318 LA build

All heads crack eventually? Where'd that bench racin crap come from? Just not true. Heads crack for a reason. They don't "just crack" eventually. I would run the crappiest flowing LA head any day of the week over the best flowing magnum head. Having worked in a machine shop for a while, I had the chance to do some interesting things. Such as put a dial indicator on rocker bolts and studs of various engines. You can see some serious flex when you do that. I've seen small chevy studs flex as much as in the .070" range. Also, it's a complete myth that the 302 needs porting on a 318. It's just not so for anything but the most radical of builds. Want compression and a "chevy" style rocker arm? Then my recommendation to you would be to build a small block chevy with some 186 heads and go join a chevy forum. chevys are good engines. I happen to like them. but there's a reason Mopars are better and stronger out of the box, with all parts equal. Notice I didn't say anything about budget being equal. PARTS. Stock for stock the Mopar beats the HOUND out of the chevy every single time. You can see the difference in the tear down and in the build. the design differences are light years apart. the cylinder head department has always belonged to mopar. as I've said before, I've had the pleasure of having access to the dyno and flow bench room at Mercer University in Macon on many occasions. I've seen the differences between the chevy BOW TIE and the Chrysler X and J heads and the Chryslers came out on top. use the magnum heads. a lot of people do. a lot of people get out run by 40 year old cylinder head technology everyday, too.