4 barrels and intakes are over rated on a street car

[pearljam724]

I bought a bone stock 73 Dart a couple months and took it out for the first time today. It has a bone stock 318. With stock intake, stock cam and 2 barrel. Today was first the time that I put it to a real test. As I obviously couldn’t do that test driving it, the day I bought it. In my mind prior. I knew what I was getting and had zero performance expectations. Turns out, this damn 318 motor screams. It will run circles around my B body convertible 360 with bigger cam, bigger intake and 4 barrel. There’s no comparison. Little bit less weight with the 318 car. But, not enough that I’m extremely impressed with the performance.

 

[Slap Stick]

Different gears?

 

[pearljam724]

Different gears?

Not really. 360 has 2.94 and 318 has 2.76. I like both. I like high gearing

 

[chargervert]

I bought a bone stock 73 Dart a couple months and took it out for the first time today. It has a bone stock 318. With stock intake, stock cam and 2 barrel. Today was first the time that I put it to a real test. As I obviously couldn’t do that test driving it, the day I bought it. In my mind prior. I knew what I was getting and had zero performance expectations. Turns out, this damn 318 motor screams. It will run circles around my B body convertible 360 with bigger cam, bigger intake and 4 barrel. There’s no comparison. Little bit less weight with the 318 car. But, not enough that I’m extremely impressed with the performance.

Things are mismatched on the other car,and no one is impressed with any 318 car!

 

[pearljam724]

Things are mismatched on the other car,and no one is impressed with any 318 car!

Calm down, bud. Lol ! I’m not claiming it to have Hemi performance. Lol ! It’s not a bad little motor. Quite frankly, this car will scoot.

 

[Ray70Chrg]

I've had 318s in a '70 Charger and then a '74 duster both with automatics. They weren't dogs. You could drive them hard and they were spirited but you weren't going to win any red light jumps against the big dogs. Like chargervert said above there is something wrong with your 360 set-up.

 

[chargervert]

I'm just telling it like it is,I own a 73 318 car,it's a slug tied to a building! It gets ok mileage! Every other car I own,all 22 of them will spank the crap out of it!

 

[BeatersRus]

is it possible the prior owner swapped an earlier 318 in?
the 69-s had a steel crank and 9-2-1 compression with 230 hp and 340 tq with a 2bbl.
i was just talking on the group with someone about putting later model heads/the 302?s onto an earlier shortblock for a cheap thrills build.

 

[pearljam724]

is it possible the prior owner swapped an earlier 318 in?
the 69-s had a steel crank and 9-2-1 compression with 230 hp and 340 tq with a 2bbl.
i was just talking on the group with someone about putting later model heads/the 302?s onto an earlier shortblock for a cheap thrills build.

It’s possible. But, I highly doubt it. This car hasn’t been tampered with much. But, I ll have to check the numbers.

 

[pearljam724]

Nope, it’s a 73. Has the pcv valve on the stock intake too. Early small block don’t have the pcv or carb choke built into the intake.

 

[Slap Stick]

I had 2 318 Chargers with 2.76 gears and thought they ran pretty good for what they were. Dad had a 70 318 Challenger and it was pretty peppy. A neighbor's dad had a 71 Satty 318 and it would spank em all. Same gearing, etc but that thing would burn down the tires.
We never figured out why it ran so well.

 

[pearljam724]

I had 2 318 Chargers with 2.76 gears and thought they ran pretty good for what they were. Dad had a 70 318 Challenger and it was pretty peppy. A neighbor's dad had a 71 Satty 318 and it would spank em all. Same gearing, etc but that thing would burn down the tires.
We never figured out why it ran so well.

Yeah, no motor is the same. This one has matching heads, stock exhaust manifolds. It screams. It would probably run even better if I could find a 2 barrel spacer. I doubt anyone makes them ? It runs too well to want to swap the intake or carb.

 

[66 Sat]

I had a 318 '69 Barracuda fastback, 2.76 rear, 2 barrel, single exhaust. It was ok up to say 50 mph in stock form but wasn't fast in any way. Once I had headers, 4 barrel Holley, Edelbrock Performer manifold and cam it was like a different car. There's either something wrong with the 360 or the 318 is possessed by the devil.

 

[Kern Dog]

is it possible the prior owner swapped an earlier 318 in?
the 69-s had a steel crank and 9-2-1 compression with 230 hp and 340 tq with a 2bbl.

230 HP ?

Do you believe Politicians too ?

 

[Slap Stick]

230 gross hp in those days. When they changed the ratings to net it was 150. The magnums were up to 230 net.

 

[66Satellite47]

pearljam, if you are happy with your 318, good for you. Some motors of each size & design work better than the others of the same size/design.

 

[moparedtn]

Those late 60's 318's were peppy as hell.
By the mid-70's, the poor thing had been neutered like most engines, but it still was
bulletproof for the most part.
In fact, if the Slant 6 is considered the most durable Mopar engine of all time, I'd rank
the 318 right behind it.

 

[BB BELLA]

when we picked up the 66 Belii it had 318 poly 4bbl /727 and it would go pretty good if you screamed it to the last decibel! now has 500ci/6 speed zf and it will make passengers scream to the last decibel!
it's all in what your use to!

 

[Slap Stick]

The long stroke 360 with the cam and bigger carb needs gears to take advantage of the mods. Depending on the cam and where it makes power the sub 3 gearing keeps the engine from making power at low rpm. In other words, its not an efficient air pump at low rpm.

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

My buddy had a Scamp with a 318 2 barrel and it ran really well. He beat the snot out of that poor car. It was mint when he bought it and I always wished I would have found it before he bought it