IMO
The absolute most bang for your buck is gears
and the second best for a budget, is a 2800TC.
So,do yourself a favor and just get rid of the 2.76s..... NOW
But if you really want to spend money on the teener, IMO,the absolute first place to attack is that lousy cylinder pressure, ESPECIALLY if you have 2.76 gears because, they keep the teener in the bottom of the rev range for most of it's life. The absolute wrong things to do are to bolt on even lower compression heads and longer-period cams.
2.76 gears will keep your first-gear rpms to about 3000@34mph,4000@45mph,5000@56mph. So your engine is gonna have to make power at those rpms,specifically from stall to 3000 where 90% or more of the engine's life is gonna be spent at. A bigger cam with a later ICA is absolutely wrong. Lower cylinder pressure is absolutely wrong. What good is more port-flo at 5000rpm if your engine rarely gets there, or you have to wait and wait and wait for it to arrive, and then it's time to shift or time to shut down?
Personally,
if I was stuck with 2.76s,and a 318
I would rather have a hi-compression short-block with everything else stone stock, than a stock 8/1 short block with any other factory type top-end and a bigger cam.
If you lower the cylinder pressure,from an already pretty low number, you absolutely will have the additional cost of a higher-stall TC; You cannot escape that. And bigger gears will be right behind.Soooooooooo, you might as well start with those. And maybe that will satisfy you until the 360HO arrives.
If you just have to have a bigger cam, install a solid lifter cam kit, with the same, or very similar, installed after-lashing, ICA. Stay away from those long long acceleration ramps, they will just kill your low-rpm torque.
And don't underestimate the weight loss angle.150 pounds at a stock 318 power level, is like one cam size, but even more than that; it's more like a cubic inch increase, because the performance increase is throughout the rpm range, not just at some peak rpm
One of my favorite all-time combos was a bone stock low-C 318long-block,with 4.30s, a 2800TC, and with just a 4bbl and headers.
