318 combo

Hi All,

You may have seen my 'goon in the welcome thread. I want to liven it up a bit. Currently it's got a bog stock bottom end with a warm cam (no specs, sorry but lumpy at idle), dual propane throttle bodies (slightly over-carbed) and slighty ported open-chamber stock heads. Running a 904 with a 2800 stall (which I don't mind ditching for a stock converter).

I've had some top-end issues and I believe I've got some top-end issues. Since I bought it it's been a bit clackity clack up top but it's developed quite an ominous (and loud) clacking now. The propane setup is a bit of a pain to remove (to get to the valve covers), so i thought while I'm at it I should have a better look at my combo.

It's probably time for a new cam/lifter set anyway, so I thought I might tame the cam a little bit to get some more low-down torque.

Something around 445/450 lift, 212@50 - something like the the Comp 260H cam.

I'm planning on building a better bottom end in the future, so I'd like whatever I get now to hopefully suit what I build later.

My current bottom end is bog-stock, so probably low 8s compression. I plan to build a 9.8:1 bottom end with KB 167 hypers in the future, but to be realistic it's probably at least 6-12 months down the track if not more.

So (yes, I'm long-winded) I've been thinking about buying a pair of Indy LA-X heads, 62-64cc closed chamber with 1.60/1.88 valves. I'm thinking that the smaller closed chamber should hopefully wake the engine up a bit by bumping up the compression a touch, and the increased flow should help with the over-carbed aspect.

The only thing I'm concerned about is that the valves might be too large, and might kill low-down torque - which is what I'm after.

Any thoughts?