Detective D
Well-Known Member
As the title says, I have a 318 Magnum in a Dakota, with a 5 speed manual. I have been cleaning it up and have plans on touching up the body. 50k miles means I will have this for a while, so I thought I would pick the brains of other Mopar guys about tuning the engine for a little more juice.
I don't want to:
Get into the bottom end, at all, it has 50k miles.
Not sure I want to do a cam, at least not for a while. Lots of tear down of factory seals and good factory parts, I would rather wait until something needs looked at and go from there. Cam recommendations welcome for the future, just keep in mind stock springs in the heads etc.
Not touching the heads, in so much as taking them off anyway. Stuff under the valve cover I am good with messing around with
Lastly, I don't want the thing to start gulping gas, it's a 4x4 Dakota not a drag race car.
I know from the 2001 Ram I had that the log intake is a restriction, from reading about sprucing that up before I sold it to Brother in law instead. I have seen people gut them out to help but I think eventually I would plan to swap the intake off, people online have always touted the M1 EFI intake. Prefer to keep the factory EFI in place, so I don;t want to go to a carb.
I have more questions about things like manifolds vs shorty headers, rocker arms and what ratio can be used with stock other stuff, that sort of thing. Brands to stay away from or that know their stuff. Again not a race engine, but I hate chinesium junk so something in the middle. I have heard Harland Sharp is good for rocker arms, but never used them, and have no idea of other brands to look at.
Despite my reading into things from years back things change, brands have merged, and I haven't really built one of these motors before. The truck is snappy for sure, but I don't need it to tow so would like to bend the curve more towards HP, and let the SBM do it's thing a bit.
So long time Magnum tuners, what did you do and what works best? I did a search and found the results lacking, so thought this might be a good thread for everyone as a consolidation of knowledge. 318's can make really good power and I feel there is some left on the table in factory trim to tune into it without going overboard.
I don't want to:
Get into the bottom end, at all, it has 50k miles.
Not sure I want to do a cam, at least not for a while. Lots of tear down of factory seals and good factory parts, I would rather wait until something needs looked at and go from there. Cam recommendations welcome for the future, just keep in mind stock springs in the heads etc.
Not touching the heads, in so much as taking them off anyway. Stuff under the valve cover I am good with messing around with
Lastly, I don't want the thing to start gulping gas, it's a 4x4 Dakota not a drag race car.
I know from the 2001 Ram I had that the log intake is a restriction, from reading about sprucing that up before I sold it to Brother in law instead. I have seen people gut them out to help but I think eventually I would plan to swap the intake off, people online have always touted the M1 EFI intake. Prefer to keep the factory EFI in place, so I don;t want to go to a carb.
I have more questions about things like manifolds vs shorty headers, rocker arms and what ratio can be used with stock other stuff, that sort of thing. Brands to stay away from or that know their stuff. Again not a race engine, but I hate chinesium junk so something in the middle. I have heard Harland Sharp is good for rocker arms, but never used them, and have no idea of other brands to look at.
Despite my reading into things from years back things change, brands have merged, and I haven't really built one of these motors before. The truck is snappy for sure, but I don't need it to tow so would like to bend the curve more towards HP, and let the SBM do it's thing a bit.
So long time Magnum tuners, what did you do and what works best? I did a search and found the results lacking, so thought this might be a good thread for everyone as a consolidation of knowledge. 318's can make really good power and I feel there is some left on the table in factory trim to tune into it without going overboard.