Posted by Brian in Oregon on Sunday, April 21, 2002 at 9:55PM :
In Reply to: 318 question. Again. posted by J Henry on Sunday, April 21, 2002 at 1:57PM :
Look at the valve covers.
The poly 318 has two bolts through the middle of the valve cover, and the lower edge is scalloped.
The wedge 318 (318LA) has the bolts around the outer lip of the valve cover, and the lower edge is straight.
The 318LA started as the 273, then a forged steel crank 318 came out on 1967, in 1968 it went to a cast crank. Later the 340 came out, including a high output muscle version, the 340TA. All these share the same stroke and differ by bore size. The 360 is a stroked version, BUT the crank journals are larger. The 360 uses the larger port and valve heads of the base 340.
If you do have a wedge 318LA, then these two books will be a great help. They do NOT cover the 318 Poly.
"How to Rebuild Small-Block MOPAR Engines" by Don Taylor & Larry Hofer, HP Books, ISBN 0-89586-128-3 $17.95
"How To Hot Rod Small Block MOPAR Engines" by Larry Sheppard, HP Books, ISBN 0-89586-479-7, $17.94.
These two books will arm you with the differences between the engines and they cover the individual parts and changes.