Honestly...how good was the 318...mpg / durability / hp

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ValerianMagnum

the little car that could
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montreal , canada
Kinda funny....i always bought and drove cars with modified v8s....340s 360s etc ...crate engines bla bla bla...but my big 68 fury as a 1971 318 from a scamp and i freakin love this thing , 727 and 2.76 suregrip rear end , runs a New china *Carter* 2bbl , New belts , not even a tune up was done after her first start in 22 years , this 318 purrred like like a kitten after New carb / oil change and a New fresh battery , ive eard since this last spring sooooo many urban legends and searching all kind of stuff on this "boat anchor" engine that seems to finally win the respect that it deserved , not a power house of course compared to my 400hp 360 crate engine...but i love the simplicity of it , cheap cheap carb , cheap parts , not hard on gas...rumors say that they live forever , of course it can be turned into a monster with a cam / 4bbl carb and intake/ kb pistons bla bla bla *** but its not what i want , but how good was the stock 2bbl 318 really , old timers , real life stories.... , lets read some stories !!!

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My amazing 318 story;

So…. I answer this newspaper ad, not joking here… it is for a 1979 Dodge Magnum GT for $500. I figure it’s a wreck rusted out POS junk box, which is one of my favorite things to screw with.
So I answered the ad.

I meet the fella, the original owner and we talk as I walk around the car. I say I’ll take it. And he asks me if I like his paper work trail on it. I jump at it with a smile and say yes! It’s a ridiculously detailed record from day one. Starting with how much gas he puts into from the dealers lot. He even records when the radio light bulb goes out, where he took it, who the tech was and when he returned it again a month later to replace the replacement bulb and that techs name.

Yea, imagine this kind of record keeping! Amazing.

So —— I get to the end of the paper work which stops almost exactly 10 years after he started it. It ended with over 324,000 miles.
This lead to two questions. Why did you stop after 10 years and WHERE! Did you travel to log over 324K miles???? He held up his hand as to say, grab a beer and sit down, this is gonna take a minute or two…..

Twice a year, every year, I loaded up the wife and my two kids and visited every state in the United States and we toured the states we were in. I do t like flying, but I love driving.

I laughed my *** off, gave him kudos and talked about what the various states had to offer and how the kids were and etc…..

My second question was, so… what happened since the records stopped. He says, Oh! By this time, my daughter was up for collage. She took the car for that 4 years, (proceeded to roll his eyes backwards and moaned…) she drove that home every weekend. Then his sons got it for the next 4 years at the same collage.

For context, New Yorkers will understand this distance between locations)

He lived in South Babylon, Long Island, his kids went to Binghamton, so that’s a couple of hours! LMAO!

I asked if his son came home every weekend and he said NO.
Well, I would t ether but I know what most guys do! Let’s go to Boston for eats, let’s go to DC, let’s go get beer in Milwaukee, there’s a blues fest in Kentucky, whoa!!! Rock & Roll ball of fame is a good weekend away from school, let’s go!

He went on to say he used the car there after as a daily driver to work. Which turned out he was a 9-5 fire fighter in NY. I find out where and it was oddly down the block from where I worked in Queens NY, a town called Jamaica. I said that’s an easy 40 miles one way. Well, he looked at me and said exactly 40 miles, how do you know that? ….. more talking….

So… if the car had 324K in ten years, daily driver for work, 80 miles daily, 400 miles a week, for 52 weeks, for 10 years, unknown mileage each weekend to and from collage by his daughter, Lord GOD almighty only knows where his son went and the mileage in addition….

How many miles do you think that 318 logged?

500,000 miles?

During its time with the owner, he swapped on an Edelbrock Performer, 600 carb & cam for the package. The only thing it actually could have used, was an oil pump.

The 318 was getting 18 mpg Hwy, 904 trans, 2.76 gears.

The car was on the dealers showroom floor. It was a XE dressed as a GT, he showed me the stripes inside the door to prove it.

I still have the car but not the 318. A 5.9 took its place.

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Kinda funny....i always bought and drove cars with modified v8s....340s 360s etc ...crate engines bla bla bla...but my big 68 fury as a 1971 318 from a scamp and i freakin love this thing , 727 and 2.76 suregrip rear end , runs a New china *Carter* 2bbl , New belts , not even a tune up was done after her first start in 22 years , this 318 purrred like like a kitten after New carb / oil change and a New fresh battery , ive eard since this last spring sooooo many urban legends and searching all kind of stuff on this "boat anchor" engine that seems to finally win the respect that it deserved , not a power house of course compared to my 400hp 360 crate engine...but i love the simplicity of it , cheap cheap carb , cheap parts , not hard on gas...rumors say that they live forever , of course it can be turned into a monster with a cam / 4bbl carb and intake/ kb pistons bla bla bla *** but its not what i want , but how good was the stock 2bbl 318 really , old timers , real life stories.... , lets read some stories !!!

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I get 18+ on the highway if I drive it nice. 255-60/15's. 3.23 stock 318 2 barrel. And that's with a messed up distributor. I have my vacuum advance disconnected because of pinging. I need to pull and send it to Hoppy and have him spin it up. I know the advance springs are too light.

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I knew a guy in the Navy in the 70's, had a 68 or 9 Charger, 318, he was a "careful" driver. That thing would pull over 20mpg
 
The 318 is a VERY good engine. I've had quite a few over the years. They are durable engines & they have a lot more potential than most people think.
I have great respect for them. I'll take one any time.
 
my buddy had a 73 D100 with a 318 that took an absolutely astronomical amount of abuse at his hands, and given the state that it was purchased in, was most certianly criminally abused before he even got it.

now, let me tell you about "The Machine".

everything here is 100% true, verifiable and can be corroborated by at least three other people. also, i have been granted immunity for my crimes while working under duress to keep that god forsaken truck on the road.

prolouge-
JR had a small landscaping business, he was doing well. had a small crew and a few machines. we'd known each other since we were kids, so i helped him out maintaining his machinery, keeping his trailers and trucks up to snuff. well, a little sour luck turned the worm, so after a bad wreck and **** insurance payout JR was in a tight spot and needed a truck. and needed one, like, yesterday.

this was the stone ages, man. craig's list was in its infancy, penny saver and truck trader were where it was at. so our little band of merry misfits scoured the papers, online, and beat the bushes and shook the trees till this glorious beast bubbled up to the surface. it was tagged and titled, it "runs good", it was pre smog, but most importantly, it was the right price. less than four digits.

Part I-
i was away on business or otherwise occupied so therefore i cannot be blamed for the purchase. my brother, task-master/master negotiator and JR set off after work, money in hand. a truck was being purchased, this was of the essence. so if it needed to happen at night, in a poorly lit parking lot of a sketchy circle K in a dubious part of town, well... that's just how it was going to go down then.

the good news is, nobody got shot, stabbed or robbed. the bad news is, the truck made it back under its own power.

really, there is no good news after this.

Part II-
repeating the mantra: "it's just a work truck, it's just a work truck" does not, in fact, make everything copacetic.

i'll spare the granular details that we've all seen on 70's trucks and play the greatest hits: bobo wiring, wiring nuts, plumbers tape, lamp cord, burnt out amp meter, speedo missing needle, no parking brake (as in no lever, not even a way to engage it), one door missing handle inside, the other missing a handle on the outside, two different mirrors, a steering column that flops around like a damn turkey leg on an overcooked carcass,

the usual jiggle the key, stick your tongue out to one side, wiggle waggle the steering wheel and cross your toes while saying a prayer to start it. there wasn't a fluid it didn't leak, and if wasn't leaking that means it was out of that particular fluid.

but, all of that paled in comparison to the "upgrades"... the seat which was totally waxed, had at least three seat covers on it. the steering wheel? every kind, sort and type of wheel cover-- knobby ones, slick ones, neon ones, faux leather-- all of the steering wheel covers. i stopped counting around 4 or 5. there was a 5lb foldgers can with a 2" section cut length wise down it with simpson ties attached to it and screwed to the trans tunnel with dry wall screws-- this was a custom cup holder to hold a super big glup. there was a piece of yucca wedged into the door holding up the regulator which doubled, as told by the PO, as a "back off stick" when people or bikes got to close. the radio was duct taped to the top of the dash with 6X9's screwed to the lower lip-- the angle of projection was perfectly in line with your face. the radio was also broken, stuck on what i assumed to be 11 volume wise and stuck on some crazy fundamentalist AM talk radio station. there was a Ratt cassette stuck inside.

on the exterior, the forward thinking inventor of the super big gulp cup holder had launched forth his magnum opus: a system designed to protect the paint of this magnificent chariot from "those damn guys and their tool belts" while looking stunning. it was, and i **** you not, wood paneling affixed with liquid nails and about 1,298 drywall screws. yes, yes it is *exactly* the wood paneling you're thinking of from the basement renovation circa 1977. and that's right, your heard me correctly: affixed to the body with liquid nails and dry.wall.screws.

the crowning discovery on cleaning this absolute gem, was a shopping list from the seller. it read thusly:
- get indian card
-hair dye
-boa skin, real or fake. yellow?
-scratchers
-call WF

to this day, we all still have a laugh because out of the blue somebody will say: boa skin? and the sentence gets finished.

Part III-
for such a clapped out **** box the mechanicals were somewhat decent, albeit leaky. i noticed a tick which i figured to be a sticky lifter, valve or an exhaust leak. but after a once over with the whole arsenal of Vatzone's finest 19.99 everything with lifetime warranty, and the whole "12 pack tuning program" it persisted. but that 318 ran great, and i mean just absolutely perfect. started easy, idled smooth, no funky hiccups or herky-jerky nonsense, power was smooth and it didn't run hot. it just ticked and then ticked louder when it got hot.

the genius before kept a spray can of white lith grease. during the course of sale, he had instructed that: if it got to tickin' then just spray some of this here, all up in here (up behind the balancer and pulley) and it'll quiet it right down. you can imagine the mess that made. who knows how long that little game had been going on.

anyway, the tick wasn't that loud. i told JR to roll and let me know if it got louder.

and dear reader, you know it did.

that tick, we had thought at first blush to be something not of much concern? yeah that was a rod bearing. and it just kept going, and going, and going away. getting louder and louder and louder. you'd hear him come down the street and let off and it sounded like the rod was gonna just jump right off and make an inspection window.

now here's the testament to the might 318. even with that rod trying its damn hardest to break up with the band and go solo, it still ran perfectly. idled fine, didn't over heat, had plenty of smooth power. it was still running perfect when finally broke down because we couldn't stand the noise anymore and yanked it to end its suffering. a post mortem autopsy revealed a pile of bearing shavings the size of a damn golf ball just chilling out on the block rail. another rod was twisted, two pistons were ate up on the crown and looked like the surface of the moon, and several cam lobes were just all base circle.

but it still performed admirably, and for that you can't fault it.

Epilogue-
after a new rattle bomb rebuild motor, The Machine battled on. serving time in the most brutal of ways: work truck to hourly employees who hated what they did for a living, who their boss was and really, if we're honest, themselves. even these terrible individuals failed to kill the 318, and it wasn't for lack of trying. they were experts at abuse and neglect.

however, set back not by its style, or absolute beater status, nor the ruffians who operated the wonderous marvel, a series of sudden events that involved a wood chipper, fiberglass extension ladder and three gallons of creosote finally doomed The machine to demise.

broken for parts, i kept the motor and used it in another project. the rest that wasn't sold got hauled off by the scrapper.

i wish i still had that super big gulp cup holder, though.
 
way back, had a 318 2bbl '70 Barracuda. 114k miles when I got it. 17 degrees F , fired off with about 3 seconds of cranking. 95 deg. F, same thing. Hot start- no problem. Had it in shop class. Idle in 90 deg+ weather for 30 minutes or more. Never got to the 50% mark on the coolant gauge.
Never failed to start.
Never let me down. One time it did quit running because when I replaced the points I got the pigtail shorted against the dist. body. Took about 5 minutes to correct.
Had headers. Could count on 19 mpg highway. 3:23 gears. A904. Lots of torque. From a stop light to 55 mph was fun.
225k miles when I parked it. Running great.
 
1976 I had a 340 4 speed Duster and spun #1 rod bearing.
I was leaving for Tech school (Denver Co) in a week and had to fix the car fast.
Got a 318 from the wrecking yard, slapped a Thermoquad intake and carb on it.
Pulled the 3.91's for a set of 2.94. Bare bones Duster with headers the car would pull down 20 mpg on the 1600 mile trip.
Drove it, raced it, sold it to my neighbor who used it for years,gave it to his little brother who also drove it daily till it lost it's life against a telephone pole. The car was sold to a guy who pulled the drivetrain and who knows,it may still be going.
My 63 Belvedere has a 1970 318 in it now. The 318 was a underdog but tough as nails.
 
I'm on my 9th 318 powered Mopar.

My first was a '66 poly that never lost a street race to a gm product in two summers of being a 16/17 year old kid.
Bone stock 2 barrel, 727, single exhaust, 2.94 open...but carefully tuned with some low and zero buck tricks.
 
They haven't achieved legendary status like the slant 6 for nuthin.
 
I've owned too many 318's to know the exact count, but here are a few facts that I know. Personal testimony :D
As for MPG....
  • Best MPG was my brothers '76 Dodge Aspen R/T. 318 2bbl with the OD 4-speed easily got 24 mpg on the highway.
  • My '72 Demon 318 2bbl with 904 and 2.76 gears would get 21-22 mpg
As for Performance...
  • Best ET was 15.9's @ 84 mph in a stone-stock 318 2bbl with dual exhaust. B-body, 904, 2.94 gears.
  • However, my fastest 318 2bbl was my Demon, but I never made a pass at the track with the 318.
As for long life.....
  • my neighbor had a late 70's model maxi van with 246k on the 318 4bbl when it caught fire. It was still running good and hauling passengers (car pooled) up to that point. However, it wasn't hard to find a 318 with over 200k and still purring like a kitten. Always needed a timing set to get there, and a valve job would keep them purring like a kitten once they got there but wasn't necessary. Oh, my neighbor down the street had a maxi that had 320k on it (car-pooled also), but it was a 360 4bbl van. All small block mopars could do it with care, that's my belief
 
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Speaking of timing sets. I never touched the one in my 318. Certain that it was original. I was the 3rd owner in 1980 and I could tell no one had the timing cover off. I kept looking at the ignition timing through the years, to see if it got jumpy from wear. Never did. 225K, ran smooth, idled smooth. Maybe I should have changed the timing set. But, I just didn't like messing with something that worked. I'm guessing it had metal gears and not nylon.
 
Speaking of timing sets. I never touched the one in my 318. Certain that it was original. I was the 3rd owner in 1980 and I could tell no one had the timing cover off. I kept looking at the ignition timing through the years, to see if it got jumpy from wear. Never did. 225K, ran smooth, idled smooth. Maybe I should have changed the timing set. But, I just didn't like messing with something that worked. I'm guessing it had metal gears and not nylon.
Probably. I've torn down a LOT of engines through the years and I've actually torn down very few with the nylon coated sprockets.
 
Speaking of timing sets. I never touched the one in my 318. Certain that it was original. I was the 3rd owner in 1980 and I could tell no one had the timing cover off. I kept looking at the ignition timing through the years, to see if it got jumpy from wear. Never did. 225K, ran smooth, idled smooth. Maybe I should have changed the timing set. But, I just didn't like messing with something that worked. I'm guessing it had metal gears and not nylon.
Mopar's "silent timing set" .... LOL :D :D .... If a guy put a steel set in there and still couldn't hear it. Cost saving using nylon if you ask me. The nylon gear sent a lot of really good small block mopars to the scrap yard.
 
Mopar's "silent timing set" .... LOL :D :D .... If a guy put a steel set in there and still couldn't hear it. Cost saving using nylon if you ask me. The nylon gear sent a lot of really good small block mopars to the scrap yard.
Exactly. The only sets I've ever heard had nylon coated gears. When the chains and nylon teeth wore real bad, the chain would start slapping the inside of the timing cover. I've seen a Buick 231 odd fire V6 wear a hole right through the timing cover.....but the engine was still running quite well. lol
 
The only 318 I've ever calculated highway mileage on was my 67 LA in a stripper white hat Coronet 440.
Manual steering, manual brakes, no AC.
It got 22-23, fully loaded on my move from OH to FL. Auto trans, 2.76 7 1/4 rear.
That was the cleanest, smoothest running one I've ever had, but not the most powerful.
Most powerful was that 66 poly.
 
Potential yes for sure, gas mileage yawn ya I guess, longevity for sure but all engines ran forever back then. Good fuel, oil, and work pride did that. But man were they dogs. I would hate to put up the number of times I beat 318 A bodies with my six cylinder ford maverick. (I was almost a Furd guy) I only owned one in a 318 (1976) Dodge van and I gave it to my neighbor when I built a 360 to replace it.
 
Potential yes for sure, gas mileage yawn ya I guess, longevity for sure but all engines ran forever back then. Good fuel, oil, and work pride did that. But man were they dogs. I would hate to put up the number of times I beat 318 A bodies with my six cylinder ford maverick. (I was almost a Furd guy) I only owned one in a 318 (1976) Dodge van and I gave it to my neighbor when I built a 360 to replace it.
Well, imagine this. We had a friend in school who had a 64 or 65 Falcon....I think it was a 64. 2 door post. We helped him pull the original 170 out and put a 300 in it. It would wear out recaps on the back within a week.
 
Just BTW- all the 318's I've ever had have outlasted the cars and/or transmissions they were attached to.

I have also found that both 318 and 360 engines seem not to have consistent power output.
Any given one could be a screamer or a puppy.
This seems to have carried over to the 3.8 as well, as I have observed some pretty dramatic differences in power on that particular engine.

Another thing that seems to be inconsistent on the 318, is oil pressure.
I've had stock, unrebuilt 318's that have:

Carried 20# at idle and only gone up to 50# at 4k RPM
Carried 15# and gone to 90 at 4K
Carried 78# and only inched to 80 at 4K!
...and almost anything in between.
All engines ran fine.
 
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My favorite "318 story" is the mid 1930's Chrysler with a 318 that had a 4 barrel and headers.
Ran 14.10 every single pass at Kill-Kare in OH about 1987.
I saw that car put a 69 454 powered, tubbed chevelle with slicks on the trailer in the finals among other similar cars.
Heartwarming.
 
I can say with confidence that the 318 in my PawPaw's 71 2 door Swinger would melt the right rear tire pretty much as long as you held the gas pedal down. It was actually difficult to take off without chirping the right rear. He did it all the time. It was a super nice car that my cousin is now letting it sit in the yard and rust slam away.
 
My favorite "318 story" is the mid 1930's Chrysler with a 318 that had a 4 barrel and headers.
Ran 14.10 every single pass at Kill-Kare in OH about 1987.
I saw that car put a 69 454 powered, tubbed chevelle with slicks on the trailer in the finals among other similar cars.
Heartwarming.
Lawdy. Talk about hurt feelins. lol
 
In High School a guy in our automotive class had a '78 Z28. 350 4bbl, auto, 3.42 gears. His Dad ran a speed shop. I had my '72 Demon with a 318, added a 4bbl and dual exhaust. We raced and I let him punch it first, but I still pulled away, even with my 2.76 gears.
  • But before I added the 4bbl and duals, I raced another Z28 that had been engine swapped - it now had a 327 4 speed. I raced him with my Demon 318 2bbl and beat him pretty bad!
  • I also race my cousin's '74 Camaro LT-type 350 4bbl with my '73 Swinger 318 2bbl 904 2.76's and I won that race too !!! :D
I'd say the 318 would hold it's own in cars that should have been a full click up in class
 
In 1989, I bought a 74 Dart Swinger with a 318 for $400. Ran great and was a very nice car with all the doodads when it was new. It was pretty rusty though. I patched the rear shackle mounts when they came through the trunk floor by bolting a piece of 4 x 4 to each frame rail and using lag bolts to mount the spring mounts to...lol. The 318 got a timing chain and gears when I noticed lumps falling out the oil pan drain plug...which turned out to be plastic pieces from the timing gear. I probably put 40-50K miles on the car before it got so rusty that I needed to do something else. I bought a nice 74 Duster body and pulled the drivetrain out of the Mutant Ninja Dart. While the 318 was out and on a stand, I put valve stem seals in it and all new freeze plugs, steam cleaned it and gave it a coat of blue paint. It lived on in the Duster and my wife & I probably put another 50K miles on it. It went to FL twice, the Nats twice and all over NC, SC, TN, plus it was my daily driver for about 4 years. No telling how many miles it had when I sold the Duster to @345man2 to fund my 64 Belvedere wagon build. Every 318 I've ever had were good motors that got decent gas mileage for a V8.

:thumbsup:
 
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