318 rebuild

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rarely is there one thing in particular that will show significant gains - it's more about adding several components that work well together to get any real gains that you can actually feel... but better coil, plugs and wires will add performance and may net you slightly better mileage too. Also, an "air ram/filter" upgrade will help. Of course, it all depends on how involved you want to get too - an intake manifold upgrade is always good! ..and to be honest, my first couple of cars both had 318's and I went intake and carb first on both of them..
 
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Can't remember how many "boat anchor" 318's i sent to the junk yard..
 
well, a 318 is certainly not the #1 choice for performance - BUT if it's what ya got and you don't want to get "all involved" - they can perform pretty well
 
If trying to keep things budget minded, I'd go with a used Edelbrock dual plane intake, cheap Hooker or Summit headers, a 600 CFM Edelbrock 1405 carb, and a Comp HE268h or XE262 cam with 901-16 springs. There is a lot more to consider but that combo is fairly mild and should see decent HP gains.

If you're looking for a big change in performance without having to change a lot of parts, swap the rear gears.
 
318's are a decent little motor if that's what you have and the thing runs. :D
That said, I would (and did) buy things for the 318 that would swap over to a 360 or 5.9 Magnum later.
Carb, intake, headers, and exhaust were all put in place to run on the 318 while I was watching for Magnum motor.

Watching Craigslist and perusing wrecking yards I found,
Edlebrock performer dual plane (60 bucks)
Edlebrock 1406 600cfm (40)
1 5/8 aluminized headers (200)
Mandrel bent 2.5 inch dual exhaust I built (120)
Fabbed aluminum valve covers (good for 50hp:D) (60)
Chrome air cleaner (another 20hp:D) (10)

Point is with a little patience and time it was pretty easy to get it all together on the 318 and get better performance and it all works great on the Magnum with LA drilled intake bolt holes on EQ heads.
 
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Welcome. Search around here. There's lots of threads about 318 performance upgrades. Tuning a distributor can be a cheap and effective upgrade. Teens respond well to dual exhaust, 4 barrel intakes and carbs, and 340 sized camshafts. Have fun.
 
If trying to keep things budget minded, I'd go with a used Edelbrock dual plane intake, cheap Hooker or Summit headers, a 600 CFM Edelbrock 1405 carb, and a Comp HE268h or XE262 cam with 901-16 springs. There is a lot more to consider but that combo is fairly mild and should see decent HP gains.
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I have almost this exact setup.
KB167's +.030
Eddy 1405 with Eddy RPM A/G
Hooker 1-5/8 Long Tubes
Comp Cams XE268 with Springs.
Heads shaved and Big Valves.
904 Auto with 3/55 SG in the back.
[email protected] and I still have some traction issues to work out.
318 is harder to get the power out of but it can be done. And if that is what you got, then that is what you got.

As said above, It has to be a working combination. Meaning:
If you put a new cool carb on, it will be choked by the intake, heads, and exhaust.
My 2 cents...
Start with the HEI from our fine FABO vendor on here. I bought one of his sets used from another member here. They were changing things up. Short version, Best Single upgrade I have ever done! Easy starts, Cleaned up my burn helping me get my A/F on point. No muss no fuss period.
Then, save the nickles and dimes and get the rest as a working combination.
There are plenty of smarter people on here that can guide you to the setup that will suite your needs / wants (See Rusty's guide in another post).
Best of it is: When done, YOU did it to get what YOU wanted.
 
Cut grass... said:
What is the first thing I want to replace on my 91 318 for more HP?
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What is your goal?

How much money do you have?

the 268 cams are too big unless you have at least 3.25 gears and a 2000 rpm stall converter is also helpful.

increasing head flow will also help.


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The aforementioned rear end gear change will help a lot if you have the 2.76 or (shudder) 2.45 gears in it.

Headers are a good bet. let it breathe.

Dual exhaust is good too as you will want to do it for just about any serious performance gain.

I have a header back A Body summit dual exhaust I am going to list soon. PM me if you have any interest.

Good luck!

CE
 
Cut grass... said:
What is the first thing I want to replace on my 91 318 for more HP?
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More information helps. The best is probably a 4 barrel intake, 340 throttle cable bracket, top kickdown linkage rod, and carburetor. I'd also have to agree with gears, but not sure how cheap or easy that would be for your vehicle.
 
I'd say cam is the weakest link but there little sense bolting the 2bbl back on after. Heads become the next weakest link especially if you shooting for more than 300 hp.
I figure you should start with gears and exhaust since that alone with give you a good bump in power and give the most out of any future mods and most these cars need a 8 1/2 - 8 3/4 upgrade anyways.
 
What is nice is you have a roller cam engine to start out with. I would start with exhaust, a crossover of some kind like and H or X pipe is a nice place to start that will give you room to grow later if you go 2.5" or even a little bigger.
 
Some people just want everyone to build a race car so they tell other people all the best parts they should buy, but not once have I ever seen anyone offer to help pay for any of it.
I see it all the time and even run across them in person sometimes. (Especially at car shows)
 
318's can be made to compete just like 302 Fords, or 327 chevies. 360 is obviously more potential, but the 318 is a great performer and I've messed around with several of them, and always had great results.
 
318willrun said:
318's can be made to compete just like 302 Fords, or 327 chevies. 360 is obviously more potential, but the 318 is a great performer and I've messed around with several of them, and always had great results.
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318 make a good little screamer, and that's exactly how you have to run em to help make up for displacement.
Pop a set of EQ 1.96 valve, 63cc closed chamber heads with a thin gasket, a 125 dollar cam, set of good springs and with in intake/carb on it you can run.
 
headers, 2 1/2 dual exhaust, moderate carb /intake. let it breathe, by then u will want more, cam, heads, gears, torque converter etc..... it never ends but it sure is fun
 
The first things to do are dual exhaust and then pitch the stock timing chain and get a good double roller timing chain... The stock chains are junk...

Then go for a cam and 4 bbl intake and carb...
 
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