318 build

This most likely will stir up a hornet's nest. I wouldn't put 360 heads on a mild 318 build. In order for the 318 to fully benefit from the larger ports and valves of the 360 heads the 318 needs to spin 6,000 plus rpm's. The cam that the op listed most likely doesn't have this rpm capability and he didn't mention which intake manifold that he's using. If he's going for street performance I think that he would be better off with the cylinder heads he has now and clean up the bowl area, good competition valve job. Guys say that the heads can be milled 0.040" to help with the compression loss,and some have suggested to run aftermarket pistons at zero deck height, this could require a cut of 0.012". All of the 318's that I've dealt with had blind cylinder head bolt holes, so with a total of 0.052" being removed wouldn't this cause the cylinder head bolts to be " to short"? I've known guys personally that have ran 360 heads on their 318's only to hurt performance. And don't forget that the intake side of the heads have to be machined as well in order to maintain proper port alignment. Attention to every aspect of the build has to be taken into consideration.


You know Dan, the first engine I built was a 318 with 360 heads. We didn’t mill the crap out of them either.

Strip Dominator. Hooker 5204 headers. And a 284/484 cam.

And you know what? He took money from a lot of fools who underestimated that little 318.

I do not know what math you are using or what experience you have but it clearly is wrong.

That engine didn’t need rpm to make power. The idea that ANY production cylinder head is too big for a 318 is silly and wrong.

These things are under valved and under headed severely. You can’t hurt a 318 with a W2 head. And you don’t have to spin the engine to the moon.

This idea you can get the heads too big on one of these engines is nonsense.