Steve Dulcich on building a budget 318

Dartswinger70 said

Thats the point there is no new cheap way to build a performance 318.

Click to expand...

define performance.

300hp? 400hp? 450hp?

i think the vast majority of people would consider 1hp per cube to somewhat be a performance motor. and you can absolutely make 318hp on a beer budget.

if the qualifier is 400hp, then no. you can't build a cheap 400hp 318 starting from zero.

if your goal is 400hp, and the budget is limited then it makes sense to start with bigger cubes. that's just plain *** common sense.

however... the advent of affordable aluminum heads has the benefit of making it much easier to attain lofty HP goals. there is also now the availability of less expensive pistons for better compression and these together spread across all displacements. so, technically it is now cheaper to build a more powerful engine than it once was because of the availability of parts to do so.