Whats the deal with 340s?

d5667 said
Wow you must have one wicked 318. The comparisons I have one is a 68s 4 speed,super coupe E58 and lil red express E58 and the 340 gets the nod everytime

Honestly would need about 220ish HP or so to be better than a 240Hp 340 with less stall and gear.

318willrun said
I will also offer this point of view. If your going dollar for dollar and on a lower budget, the 318 may actually beat the 340. Say a guy bought a duster with no motor. If his budget limits him to under 2k, he may go faster with a 318. Why? He can buy a good running 318 magnum for 300.00 bucks. Put a cam, EQ heads and air gap intake and should have money left over of the 2k. He will pay 1k just for a complete, non-running 340 that turns by hand. Just sayn'

Pick and pull charges 275 for a 318, they are in most of the trucks and Jeeps. For under 2k, shouldn't be any issue to get just at/over 300hp- prolly even more and still have a DDable ride.

318willrun said
Not picking on you, either. But I'll state some facts. Not everyone wants a 5200 stall converter and 4.88 gears in their street car. Most don't want to turn 4000 rpm's to do 55 mph. I wouldn't take a car like that on a 10 mile cruise. Had a street car once with 4.30 gears and 3200 stall. I HATED IT! So guess what???? Torque plays a factor in this type of car. Period. That is why they make stroker kits and add length to the crank. If your theory was right, everyone would be DE-STROKING their 340's to make them 300's and REALLY go fast.... that's it! De-stroke the 340 to a 300, run 5.13 gears and a 5500 stall with a 320 duration cam and you'd have the perfect highway cruis'n street car...... :D

Torque doesn't not typically go hand-in-hand with lack of power.

318willrun said
yeah, nobody trailering their car for 20 hours to prove a point..... I'd take a 340 or a 360 any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But I'll also take a 318 :)

Same, same. I have an $80 340, I'd take a $400 360 Mag, but for drivers- hard to beat a 318 Magnum's price point.

273 said
It is all the same torque and rpm are equal to horsepower. The problem is when people think they do two different things. But torque alone doesn't give a full picture of an engines capability that's why the concept of hp was invented. Cause for eg. if engine A makes 500 lbs-ft and engine B makes 350 lbs-ft that really don't tell us anything. But if you said engine A makes 200 hp and B makes 700 hp then the picture becomes clearer.

Another eg. take two engine with identical powerbands but are 1000 rpms apart so let say one goes from 1000-6000 and the other goes from 2000-7000 obviously we the first one has more torque but really that don't mean anything if both are geared proper (proper in this case is fastest et). The second car would be just as fast cause he's hit the same hp along with the first car at the same time.

Pretty much. When you see much larger, lower torque and power curves- that will be a stronger motor throughout the range. But it takes the whole picture to get a full idea.