High Performance 318ci

Miszny said
Hi

Buddy of mine bought 69 Coronet Wagon some time ago. While he is restoring the body and interior he asked me to think about the 318ci thats in the car now.

Engine is supposed to be freshly rebuilt, looks very fresh but is standars spec.
Plan is to add some power with bolt on parts, or build it again with new forged pistons and some nice rods.

My initial idea was to get:
- TrickFlow 190 heads (with thin gasket target is 10:1 compression for pump gas)
- Edelbrock Air Gap intake
- Howards 710862-08 (238/238 @.050 558/558 lift) solid flat tappet cam
- 1,6 roller rockers to take advantage of high flowing heads better
- 750 or 850 Double Pumper with electric choke
- MSD 6AL2 + MSD distributor


I think this should be good for over 400hp. Not planning something crazy, just fun engine with some power and very good streetability.

Its an automatic car, transmission is almost stock, probably will need 2500 stall converter for the cam.
Do you have any better ideas? Suggestions?
Click to expand...

This combination would be much less horrible with a stroker kit, be it in a 318 or 360. By combination, I mean the entire car.
  1. The only fuel he's gonna get at low rpms is gonna be from the accelerators. So that's gonna suck ***...
  2. Big cam, 1.6 rockers, small displacement stock stroke LA engine, heavy car, 2500 stall converter. I take the suck *** comment back, it's gonna suck woolly mammoth balls!
  3. Trick flow heads on this is unnecessary $
  4. Ignition system on this is unnecessary $
  5. Why not go with a tunnel ram at this point? The dumb that is this combo can't get much worse.
It looks like your friend is throwing money at this grocery getter for bragging rights. He's building towards a high rpm/hp engine for a vehicle that needs torque. It won't be able to get out of it's own way. What kinda gearing is he gonna have? I hope he has better than a 7.25 pegleg... What's the coefficient of drag on a '68 Coronet wagon? He isn't gonna hit hellcat speeds on the Nurburgring... He isn't even gonna hit Toyota Camry speeds without serious suspension work.

If he doesn't want to spend the $ on a 440, or even an old commercial 413 truck engine for this, then he sure as hell won't build the suspension to make this 52 year old car safe to stop and handle well.