318 build. what would you do?

My first post, sorry so long...

In 1985 I built a 318 for my 68 Barracuda. Mainly because it was "what I had". It was actually a 318 out of a truck. I was lucky to have a local racer who ran a machine shop and built Mopar motors as often as he could. Mopars was the odd duck back then and I liked having something different. I spent about $1500 on the engine (in 1985 dollars). It had .060 over forged flat tops with valve reliefs, stock 318-3 truck crank and resized rods. Full groove mains and HV oil pump. Up top I used some 340-J heads that had been sized to 2.04 intakes 1.6 exhaust, a small bowl port/gasket match, a "purple shaft" grind cam that was .484 i .474 e if I remember with a 108deg centerline, Rhoads lifters, a stock 318 4bbl manifold and a carter AVS. Ignition was stock electronic conversion and had a carter HV mechanical fuel pump. It was bored with a torque plate and race balanced. I ran it with a 727, 340 converter, and .410 gears on 14" BF goodrich tires.

It's best strip time was 14.09 at 90something (it was always out of fuel and popping through the traps) but it was good enough to take down some of the heavy chevies of the day (I got beat by many as well). It was not a torque monster. In fact, the big chamber heads and large cam actually killed anything below 3000rpm, but it was a heavy puller from 3200-6850. It probably had decent horsepower, but it required a lot of tuning of the AVS to get it to run well. A bigger converter would have helped too but it was not in the budget. It was however very reliable and made a good bracket car. I beat it hard too. One night the track was slow and I put 17 passes on it with no trouble. I ran this motor for 4 years street/strip also with no issues. If I had had a few more $$ to spend I probably could have gotten into the mid 13's with my 318.


(I know you are not going to a different engine size, so this is my opinion now...)
That said, my friend built a 340 at the time with similar parts and money, but with stock cast pistons and .391 gears and he routinely beat me by half a second, spinning like a mutha! My 318 wasn't quite as fun to drive as my friends with the bigger cubes. If I had it to do over, I would only consider the 318 viable as a driver. If I planned on track time I believe I could get more bang for my buck with the 360.

I actually still have the short block as it sat when pulled it 13 years ago. It ran fine, but the bores were getting loose and at .060 it was time for a new block. While I was deciding what to do with it, I ran accross a decent 360 to go back into the car so I decided to build it up instead. The car now has a fresh plum crazy exterior and roll cage so I hope to again run it at my local track next year. I guess I should sell the 318 parts to a good home. 8)