To my target audience;
Those of you with stock-powered 318 Darts and such, that drive your cars as DDs to work every day, and do not wish to be revving at 3200, nor getting single-digit mpgs, nor are interested in racing. But all you really want, is to get off the line a lil quicker.
Consider
that your 318 is making at most 140 psi, more likely it's closer to 130.
Let that sink in.
The factory 318 cam is about the smallest cam ever available to it.
Almost every bigger cam that you put into that thing is gonna drop the cylinder pressure.
Pressure is heat is torque is power. So
if you drop the pressure you automatically lose power in the range from idle to 3500rpm, the range that with your factory gears being from 2.73 to at most 3.23s, your engine is destined to be in, for 95% or more of it's life.
Let that sink in
Even if you had 3.23s, 3500rpm is ~32mph,
your bigger cam is gonna start adding power right about there, one hp atta time.
But, you gotta get to 32mph first, and your pressure is down, so it's gonna take looooooonger to get there!
IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?
Furthermore,
with the reduced cylinder pressure, it takes more throttle-opening to find the power to cruise with, so there is a very good chance that your fuel economy will suffer.
Furthermore,
with less pressure, getting off the line is gonna be lazier than with the stock cam. I repeat
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?
Less pressure is the wrong way to go, and with a smog-era-teen, there is no easy/cheap way to get the pressure back.
My 318 friends;
listen to the Power junkie-clowns at your own peril.
Now then; Here's an example. Clowns take note, I said example.
Suppose your 2bbl-318 stalls at 2000rpm and at WOT makes 160 ftlbs there. Thru first gear, and the thru the 2.73 gears that most of your cars will have, this multiplies to 1070 ftlbs into the rear axles, irrespective of what's happening inside the convertor. Remember that number.
Now pretend you install a 4bbl and a 2800 stall, so now your torque is up to 200 ftlbs/WOT, an increase of 25%. Let that sink in.
Now think about it, what cam could you install to match that, at 2800?
Now lets install 3.23s which will multiply that increase another 18.3%, so now, into the rear axles are going 1583 ftlbs, a total increase of
47.8%
You are gonna need to install a mechanical supercharger on top of your stock-cammed 318 to match that.
But wait, at 2800, the 4bbl is barely being tickled, and those 3.23s are adding their 18.3%, all the way to shift rpm.
ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANT?
Who cares about 20/30 hp at 5000rpm which with 2.73gears doesn't come around until 60 mph in first/101 in Second? Hmmmmmmmmmm?
The truth is, that if you up-cam your 318, then you are gonna HAVE to do one of FOUR other things;
1) stall it up, or
2) gear it up, or
3) pressure it up, or
4) some combination of the above. just to get the low-rpm sub 3500rpm torque back.
So then, you might as well stall it up and gear it up, right from the start.
Over the last 55years, I've done it every one of those ways, and bar none, stall and gears is where to start, and if you can only afford one of those, let it be stall.
To the rest of you clowns that cannot read, you are not my target audience. Go start your own thread.
