Posted by Brian in Oregon on Wednesday, October 25, 2000 at 02:42:01:
In Reply to: Re: 318 or 360 posted by Fred Darvill on Wednesday, October 25, 2000 at 01:35:25:
I don't claim to be a Dodge expert, but a couple of thoughts came to mine when I picked a 318 over a 360.
The 318 is a huge increase in power over the 230. How much more do you need? The 318 is more than capable of busting axles if abused. The 360 will do it that much quicker if abused. The 360 will generate more heat.
On the plus side, the 360 simply will haul a load or trailer a lot easier than a 318.
Now here's a thought. To run at 55 mph with stock gears & tires, you'll be doing around 3500 rpm. A lot more if you want to go faster. The 318 has a much shorter stroke than the 360. Short stroke motors tend to have less problems and less wear at higher sustained rpms than longer stroke motors.
Thus, the 318 *might* be better suited for use with the stock tires & gears, and the 360 for use with either larger tires, 4.89 gears, or both. Perhaps each would be in its own 'element', so to speak.
In fact, a 340 would make probably the ideal power plant from the standpoint of stroke and cubies. But they were designed for a lot of power and would have to be detuned with a stock cam and probably 318 or 360 heads and intake. Kind of an expensive waste of a 340.
(For those who don't know, the 360 is a stroked 318, the 340 is a "bored out" 318 with the same stroke.)
Another idea is the *free* horsepower you can get merely by using a windage tray. These will readily fit the 318. You could put in a slightly warm cam, unshroud the valves or use Magnum heads, a better intake, and obtain some decent results that would still leave a reliable daily driver engine. In fact, the later roller cam engines are said to have picked up 8% better gas mileage just by reducing cam friction. That translates to more *free* horsepower.
On the other hand, the 360 will do the same merely by having more cubies than the 318.
Anyone want to wade in on this train of thought?