XR274HR-10 in 318

JoJo said
The purpose of this setup is for street cruising... Daily driven occasionally and riding out-of-town on the weekends. I Love the lower RPM torque, but it seems to fall on its face in the mid-high RPM range.

Thanks very much. That is quite helpful.

Garrett Ellison said
Those heads usually cc in at around 60 cc. I know someone who uses them for budget truck builds but gets them milled about .050 (around 56-58 cc's) along with .028 MP head gaskets for a bump in compression. He also bowl ports them and opens the intakes up to 340/360 gasket size. 1.88/1.60s are good, some of our people in the know here like a 1.94 intake in a 318 head. If your going to use a hydraulic roller but confined to a shelf grind, I like this one fairly well.
Howards Cams Retrofit Hydraulic Roller Camshafts 713175-10

This was this cam like I was thinking would be a bit better; it looks like it is from the Howards aggressive ramp hydraulic rollers lobes. So it will have something like 10 more duration at .200" lift. Put it in advanced at 106 or 104 ICL. It is listed in the catalog as 272 advertised and 219 at .050" lift and .525" valve lift at 1.5 ratio rockers. I wish there was one step smaller but there is not.

Lunati has one step smaller for a VooDoo HR cam, which is 262 advertised and 211 at .050" and .507: intake lift. That might be a better fit. This is probably where I would head.

I agree with the idea of using the thinner head gaskets.... if this has been rebuilt, then it likely has the standard Felpro kit gaskets and that lowers static CR by about .3-.4 points. I'd have the head milled down a bit (even just .020" will help) to get good flat gasket surface and use the Mr Gasket 1121G's in there.

And I see no reason to step up the rear gear higher for cruising.