Making power out of the 318

273 said
1st thing I'd is drop hp expectations, there's a big difference between a 425 and 500 hp even a 375 and 400 hp depending on heads. Heads basically decides power potential and cam cr etc. decides how much of that potential your gonna use.

Stock 360 heads with reasonable street cam for a 318 with 3.21 probably be in the 325-350 hp with some head work maybe 375 + hp. With a non reasonable cam you could make more obviously. To me reasonable would be under 220 degrees @ 0.050".

So first question are heads gonna be basically stock, minor ported or bigger valves and minor porting etc..

This is basically gonna decide how much hp your gonna make cause cam wise your hands are fairly tied mainly because of rear gears cause you seem willing to add any stall and cr. Could always get a trans with lower 1st and 2nd gears and get away with a little more cam.

I really like your thinking I was planning on buying a new transmission not a used one and it would be a built trans anyway so maybe I could find one with the lower gears but I will most likely be switching over to a eight and three-quarter rear end later down the road after this one shreds ,What if I use stock 318 heads and do a diy port job on them? Because I have those sitting in my garage. They’re the ones that came with the motor, but he also gave me those 360 heads. But if I was to stick with any of the heads, have to get completely redone because they have gunk and stuff like that so I would have to get new valves and all that stuff anyway but I just don’t know how much this machine work is going to cost I’m very new to the stuff. My dad hasn’t done this kind of stuff and 30+ years also