and that's just the thing. all the 318 hater brigade jumps up and gets frothing at the mouth: it costs so much to make 500hp with a 318
well, Shirley Shanahan if you take off your rose colored drag race goggles, you'd see that if you're trying to make something more moderate and work within budgetary constraints that a 318 can be a perfectly cromulent piece to start with.
but nooooo all the slobbering masses cry out, gnashing of teeth, rending of garments. it won't rev like a 340! it won't have torque like a 360! the heads are ****! the pistons are a million miles in the hole! one time a 318 told me that i was ugly and my feet stink! i can't get good pistons for it! they should be $10 and a burrito, why does everybody want a bunch of money! a 318 took my mom to a nice seafood dinner and never called her again! the main caps are tiny! the rods aren't beefy enough! one time at sleep away camp a 318 touched me in my no-no zone!
and so on, and so forth.
but here's the dirty little secret: almost everything people hate on about 318's is EXACTLY the same for 360's. you have to do ALL the same work on a 70's 360 to make it kick *** just the same. at the end it'll make more power, because duh, it's got 50 more cubes.