Cams for 318's

It's a catch 22 with heads. Compression is important. Closed chamber compared to open chamber (depending on the head) may only gain you a half point of compression. But, if your short block has low compression to start, you replace your closed chamber heads with large chamber ones (like replacing a early 273 head with a 340 head) you may end up in the 8:1 area. Use a thick head gasket, and add a cam heavy on the duration side and away goes your compression even more. It's hard to build power without compression. On the other side of the fence, heads with more flow usually make more power than a half pound of compression. The bigger the cam, the more that applies. But watch it there, a big cam, big heads to make it work may also take headers, a higher stall converter, and rear gears to make that combination even drivable. Just sayin'