318 power?

307 Chevy

Dartswinger70 said

350 Chevrolets there were many of them of varying horsepower 2 and 4 barrel, same with the 327. A 327 in a Corvette wasn't the same 327 in your aunts Biscayne... 340 only ever came with 4 or 6 barrels LOL! it was a performance offering only. Chevys are good viable contenders, but you have to know what ya have. I have always made it a point to start with a good engine vs trying to ,for example make a 307 chevy a performer. I wouldn't even start there, the 307 would come out and a good HP rated 327 or 350 would get built and put in.

Click to expand...

Gets dumped unfarely into the junk engine bin. They were an economy engine generally with a mild cam and 2V carb. Put a stroker crank in with a properly selected cam and you can have a good engine. Of course head selection on any engine is important.
One year for the Engine Masters a competitor built just such a 307. Now I realise those are no budget builds, but it did quite well.
The 340 is a performance engine from the gitgo, so they got all the good parts required to make them performance.
340 4V factory rating was 275 HP. NHRA rated them at 325 HP. Mopar rated the 6V at 290 or 320 HP while NHRA rated them at 375 HP.