Today, dollar for dollar, is the 318 faster than the 340 ???

Sounds like you would have been better off getting a 380hp crate motor! They ran mid 11's in light a bodies. That's a fact that is well documented. Alot less cam, converter and head and roughly same performance. I still find it mind boggling that the factory give everyone the recipe but no one wants to cook it.

318willrun has documented a 318 duster in your neighborhood of et. So better refine your combo

3200# isn't exactly light, hell a slant can be fast in a light car. My 340 would've been better off with a better flat solid cam and a 950HP but it is what it is. The numbers I posted are real world number that it ran, not hypothetical or hearsay.

BTW, the 380 crate engine wasn't a 318/5.2.