Rowdy and Mean 318 build

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AJ/FormS said:
I have read that in some cases,adding a thicker head gasket will put the engine into detonation, cuz the tight Q is lost.They say Q is most effective between .050 and .035.Or less. And they say that Q between .050 and .080 is detonation prone.And they say that Q in excess of .080 is no longer Q.
Since I am not an engine builder, I have no way of verifying that.
I can tell you that with Eddies,I can run 87E10 at 11.3Scr with a 292/108 cam and .031Q. And
I can run 87E10 still with Eddies, at 10.9Scr with a 276/286/110 cam and .033Q. this cam has about 61* of overlap,(LELO; just a bit more than yours)
In both cases I could run 36* of timing,detonation free. I choose to run less, cuz it makes no difference to my butt-dyno. That engine now has over 100,000 miles on it,so the jury I think, is in. My engine vacuum peaks at 2200rpm, so I am careful to not put too much power-timing in there, from 2200 to 3400. But at PT (part throttle) I pour the coals to it with a 22* Vcan, and a manual timing control that has a plus/minus range of 7.5 degrees. So at 2200 while cruising the engine may be enjoying 53 degrees,or more, of cruise timing. But unlike most hot rodders, I only run 14* at idle.With the DB timing device, I might crank it back to 6, to idle her down on the parking lot.This very useful to idle a stick car at a very slow mph.With my combo,600rpm is 4.4mph, with clutch fully engaged.
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Sounds like you got a fun setup... How about you just give me your car? Lol :p
 
MOPEkidD-3 said:
Regarding Lelo Dart's issue, if it is a stock Magnum long block there is basically no effective quench, the pistons sit too far down to reach close enough to the head surface at TDC. Always irritated me about stock Magnum engines, kind of defeats the point of having closed-chamber heads.
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Sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread. I was just pointing out I had a very similar cam and detonation. I agree the timing probably needs to be dialed back a little. It was just a little alarming when I saw the cam and the problems you had.
 
Lelo Dart said:
Sorry didn't mean to hijack your thread. I was just pointing out I had a very similar cam and detonation. I agree the timing probably needs to be dialed back a little. It was just a little alarming when I saw the cam and the problems you had.
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No worries it's an alarming problem indeed, hope you can fix it better than I did lol.

Finally grabbed some pics of the old 318 parts and such... my only concern is that scratch on the #3 rod journal if you can see it.

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Are you referring to the to crescent shaped scratch. A little polishing to take most of thr rough edges out, and then not a worry. It'll be your "#3 journal oil reservoir" LOL

Yes, that pistons looks like my Opel forged one after some extended detonation in a race....Surface pitting is not at all unusual too.
 
MOPEkidD-3 said:
Sounds like you got a fun setup... How about you just give me your car? Lol :p
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You do bodywork?
I would love for you to have it, at least long enough to get all the bodywork done on it, or one summer. You cannot believe how much fun this car has been for me! Sadly, the rear quarters are rotting away, and this spring I see it's moving to the front fenders too.
 
nm9stheham said:
Are you referring to the to crescent shaped scratch. A little polishing to take most of thr rough edges out, and then not a worry. It'll be your "#3 journal oil reservoir" LOL
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No that's just a weird-looking oil drip lol... it's on the journal on the right in the picture, directly in the center; it's barely enough to catch a fingernail on but it runs around the entire surface. The bearing showed that a little spec of something hard got stuck in the bearing material and wore into it.

Judging from the piston skirts and general "burned" appearance with the brown residue I'd imagine this engine ran hot and didn't have the oil changed much in its life. Only 117k miles in 40-some years.
 
Just measured the deck height on my 318 magnum, all oem rotating assembly, .047 in the hole. Oem mag pistons took 13 lbs of boost in Colorado (10psi at sea level) No problems yet. Lots of folks run oem pistons under a turbo. The key is tuning and lots of fuel. I run E85 because it's cheap and I wouldnt need to add water/meth. With such drastic altitude changes that we have in Colorado; it would be wise to consider fuel injection for your 318. It's already going to be a little more difficult than most to bring it to 400hp. Only because you will already have a 50+ hp loss just from altitude alone.
 
MOPEkidD-3 said:
No that's just a weird-looking oil drip lol... it's on the journal on the right in the picture, directly in the center; it's barely enough to catch a fingernail on but it runs around the entire surface. The bearing showed that a little spec of something hard got stuck in the bearing material and wore into it.
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Roger, just polish it a little with some 320 to 400 grit Wet-or-Dry spun around the journal with a leather strip, and it will be fine. That scratch is quite minor.

That varnish is not uncommon on carbed engines. One reason is that more fuel tends to get into the oil and that raises the varnish levels. Wanna see some REAL varnish? Here is the lefter gallery of a /6 that had a small carb leak for years; the whole engine was like this at 59 k original miles!

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I had to hammer the lifters down and out with a wooden dowel and hammer! LOL It is running strong now... but it IS a /6.
 
Yeah I know about slantys; 100% better than nothing.................. is.....still.............nothing.
Ok , it wasn't all that bad.
I think my 1980 Volare must just be in the tank category. Or it has a horrible rear gear. Or both,lol
I gave up on spinning the tires almost right away, and tuned it for fuel economy instead. It actually did pretty good, and so I kept it around since 1994.
Since 1969, I have had 4 slanty cars, and that was 3.5 too many. But three of them had minty bodies.
 
In this day and age IMO the /6 is totally obsolete. Maybe 30 years ago when most cars were really slow they were OK but nowadays even the cheapest base-model econobox has 150-200 HP and they don't need much torque because they have 5+ speed transmissions to help with that. The gas mileage on /6s was never even that great, just a few more MPG than a 318. Stock 318 2-bbl cars are aggravating enough for me to drive, I've never driven a slant 6 car but I don't have any interest unless it's heavily modified/turbocharged. Maybe an extra lightweight early A-body with a Hyper-Pak'd 170 /6 and 4-speed manual would be OK, anything else "no thanks" lol.
 
I have never been able to get the /6 mileage so many CLAIM to get.
I did have a 225 (*I think*) in a Dart. A *I think* it was a '67. Power was acceptable for general driving duties. I just felt like I was mashing the pedal all the time.
 
rumblefish360 said:
I have never been able to get the /6 mileage so many CLAIM to get.
I did have a 225 (*I think*) in a Dart. A *I think* it was a '67. Power was acceptable for general driving duties. I just felt like I was mashing the pedal all the time.
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yeah but that is how I drive no matter how big the engine is, well, I mean how big the small block is,lol. It just gets more exciting with a 360. I cannot imagine a stroker.
The best thing about the slanty for me was that I could idle them waaay down until every power pulse would jolt the chassis. Then if you wander around the back of the car, you can practically count the pulses. And they have this great thoop-thoop-thoop sound. Unfortunately it all goes away as soon as the revs come off idle.
I think the best I ever got was about 24mpgCa. That would be 19.2mpgUS.
Shoot a teener can do that!
But around town, my slantys always did better than most teeners I've ever owned. So big deal. Not enough advantage for me.
 
AJ/FormS said:
yeah but that is how I drive no matter how big the engine is, well, I mean how big the small block is,lol. It just gets more exciting with a 360. I cannot imagine a stroker.
The best thing about the slanty for me was that I could idle them waaay down until every power pulse would jolt the chassis. Then if you wander around the back of the car, you can practically count the pulses. And they have this great thoop-thoop-thoop sound. Unfortunately it all goes away as soon as the revs come off idle.
I think the best I ever got was about 24mpgCa. That would be 19.2mpgUS.
Shoot a teener can do that!
But around town, my slantys always did better than most teeners I've ever owned. So big deal. Not enough advantage for me.
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I know we're getting off track a bit but... that's why I love my Jeep, the 4.0L inline-6 is like a modernized slant (AMC 6 actually) with high-flow ports and valves, multi-port EFI, etc. I've done some bolt-ons to that engine along with a gear swap to 3.55s (on 29" tires) and that thing is a riot to rip around town with the 5-speed manual as my base-trim '93 XJ Cherokee is just a hair over 3000 lbs even being a real 4x4. I'd love to put that drivetrain in an old Rambler or something, in fact a member on here is doing it to a '69 Barracuda I believe. They were factory rated at 190 net HP and like 210 lb-ft which says something.
 
Own a 89 jeep cherokee with 300,000 miles on the eng. It's a jeep!(like to mark its territory) But don't burn a drop of oil.
I have only seen one with a hole in the block, my step sons cherokee. Swamped it in moab, got it started and drove it to SLC. Made it 2/3 the way there and Boom!!!!! Watered down oil, just don't lube vary well. It had 175,000 miles on it.
Also had a 72 demon with a slanty in it. 3 speed on the floor. beat a few 302 Stanges of the ears with it.
Best damn snow car i ever had............wish i had it back!
 
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