318 budget build help?

Valve bounce has a great reply if the engine is in good shape. The cam is still small enough for the stock converter and a set of 3.23-3.21 gears will work really nice with it. An extra stall converter would be great but the expense is not needed.

I put together a '79-318 for a Duster a while back that was a nice performer. It was all done on the cheap when possible. The following is a part list that should be a Le to get you into the high 14's.

Open air cleaner
600 CFM carb (I used a Carter/Edelbrock AFB)
Edelbrocks LD4B
Crane Cams & lifters (@.050) 216-229-.545/.480-112 spec'd cam
Hooker headers into a Summit racing dual exhaust at 2-1/2 inch's

When you get the cam selected, also purchase the valve springs to match it. Crane's springs are a bolt on and Comp's require machine work to install.
Use a MSD or equal to get the most out of the air and fuel charge at low and mid RPM's and just tune tune tune that set up.

Going up 1 cam size to the above mentioned ""340" cam (but NOT the stock replacement unit) should net you another .5 second at the strip when optimized.