318 build

[Steven73SE]

Alright guys, I'm new to the world of Mopars, and I recently acquired 4 1973 dodge chargers on of which was an SE, all were original 318 cars with 727. the cars came with 3 motors and transmisions. I'm working of restoring them, and I'm rebuilding one of the engines now. It had previously been rebuilt, but had been allowed to sit and it got water in the carb, intake, heads, and #2 cylinder. the 2 cylinder has some minor rust on the wall, but once we knocked the piston out its not bad, and we are going to try to hone it out. The engine was already .040 over with forged I beam rods I believe(3418645 rods) and cast pistons and stock crank I believe. Im looking to build a street engine thats got more than stock power, but wont be too hard at the pump. Im looking to try to find a new set of flat top pistons, and have the block decked with a set of aluminum heads, to raise compression a bit. Im looking for a good set of forged flat top pistons that wont break the bank but will hold up to a little abuse. Like I said, I'm new to mopars so im open to any help or advice on the project.

 

[Budnicks]

Welcome to FBBO

maybe try & post these types of questions in the
general discussion section, year specific or tech sections here
you'll probably get way more answers to your questions

this is mainly just a welcome wagon, mostly for a meet & great,
not really intended as a Q&A or tech section

good luck, sounds like a great start,
just remember the cylinder heads especially some port work & bigger valves,
better valve-train, better camshaft, better 4bbl intake, good performance carb
& hotter ignition & coil, a good free flowing exhaust & gauze type air filter,
good torque converter matched for your engine/driving style & with proper rear gears,
that all would be a great start, pretty much basic performance 101 "kind of"
{just don't skimp there on the heads especially},
try & keep it about 10:1 compression with near zero deck flat top pistons,
a cam with more lift less duration will help with mileage a little & still give you performance...
a good set of professionally done heads, is always $$$ well spent
are a big part of the engine performance build, double the performance "almost"

 

[Car Nut]

aboard!

 

[eric383]

Welcome to FBBO. Any pics?

 

[Steven73SE]

Thanks for the info that's pretty much what I already kinda figured. They're all in rough shape. The 4th is on a trailer and it's just a body with all of the panels. It's been acid dipped and coated before I bought it. All the panels and doors were too. I have all of the parts and trim for it it just has to have some spots cut and welded from the rust and acid. I'll have to upload pics later my phone doesn't like to do that. I'm looking to try to get one of them, that's complete running and have it get the best fuel mileage I can get from it, while I'm working on assembling the acid dipped one. I plan on taking panels and doors of of another one to replace rusted ones on it so I can get it road worthy soon

 

[Homstead]

Welcome to the site! Looking forward to the pics!

 

[Steven73SE]

I'm trying to get this one running and roadworthy again first using panels off of the other cars. I'm working on rewiring it now. the one below has no engine or transmission so im using it for parts at the moment.
This is the cylinder thats rusted on the engine I pulled. I'm hoping its not pitted too bad so i can use the block without going too far over. its already .040 over

 

[super-bee_ski]

Hi Steven!
Welcome aboard and thanks for joining the forum.
GREAT CARS!

 

[68sprtsat383]

Welcome to the forum

 

[plymouth67]

There was an article in Hot Rod a few years back on making 408 horsepower out of a 318...didn't take much. It had stock pistons with a set of 302 cast truck heads that had been milled .030 and bigger valves installed. They put a nice cam and air gap intake with a good carb and made 408 hp and 406 ft lbs. of torque. The stock bottom end had 250,000 miles on it...I had a copy of it somewhere...these heads were used on mid eighties 318 truck motors...right before fuel injection came along..

 

[Car Nut]

Nice collection of cars!

 

[rumblefish360]

Best fuel mileage? Rebuild it stock. More compression. Is OK as long as it stays no higher than 9.0-1. Recurve the distributor for quick advance and limit the total timing to 34*, 52* with the vacuum hose hooked up. Give it as much initial as it wants to make starting and part throttle driving easy.

Stock (and mildly hopped up) 318's do very well with dual exhaust (headers optional) with 2-1/4 pipe along with a nah pipe. (X pipe optional)

Enhance your ignition with a MSD or equal. The multi spark advantage is mostly an advantage in the low rpm range where your doing 95% of your driving.

Tune tune that carb!

 

[b-mueller77]

Looks for a lot of work.
Good luck and welcome.

 

[69clone]

Welcome aboard. The 318 can be a decent motor. Mine was already built when I bought it but it ran really good for a 318 compared to the one in my old 89' w150 ram. Not entirely sure on the details but it has a 600cfm 4bbl dual plane intake, headers, 360 heads and a 340 cam iirc.

 

[Steven73SE]

Thanks for all of the replies guys, I have one of the motors running right now, it cranks and idles as well as any car vehicle I've ever had, and it hasn't been cranked in two years at least. Not sure what the specs on it are as far as internals go, doubt its stock unless the engine has been replaced, because the car is reading 700,000+ miles. It had a Holley 2 bbl on it, but as soon as I fired it up, it started spewing gas out of the vent tubes, so I took one of the carters off of another one and she runs great now