318 LA torque?

RustyRatRod said
A good set of good flowing heads with a matching camshaft and intake and carb with a good set of headers will wake that thing right on up. You don't need higher compression or boost. A good hot ignition curve and a nice little cam advanced to help it down low will set it on fire. His goal of 350 LB FT of torque is attainable on the low compression that 318 came with.

"set it on fire' begs the question of if it will be a torque motor at 3k RPM and below, which the OP initially asked. I would not expect it to do so; the parts described above are not focused on enhancing low RPM torque. Maybe at 3-4-5k RPM, but below 3k RPM....??

The article below sounds like the type of low compression build that RRR is suggesting. The dyno results are on a chassis dyno so factor in maybe as much as another 20% on torque at the flywheel with their manual trans car.. so it is right around 300 ft lbs torque at the flywheel between 3250 and 4500 RPM and HP peaked at just under 5k RPM.

Might be great for a lot of fun, but IMHO not what was initially asked for, and not what I would do to a towing/hauling setup; that is the conflict in going down this path versus the OP's stated goals.

Now a different cam would move the torque curve down a bit at the expense of lowering the peak torque a bit; their cam selection was not optimum for a lower RPM engine operation but it is the right type of cam: fast ramp, so good lift and not too much duration.

This is article #4 in this series:
318ci Budget Engine Build -Part 4 Dyno Thrashing - Mopar Muscle