Looking for help on my mopar !?!?!

[PleaseNoSteve]

Here is my problem. I have a 72 challenger with a 5.2 318 with a 2 barell carb and headers. Other than that, she is a stocker. If I was going to spend in the neighorhood of 2000-3000 bucks to get more hp, where should I start? What should I add, and how much should I look to pay? Thanks in advance guys. This site is such a great collection of gear heads! Cant wait to hear what yall think I should do!

[Bigblue73]

What are you going to do and what do you want to spend? If you want to stick the money in the motor, do a stroker kit or find a budget 360. A stroked 318 can make some decent power with bigger heads. Alot of the roundy round guys are stroking 318's because the 340's are becoming scarce. Check the mopar specific sites like moparchat.com for some good budget builds.

Anyway, glad to see another Moapr around here.

[PleaseNoSteve]

Where would I find a quality stroker kit for a 318?

[Bigblue73]

They did an article in one of the mopar magzines about a year ago and got a ridiculous amount of HP out of it. Like 430 horses for less than a bag of Doritos (the cost was cheap). Hughes Engines, Mancini and Mopar and a few others have complete kits. Pick up a Mopar Collectors Guide, they have a ton of mopar specific kits. If I can make a recommendation....Call Hughes Engines or check out there website. These guys are incredibly knowleable for making power from the Mopars, make sure you have an idea of what you want to accomplish before you call them though, it makes their recommendations easier. Your current set-up has headers, add a cam, find a nice dual plane aluminum a 600 holley and you should have a nice performing engine. You have want to add some small valve "J" heads to replace the stockers. The "J" head flow decent out of the box. The 302 casting used on the mid 80's 318's use the swirl porting. Alot of circle track guys swear by this head. What about a crate engine?


Again, what are your plans? The suspension is where you can make really big improvements. Lateral Dynamics and XV Motorsports have rear suspension systems for these cars. I may have spoken to soon for Lateral Dynamics however, I know they have done the B-Bodies. XV, Alterkation, Magnum Force and Suspension Freak have front suspension systems for the e-bodies to replace the torsion bar system that is in place. XV has even dialed in a package for the stock suspension with custom shocks and torsion bars.

Brakes can get crazy for the mopar's...AR engineering has a kit that adapts the viper calipers to the '73 and later disc brake spindle. Really cool with 14 rotor from an AMG Mercedes. XV (made by Stoptech I believe), Wilwood and Baer both make quality kits for the E-bodies. I would recommend at least upgrading the brakes for safety. By the way Master Power Brakes has an 11 1/4" rear disc kit for the 8 3/4" rear for 695.00 out the door.

4 to 5 speed conversions - Classic Mopar 5 Speed is coming to the market in few weeks with the E-body kits.

Sorry for the ramble.

[MonzaRacer]

For the money I believe you can get a complete 360 ready to run from www.golenengines.com but 360s are a cheap torque builder. and then spend cash for stroker and get her over 400 cubes. Buy a set of Edelbrock( i believe they have some now)heads or similar product and slide them on the 318 if it still runs ok and then build a 360 short block and swap bottoms when ready.
Heads make power, a good set of aftermarket aluminum heads and some simple forged flattops and good bolt through out will be better cash spent.
good luck
Lee

[go-fish]

Hughes 318 to 390 kit : $1,070
Eddy Aluminum Heads : $1,340
Ebay Eddy Air Gap manifold : $100 ???
Hughes Cam : $158
Ebay Holley Carb : $350 ???
Machine work, boring/honing : ???

There's your $3,000 right there. A well spent 3K though. You could use the savings to get the machine work done if you can get good ebay set of Eddy heads.
Find the Budget 318 article on the web from Engine Masters. It'll help with understanding where these small Mopars need attention. It was a good read.
moparts.com may have deals on used parts. It is the most extensive Mopar tech related site as well. More users than Moparchat. Good luck to ya.
BTW, If you go the 360 route you can stroke for bigger cubes. i.e. 360 to 426 cid. !!!!!!!!! Wow.