Good Cam for 318
anytime that you install a cam into a low-compression 318, that has a later than stock Intake valve closing event, with no other changes, the engine will lose power at low-rpm.
The usual band-aids for that are a higher than stock stall and bigger number rear gears.
The convertor is to insure that the engine never has to work in the soft zone.
And the gears; because without them, them, the power-peak in Second gear ends up waaay too far up the Speed-O-meter to be useful.
As I recall, the stock cam is 248/256/112 and it peaks around 4400. With an Ica near 52*, it makes already crappy cranking cylinder pressure of around 131psi @ sealevel. By the time you get to 600ft, the CCP is down to 128, and she will lose roughly 3>4psi per cam size. By the time you get to a 220*/110 cam, which may have an Ica of 60*, the CCP is down to 120psi which is pretty low. By this time the low rpm/sub-3000 is feeling almost like a good 225.
So you don't want your engine to ever have to work hard down there. So the very next thing you need, to go with that new cam, is a performance convertor with a higher than stock stall.
Now, that 220/110 cam will power-peak close to 5000, and the power with stock heads is gonna drop like a stone almost right away, so think about shifting at 5300.
Let's say your Gold Duster has 2.45 rear-gears in it, and you are running 27" tires,then; 5300 will be 64 mph in first/108 in Second; you see the problem?
But say somebody ditched the 2.45s years ago in favor of say 2.94s. Again at 5300, the speeds are 53 in First, and 90 in Second. At 65 in Second gear, the rpm will be ~3800; you see the problem?
To hit 75 say, at 5300, in Second, you will need 3.55s, and 65 in Second will be just 4600, some 400 rpm below peak power.
I heard you say:
That I can easily street but has a good lope and a little more power.
but-um, IMO, you will get way more satisfaction with a higher stall and gears, than you ever will with a lopy low-lift cam. and
in the case of the low-compression 318, I have to say; forget about a wannabe-idle lope.
If it was me, looking for a lil more take-off and two-gear power, my first install would be a 2800TC, followed very shortly by gears of 3.73s +/- one gear size, and I would leave the stock cam in there, until I could afford to re-engineer that lowly smog engine, into a fire-breathing dragon.
Happy HotRodding