Thread: My 318

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I got my ol' lady an 89 Diplomat, a former cop car. It had the 'interceptor' manifold, and I added a mild split-duration cam, and side pipes, took off all the smog garbage. Found a stand-alone electronic distributor, dropped that in with a Summit performance coil and ignition box. It fairly screamed. Put in a high-stall converter because the cam didn't like the auto trans.

I had a lot of trouble with the stock electronic carb, and finally took it off. My brother in law ( mechanic ) says those carbs are troublesome anyway. He says that if they are set up correctly, the customer complains about drivability, and if you get them set up where the customer isn't complaining, then fuel economy suffers.

I tried several carburetors: a Carter, an Edelbrock, several Quadrojets.

Finally found two Qjets which worked well. One I put on the shelf for 'race day' and the other I ran.. it was a quadrojet Dualjet. If you're not familiar with the Qjet Dualjet, don't feel bad as they only made them for two years. It is a full Qjet casting, with no guts on the secondaries, and the top cap covers them over completely. They are a real nice option for fuel economy.

Here is the intresting part... the local cops like racing the dodge. They would block off a section of road, and have it out. She NEVER lost, so the 'race day' carb stayed on the shelf. ( even the mustang DARE car couldn't hang )

The 600 would be good, the 750 is too much carb for that motor

I say, find some 302's! and put in 1.88 1.60's , mill them .030 and put in a nice solid cam. non of this hydraulic nonsense.