Big horsepower 318 builds

Mean416 said
So quick question.

There's a few "brand x" 5.3 builds up on YouTube by our beloved Richard holdener. In his usual style he gets a junkyard engine and tops it with heads cam and intake to get to a desired power level.

In one of them he's getting 500+ with a pretty mild BTR hydraulic roller. Granted he's running some pretty nice heads and a well matched intake.

But the cams are pretty small. Like less than 230 deg if I recall correctly.

I know it's not a totally apples to apples comparison but it seems like the 5.2 318 could do similar things. Is it just down to heads cam and intake or is there more to it? Could a well sorted out set of heads and a nicely matched intake get close? What heads would you choose to start with?

That seems a lot of power for such a small cam.
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Yes and no. It’s a lot of boost. Double the sea level psi into the engine and you now have twice the engine size. 5.3 turns into a 10.6. Now how hard is it to make power with an engine size that large?

The OEM cylinder head for the early engines even ported is behind a modern LS. Sub it out for a better head & add the rest like Rich does and you’ll make power.