318 build need ideas first build

Yes there is reason to build 360 over 318 but to me anyone building less than a 440 is leaving performance on the table.

Hp wise 318/340/360 basically have the same potential since they can share the same parts.

The main draw back is the 318 head it can be made to work and is fine for under 300 hp. But why bother when there tons of 340/360 magnum and aftermarket heads.

There's 2 main components in building hp cam and heads. There's two ways of going about it the main being rather large cam (& cr) with too little head. Or how most modern muscle engines are mild cam and race car cylinder head flow numbers.

Take a look at 5.2 magnum vs 318 la. We all know the magnum head ain't no hemi head but does offer 400-420hp OOTB and that's with 9:1 cr. The 300 hp create engine makes about 320 hp with headers and there's no reason to think the 5.2 isn't close. Add a mild 264 roller cam and you got a mild 350 hp engine do some porting or aftermarket and gain 30-50 hp. To do that with a 318 with non ported 318 heads might be able to squeeze 350 hp with xe286hl cam and 10:1 but definitely be less streetable than the magnum version. And with a ported 318 head will hit 400 hp cause that's one of the 400 hp 318 recipes.

But here's the main drawback is gear ratio.
There's no reason a 318 can't make the same hp as a 360 with similar parts it's just gonna happen around 600 rpm higher.
So gonna need at least 600 rpm more stall and 2 gear sizes lower to equal the performance difference out.