building a mild Daily driver 318
...so why doesn't the 318 get any respect?
Cause it never came as a performance engine.
The small block family can be broken down to 3 groups 273/318, 340/360 and 5.2/5.9 based on there heads which are small port, large port and magnum.
Small port were designed with 273 in mind and are a great head for that size engine and can offer decent power potential 300+hp stock. But when the 318 came into production they were the only head available at that time and since Chrysler did expect much out of a 318 performance wise it never needed more.
But I see it in two groups
273 and 318/360/340 (360 is in the middle cause if all built with same stroke 360 would be in the middle), 318 ain't that much smaller in bore size and cubic inch to class it that different than 340/360 and has just as much potential to a point about 450hp.
True that at any given rpm the larger engine has more hp potentially and that most don't want to go over 6500 RPMs which would give you a max power about 400hp/273, 450hp/318, 475hp/340, 500hp/360 and 550hp/408 give or take. Or from a different perspective take the 400 hp recipe 10:1/750/headers/200+cfm heads and 280 cam. A 273 would be like a race engine and a 408 would be more like a truck engine and 318/340/360 would be in between powerbands would just be a few hundred RPMs apart from each other. All needing slightly different gearing and stalls.
To me a 318 is a perfect engine for a light early 4 gear'd A Body especially if deeper gears don't bother you.