Making power out of the 318

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I’d drive the car as it is, save my money, make a wish list and collect the necessary parts as time goes on to build a billy bad *** 318 motor if that’s your dream with a goal of it being done as the budget allows. Remember it will cost about the same to build a 318 or a 360. You also talked about a transmission, you can do a basic rebuild of one for like 500 bucks and some time or you could have a shop rebuild one for 2K and a really badass one is more like 4-5k for a shop to build, or about 1500 for you to build. Think long term gain, not short term gratification when it comes to these 50 year old cars. forewarned, It never ends, it’s always working on the pile and hovering her love
 
RustyRatRod said:
There's 3/4 or more of his budget GONE in the first paragraph. I mean seriously, yall need to pay attention here.
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i aprishiate you saying that but with all the info i have gathered form other forms yall have sent me i should cut my loss and get a 360 mag and mild build it and world be a lil cheaper and more down low power anyway
 
Depends on what ya want... in a street cruiser car a 318 is fun, however it seems today everybody is goin racin' which I cant figure out why alot of tracks are closing...:)


now your teen needs pistons just pick the right ones and a cam to go with those J heads and youll be ok.
 
carmart1975 said:
so i recently got and 1973 small block 318 i am very new to mopar and was wondering what to do to the 318 i have every thing but the pistons the guy that i got it off of droped one and cracked it, i also have 360 heads that i would like to put on i am thinking about putting kb 167 pistons (0.40 over) in it, stock crank, stock rods and a rad cam with a lot of lope because i am a stupid kid, and stock 360 heads and then some kind of single plane intake and then a 750 double pumper i am really on a tight budget. is all of this possible or unrealistic.
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Can't be done.

Get a 360 and stroke it.
 
Dartswinger70 said:
Depends on what ya want... in a street cruiser car a 318 is fun, however it seems today everybody is goin racin' which I cant figure out why alot of tracks are closing...:)


now your teen needs pistons just pick the right ones and a cam to go with those J heads and youll be ok.
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i think they are j heads and mater of fact we just got a new strip up in perris californa
 
so really if i was to get a 5.9 mag put a good cam in it and did some head work i would be in the 400 range thats from what i have red
 
carmart1975 said:
so really if i was to get a 5.9 mag put a good cam in it and did some head work i would be in the 400 range thats from what i have red
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Let's talk about what you will need to make a Magnum work for you. It's not a drop in and drive away swap.
 
carmart1975 said:
so really if i was to get a 5.9 mag put a good cam in it and did some head work i would be in the 400 range thats from what i have red
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Here's a dyno of mopars 380hp crate engine which is a stock long block with cam is 288 intake, 292 exhaust duration, and .501/.513 lift on 108 something like 230/235 @ 0.050" and M1 single plane. 750 and headers. Makes 409 hp @ 5400 rpm / 440 tq @ 4100 rpm.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/mopp-0303-360-crate-engine-buildup/

Mopar Performance 360 cid 380 hp rated
RPMTQHP
2500380.6181
3000402.9230
3500415.1277
4000437.8333
4100439.5343
4500437.1375
5000416.3396
5400398.6409
5500388.6407
6000343.9395
 
273 said:
Here's a dyno of mopars 380hp crate engine which is a stock long block with cam is 288 intake, 292 exhaust duration, and .501/.513 lift on 108 something like 230/235 @ 0.050" and M1 single plane. 750 and headers. Makes 409 hp @ 5400 rpm / 440 tq @ 4100 rpm.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/mopp-0303-360-crate-engine-buildup/

Mopar Performance 360 cid 380 hp rated
RPMTQHP
2500380.6181
3000402.9230
3500415.1277
4000437.8333
4100439.5343
4500437.1375
5000416.3396
5400398.6409
5500388.6407
6000343.9395
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that is really good and a lot less $$$$ i am really liking this idea of the mag thank you for the chart so thats a crate not a junkyard truck moeter do you know the differences by chance?
 
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A 400hp 318 is definately doable, but not for 3 grand. Not sure what machine shop rates are like in the US but over here you would spend most of your budget just on machining and balancing.
I will go against the grain here and say a 15/16 year old in car built in the 70s with a 400hp motor is a recipe for a written off car or worse. (I daily a car with 400rwhp and if I had this when I first got my licence I would have probably killed/seriously injured myself and others). 99% of people your age wouldn't know 400hp if it slapped them in the face.
My advice would be to spend that money on making sure your brakes & suspension are in top condition and a good set of tires. Drive it with the slant for a while to get used to how the car handles and reacts to different driving conditions while saving up and planning for a higher hp motor down the track.
 
carmart1975 said:
that is really good and a lot less $$$$ i am really liking this idea of the mag thank you for the chart so thats a crate not a junkyard truck moeter do you know the differences by chance?
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Same as a truck engine you'll get, Mopar just added cam and intake.
 
you're kind of in a tough spot in going from /6 to V8 in that you have to account for all the peripherals (mounts, oil pan, maybe steering, exhaust, cooling, transmission) so it's not just a slam dunk swap.

going to a magnum will likely be cheaper if you're trying to attain a specific HP goal, and will most almost certainly be cheaper if using a 360.

that doesn't mean it's any easier than a standard LA swap, though. there are other considerations: fuel pump, serp belt or v belt set up, flexplate/torque converter, running down a 4bbl intake, exhaust, oil pan.

if you're starting from zero, the magnum makes much more sense and has more potential to make HP cheaply and reasonably, especially so for the 360.
 
all this magnum talk here and i just wanted to take a moment and say, while i'm an advocate of the 5.9 swap and there's plenty of upside, there is also not a darn thing wrong with building out a nice little 318. not.one.thing.

a lot of it is dependent on where you're at with the 318 block, how much work that needs, and how quickly you want to have it all come together.

you could build out a nice bottom end with decent pistons, you don't have to go nuts with studs and rod bolts and stuff. top that with some 360 heads that are breathed on, stab in a white box summit special cam, snap on a swap meet dual plane and 4bbl and go rip it up with a whopping 275 hp

that would be a great daily driver combo with a little bit of flash. it's not gonna beat the world, but it's also not gonna break the bank and would be reliable.

if you backed it up with a low gear transmission and some stall it'd be a hoot to drive.

if you weren't in a hell fired rush you could probably source most all of that used, or NIB that somebody is unloading.

just some food for thought.
 
carmart1975 said:
i aprishiate you saying that but with all the info i have gathered form other forms yall have sent me i should cut my loss and get a 360 mag and mild build it and world be a lil cheaper and more down low power anyway
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I think that would be advisable since you're not going to change your horse power goals.
 
junkyardhero said:
all this magnum talk here and i just wanted to take a moment and say, while i'm an advocate of the 5.9 swap and there's plenty of upside, there is also not a darn thing wrong with building out a nice little 318. not.one.thing.

a lot of it is dependent on where you're at with the 318 block, how much work that needs, and how quickly you want to have it all come together.

you could build out a nice bottom end with decent pistons, you don't have to go nuts with studs and rod bolts and stuff. top that with some 360 heads that are breathed on, stab in a white box summit special cam, snap on a swap meet dual plane and 4bbl and go rip it up with a whopping 275 hp

that would be a great daily driver combo with a little bit of flash. it's not gonna beat the world, but it's also not gonna break the bank and would be reliable.

if you backed it up with a low gear transmission and some stall it'd be a hoot to drive.

if you weren't in a hell fired rush you could probably source most all of that used, or NIB that somebody is unloading.

just some food for thought.
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Nothing at all wrong with a 318. Or a 5.2 magnum. Or a 5.9 magnum. Or a 340.

They're all basically the same engine. Yeah there are differences but really they're easy to deal with.
 
junkyardhero said:
all this magnum talk here and i just wanted to take a moment and say, while i'm an advocate of the 5.9 swap and there's plenty of upside, there is also not a darn thing wrong with building out a nice little 318. not.one.thing.

a lot of it is dependent on where you're at with the 318 block, how much work that needs, and how quickly you want to have it all come together.

you could build out a nice bottom end with decent pistons, you don't have to go nuts with studs and rod bolts and stuff. top that with some 360 heads that are breathed on, stab in a white box summit special cam, snap on a swap meet dual plane and 4bbl and go rip it up with a whopping 275 hp

that would be a great daily driver combo with a little bit of flash. it's not gonna beat the world, but it's also not gonna break the bank and would be reliable.

if you backed it up with a low gear transmission and some stall it'd be a hoot to drive.

if you weren't in a hell fired rush you could probably source most all of that used, or NIB that somebody is unloading.

just some food for thought.
Click to expand...
That's kinda where I was going and then he'd have something running pretty quickly and could save up for something better in the future. You know, like we all had to start out doing? I could have only wished for a 3k budget when I was 15. I think I had 550 bucks in my first engine. Course it went further back then.....
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's kinda where I was going and then he'd have something running pretty quickly and could save up for something better in the future. You know, like we all had to start out doing? I could have only wished for a 3k budget when I was 15. I think I had 550 bucks in my first engine. Course it went further back then.....
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It went a lot further. 3k today doesn't go to far
 
Mean416 said:
It went a lot further. 3k today doesn't go to far
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When I managed this store back in the late 70's I made $12,000 a year. I was doing ok for myself. Here's an ad though.

Capture esco.PNG
 
RustyRatRod said:
That's kinda where I was going and then he'd have something running pretty quickly and could save up for something better in the future. You know, like we all had to start out doing? I could have only wished for a 3k budget when I was 15. I think I had 550 bucks in my first engine. Course it went further back then.....
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no lies. i remember the days of being 16 and a broke dick line cook and LOF guy at a dealer on min. wage trying to play rickey racer. at least the used parts were more available then, sort of. but the new go fast stuff was still dough like it is today.

get a 2bbl, snap on a 4bbl and maybe some headers, get it going while you build something else was kind of the path we all took.
 
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