High Comp 318 Build With Edelbrock Heads

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blownhemi

blownhemi

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Hi guys, so I've been building a little 318 Mopar engine recently and hopefully it'll go as good as it looks. Edelbrock were very good to me and supplied a whole bunch of parts for the build.

The aim is to make around 400hp with this little unit. I made a series of youtube videos chronicling the build and I'm sure some will disagree with my choices but this isn't my first rodeo so I'll do what works for me. But this is my first crack at making decent power from a 318 (in the past I've just stuck with 340/360/408 or big blocks) so I'm kind of interested in seeing how it goes.

The cliffs are: It's a 318 +0.060 with high comp KB pistons, Edelbrock heads and an RPM air gap intake, the cam is Edelbrock's Performer RPM hydraulic cam 234/244 at 0.050in. Edelbrock claim this kit makes 417hp on a 9.5:1 comp 340, seeing were running up around 10.4:1 and have 322cubes, I'm hoping for something similar.

The engine will be going in my Dad's Valiant ute (1968 Aussie Valiant ute - basically a 68 Dart pickup), Dad passed away a few years back and he left me this ute. He always talked about a V8 swap so I've decided to make that a reality.

Anyway, here's the build videos. There were certainly some mistakes made and things that had to be addressed and hopefully these videos will help people not make those same mistakes. I'm close to firing the beast up, just a few lines to run and some wiring and we'll make it happen.







 
I recently, just discovered your videos. Most comical at some points. Keep it up!
 
Hey Scotty! I didn’t know you were a member here. I’ve been following you on youtube and instagram for a few years now. Can’t wait for you to finish Dad’s ute
 
racerdan80 said:
Hey Scotty! I didn’t know you were a member here. I’ve been following you on youtube and instagram for a few years now. Can’t wait for you to finish Dad’s ute
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I've been a lurker and occasional poster for a fair while. It's a great forum.
 
Just a little update. The little 318 is still going strong, but the car needs a converter and gears to take full advantage of the cam.

I took it for a run last weekend and the 60-foot could have been timed with a sundial, but ultimately it went 13.98 at 102.8mph with a 2.42 60-foot. I reckon a converter and gears will see it into the 12s.

I also went five rounds and took out the naturally aspirated V8 bracket on the day.
 
blownhemi said:
Just a little update. The little 318 is still going strong, but the car needs a converter and gears to take full advantage of the cam.

I took it for a run last weekend and the 60-foot could have been timed with a sundial, but ultimately it went 13.98 at 102.8mph with a 2.42 60-foot. I reckon a converter and gears will see it into the 12s.

I also went five rounds and took out the naturally aspirated V8 bracket on the day.
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Thats a good runner! I speak 1/8mile mostly so do you have the speeds for that? You certainly need some converter speed, that 2.42 will keep you up at night! My 318 Duster that I told you on YouTube made 293hp to the tire cut a 1.74 using a 3500 stall. Ofcourse thats with a 4.56 but, ya know. I'm excited to see you get it down alittle closer to the 12s, you got this!
 
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AustinGriggs said:
Thats a good runner! I speak 1/8mile mostly so do you have the speeds for that? You certainly need some converter speed, that 2.42 will keep you up at night! My 318 Duster that I told you on YouTube made 293hp to the tire cut a 1.74 using a 3500 stall. Ofcourse thats with a 4.56 but, ya know. I'm excited to see you get it down alittle closer to the 12s, you got this!
Click to expand...

Only 9.20 on the 1/8, it picks up the pace after that.
 
blownhemi said:
Just a little update. The little 318 is still going strong, but the car needs a converter and gears to take full advantage of the cam.

I took it for a run last weekend and the 60-foot could have been timed with a sundial, but ultimately it went 13.98 at 102.8mph with a 2.42 60-foot. I reckon a converter and gears will see it into the 12s.

I also went five rounds and took out the naturally aspirated V8 bracket on the day.
Click to expand...
Not bad.
Speaking of not being setup for drag racing... I had a 9.6.1 340 ,stock x heads, headers, 241@.050 cam street tires 4spd go 13.80 @104
I saw your videos a month ago in the recommended and checked it out.
You learned much here
 
13.8? Not to shabby for not caring or focusing on the track time.
 
So I took the ute on a massive roadtrip recently to Queensland. It was 1800km each way and the 318 ran beautifully, except when the voltage regulator failed and fed 18v in the system frying the distributor. It also fried a bunch of wiring under the dash, I managed to find a distributor and new regulator, and replace some of the wiring during the trip.

The whole point was to drive to Willowbank Raceway, run a PB and then make it home. Unfortunately the distributor dying made that difficult, it threw all our dyno tuning out the window. So at the track it was just a matter of trial an error.

I managed to get it within a tenth of a second of it's previous best, and add a couple mph to the terminal speed but the lack of a high stall converter is really hurting the ET.

So that's the plan, fit a high stall converter and try for a 12sec pass.

The really surprising thing was I put a tacho on the little 318 and it I discovered it revs all the way out to 7000rpm before the standard Edelbrock valve springs cry enough. I was trying to manually shift the trans, but it kept holding on until valve bouncing on the 1st/2nd shift. So it looks like I need to upgrade to valve springs as well.

What a fun/crazy little engine, 7000rpm, 105mph trap speeds with a 2.5sec 60-foot time and a 4000km round trip. What a week!
 
I'll have to check out your YouTube posts. I'm planning a similar engine for my Dodge 106c ute (basically a VC). What convertor and diff ratio are you running for the 13.98 time? Also, what was the fuel consumption like on the road trip? Hoping for just a little better 1/4mile time than you currently have but that's not it's primary function! Are you taking the ute to COTM this coming March?
 
A 234@050 cam spinning to 7K?
A bit last it’s range don’t you think?
Stouter valve springs will help the rpm out. But are you making power there?
What is the finish line rpm?
 
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