318 Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

[M.Rob]

Hey, I'm new to FABO and my father told me that I should create a thread to show anyone who's interested in an intriguing 318 build. Our objective was to build a powerful yet economical and efficient Mopar V8 with modern machining and design theory. Now you're probably thinking, "Why a 318? go for a 360". The reason why we chose the 318 was because of its availability and displacement as well as its inexpensive parts. Since this is a Father/Son project, I was on grunt work duty while my father was doing all the important stuff which was figuring out all the numbers that we needed to hit. We finalized on 321ci, 87 octane, 321 hp/350 ft/lbs, 15-16" idle vacuum, 18-20 mpg. So all that's left was to put the project in motion.

Now my job was to strip the whole engine, clean all the parts and prepare them for machining. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the engine when we got it, but she was a dirty one! The parts to be reused are; Magnum Heads, Rockers, Block, Crank, Rods, Cam, Retainer Plate, Lifter yolks.

Once the block was stripped we placed it on a bench to be sonic tested. We created our own template to illustrate the areas of thickness in each cylinder. I'm going to apologize for all the sore necks since I cannot figure out how to rotate some of the pictures.

 

[M.Rob]

Now that we recorded the thickness of the cylinders and noted on the weak points, we moved on to the Magnum heads. This was a job I was not expecting to be so arduous and time consuming. We did an assortment of jobs to the heads. First off we jet washed them to get all the gunk and dirt of them, dried them off, then roto-blasted to make these babies look more cast iron then rust. Once the cleaning process was finished we gave them a rough valve seat job and then ported the valve bowls with some blending to finish them off.

 

[rumblefish360]

This argument has been run over with a bus many times. Inthrew togther a very "On the cheap build" just to show what a few bolt on's and a cam could do for fun.
Perhaps an few people can benifit from this as they may be participating in the "Freindly Drag Competion" see the thread elsewhere here.

Welcome aboard and have at it!

 

[M.Rob]

Onto the Valves. I refaced the valves and took off as little as possible as well as adding a 30 degree angle to the intake valves for a fatter flow curve. Then to finish off, I cleaned the valves and polished the stems.

 

[M.Rob]

Sadly, I do not have pictures of the ports and I am kicking myself in the *** for it. Here are the flow numbers of stock magnums and our magnums after all the work done to them.


Stock

.100 - 60
.200 - 120
.300 - 168
.400 - 195
.500 - 202
.600 - 194

Our Heads

.100 - 63.5
.200 - 129
.300 - 181.5
.400 - 218.5
.500 - 231.5
.600 - 219

With a small porting job you can see the gains that can be had.

 

[RAMM]

This argument has been run over with a bus many times. Inthrew togther a very "On the cheap build" just to show what a few bolt on's and a cam could do for fun.
Perhaps an few people can benifit from this as they may be participating in the "Freindly Drag Competion" see the thread elsewhere here.

Welcome aboard and have at it!

This won't be thrown together by any means and wait until you see the cam specs. It will be difficult to reach the performance objectives with this tiny camshaft.

Where is the "Friendly Drag Competition" thread? J.Rob

 

[RAMM]

Sadly, I do not have pictures of the ports and I am kicking myself in the *** for it. Here are the flow numbers of stock magnums and our magnums after all the work done to them.


Stock

.100 - 60
.200 - 120
.300 - 168
.400 - 195
.500 - 202
.600 - 194

Our Heads

.100 - 63.5
.200 - 129
.300 - 181.5
.400 - 218.5
.500 - 231.5
.600 - 219

With a small porting job you can see the gains that can be had.

You can take a couple of valves out and photo them next week. J.Rob

 

[rumblefish360]

Read it through. The problem is there are two threads. This one...
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=301271
And this one...
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=301369

It gets a little confusing but the basic idea is to show how you can go fast on the cheap. As cheap as possible.

No prize money

Our new member is about to show a combo!

 

[barbee6043]

great thread. appreciate the time and effort to share. looking forward to more.

 

[mopar79sean]

I look forward to reading more about your build! Good luck and have fun.

 

[Abodybomber]

Nice... Back to basics, build. Should be interesting, in a Supra.

 

[MopaR&D]

I'm interested to see the results as well, I really like those improvements with the porting on those Magnums... I would appreciate pics of the work if you could get them I have some stock Magnum heads on my 360 and with an increase in flow like that I'm tempted to pull them off, port them and get a valve job done when I go to swap in a bigger cam.

 

[Dustert73]

I'm Subscribed

 

[M.Rob]

I'm interested to see the results as well, I really like those improvements with the porting on those Magnums... I would appreciate pics of the work if you could get them I have some stock Magnum heads on my 360 and with an increase in flow like that I'm tempted to pull them off, port them and get a valve job done when I go to swap in a bigger cam.

Sorry for the delayed response. Here are a few pics. Hope they give a good visual of what you are asking for.

 

[IQ52]

Jesse, way to go. I'll keep track. My son and I have so much fun working these projects together. Just wish my second son could be with us.

Yep, yep, yep, that's the way that intake throat should look boys.

 

[hacksaw]

318 ... The most under rated engine on the earth .....

 

[CUDACOX]

Welcome! And impressive! Enjoy and keep us posted..

 

[M.Rob]

Next step in the process was to get the block cleaned. I used a die grinder with a wire brush mounted to clear all the rust off, then proceeded to tap all the holes to ensure no grit remained. Once I was finished cleaning the block it was time to deck it. My father mounted it on his Schou overhead grinder that has been converted with SBN and PCD cutting inserts. He also mathed out the exact amount of metal that we needed to resurface to get our piston TDC.

 

[M.Rob]

Welcome! And impressive! Enjoy and keep us posted..

Will do! I've never created a thread before, so keeping it updated is something I have to keep in mind. lol.

 

[M.Rob]

Once the block was in place, we started the resurfacing process. Here is a sheet of the calculations my father came up with to ensure our goal was achieved. Also I've added a few pics of the resurfacing process as well as the final result.

 

[SpikeWills69]

I am subscribed. I love this kind of stuff, back to the roots of (mopar) hot rodding, so to speak.

 

[M.Rob]

We wanted the piston to be out by an extra + 0.010 deck height at TDC. Our reasoning is that we figure the gasket wil be 0.055 thick once the head is bolted on. The main objective is to achieve a clearance of 0.045 quench. Once that was done it was off to the boring mill.

 

[M.Rob]

I am subscribed. I love this kind of stuff, back to the roots of (mopar) hot rodding, so to speak.

Ya! Having a ton of fun learning as I go along too! If there are questions the main man to talk to would be RAMM. Hes the engine guru, haha.

 

[RAMM]

Jesse, way to go. I'll keep track. My son and I have so much fun working these projects together. Just wish my second son could be with us.

Yep, yep, yep, that's the way that intake throat should look boys.

Thankyou Jim. It was you always talking about your boys working on projects in the shop with you that helped this idea along. It has been fun but I am really looking forward to the assembly, cam degreeing and of course the dyno testing.

The throat diameter is exactly 89.5% of the diameter of the valve for maximum part throttle response/torque and driveability. J.Rob

 

[RAMM]

We wanted the piston to be out by an extra + 0.010 deck height at TDC. Our reasoning is that we figure the gasket wil be 0.055 thick once the head is bolted on. The main objective is to achieve a clearance of 0.045 quench. Once that was done it was off to the boring mill.

Yes .064" actually .065" milled from the decks is what we needed for a positive .010" deck height with the 1.755" comp height pistons. J.Rob