318 Cylinder Heads

You're right about the magnum heads. I went through 8 to find 2 good ones. Most were cracked. Looking for two more right now but guess I might have to step up to the Magnum R/T heads.

I think a standard magnum head with 1.925 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves are perfect for most 318 builds. No shrouding of the valves and a great combustion chamber. I run a 318 with right at 10:1 compression with these heads on pump gas without cutting the timing back. No detonation.

Building another right now with magnum heads. The quench with flat top pistons and these heads is great. This motor will be running KB167 pistons .010 in the hole with the thin Mopar gasket. Should have .035-.038 piston to head clearance.

Building a 318 like this with a dual plane intake and 600-650cfm carb works great. A Comp Cams XE262H or XE268H camshaft with a decent exhaust and ignition gives you good torque with decent top end power.

I will say that whenever I built a 318 like Dulcich did in Mopar Muscle for 400hp that it was NOT very street friendly with an automatic transmission and 3.55 gears. If I remember correctly, his 400hp 318 went into a standard tranny car with lower gears. The article I read put the 318 at 400hp at 6150 rpm. How often will a street car see 6150 rpm? And it did not show where the horsepower and torque curves were at. I am betting they were pretty high with the cam/intake/carb combo that he used.

I am not trying to put Steve Dulcich down because it was his articles that got me involved with the "lowly" 318. However, they are written to sell magazines.