edelbrock heads on a 318

You have to remember that you'd lose combustion efficiency with the change in head material to aluminum

FYI for new guys, that would be heat he is refuring to, not flame front travel or complete burning of the air/fuel mixture.

which may or may not be made up for by the increase in compression due to the smaller chambers.

Another FYI for new guys at this. Beware of the cylinder head cc's in the stock head to the new head. When making the move from iron to aluminum, the heat goes out of the chamber faster through aluminum. This is where you find the mention(s) of moving the compresion ratio up 1 pt. to recapture what is lost in the quicker heat transfer.

Those closed chambers are just begging for flat-top zero-deck pistons, which is what I'd recommend anyway.

HELL YA! and ME 2! Best route to go with a closed chambered head.