Making power out of the 318
Its a teen thing like if you have a big cam it mens its fast I guess
back in the 80s when I went thru the local community college auto program I built a 318 in engine class. It was pretty much stock except for the cam I chose. I don't remember what specs but I remember it had the same lift as the 340 cam don't remember the rest of the specs. It was in a Cordoba with 2.something gears.
I bought all my parts from super shops but got the typical "well if it were a Chevy......."from the counter people who worked there
I knurled the pistons (we didn't have machine shop capabilities and we had an old timer who owned a machine shop, and came in once-twice a week to help out and give "real world" pointers. We did have a (I forget what it was really called) head resurfacing machine, it was a huge flat grinding wheel in the middle of a machined flat heavy steel table, and the grinding wheel was adjusted to be just a couple of thousandths above the table height, part of everybody's rebuild was to run their heads on the table and take off just enough to make for a uniform surface. If that head had gotten away from the operator and "oops" their hands accidentally came in contact with the wheel it would have made for "hand-hamburger". The other thing we had was a piston knurler and valve guide knurlers and reamers. I knurled my pistons and valve guides "for the experience" but won't do so again.
There was never a mention of porting heads or grinding off "casting boogers" even. Just basically teardown, clean up and reassemble. That remains the absolute worst sucking pig of a 318 I've ever had. And I've had several.
I had pulled it out of another car that ran and drove that had been totalled, was a good engine before but it made lots of noise but couldn't get out of it's own way after the rebuild.
Other than that cam, it was stock besides a 4 bbl manifold and carb and a set of cheapie headers that never did seal worth a ****.
I've done a few since and every one ran better after than before I went thru them/ unlike that one.
Cam specs (and making heads/tails of them) still makes my head spin, I've taken to going a step below what I think I want for a cam ever since that school experience.