Why are 318's low HP and torque?

Small pistons and on top of it! Piston are down in the hole. Also thay put some heads with tiny intake runners and small valves. But all that can change!

Ma Mopar basically used 273 heads when the teen was born. Now if they would have used 340/360 sized ports and valves and 10.5/1 compression Like the HP 273's and a solid lifter cam spec'd like the D Dart motor there would have been a
350+ HP motor from the factory. Just for fun, in the next few hours, I will put that combo in the ol' Desktop Dyno and see what comes out. I'll report back later. tmm