318 cam

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65Dart270Sedan

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Having a hard time getting the answer I’m looking for, so I’m going to try this again. I’m building a LA 318 out of a 74 satellite with the most amount of stock parts and cheap mods as possible. I’m new to all this and I don’t have a lot of money to work with . I want to put a cam in this engine and I found a cheap cam on summit racing with 285 duration and 480 lift. What mods will have to be done to make this work? Thank you in advance. Summit Racing SUM-1798 Summit Racing™ Camshafts | Summit Racing this is the cam I’m thinking about getting.
 
65Dart270Sedan said:
Having a hard time getting the answer I’m looking for, so I’m going to try this again. I’m building a LA 318 out of a 74 satellite with the most amount of stock parts and cheap mods as possible. I’m new to all this and I don’t have a lot of money to work with . I want to put a cam in this engine and I found a cheap cam on summit racing with 285 duration and 480 lift. What mods will have to be done to make this work? Thank you in advance. Summit Racing SUM-1798 Summit Racing™ Camshafts | Summit Racing this is the cam I’m thinking about getting.
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Cam, lifters, matching springs and retainers and valve locks. I would also recommend a new "good" timing chain and sprocket set. That's a big cam for a 318, but it'll work. It won't have any balls much below 3500 RPM. But it'll work.
 
And as far as you "having a hard time getting the answers you're looking for", you have another thread here that's three pages of good advice and recommendation, plus a link in that same thread to another thread where there's a huge discussion about 318 cams. So if you're not finding answers, you're not looking very hard. Maybe you could give us a sample of an answer you're looking for. Do you just want to read someone say "yeah, stab just the cam in and it'll be fine?" Help us out here, or you're likely to have another three page thread where you're finding it hard to find answers.
 
"most amount of stock parts" and that cam aren't exactly the best match.

i'd consider something a little smaller in both lift and duration for a build of that nature.
 
That's alot of camshaft for a stock compression 318. You'll also need to increase compression, higher stall converter, rear gear, and headers. 65'
 
I would personally take second look at Summit, specifically the 6900/6901 cams.

A .480 lift is pretty big for an otherwise stock, low compression 318.

Those two I mentioned above have been proven to "wake up" a 318 without going overboard and also without requiring lots of other performance parts.

Of the two, the "split pattern" should work better with stock exhaust manifolds, and the "single pattern" should work better with headers.

I'd also look a the Comp "256" XE and/or the Lunati equivalent.
 
Plymouth 65 said:
That's a lot of camshaft for a stock compression 318. You'll also need to increase compression, higher stall converter, rear gear, and headers if you pick one that is too big. 65'
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Fixed. Without a quote I didn't know which cam you were speaking of.
 
The stock one. Your on your way to making a pig… the whole package has to be looked at… starting with use of car, street strip, or canyon carving, then Tire size, gearing, what transmission, converter if auto, car weight, and then motor size, what heads, and the other parts of the motor. As most of the guys on here know from experience, a bigger cam is not always better… your best bet is to call a few cams shops and see what they say. A custom ground from Howard’s was only 10 bucks more then their off the shelf, and about 50 bucks more than a summit cam. The cam @lead69 picked for my Stock standard standard standard 75 318 in my Dart Sport Hang 10 project in front of a 904 was the Sum-K6900… oh yeah, using the stock valve train, springs, locks and retainers.

But suit your self
 
The 1798 and required support hardware would be good for a stock 318 with about 7 pounds of boost and a factory high stall converter. Otherwise, it would need a pile of compresson, good heads, gearing, and a high end torque converter. If you must improve the 318 with a camshaft with minimal parts retrofitment, then this cam ground onto a 107 LSA is your friend DODGE Howards Cams 710011-12 Howards Cams Street Force 1 Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshafts | Summit Racing
You're better off performance wise finding a stock hydraulic roller LA 318 and using it as is with an Edelbrock Performer RPM, 650 carburetor, headers, and a good distributor curved to your application. At least your starting with 9:1-ish compression out of the gate...
 
Garrett Ellison said:
The 1798 and required support hardware would be good for a stock 318 with about 7 pounds of boost and a factory high stall converter. Otherwise, it would need a pile of compresson, good heads, gearing, and a high end torque converter. If you must improve the 318 with a camshaft with minimal parts retrofitment, then this cam ground onto a 107 LSA is your friend DODGE Howards Cams 710011-12 Howards Cams Street Force 1 Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshafts | Summit Racing
You're better off performance wise finding a stock hydraulic roller LA 318 and using it as is with an Edelbrock Performer RPM, 650 carburetor, headers, and a good distributor curved to your application. At least your starting with 9:1-ish compression out of the gate...
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Boost? Where did he say something about boost?
 
No, but it's about the only way to "bandaid fix" putting that much camshaft into a probably 7.8:1 eighteen...
 
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If you’re keeping the stock low compression pistons, the cam is too large. Reduce the duration @.050 to a maximum of 218@050.

If your rebuilding the engine, they suggest pistons above, the KB’s, are a good choice.
 
Just make sure that the cam you choose matches the compression you have. It may beneficial to actually speak to a cam company and get them to make a cam that compliments what you have that way you get the most out of what you've put together.
 
I did a similar cam years ago in a 74 350 and it was a dog. It had less grunt below about 3000 rpm than the stock cam. Changed it to a crane energizer cam that had an advertised duration of 252 and it was way better.
 
Stock long block low cr 318 4bbl headers and comp cams xe262h be the biggest I'd go.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/mopp-0312-318-long-block-bolt-ons/


HORSEPOWER SUPERFLOW 901 DYNO-TESTED AT WESTECH
RPMBASEMOD 1MOD 2
2,000112
2,500137
3,000164193192
3,500182224227
4,000189248252
4,500186265274
5,000179271282
5,500262270

TORQUE SUPERFLOW 901 DYNO-TESTED AT WESTECH
RPMBASEMOD 1MOD 2
2,000292
2,500287
3,000287338336
3,500272335340
4,000248326330
4500218309319
5,000188285296
5,500250258
 
65Dart270Sedan said:
Having a hard time getting the answer I’m looking for, so I’m going to try this again. I’m building a LA 318 out of a 74 satellite with the most amount of stock parts and cheap mods as possible. I’m new to all this and I don’t have a lot of money to work with . I want to put a cam in this engine and I found a cheap cam on summit racing with 285 duration and 480 lift. What mods will have to be done to make this work? Thank you in advance. Summit Racing SUM-1798 Summit Racing™ Camshafts | Summit Racing this is the cam I’m thinking about getting.
Click to expand...
Save your money and get the Hughes Whiplash cam and support parts.
 
To pick a cam you need to give a lot of information about your car and what you really want it to do. Not necessarilly what it has now but what you want to end up with. Year, transmission, engine, heads, compression ratio, carb, intake manifold, rear gears, exhaust, tire OD. What car is it going into? Without this information, there is a good chance you will not get an optimum cam for your combination. Plus it gives you an idea of the cost and work involved.
 
My high school (1993) experience with my 318 in my 70 coronet. I put a summit cam ( not sure the part number but it was .441 lift)and lifters in it and put a TQ intake and carb. Headers and exit in front of the rear tires dual exhaust. I changed nothing else it had a 904 trans stock converter and 276 gears. The motor sounded bad *** and ran good. It would very quickly rev up to 6000 rpm’s and float the valves. If I were to do it over I’d put some comp 901 springs in it and not use a TQ carb.
 
65Dart270Sedan said:
I’m building a LA 318 out of a 74 satellite with the most amount of stock parts and cheap mods as possible. I’m new to all this and I don’t have a lot of money to work with .
Click to expand...

looping back to this, without knowing the rest of your set up it's hard to make an outright suggestion. but stock parts and cheap mods to me says that you're staying 2bbl or running a basic dual plane manifold, factory or maybe performer, weiand or something with a small 4bbl and factory exhaust manifolds.

if that's the case a good choice would be the melling SPD-22. it's hydro lifter, would work with factory valve gear and you don't have to change springs, and it's cheap.

ultimately what's going to kill the performance potential is that factory low compression. there's no real work around on that-- milling heads and thin head gaskets are just a half measure. but if you don't over cam it and over carb it, something like that should run okay if you dial in the rest of the package. hot ignition curve, trans set up and some okay gears would make a bunch of difference.
 
273 said:
Stock long block low cr 318 4bbl headers and comp cams xe262h be the biggest I'd go.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/mopp-0312-318-long-block-bolt-ons/


HORSEPOWER SUPERFLOW 901 DYNO-TESTED AT WESTECH
RPMBASEMOD 1MOD 2
2,000112
2,500137
3,000164193192
3,500182224227
4,000189248252
4,500186265274
5,000179271282
5,500262270

TORQUE SUPERFLOW 901 DYNO-TESTED AT WESTECH
RPMBASEMOD 1MOD 2
2,000292
2,500287
3,000287338336
3,500272335340
4,000248326330
4500218309319
5,000188285296
5,500250258
Click to expand...
I used the roller version of that in a 360 mag with 11.1 compression measured.
It was an absolute torque monster in a 78 power wagon, pulling an open car trailer, the first time my cousin rode with me, I opened it up.
He said holy ****, this thing revs like a dirt stock car. Idle until the valves floated it just pulled.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I guess we're all talkin to ourselves.
Click to expand...
Yep. I’m afraid the 1974 318 just isn’t budget friendly for performance. You can get a stock LA 360 hydraulic roller or a 360 magnum (sometimes with an entire wrecked donor vehicle) for less than the price of what it would take to bring a ‘74 smogger 318 up to a decent performance level. And the sad part is the late mode stock 360 or 5.9 would still be probably be stronger if it we’re on a tight budget. It would definitely be the better choice if the OP is having to stick with stock gears and converter.
 
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