LA 360 or Magnum 5.9

texas360 said
How would I go about getting that kind of power from a baby 318. I hear 360 heads kill compression. Best piston I found is a kb167. Stroker to 390 will be too pricey. 302 heads are scarce like a unicorn.

While the larger chamber head does kill some compression it has been proven in a few venues, here included that you should take flow over compression every time. There is more loser in flow than compression.

Search posts by member IQ52.

I have a set of bare 302’s doing nothing.
There still greasy and unchecked.

AJ/FormS said
Same potential, but IMO different applications. And sooner or later the smaller engines will blow up,trying to keep up with the bigger ones, or will cost a fortune to survive. And the higher you spin 'em the softer the bottom gets.
One thing I can say with absolute surety is that I ,that's me personally,wouldn't spend a nickle on a smaller than 360 engine, for a street A-body, and someday I'd sure like to stick one in a lightweight-A . The 360 just hits more targets, more of the time with less sacrifices made.

Nice math

Agreed. But at this level, your not worried about burning out a 318. Even at 400hp, or 480 hp. And that’s because we your seldom living at 4500+ rpm.

My last 360 was north of 475hp and it is and will be fine. Until I live at that rpm for that magic hp level. Visiting once in a while won’t wreck the engine anytime soon.