318 polytastic!

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polyjohn

polyjohn

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HNY to all in A-Bod land

Seen some nice 318 poly builds in recent years and was wondering if any A-bods have ever run one?

We were going to do an altered wheelbase 65 Dart with a 402ci Poly engine, but you know how it goes...

Once you way up the costs and the scarcity of parts even doing that over there in the USofA is tricky???

But I still love the Poly, the most underrated and forgotten 'grocery getter' V8 of all time...

SAM of Houston Poly top pic.

Hinkles 426 poly at 550hp is pretty trick stuff!

Best wishes from John

SAM poly engine.jpg


Hinkles 426 poly.jpg
 
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Yeah, I like um to. Gary Pavlovlich has done some badass stuff with them too. The 4" stroke 360 crank is a drop in for the later 318 poly.
 
Pretty tight fit unless you cut the inner fenders up. Just like all installs that aren't stock, the exhaust needs a solution that matches the engine/heads/steering/linkage, etc. No way that last photo fits under a stock hood without cutting a hole.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Yeah, I like um to. Gary Pavlovlich has done some badass stuff with them too. The 4" stroke 360 crank is a drop in for the later 318 poly.
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I'm late to the party, but the 360's 2.81" main journals have to be machined to 2.5" to work in the 1962 - 1966 poly 318 that uses the LA273/318/340 crank. Then there's the external balancing to deal with. By the time a machinist does all the work, it's easier and not much more money to buy a Mopar Performance internally balanced 2.5" journal 4" crank when going the 390/402 stroker route. www.poly318.com has a comprehensive parts interchangeable section I use, and the website owner Justin is a very approachable guy, as is Gary Pavlovich.
 
Torqueflite said:
I'm late to the party, but the 360's 2.81" main journals have to be machined to 2.5" to work in the 1962 - 1966 poly 318 that uses the LA273/318/340 crank. Then there's the external balancing to deal with. By the time a machinist does all the work, it's easier and not much more money to buy a Mopar Performance internally balanced 2.5" journal 4" crank when going the 390/402 stroker route. www.poly318.com has a comprehensive parts interchangeable section I use, and the website owner Justin is a very approachable guy, as is Gary Pavlovich.
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That's the crank I was talkin about.
 
Not in an A-body but this is my "test mule" 106k mile engine that I used to develop all of my set-up. My new block will be done soon and that will be paired with new heads but will be "on the stand" until the fall while I get to other things. I intend to do the break-in on a test stand before swapping the old engine out.
CIMG1164 (4).JPG
 
earlymopar said:
Not in an A-body but this is my "test mule" 106k mile engine that I used to develop all of my set-up. My new block will be done soon and that will be paired with new heads but will be "on the stand" until the fall while I get to other things. I intend to do the break-in on a test stand before swapping the old engine out.
View attachment 1715883129
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Great looking setup... is that dogbone air filter original to the car?
 
I saw one sitting in a 68-68 Barracuda in a salvage yard once. NO room for exhaust! Big blocks fit better.
 
lemondana said:
I saw one sitting in a 68-68 Barracuda in a salvage yard once. NO room for exhaust! Big blocks fit better.
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This is one of the inaccurate rumors about A blocks. A-blocks are the exact same width from outside factory exhaust manifold to outside exhaust manifold as an LA318, so one would have the same exhaust side clearance issues with an LA in a 1967 - 1969 Barracuda only there are far more off-the-shelf LA header options available compared to the A to help deal with clearance issues. I'm not saying an A-block is a bolt-in to a 67-69 Barracuda, but a B/RB certainly won't fit better. The A-block heads protrude out plumb with the exhaust manifolds whereas the LA heads are narrower with the exhaust manifolds sticking out. This diagram dimensions the differences.
A318_dimensions.jpg
LA318_dimensions.jpg
B-RB_dimensions.jpg
 
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Bruce Toth - builds some nice ones plus he sales his private line of Alum cyl heads for the LA engine look him up great fellow.
 
1Badcolt said:
Bruce Toth - builds some nice ones plus he sells his private line of Alum cyl heads for the LA engine look him up great fellow.
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He sells his “own heads” as in he has them cast by a company or himself?
 
I live just outside of Seattle. We used to have Mopar Drags at Bremerton Raceway on Saturday followed by the big Spring Round-up Mopar show on Sunday. There was a guy named Crosson that would come down from Vancouver Island BC. He would drive down in his car, show up at the strip with his 1964 Plymouth with a 318 poly and the old cast iron 2 four barrel manifold, put some drag radials on and run 14 flats all day, taking the top bracket race prize more than once. He'd swap back to street tires, show up at the show the next day and take first in class, pack up and drive the car home. Now that's the kind of car I'll always appreciate
 
1Badcolt said:
Bruce Toth - builds some nice ones plus he sales his private line of Alum cyl heads for the LA engine look him up great fellow.
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Bruce Toth has a pretty poor reputation for taking other professionals' work and advice on porting, copying their work, and taking credit for it claiming they had nothing to do with his development. There are also numerous cases where people have shipped heads to him for porting that aren't returned sometimes for up to a year or more later. There are better, more honest porters out there for sure.

rumblefish360 said:
He sells his “own heads” as in he has them cast by a company or himself?
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Exactly. Toth's aluminum LA heads are actually Chinese knockoffs of Edelbrocks, which fits into what I said above about Toth taking credit for other people's work. He buys Chinese castings whose design is stolen from an American manufacturer and sells them as "his private line of LA heads." Nice.
 
Torqueflite said:
Exactly. Toth's aluminum LA heads are actually Chinese knockoffs of Edelbrocks, which fits into what I said above about Toth taking credit for other people's work. He buys Chinese castings whose design is stolen from an American manufacturer and sells them as "his private line of LA heads." Nice.
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I was actually busting balls on Grammer, sells, sales….
But I’m glad you said what you did. The more people know…..
 
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