318 cam selection?

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J

jeeper

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I have asked about 3.2 million questions since I joined.

I am getting real close.....think next week to starting on the car. I have a good running 318 -make that a great running 318 in there.

I also have a good-we are looking into it-318 on the stand.

I am shooting for a snappy DD engine around 275HPish.

The car combo is this at this point:

318
302 casting heads-mildly milled with new VJ etc. Not been run
Thermoquad
Cast intake
Pocket porting on the heads

Trans will be a 998 with a 2.74 first - shift kit

Rear will be an 8 1/4" with 3.55's if all goes as planned

Exhaust

Headers- 2 1/2" exhaust- I may build a bigger engine over next winter

Camshaft selection:

I have a .484 and a .509 too much for what I am after although I wouldn't mind using the .484 cause I have it.

I have access to a Crane 284 with .228 degrees single pattern

My instincts tell me the Summit cam 218-228 would be nice and is a good price for what it is?

Any ideas on grinds?

I am real tempted to take the .484 and use my stall convertor and run that.......but I have a feeling that the rest of what I have is not enough to support that.

I will use the car for mild DD status a few days a week max. Mainly hwy driving.

Thanks for your input as always, ROB
 
The .484 cam would be a bit large for a DD and the Summit cam is a Crane grind, so it will work better and give a bit better mileage, lots of torque and should be able to get you where you want to be. That cam has a nice sound as a friend of mine is running this cam in his 318 and he loves it with a similar setup in a Duster.
 
Good to know.

Years ago I had a F..d that was a 289, .210-.220 with a shift kit and 3.55's. It was no Mopar, but the combo was real fun for a DD.

I was thinking a bit bigger on the cam than that would be good. It should pull quite a bit better all over than that engine.

I will likely ad more cam, convertor and gear for next year but for now I need to get it on the road.

The kids are pretty stoked about it. They had their eyes on the 440, but that is for another time.

Thanks for the input on the Summit. I think it should have just enough to keep things interesting, yet no be annoying for just going to work.

ROB
 
:thumbup: This is what we had in his engine,
318 .030 with the late model piston fron a 84-90 318
the summit cam and lifters
a set of comp cams chrome moly pushrods
a set of proform roller rockers, as they were cheaper than the irons with the shafts
OEM rings, brgs, and gaskets
a 850 Edelbrock carb, vacuum sec.
factory iron 340 intake
a set of early 318 heads that were gasket matched to the 340 manifold, the 302's work better and don't require any welding as we had to with the early 318 heads to get the port the same size as the 340/360 intake.
The bowls were blended
the valves were 1.78 intake and 1.60 exhaust
the engine was balanced and the block was square decked
the heads were squared to correct the cc's, as they were belt sanded and they were out .020 from one end to the other.
Through the mufflers it sound great for a street machine, and he gets 10-12 mpg and he could do better but he has a heavy foot. He said that it just feels too good not to.
 
I daily drove a .480/280 duration comp in myt 318 for about a year anda half, loved it. I did have a bit of gearing and converter to play with though :D 284rwhp SAE
 
I have a 360 and some other speed parts that I am collecting for something a bit more serious in the future.

I am using this as a teaching tool so I need to consider the needs of the kiddo's as well.

One of those being that the car needs to be done in two months so that we can get going on the Monster Willys again.......

ROB
 
Did you ever look into a cam from Hughes Engines? They advertise real Mopar cams. Not just generic Chevy lobes ground onto a Mopar shaft. I don't know where you're at with you're choices but if you are interested, check out www.hughesengines.com or call 309-745-9558 (Washington, Illinois). They also claim new designs, not 30yr old technology plus complete valvetrain goodies that can deliver "roller" performance at half the price using tight-lash solid lifter set ups. That's where I'm looking to when I dig into my carb, intake, and cam project. Just food for thought, good luck with your cam project - notorious318
 
From actual experience, we put a MP cam (# 4452761) in my sons 318 powered 74 Duster a while back. It also had a little milling of stock 318 heads, MP dual plane , 600cfm Eddy, and cheapo Headman headers, 3.21 gears. The nicest sounding 318 Ive ever heard, with great mid range power for a daily driver. Probably needed a looser converter than the stock one to be perfect all the way through for a DD. For anybody interested, we gained alot of responsiveness by also dropping the 360 J heads and going to the smaller port 318 heads for that DD setup.
 
That sounds good to me. I guess I could put it in and if I needed more I could throw in my convertor.......

Other responses? I am using the 302 heads and reworking them.

Thank you, ROB

Dare I ask the unaskable question..........how was it on gas?
 
Didnt really keep that close of tabs on mileage. I believe the original stock 318(2bbl) with 2.76?? gearing got 18-19mpg on the highway. With the other set up I drove the car from Albuquerque to here once and was around 15mpg. Was it worth the mileage decrease?? To us it was, and my son paid all the gas money for it while going to UNM for 4 years. Just the sound of the car through full exhaust and cheap turbo mufflers gave the impression it was more than what it was, Lots of questions if it was a 340. Now his mom is running a much stouter 360 in it in street class, we cant grow up!
 
I was under the impression that the 340 cam was a good cam to hop up a 318. Has anybody used the 340 reproduction cam part # p4452782?

340 cam
edelbrock performer
edelbrock 600
hooker headers
Sound ok?
 
I would second the Summit cam. Great value, good balanced power. The XE256H would be nice too.
 
U cant beat the stock 340 cam for performance and that true muscle car sound.I use this cam in 90% of my 273-318 builds...........Kim.......
 
I am currently leaning pretty heavily towards the Summit cam.

Although the there is an Elgin grind I have wanted to try for some time.

It is the 934P I think. It has 222 and 232 with 447-450 lift. I don't recall the lobe seperation.

Thoughts on that one? Good place to purchase it?

I truthfully think that is about as big as I would go. I am in compromise land like the rest of us.

As I was thinking about this at 4:30 this morning in a moment of awesome mental clarity the thought arose, " would I want to drive set-up X to work today?"

The answer is likely no with some humungous cam and 4.10's....not likely with 20 miles of it..

Back to reality. In good news, I should be getting my heads on Monday and then I will bust out the grinder.

Thanks for the ideas and guidance, ROB
 
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