'68 318 to carbed Magnum 5.2: Check my checklist

cudak888 said
Only thing is, what's the good of testing a roller cam block without the roller cam? Nobody would know except anyone who pulled the manifold.

I could see production of roller blocks a year before rollout, but three years before sounds a bit unusual. Oh well, sure makes it easier for '85-87 owners to go roller cam with the factory spider, if they wish.

Most of the public market cars had roller cams, lifters, and spiders. The trucks, vans and cop cars didn't- but they were making around 100k vehicles/yr with roller cams in them after 1985. Example- my truck's motor had the spider holes tapped but no spiders and flat tappet cam- a buddy has a 318 roller car motor laying around with everything the same but has the spiders and the cam/lifters. Chances are the trucks/cop cars didn't go roller cam since the geometry was changed and was technically worse- so in their HD apps that were fleet maintained the benefits didn't outweigh the perceived possible negatives.

cudak888 said
...and if someone does care about a roller cam, they default straight to the Magnum to get the benefit of the improved heads, thus leaving the TBI engines to gather dust in a small part of the history books.

Yes. The Magnum seems to bone stock pick up around 30hp with no changes- and still a good bit if the LA has 1.6s and 360 heads. The other thing is the fuel system's good for power on the Magnums, so you're not just avoiding costs to make power- you can also dodge costs of carburetors too so an MPI Magnum with more power can be cheaper to get in the vehicle running well.

cudak888 said
Maybe so, but it still doesn't explain the lack of attention or interest - especially when most builds seem to involve replacing pistons, an aftermarket camshaft, and a desire to seek the best heads possible.

With exception to the heads, that means almost everything associated with a smog block goes in the trash to begin with (except heads, which may be the only reason to seek out one engine vs. another for a budget performance build) thus, what's the concern about the smog heritage to begin with? You're left with a block which is - essentially - no different than the non-smoggers.

Absolutely.

There's also a fascination among many to increase compression as much as possible even though they want mild cam pump gas street motors because they're told they need more compression. Yeah, 9:1's better than 8:1 but 11:1 isn't going to be running pump gas with a 360 2bbl spec cam. More's better, but a keen eye must be kept on what you're build's ending up with.

cudak888 said
Heck, prior to the Magnums, the 308 heads off this 360 were amongst the best to port - and need I mention that it has air injection ports? SMOG HEADS! RUN AWAY! #-o

The 308s saw a significant difference from the other 360 heads IIRC- I think they flowed better on the exhaust side as well as close on the intake side.

cudak888 said
By comparison, the Mopar builds have it a lot easier - you don't even have to worry about intake choices due to a taller deck height (and therefore wider intake valley).

But, then again, I'm not trying to build a performance monster - so what do I know? I'm just trying to build a nice, streetable LA out of a junkyard motor, with the best "simple parts" I can swap.

Absolutely. I really wish the last stock replacement I did I'dve at least put a 340 replacement cam in it- though that coupled with Magnum heads and 1.7s would've been a nice touch.

cudak888 said
Well, that is my dirty little secret - the whole swap is going into the B-body shown in my avatar; not the Valiant behind it (nobody touches my slant six!). I just get better advice at FABO ;)

I have more to worry about clearing the 904's shift linkage on the driver's side than anything else. Close clearances at the power steering pump are possible, but it looks as if it should clear with no more issue than the same manifolds in an M-body (which have been documented @ Dippy.org).

-Kurt

I hear that. I've been wanting another A, but the smog cars are just so cheap that's what I've had for a good while. They pratically all come with the good discs, and it's not the rears grow in weeds.