughts the difference would make to them before I did it.  Sure I'd like to put another big block in it for various reasons but maybe a small block would come availible first and I'd go ahead and move on with it instead.

"How much will swapping out a non oem motor affect price on my Chally?"
This makes no sense. It's not original to begin with, so how would another engine affect the price.

Maybe I should have worded it different but based on your statement I would take it that you'd only pay so much but same price for it regardless with a 318 or 440 if you were looking for a Challenger.  That's what I was asking about.  Book values for whatever purpose they serve would put a 318 at 10% and a 440 at 30% more in price but that's not neccesarily the reality.

[1974dodgecharger]

20K and you hold the 318 as hostage for more money hahahahahhaha