Today, dollar for dollar, is the 318 faster than the 340 ???

it's all in the combo, you missed one key ingredient in your 383, a set of ported 915 heads. lol
I never built a 383 with an open chamber smog head, 383 responds well to quench.
I've built them so close the valves would almost tap the piston. lol

I started porting another set of 452 heads I had, went a little bananas. I gave up when I realized there were 15 more ports to match. Yes, these will need a valve job, amongst other things!
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Here are the pistons.
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Like everyone with a 318, I didn't want to spend money on the 383. It's actually something that is driven all the time - cruise nights but also back and forth to the store, to work, ice cream with the kids etc. Guess it's fine for what it is but after a while you start to know the limitations of whatever is under your foot and then the wheels start turning.

I'm not about over-building stuff either. I am helping my friend build a 383-based 438" stroker for his Fury. On my advice we went very conservative with everything but it should make well over 400hp. It's plenty for him, he's never had that much power under his foot. Stroker is probably the only way I'd ever build another 383.
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What were we discussing again, 318s or something?