best head for 318 street car

steveh said

Rob,

Wallet is ok these days, but the car is a true daily driver, bout 40 miles to and from work with the occasional cruise on the week end. i dont want to sink a ton of money into it cause I also have a 67 cuda with a 340 which I will eventually build up to satisfy my need for a hot street car.

I'm thinking a set of 302s and a good set of headers is the way to go for this 318 which was freshened up about 10yrs ago. Car has a mild cam, older edelbrock intake and a 600 holley, stock 904 and 3.55 8 3/4 .

I'm trying to have the best of both worlds which is sometimes hard to do
sorry for the late response don't get on much during the week.

Click to expand...

Bowl port the stock heads with a 360 valves. This is a cost savings move over getting a better head (money spent) that will not really show a improvement worth the expense at the level your planning on.

The cam you select should have at least 8*'s more exhaust duration and a max of 12*'s. This offset seems to be the best in a split cam and stock to mildly ported heads.

Select the cam with the duration @ .050 in the powerband your cruising in and with as much lift as you can get without exceeding the head flows capabilities.

Use headers into mandrel bent 2-1/2 exhaust. Summit or Jegs exhaust kits are a good bang for the buck.

Whe writing this, I can not remember the Edel. intake you have. But the 600 CFM carb will do fine.