The magnum 318 has tons of advantages as allready pointed out. I personally swaped a rebuilt la 318 out of my dailer driver/work truck/tow rig, with a 50,000 mile 318 magnum, put on a m1 dual plane intake, used the same TQ carb, same exhaust manifolds and all. It is deff stronger, and has never leaked a drop of oil. That was close to 10 years ago, and if you GAVE me a LA318, I wouldnt use it! I have a couple of customers with comercial trucks, one is a 98 ram 3500, with a mag360, it has a tick over 300,000 on it, and it might have cracked heads, but who know!