Yes. The “Econo” head was supposed to be cheaper with the ability to use OEM rockers and standard length valves. I have a set of these myself. The dual exhaust bolt pattern came later after the initial introduction. The dual pattern exhaust, It’s also available on the race head.
W2 & W5’s are still floating around.
It’s already been done. You just don’t see it.
The 318 rep should be ignored and built as any other small block.
If anything, consider it a small bore 340. The draw back of a 318 is the weaker main caps which 99% of the people will never tax it and finally the overall bore size is less then optimum, but not a big deal. Getting a high compression ratio requires ether a domed piston and/or a very small chamber cylinder head.
The best thing to do to an318 performance or race wise is bore it out as far as possible to the 4.00 mark, if possible. At .060 over, it displaces 327.79. And you know those old school Chevy guys love the 327.
At .090, a 4.00 bore, it displaces 332.76ci.
This is a pile of BS everyone falls into. Cylinder heads have a job to do and what they were designed for as far as cubic inch displacement goes, leave that thought pattern at the factory door and move on and ignore it. What your looking for in a cylinder head in a high performance or race are a is the ability to move air in and out of the cylinder. This boils down to a few factors. Port window size, valve size, cfm flow and port efficiency.
MP ported a set of 318, 302 heads that out powered a set of stock 360 heads due to a more efficient port. But the problem here is a few things. No one wants to port an iron head and even more so than one that requires a lot of work. Also the fact it’s heavy iron.
Once you move beyond the ability of the 302 head to handle enough air to feed the engine, or just simply where a larger port comes into play better than the smaller 302 delivers, and what is needed, that’s when the 340/360 head comes into play.
We’ll find out later…… The pictured rocker gear sits up top my race W2 heads right now. I want to pick up a better set of TD/Jesel rockers for the W5.
