Thread: brainstorming a 318 buildup, am i stupid

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i have been posting like crazy because i have no projects and i am seeking what people prefer. i am considering a 65 cuda buildup. want a 360 but dont have the money to dish out for it right now. how much can i crank out of a 318. im aiming for low 13's but know very little about this motor. can any mopar gearheads help me out?

"318" and "low 13's" don't necessarily belong in the same sentence. If you have money to spend on the 318, you have money to get into a 360. If you have NO money and are just blowin' smoke, GET A JOB.

I'll throw in here as a guy thats built a couple mopar engines. the 318 and the 360 are almost identical engines. the 318 can be a 13 second motor in less that 2500.00 get a 4.00" stroker crank from mopar perfromance and have it gront to fit in your 318, and have the block clearanced...wham...you have a 390c.i. find yourself a good set of j or x heads, top it off with 750cfm carb and a single plane manifold and a good cam......and youre there. most good 390's are pushing between 350-450hp depending on the cam. if you can't run a soild 13 in an a-body with that.....there's something wrong.

thanks dan-0 good stuff. just to let everyone know i do have a job. im just trying to finish up paying my daily driver to free up the cash to build a car. just trying to get some ideas before i jump head first into a project.

If you are looking for a "stop-gap" motor until you can build a good 360, or a stroker small block, then look to the heads...

What I recomend is to simply go out and find a nice set of heads...in your case, since you'd like to build a serious motor later, why not use a head that's appropriate for both a 318 AND a 360 or larger?

Find a set of used Magnum heads from a 92 or later 318 or 94 or later 360 (IIRC...could be 93). You need to do some shopping though to make the heads work...

Basically, you need a magnum specific intake manifold (mopar performance and edlebrock both make nice high quality unit's) since the intake bolt pattern is different. I suggest the eddy performer rpm based unit as it'll serve you nicely with a 360+ build up.

Also, you need hollow, oil through pushrods, and AMC type lifters as the magnums don't oil through the heads like the old LA mopars did....

Last thing is that the valve covers are slightly different...but the old ones can work with the magnum heads...

and that's it....modern heads on your 318. The magnum heads will flow much better, have modern combustion chambers with vastly improved quench, and will alone improve you HP another 30-40 over stock 318 heads with no other changes. The great thing about magnum heads, is they'll support over 400hp bone-stock, so when you do a 360 in the future, the magnums will make a perfect starting point to support a ton of power.

Get some nice little headers...spitfire makes a easy to fit tri-y, but they are difficult to get ahold of. Doug's Headers makes a fenderwell header...one that is great for supporting big power.

For the cam, I'd recomend the comp XE 262, or the smaller of the summit cams (204/214 @ .050, .420/.442), as it'll really boost your mid-range and give you a hell of alot more top-end than the broomstick 318's come with stock.

For a carb, that's tougher...to save money, I'd recomend buying a nice little holley 650 vacuum secondary as it'll work on both the 318 and the 360. It'll be a little large for the 'teen, but perfect for a warmed over 360...

Then the ignition...just get a mopar performance electronic ignition conversion kit with the orange box. It comes with a nice curve, it's able to handle a very hot spark, and is upgradeable in the future without much hassle...and will make a HUGE difference overy what you've got right now in terms of power, starting, economy. Really, if I was only doing 1 mod, it would be the ignition then.

But doing all this will give you a very stout motor. I did a 318 in a similar car to yours, with 3.23 gears, manual trans, admittedly bigger cam, and some head work and was able to get the little valiant (not mine) to run 13.7's@102 right out of the box, with no tunning. With tunning and gears we'll be much faster (bud won't buy the ignition...so we are using old crappy junk)

Anyways...there's a million ways to skin a cat. As above, shouldn't cost more than 1200 bucks ON THE HIGH END with all new parts to get done.

X heads rock the 318!

http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...threadid=16681

shameless plug i know, but those heads milled for some compression, a mild Mopar Performance 480ish cam, some headman or hooker headers, exhaust, intake and 600-650 cfm carb, plus some ignition stuff and with the right weight, gears and tires you could probably push into the mid to low 13's. And still be able to say "its just a 318"