If you had ANY idea how many people have asked me about performance 318 build tips over the years, you might understand that this is a popular series. Haha.
@ I used to have a 318 dodge pick up truck. It got 12 mpg no matter what. It was designed that way. I find it semi useful but not a base to build something special out of it. I rather go with 440 block.
Retired mechanic and gearhead here. I’m the industry since ‘79. Jamie’s explanation of quench, port velocity, and chamber design is the most comprehensive explanation I’ve ever heard. Excellent material, and I can say it. Because I lived it. More power to high IQ Washington Hippie Gearhead Musicians!
If I remember rightly, the "quench" concept was first realised by Ricardo & his team of engineers in the UK sometime in the mid/late 1920's. This allowed a jet of combustible gasses to squirt into the combustion chambers of side valve [flathead] engines. The high speed swirling gasses helped prevent a single flame front from progressing across the near static fuel air mixture, as was normal in older side valve engines. This flame front pushed a pressure wave ahead of itself, compressing the, as yet, unburned fuel even more until it spontaniously combusted, which we know a "knock". Retarding the spark addressed this problem, but this caused a loss of power & increased heat build up. Ricardo's creation of "squish" allowed higher compression from something less than 4 to 1 on up to 5.5 to 1 on the same low grade of fuel. It also allowed the spark to be advanced which boosted power even more. By 1933, Dodge & Chrysler were offering the aluminium "Red Head" with 6.5 to 1 compression, & post war, even 7.5 to 1 was used on some side valve engines. Ricardo's 'squish' saved the day & this principal is important even today if improved engine performance is the target on any improved performance engine build.
WHOA WHOA WHOA! We wanna see more of the burrito. What kind? From where? Homemade? Alright, I admit it, I may be alone in this. And I may be hungry. Either way, show us more burrito!!!
It’s the same coffee stand burrito I’ve shown in many videos before. Haha. The Burrito Bros are my spirit guides. It’s not the *best* burrito. But it’s the best thing you can buy for breakfast at the coffee stand, and they all have ‘em around here.
I grew up in a world where everything on Pentastar wheels was motivated by the 318cid reliable as sunrise engine. The 273 was a mystery. So great video!
Really? When or maybe where I grew up 318's were viewed as a slant 6 with worse gas mileage. In other words strictly for dependable transportation. The 273 super commando was seeing as a legitimate small block. Not saying any of that was true or correct just people's perception. But with a 4 barrel and solid lifters I think helped influence why some saw the 273 as a performance engine. Well at least till the 340.
Im typically alone in the garage trying to deal with mechanical "suprises" on older cars. One of your most valuable services ( to me at least) is your ability to sort through surprises/ issues. Not so much that youve seen it all before, but youve seen enough to sort out a path forward.
Exactly! One has to be prepared for that sort of thing. It’s amazing actually, I have found over my years turning wrenches that the surprise is almost always new. Meaning, you learn about one oddball failure and work through it, then in all likelihood you’ll never see it again. That process of working through whatever you find is something I hope I am sharing effectively through this channel.
Great content. I have a set of ‘65 273 closed heads I just rebuilt . Agonized about hardened seats and ended up having my machinist put them in. Went through hell learning the hard way about the different intake bolt sizes and angles.
Uncle Tony has a good channel for all things Mopar , so between you two there’s lots of great information. I really appreciate you sharing your work , like many other people I’m very interested in this vintage of Chryslers. 1965-1974 ish.
What an incredible interesting , informative and helpful information . Not too mention , great manufacturers history lesson . Thanks , Professor Jamie 👨🎓🙏
You know, some of us are having a hard enough time securing good 920 heads for our 273s without “somebody” using them on 318s. Think of the community’s needs, man… Lots of great stuff here. Beautifully explained so a simpleton like me can understand. You are doing great work, my friend. Loving the 273 content. There’s you and Scott’s Speed Shop (“Yard Dart” playlist). That’s it.
I found a big chunk of casting sand firmly attached inside the end exhaust port on my 69 340. The car had been used, hard, for years, without coming lose, it took some work with a hammer and punch to knock it off.
@SchoolofHackers it was at a time when I was making many changes to the car, so I can’t say. The car was fast dead stock, a 69 Swinger, 3.23 automatic, 14.1s - 14..2s, always at 99mph. Always 99 point something, you’d think just once I’d crack 100, but never while stock. It sounds slow now to a lot of guys, but that put me ahead of a lot of big block street cars. These were the same cars we drove to work every day, put snow tires on them and drove all winter.
This is great information for people who are trying to stay on a budget and have time to do all this. Me? I would buy some aftermarket aluminium heads, slap them on and call it a day. Keep up the good work!
DAMN IT. I meant to dedicate some time in this video explaining that there are NO small port, small valve aluminum heads. They are all sized to the 340/360, and would be massively overkill for what we’re doing here. We absolutely discussed the possibility.
Hey im early. I put a choke cable on the fifth ave yesterday and in my infinite wisdom, i routed it in a way that pulling the cable caused the slightly loose distributor to rotate. I was driving ro work trying to figure out why it was running like garbage, twisted the distributor and it started running good, surprise surprise
Thanks for the explanation on the different combustion chambers on the various 318 heads. My entire 318 life has been lived with the 68 to early 70s-ish open chamber head, and they have always been pretty good, but I can see where the closed chamber would be better. But, the 340-360 was what I have usually leaned on for making large metal containers (aka, Mopars) go fast. BTW, this video was apparently done in the "more hair" era of recent videos. All good in any case!
I find it funny Chev 327 and Ford 302 ‘s get all the praise. 318’s definitely can hold their own against them. 318’s definitely need more love 💕 They got a bad rap ! “Taxi Motor” 😂
1970 We, my younger brother and I, made a few performance changes to his 1969 Plymouth Satellite. His girlfriend's brother had a totaled 65 Formula S Cuda / 273. He latched onto the heads, intake and Carter AFB. I needed the flywheel, bell housing and four speed trans. We bought a retired 66 plymouth police cruiser with a 3:55 posi. Without too much time or expense we created a street performer that turned a few heads. Also had a lot of fun!😊
I’ve found more rpm by adjusting hydraulic lifters near the bottom off their travel in stead of the old “1/2 turn from zero” . Turns the lifter into a short travel if you will and limits the amount of aerated oil in the lifter that causes them to bleed down. Bleed down is more common than pump up in my experience. Especially with the janky hydraulics we have today. Love the 318’s!
IF they pump up the engine stops revving. And yes, you could have some bad things happen between pistons and valves, you’d have to check total piston travel in the lifter and do some calculating. But lifters pumping up isn’t nearly as common as it’s been made out to be. Lashing from the bottom up is nothing new, in fact Rhoads V-Max lifters advise doing it that way.
JAMIE. I have 3 sets of 66 273 heads. All closed chambered. Took one set to shop and had them plug the intake blot holes and redrill them so i can install a modern 4 barrel intake on them. Finding a 66 4 barrel intake. Well, it would be easier to find a pink elephant 🐘🐘
‘66 is the normal pattern, so I’m guessing yours are ‘65. I have 2-3 sets of the wrong ones now myself 🫠 I have absolutely given re-drilling the pattern some thought. Just seems like a lot of work when there are more heads out there.
There early 66 273 they all came out of 66 darts. Yes, I'm dart poor. Because 67 manifolds will not bolt up right because of the angle, and it was cheaper than buying modern closed heads, which is hard to find around here. I'm the only mopar guy in the area. So when I find them, I scoop them up
Built the same engine many many years ago. Back then you could still buy mild performance solid lifter cams....and that is what I did....kept the 273 rockers and put a solid lifter vam in the 318. Ran great for years and years. If fact it is what got me hooked on solid lifters and adjustable rockers. After that had a 340 with trans am heads and solid lifter , and 440 with solid lifter flat tappet. Both very strong steet engines back in the day.
Awesome! I’m a strong believer in the adjustable arms in any case, and would definitely prefer solids. But yeah, bit harder to come up with these days.
You can still get mild performance solid lifter cams for the 318. I just built mine with a .425/.425 solid from Isky Cams. Ed Iskendarian is 104 and still going strong here in SoCal, one of the first hotrod custom cam manufacturers.
I just got a set of used solid 273 rocker assemblies from AMS Obsolete (about $140 I think but honestly what I spend doesn’t stick in my memory too well) I got an Isky solid cam for my 318 at .425 lift. Works great!
Well there ya go! What it feels like with the butt dyno..... peek hp seems similar, but seems to pull harder getting there. It made me grin more and the tappet adjusting was few and far between.
Thanks for giving the overlooked 318 a bit of attention! The "302" late model heads are probably way easier to find these days than the 67 only head. Add the "302" heads with some of the things Hot Rod magazine did in their 318 article from the early 2000's and the 318 can be a respectable crusier.
Tall ports mean higher velocity at lower RPMs makes a very drivable engine 273 ,318s were less common here in NZ we had slant six and the more common 215,245,250,265 Hemi Sixes in later Valiants these motors were way more performance engine than the 318s
Find a piece of marble. The bottom of an old trophy. Its much straighter then a block of wood and you can use spray adhesive to attach your sandpaper. Now you’ll have an almost perfectly flat surface to sand the head. You can also get an old piece of granite countertop to sand the combustion surface flat. Sometimes headstone makers have chunks of granite and marble laying around. They even cut them to any size you want.
Granite is what I’ve heard. Will get something like that sorted eventually. Either way, I’m glad to have these cleaned throughly. Dirt dobbers did some impressive work in the cooling passages… and everything is crusty
You schooled me. I thought I knew it all when it came to the small port LA heads. Never knew they had a closed chamber head. Super thanks on the info bro!
My 1969 Charger had stock 318 automatic, and all it needed was a shift kit to manually shft into first gear at any speed, holding it in first gear until over 30 mph made it quicker taking off from a slow roll at stop light on Gratiot Avenue racing on weekends, always got the jump leaping ahead of others by half a car for few seconds before falling back and making it look like I just gave up because of no competition...lol. Because of the Hooker Exhaust Headers that were really loud, nobody could believe it was stock 2 barrel 318.
hoar roars lol All about the clarity my friend. Can't be misleading the viewership. Glad you mentioned the 302 castings. I've always read the praises of them in the Mopar mags. I learned something.
We had an old 68 fury in the 90s that the former owned swapped in newer truck 318. It ran great but had an exhaust leak. When we went to figure out where the leak was i discovered it had the old 68 318 exhaust manifolds on it and the exhaust ports were longer on the newer heads so there was a gap where they all leaked from! lol Surprisingly it wasnt that loud either unless you mashed it!
I’ve had a couple mismatch issues there. The biggest one is in A-bodies, where the driver manifold runs into the later/bigger head at the back and it just plain can’t seal. That one’s fun.
Great video. A few minutes in I knew I'd be asking about 302 heads, and you answered, then I thought of other questions, and you answered them too. So all I've got is I'm using 302s because I have them (to replace the stock '71 heads) and I bet they're easier to find now that you've released the great secret about the early heads; I still need to find the best pistons to make use of the quench. So... burritos Once, long ago there was a place called Naugles, across the street from UNLV where I was enrolled. They had the 'macho burrito' and the smiling face of Señor Naugles on the napkins. Fantastic huge burrito! I had one a couple times a week, energy to study (Electrical Engineering and compsci) well into the night. Sadly they are gone but such a fond memory! And I was driving my same Challenger to work and university at the time so even more relevant.
I do sometimes worry that by making these videos, I will make it harder to get parts myself later 😅 302s will be good. Also the taco truck by rocket does giant burritos. Trying to eat that in one sitting is a big mistake.
The 1.88 intake valve 360 J head with a little milling works great and has penty of low end torque. Even a single plane and 750 Holley made enough power to boil tires and run 14’s in a heavy E-body with 3.23’s. Great little street engine!
The Edelbrock D64 manifold is a dual quad intake specificly for the early 273 LA with the smaller bolts & different bolt angle. I have one. I have a core 318 LA under the bench in desperate need of a major major re-manufacture, but I don't have the early 273 heads, so it will remain a bench bitch 'objec d'art' Offenhauser offered a Dual Port 360 intake where the ports were divided from base of carb to cylinder head. The primaries fed the smaller, lower portion of the port. They were warmed by the heat from the valley & were supposed to be great for stop/go traffic in cold areas. The gas velocity in these small ports was kept high, so fuel did not drop out of suspension at low speeds in really cold areas. When the secondaries kicked in, the larger, upper portion of the port added this flow to allow "good" performance when needed. Restricted to about 5,500 RPM it is not for everybody, but in the right application, it should offer good rewards. I have one on my 'built' 273. It's holding the carb up quite well. I built this engine in the 1979 to '81 period & it sits, complete & ready to run, never having been started, in my '32 Dodge sedan project for more than 40 years. My 325 Hemi in my '33 Dodge 3 window takes precedence.
Right. I actually found a dual carb Edelbrock and I was sure it was going to be the 273 version, but it’s standard / later LA. I had one of those split port Offy 360 manifolds on a 383 in my Charger. It worked fine on the street, but I know there is a big power penalty at the top end.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Ahhh yes, the Dual Port 360 manifold, as I said, is not for everyone. It is not a "performance" manifold in the traditional sense, yet, when applied to the right circumstances, it will improve the performance of an otherwise near standard 318 or 273. Perhaps a 500cfm vacuum secondary Carter AFB [they call them Edelbrocks these days I think] or [gag, choke] a H..Ho .. Hol .. Holley. For the lower engine speeds that these manifolds are designed to cater for, that should be adequate. So for the grocery getter in the Washington, Dakotas, Michigan line of states, & Canada too, it could easily be seen as a performance enhancing addition. For great gas mileage & nice snappy performance in a city traffic conditions in a regular street hack, or even just cruising, the nice hot lower ports & high gas velocity is just the ticket, & that's a performance improvement of another kind in my book
Used 315 heads on my 68 318. Those were just before the 920 and came in both intake patterns. I got lucky mine we from 66. Used 1.88-1.60 360 replacement valves, ported them, and matched them to a stock 68 340 intake. Really, that's just gasket matching to a 318 gasket and taking a little of the top of the port. It's still smaller than a 340-360 gasket. KB167 pistons zero decked, 273 crank, forged vs the stock 68 cast crank. Also used the 273 rockers with a solid lifter cam from Schneider, a regrind because US made cores are hard to get. 9.7 compression now, which doesn't seem like much because 68 318s had 9.2 stock, except they didn't, it was a solid point lower stock. It's running very well now.
Damn near exactly what we’re doing, except for the valve change, and we’ve got a Performer. Same piston. Factory forged crank in this one, and factory bushed rods for full floaters. We’ve got hydraulic lifters though. And of course the ridiculously fancy rockers. Outstanding! Oh yeah, it was pretty recently I learned that ‘66 heads could be 315s with the later pattern. Apparently I’m getting a complete ‘66 273 soon, and that’s what it has.
@DeadDodgeGarage I didn't know the 315s came either way until I had the parts 273. Price was right, and the guy delivered it. Figured I'd modify them or find an Edelbrock D4B intake. Needless to say, I was happy to see the later intake bolt arrangement! I also don't waste money on hardend seats. There was no recession on the 315s, a set of 920s on a 273 I actually run, or the 675s off the 318. On something like an FE Ford, those had exhaust seats going bad when gas still had lead in it. Old Chryslers were actually really good, especially when you consider most of them have run unleaded since the 80s. Longer than they ever ran on leaded gas.
Friend of mine did similar with a 283 for his ‘58 Chevy truck. He used the 1.78 power pack heads, small square bore intake from a ‘55 265, a WCFB carb with Grose Jets in place of the Viton needle and seat arrangement, and put the new 3 position timing chain straight up and recurved his distributor. You’d never know it had a 12” flywheel, truck bellhousing and 11” clutch. He even did respectably against a Corvette one day. Oh yeah, .274 cam, hydraulic lifters. The TRW-274, that is.
Great info Jamie, love your content in every video you post. I have a 1990 318 (roller cam engine) that is 100% stock right now and runs well in a w150 pickup. Completely agree with you on the 302 heads being somewhat restricted, especially at the exhaust ports. Any recommendations as far as upgrading these heads? I was thinking a simple port and polish, possibly do a valve job... Can't wait to see Mark's engine all put back together and screaming! (for a street car)
This is the first time I have seen an explanation of a rebuild with reference to original product differences and similarities, casting quality and what's absolutely necessary and what's desirable! In your opinion what's the difference in absolute power and torque output and economy between the porting job you do and the top job of a dedicated pro - not saying you're not of course, but I'm sure you know what I'm going on about!!!
I’m not, and I said so in this video! Haha. I truly don’t know. It would be really hard to quantify the difference without back to back testing for hard numbers. If I were to hazard a guess, I would suppose that sizing the ports right and cleaning them up is the main goal of porting, and either pro or amateur can accomplish that. In the words of Uncle Tony, “porting doesn’t have to be pretty to work,” and I sure hope he is right. Haha.
Great little series on making a great little engine - more of a grown-up engine, I guess. WAIT, hold the phone here - *Jamie's mane has returned already??* *It's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! Praise be to BOSLEY and ROGAINE!!* I keed, I keed.... Merry Christmas everyone. Be safe and God bless. - Ed on the Ridge
Oh ya ,, the ‘ol 273 heads , yup they work good just like you said . Restricted to 330 cube for the class ( mostly 327 and 302 ) I built a 318 , kb flat top 273 heads with adjustable rockers and small block Chevy valves and the real help in circle track rpm was we could use the 2bbl single plane factory iron intake . We won 9 out of every 10 races for 3 years . 318 ‘s are kind like the Rodney Dangerfield of small blocks ( no respect ) ,,, lol
Hey Jamie, they do make prescription safety glasses. I've had a few times crap, usually dust, got around my glasses and in my eyes. Your eyeballs will thank you!
I have a bone stock '67 318 and never understood the ''boat anchor'' comments about the 318's. This engine performs well imo, even after 150.000 miles, maybe it has to do with the closed chamber heads. Super reliable also, and will take abuse well.
I'm a fan of the battery jacket. Mostly they are great when youre just standing around in the cold. If you're working, you don't really need it. But when you have to wait for a ride or a dog to pee, they are pretty nice.
@@DeadDodgeGarage When I worked outside all day, every day, I would always get cold after lunch. Turns out your body discovers you ate something that needs to be digested and warming the extremities must wait until that work is done. I also perfected the twenty minute nap.
I built a La 318 once, I pit came out bored .040 over and I put 273 heads a good cam and intake and carburetor, it was a very good running small block. I raced it occasionally, worked it regularly. I kept everything I did a secret and surprised everyone with how fast it was.
Squish and swirl! Things that some "car guys" don't understand. I totally agree on the valve seat thing... Too many re - played myths. Tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline beginning in 1924 as a cheap octane booster. The valve seat protection is actually debatable, and Chrysler flathead sixes had hard exhaust seat inserts from the 1920s until the end of production. Even though the 1950's represented real strides in engine performance, it was also a time of cost cutting, and newer engine designs lacked the hard valve seat inserts that were surprisingly common on 1940's and older engines. Remember also that into the 1950's, "regular" gas was unleaded..... You payed extra for "Ethyl" Old engines like unleaded just fine. Now, todays Corn fed gas..... Not so much !!
@@DeadDodgeGarage Yup, no real affects on valve seats from that. The main issue I have with ethanol is degradation of rubber parts. There is a slight lean condition created by running ethanol laced fuel in a carburetor that was calibrated for straight gasoline. Not too big a deal.
That’s a special race head with dual header patterns. One gets used, one doesn’t. Not sure they had to be filled though, I don’t know if they go to water or not. End bolts on factory heads do.
@@DeadDodgeGarage . . ah, I see. Thank you. It almost looks like the one set of holes could maybe mount a small block Chevy header. Was that the purpose?
I put a set of "fast burn" or police/swirl heads on my 68, 318. (Heart shaped) I used thin gaskets and stock pistons hoping for a quench. All stock cam and WOW it woke that sucker right up. I didn't even put in the bigger valves not trying to build big power just wanted it to be quicker. Quench is the way to go.
Unobtainium - 78 RC brake boosters apparently all brake boosters for 78 ramcharger are shielding wolverine’s skeleton - and mine is kaput any advice? thinking replacing with universal/aftermarket or maybe even hydro boost - any recommendations? Not an OEM fanatic nor daddy warbucks - just effective, reasonable cost :) go sniper efi!
Find one that fits… aftermarket type may be the way. That’s my go-to for the disk brake swaps. It’s much better than the original type. And you mustn’t have heard that I hate the Sniper 😅
Rock auto has a Booster for the 84 D series. Should fit. Or bone yard for 83 down. My 78 came with a Hydro system. It also came with a Mitsubishi Diesel.
Jamie do you open the throat area under the valve up to between 85 and 90 percent of the valve diameter? You can tell I’ve been watching Eric Weingartner and Charles Servedio videos again 🙄👍🏻
So if I was to put 273 heads on my 85 318 block I wouldnt be able to use an aluminum air gap intake because of the bolts and bolt holes ? also would I still be able to use my none adjustable rockers arms in 273 heads ? also I know I would have to grind down the edges of the ports on the heads so there is no sharp ledge since the air gap has 340/360 ports
64-65 273 heads have the wrong pattern. 66-67 273 heads have the right pattern. You can use your non-adjustable arms. You would definitely want to fix the port mismatch. Jamming big intake port into small head port is a bad move.
Something else to try is to grind some off the quench pad where the valves open. You may gain some combustion chamber cc (negligible) but make it easier for the intake to flow into the chamber. Round off the sparp edge is all. Also helps with quench flow into the chamber. Very little needs to be removed, just some extra time.
You’ll get the compression bump so that’s good. If we just slap the heads on you won’t end up with a functional quench pad though. It’s not the end of the world, and they can still get a mild open up job on the intake side. Just not nearly as much.
I heard somewhere, might have been UTG, might have been Nick's Garage, that there is no such thing as a "special high nickel block" at Mopar because all Mopar castings used high nickel iron.
I have always loved the 318, most durable engine in V8 form even made. I have always wanted to build a boosted one for drag and Drive events in a lightweight car like a Valiant, Dart or Auster, maybe even an Aspen for something different. But if the stock durability translates well to boosted builds it should run well with a decent build
The 273 never got the praise they kinda deserved. Every bit as good as a 289 or 283. When I had my 66 formula s I always wanted to do the hop up, d dart 273 for it, but never did.
'64 Valiant Post All scrap parts 318 318 Roller Short Block 0.420 OEM 360 Cam 302 Heads (Minor Work) OEM Alum Intake (Minor Work) Carter BBD (Tuned) Runs well for what it is. Quicker than '72 Rallye 340.
I´ve seen these rockers used with homebrew SEE THRU valve covers. Guy took a grinding disc to some old ones that were dinged up anyways and cut nice openings. For stability he left a little 1" connection in the middle, took some silicone stuff and glued some plexiglass above- done. Seethru valve covers. Good stuff. Sleep over it, why install such fancy never to be seen again? You for shure have a valve cover heap, a place where they just hang out and collect. Give them a visit and cut some up You was to throw aways anyway. I´d for shure make me a pair and watch the thing idle… I like to stare into laundromats, too… Merry Christmas!
I have a 67 coronet with the original 318 and #920 heads. Out of curiosity would you please measure the volume of the #920 head combustion chamber? I've found answers on the internet that vary between 57, 59, 62, 65, and 66CC. It would be good to see what yours measure. Also, the valve seats on my coronet were ruined after leaded gas was pulled off the market. It probably took 5 years and 20,000 or 30,000 miles for that to happen though. Dad had the hardened valve seats put in about '94. I have a 500cfm AVS2 on mine. I really like the AVS2. I had a 600cfm 4160 on it for a few years. Was good wide open throttle, it idled OK, but light throttle always had a bit of hiccup. I understand it, but I figured that carb would just work better on a bigger motor with automatic transmission. What cam will you be installing? (Speedpro cs-644 revs good, great street manners, but 0 lope) What pistons? KB-167? Thanks for making the video.
Yep, KB167. They just got here. The CC spec given for the 920 (and all of the others) is a range. The “minimum” is 57 CC. 57-64 is the range given in the chart I found. The AVS2 is the absolute best carb available for a regular driver car. I am a strong believer and recommend them to everybody. Ah, the cam is a custom grind from Oregon Cam Grinding. I gave the specs in the first video on this build (a lot of which was dedicated to the car, the green 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.)
Great video, Jamie! Two questions, who does your machine work (I need some done on the Magnum bottom end), and was that a 5.2 Magnum piston you were holding in the demo?
@@DeadDodgeGarage Thanks! and interesting, looks identical to the 5.2 Magnum pistons sitting on my bench, same forward notch, same weird angled outer edge. Is that an early 318 piston for the closed chamber heads?
I used my stock retainers on comp 901-16 valve springs on my 920's. They look very similar to whatever you got and have had no issues. Inside dimensions what made me nervous. .060 smaller(.030 each side) if I remember correctly? But again.. fine. I'm probably wrong but was that a 4-71 blower in the background !? Anywho.. thanks!
Ok cool ! I almost bought one (4-71)thinking the same thing. Didn't mention only reason I used stock retainer is $$$ issues. Doesn't seem to be the case here. And BTW...How do you join the super secret pizza party gold club party team anyway? Apologize.. it's probably easy.. I'm just a bit of a dinosaur Thanks!
@DeadDodgeGarage i have a pair of magnum heads with sunken valves and cracks. They are perfect for practicing porting, keeping my bench grinder from walking across the floor and not much else! Good info on quench and the 302 heads!
If you’re building specifically to the low RPM range, it can work quite well. There have been various 360 builds over the years with even the standard 318 heads. Small chamber for a compression bump and small ports for velocity. It’s not a combination for screaming high RPM horsepower.
IDK the workings you'd have to do to make it happen, but id love to see your skills and experience throw together a build with the 400hp 318 recipe that Dulcich did a while back with hotrod mag! Looking to build a little bit milder version of my own in the future
I’ve read that article many times. Haha. I actually want to dyno this car when it’s done if possible, so we know what we’ve got. It *won’t* be anywhere near 400. And we’re running manifolds. But I’d like to know, for science!
Absolutely! Keep your cam on the conservative side (like we did) and use a dual plane intake like this Performer. You should have all kinds of low end torque.
Fond memory porting 66 273 heads my goggles fogged so I tipped them up on my forehead. After doing this several times I forgot to tip them down and got a cast iron sliver in my right eye. 1hr drive to emergency 2hr wait on surgeon the cast iron had turned to rust. Any how I concur good choice for this app.
Ugh… yeah, not ideal. I had something embedded in one eye for 3-4 days that thankfully turned out to be carbon based. Optometrist told me about the possibility of rust rings.
as a kid i took a 318 worked it over 12.5 .half piston grate big sold cam. cut up 340 x heads 780 Holley worked over 391 gears 4 speed... it rev like a Dirt bike... run it did hurt lots of feelings with it.. good times
3:22 hey this is "old"Jamie. 4:12 I don't know that core plug looks new? 15:39 exhaust valve recession "was" a thing back in the day because the fuel refineries had not come up with a suitable replacement to lubricate the valves against the seats. For a awhile it MTFE, then it was found that was hazardous to and switched to something in the same chemistry tree that was safe and works as well as lead. That time where there was no lubricant was about ten years. Every time a machine shop saw a set of pre 80's heads they would wring their hands at the money they were gonna make.
318 performance? But why? Are you getting desperate?
I think it has more to do with. “ I asked him to do it”!! But thanks!
If you had ANY idea how many people have asked me about performance 318 build tips over the years, you might understand that this is a popular series. Haha.
@ I used to have a 318 dodge pick up truck. It got 12 mpg no matter what. It was designed that way. I find it semi useful but not a base to build something special out of it. I rather go with 440 block.
@ totally understandable. If you’ve followed this at all you would have known I already have a 440 build in a B Body.. this is not that!! 🤝
@ I’ve never seen this before. You’re all new to me.
This dude needs more subscribers! He has some serious encyclopedic knowledge of mopars.
I second that!!!!!!
Absolutely agree. Good content, great information, funny, good editing and camera work.
halfway there to 100k
Standard mopar man
I love his commentary
Retired mechanic and gearhead here. I’m the industry since ‘79. Jamie’s explanation of quench, port velocity, and chamber design is the most comprehensive explanation I’ve ever heard. Excellent material, and I can say it. Because I lived it. More power to high IQ Washington Hippie Gearhead Musicians!
Thank you!
If I remember rightly, the "quench" concept was first realised by Ricardo & his team of engineers in the UK sometime in the mid/late 1920's. This allowed a jet of combustible gasses to squirt into the combustion chambers of side valve [flathead] engines. The high speed swirling gasses helped prevent a single flame front from progressing across the near static fuel air mixture, as was normal in older side valve engines. This flame front pushed a pressure wave ahead of itself, compressing the, as yet, unburned fuel even more until it spontaniously combusted, which we know a "knock".
Retarding the spark addressed this problem, but this caused a loss of power & increased heat build up.
Ricardo's creation of "squish" allowed higher compression from something less than 4 to 1 on up to 5.5 to 1 on the same low grade of fuel. It also allowed the spark to be advanced which boosted power even more.
By 1933, Dodge & Chrysler were offering the aluminium "Red Head" with 6.5 to 1 compression, & post war, even 7.5 to 1 was used on some side valve engines.
Ricardo's 'squish' saved the day & this principal is important even today if improved engine performance is the target on any improved performance engine build.
WHOA WHOA WHOA! We wanna see more of the burrito. What kind? From where? Homemade? Alright, I admit it, I may be alone in this. And I may be hungry. Either way, show us more burrito!!!
You are asking the important questions!
Mmmm burrito
I would like a burrito review.
I have never been less than happy with a burrito in my hand.
It’s the same coffee stand burrito I’ve shown in many videos before. Haha. The Burrito Bros are my spirit guides. It’s not the *best* burrito. But it’s the best thing you can buy for breakfast at the coffee stand, and they all have ‘em around here.
It's great to see a 318 being tuned instead of the same SBC or LS swap.
Or, instead of a 360
CHEERS ON 50K DDG!!!!
Thank you!! 🤘
I grew up in a world where everything on Pentastar wheels was motivated by the 318cid reliable as sunrise engine. The 273 was a mystery. So great video!
Really? When or maybe where I grew up 318's were viewed as a slant 6 with worse gas mileage. In other words strictly for dependable transportation. The 273 super commando was seeing as a legitimate small block. Not saying any of that was true or correct just people's perception. But with a 4 barrel and solid lifters I think helped influence why some saw the 273 as a performance engine. Well at least till the 340.
Im typically alone in the garage trying to deal with mechanical "suprises" on older cars.
One of your most valuable services ( to me at least) is your ability to sort through surprises/ issues. Not so much that youve seen it all before, but youve seen enough to sort out a path forward.
Exactly! One has to be prepared for that sort of thing. It’s amazing actually, I have found over my years turning wrenches that the surprise is almost always new. Meaning, you learn about one oddball failure and work through it, then in all likelihood you’ll never see it again. That process of working through whatever you find is something I hope I am sharing effectively through this channel.
Great content. I have a set of ‘65 273 closed heads I just rebuilt . Agonized about hardened seats and ended up having my machinist put them in. Went through hell learning the hard way about the different intake bolt sizes and angles.
Ouch. Yep…
Uncle Tony has a good channel for all things Mopar , so between you two there’s lots of great information.
I really appreciate you sharing your work , like many other people I’m very interested in this vintage of Chryslers. 1965-1974 ish.
Everything I know was learned from someone willing to teach! Thank you Jamie! Great information.
What an incredible interesting , informative and helpful information . Not too mention , great manufacturers history lesson .
Thanks , Professor Jamie 👨🎓🙏
You know, some of us are having a hard enough time securing good 920 heads for our 273s without “somebody” using them on 318s. Think of the community’s needs, man…
Lots of great stuff here. Beautifully explained so a simpleton like me can understand. You are doing great work, my friend.
Loving the 273 content. There’s you and Scott’s Speed Shop (“Yard Dart” playlist). That’s it.
I do think I may have just raised the going price on them with one video… that’s probably going to cause issues for me than anyone else 😅
Great Christmas present! Thanks Jamie!! Very informative video!!
Also want to give a shout out to Rat Rod Al on FABO, for the good deal on the 273 heads, and taking the time to ship them from Florida!! 👏🤝
I cant wait to do my first engine rebuild and your content has been helpful and enjoyable
I found a big chunk of casting sand firmly attached inside the end exhaust port on my 69 340. The car had been used, hard, for years, without coming lose, it took some work with a hammer and punch to knock it off.
Could you tell the difference afterwards?
@SchoolofHackers it was at a time when I was making many changes to the car, so I can’t say. The car was fast dead stock, a 69 Swinger, 3.23 automatic, 14.1s - 14..2s, always at 99mph. Always 99 point something, you’d think just once I’d crack 100, but never while stock. It sounds slow now to a lot of guys, but that put me ahead of a lot of big block street cars. These were the same cars we drove to work every day, put snow tires on them and drove all winter.
@@jamesblair9614 A light car is such a great thing
This is great information for people who are trying to stay on a budget and have time to do all this. Me? I would buy some aftermarket aluminium heads, slap them on and call it a day. Keep up the good work!
DAMN IT. I meant to dedicate some time in this video explaining that there are NO small port, small valve aluminum heads. They are all sized to the 340/360, and would be massively overkill for what we’re doing here. We absolutely discussed the possibility.
Hey im early. I put a choke cable on the fifth ave yesterday and in my infinite wisdom, i routed it in a way that pulling the cable caused the slightly loose distributor to rotate. I was driving ro work trying to figure out why it was running like garbage, twisted the distributor and it started running good, surprise surprise
😂
Oops 😅
@@DeadDodgeGarage very on brand for me at least 😅
Thanks for the explanation on the different combustion chambers on the various 318 heads. My entire 318 life has been lived with the 68 to early 70s-ish open chamber head, and they have always been pretty good, but I can see where the closed chamber would be better. But, the 340-360 was what I have usually leaned on for making large metal containers (aka, Mopars) go fast.
BTW, this video was apparently done in the "more hair" era of recent videos. All good in any case!
I find it funny
Chev 327 and Ford 302 ‘s get all the praise.
318’s definitely can hold their own against them.
318’s definitely need more love 💕
They got a bad rap !
“Taxi Motor” 😂
1970 We, my younger brother and I, made a few performance changes to his 1969 Plymouth Satellite. His girlfriend's brother had a totaled 65 Formula S Cuda / 273. He latched onto the heads, intake and Carter AFB. I needed the flywheel, bell housing and four speed trans. We bought a retired 66 plymouth police cruiser with a 3:55 posi. Without too much time or expense we created a street performer that turned a few heads. Also had a lot of fun!😊
I’ve found more rpm by adjusting hydraulic lifters near the bottom off their travel in stead of the old “1/2 turn from zero” . Turns the lifter into a short travel if you will and limits the amount of aerated oil in the lifter that causes them to bleed down. Bleed down is more common than pump up in my experience. Especially with the janky hydraulics we have today. Love the 318’s!
That’s very interesting. I’ve never heard that before. What happens if they *do* pump up? Nothing good… other than that thought, I’m intrigued.
IF they pump up the engine stops revving. And yes, you could have some bad things happen between pistons and valves, you’d have to check total piston travel in the lifter and do some calculating. But lifters pumping up isn’t nearly as common as it’s been made out to be.
Lashing from the bottom up is nothing new, in fact Rhoads V-Max lifters advise doing it that way.
Great stuff as always, Thanks for sharing.
Love all the nerdy bits of information..engine stuff is just fascinating..keep it coming!!
JAMIE. I have 3 sets of 66 273 heads. All closed chambered. Took one set to shop and had them plug the intake blot holes and redrill them so i can install a modern 4 barrel intake on them. Finding a 66 4 barrel intake. Well, it would be easier to find a pink elephant 🐘🐘
‘66 is the normal pattern, so I’m guessing yours are ‘65. I have 2-3 sets of the wrong ones now myself 🫠 I have absolutely given re-drilling the pattern some thought. Just seems like a lot of work when there are more heads out there.
There early 66 273 they all came out of 66 darts. Yes, I'm dart poor. Because 67 manifolds will not bolt up right because of the angle, and it was cheaper than buying modern closed heads, which is hard to find around here. I'm the only mopar guy in the area. So when I find them, I scoop them up
Love this small block information, great job on explaining differences in the heads
Built the same engine many many years ago. Back then you could still buy mild performance solid lifter cams....and that is what I did....kept the 273 rockers and put a solid lifter vam in the 318. Ran great for years and years. If fact it is what got me hooked on solid lifters and adjustable rockers. After that had a 340 with trans am heads and solid lifter , and 440 with solid lifter flat tappet. Both very strong steet engines back in the day.
Awesome! I’m a strong believer in the adjustable arms in any case, and would definitely prefer solids. But yeah, bit harder to come up with these days.
You can still get mild performance solid lifter cams for the 318. I just built mine with a .425/.425 solid from Isky Cams. Ed Iskendarian is 104 and still going strong here in SoCal, one of the first hotrod custom cam manufacturers.
I just got a set of used solid 273 rocker assemblies from AMS Obsolete (about $140 I think but honestly what I spend doesn’t stick in my memory too well) I got an Isky solid cam for my 318 at .425 lift. Works great!
Well there ya go!
What it feels like with the butt dyno..... peek hp seems similar, but seems to pull harder getting there. It made me grin more and the tappet adjusting was few and far between.
Added info..... mine was with a bolt action trans. The only auto go matic was RB, large cam, and stall converter.
Thanks for giving the overlooked 318 a bit of attention! The "302" late model heads are probably way easier to find these days than the 67 only head. Add the "302" heads with some of the things Hot Rod magazine did in their 318 article from the early 2000's and the 318 can be a respectable crusier.
Absolutely. I completely agree.
Tall ports mean higher velocity at lower RPMs makes a very drivable engine 273 ,318s were less common here in NZ we had slant six and the more common 215,245,250,265 Hemi Sixes in later Valiants these motors were way more performance engine than the 318s
Why do I feel smart with your process of concept in my head? Great video again
I don’t know but I hope it helps. Haha.
Find a piece of marble. The bottom of an old trophy. Its much straighter then a block of wood and you can use spray adhesive to attach your sandpaper. Now you’ll have an almost perfectly flat surface to sand the head. You can also get an old piece of granite countertop to sand the combustion surface flat. Sometimes headstone makers have chunks of granite and marble laying around. They even cut them to any size you want.
Granite is what I’ve heard. Will get something like that sorted eventually. Either way, I’m glad to have these cleaned throughly. Dirt dobbers did some impressive work in the cooling passages… and everything is crusty
You schooled me. I thought I knew it all when it came to the small port LA heads. Never knew they had a closed chamber head. Super thanks on the info bro!
You bet!
My 1969 Charger had stock 318 automatic, and all it needed was a shift kit to manually shft into first gear at any speed, holding it in first gear until over 30 mph made it quicker taking off from a slow roll at stop light on Gratiot Avenue racing on weekends, always got the jump leaping ahead of others by half a car for few seconds before falling back and making it look like I just gave up because of no competition...lol.
Because of the Hooker Exhaust Headers that were really loud, nobody could believe it was stock 2 barrel 318.
Engine Wednesdays...I like that.
I really enjoyed the info on the heads ,cheers
hoar roars lol All about the clarity my friend. Can't be misleading the viewership. Glad you mentioned the 302 castings. I've always read the praises of them in the Mopar mags. I learned something.
We had an old 68 fury in the 90s that the former owned swapped in newer truck 318. It ran great but had an exhaust leak. When we went to figure out where the leak was i discovered it had the old 68 318 exhaust manifolds on it and the exhaust ports were longer on the newer heads so there was a gap where they all leaked from! lol Surprisingly it wasnt that loud either unless you mashed it!
I’ve had a couple mismatch issues there. The biggest one is in A-bodies, where the driver manifold runs into the later/bigger head at the back and it just plain can’t seal. That one’s fun.
Congratulations to Jamie for reaching 50,000 subscribers. I’ve been here since before he had even reached 10K.
Thank you!
Great video. A few minutes in I knew I'd be asking about 302 heads, and you answered, then I thought of other questions, and you answered them too. So all I've got is I'm using 302s because I have them (to replace the stock '71 heads) and I bet they're easier to find now that you've released the great secret about the early heads; I still need to find the best pistons to make use of the quench. So... burritos
Once, long ago there was a place called Naugles, across the street from UNLV where I was enrolled. They had the 'macho burrito' and the smiling face of Señor Naugles on the napkins. Fantastic huge burrito! I had one a couple times a week, energy to study (Electrical Engineering and compsci) well into the night. Sadly they are gone but such a fond memory! And I was driving my same Challenger to work and university at the time so even more relevant.
I do sometimes worry that by making these videos, I will make it harder to get parts myself later 😅 302s will be good. Also the taco truck by rocket does giant burritos. Trying to eat that in one sitting is a big mistake.
@@DeadDodgeGarage I was younger in my Naugles Macho Burrito eating days than you are now. I could handle it then; it would be very bad now.
The 1.88 intake valve 360 J head with a little milling works great and has penty of low end torque. Even a single plane and 750 Holley made enough power to boil tires and run 14’s in a heavy E-body with 3.23’s. Great little street engine!
The Edelbrock D64 manifold is a dual quad intake specificly for the early 273 LA with the smaller bolts & different bolt angle. I have one. I have a core 318 LA under the bench in desperate need of a major major re-manufacture, but I don't have the early 273 heads, so it will remain a bench bitch 'objec d'art'
Offenhauser offered a Dual Port 360 intake where the ports were divided from base of carb to cylinder head. The primaries fed the smaller, lower portion of the port. They were warmed by the heat from the valley & were supposed to be great for stop/go traffic in cold areas. The gas velocity in these small ports was kept high, so fuel did not drop out of suspension at low speeds in really cold areas.
When the secondaries kicked in, the larger, upper portion of the port added this flow to allow "good" performance when needed. Restricted to about 5,500 RPM it is not for everybody, but in the right application, it should offer good rewards.
I have one on my 'built' 273. It's holding the carb up quite well. I built this engine in the 1979 to '81 period & it sits, complete & ready to run, never having been started, in my '32 Dodge sedan project for more than 40 years. My 325 Hemi in my '33 Dodge 3 window takes precedence.
Right. I actually found a dual carb Edelbrock and I was sure it was going to be the 273 version, but it’s standard / later LA. I had one of those split port Offy 360 manifolds on a 383 in my Charger. It worked fine on the street, but I know there is a big power penalty at the top end.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Ahhh yes, the Dual Port 360 manifold, as I said, is not for everyone. It is not a "performance" manifold in the traditional sense, yet, when applied to the right circumstances, it will improve the performance of an otherwise near standard 318 or 273. Perhaps a 500cfm vacuum secondary Carter AFB [they call them Edelbrocks these days I think] or [gag, choke] a H..Ho .. Hol .. Holley. For the lower engine speeds that these manifolds are designed to cater for, that should be adequate.
So for the grocery getter in the Washington, Dakotas, Michigan line of states, & Canada too, it could easily be seen as a performance enhancing addition.
For great gas mileage & nice snappy performance in a city traffic conditions in a regular street hack, or even just cruising, the nice hot lower ports & high gas velocity is just the ticket, & that's a performance improvement of another kind in my book
Very informative, always like the 273 over the 318.
Used 315 heads on my 68 318. Those were just before the 920 and came in both intake patterns. I got lucky mine we from 66. Used 1.88-1.60 360 replacement valves, ported them, and matched them to a stock 68 340 intake. Really, that's just gasket matching to a 318 gasket and taking a little of the top of the port. It's still smaller than a 340-360 gasket.
KB167 pistons zero decked, 273 crank, forged vs the stock 68 cast crank. Also used the 273 rockers with a solid lifter cam from Schneider, a regrind because US made cores are hard to get.
9.7 compression now, which doesn't seem like much because 68 318s had 9.2 stock, except they didn't, it was a solid point lower stock. It's running very well now.
Damn near exactly what we’re doing, except for the valve change, and we’ve got a Performer. Same piston. Factory forged crank in this one, and factory bushed rods for full floaters. We’ve got hydraulic lifters though. And of course the ridiculously fancy rockers. Outstanding! Oh yeah, it was pretty recently I learned that ‘66 heads could be 315s with the later pattern. Apparently I’m getting a complete ‘66 273 soon, and that’s what it has.
@DeadDodgeGarage I didn't know the 315s came either way until I had the parts 273. Price was right, and the guy delivered it. Figured I'd modify them or find an Edelbrock D4B intake. Needless to say, I was happy to see the later intake bolt arrangement!
I also don't waste money on hardend seats. There was no recession on the 315s, a set of 920s on a 273 I actually run, or the 675s off the 318. On something like an FE Ford, those had exhaust seats going bad when gas still had lead in it. Old Chryslers were actually really good, especially when you consider most of them have run unleaded since the 80s. Longer than they ever ran on leaded gas.
Friend of mine did similar with a 283 for his ‘58 Chevy truck. He used the 1.78 power pack heads, small square bore intake from a ‘55 265, a WCFB carb with Grose Jets in place of the Viton needle and seat arrangement, and put the new 3 position timing chain straight up and recurved his distributor. You’d never know it had a 12” flywheel, truck bellhousing and 11” clutch. He even did respectably against a Corvette one day. Oh yeah, .274 cam, hydraulic lifters. The TRW-274, that is.
Great info Jamie, love your content in every video you post. I have a 1990 318 (roller cam engine) that is 100% stock right now and runs well in a w150 pickup. Completely agree with you on the 302 heads being somewhat restricted, especially at the exhaust ports. Any recommendations as far as upgrading these heads? I was thinking a simple port and polish, possibly do a valve job... Can't wait to see Mark's engine all put back together and screaming! (for a street car)
That would be the move. Just don’t get too excited with the pushrod tube clearance or you’ll be seeing daylight.
@ absolutely, going to be extra careful around those pushrod tubes. As Uncle Tony once said, porting doesn’t have to be pretty to work LoL
This is the first time I have seen an explanation of a rebuild with reference to original product differences and similarities, casting quality and what's absolutely necessary and what's desirable! In your opinion what's the difference in absolute power and torque output and economy between the porting job you do and the top job of a dedicated pro - not saying you're not of course, but I'm sure you know what I'm going on about!!!
I’m not, and I said so in this video! Haha. I truly don’t know. It would be really hard to quantify the difference without back to back testing for hard numbers. If I were to hazard a guess, I would suppose that sizing the ports right and cleaning them up is the main goal of porting, and either pro or amateur can accomplish that. In the words of Uncle Tony, “porting doesn’t have to be pretty to work,” and I sure hope he is right. Haha.
Great little series on making a great little engine - more of a grown-up engine, I guess.
WAIT, hold the phone here - *Jamie's mane has returned already??*
*It's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! Praise be to BOSLEY and ROGAINE!!*
I keed, I keed.... Merry Christmas everyone. Be safe and God bless.
- Ed on the Ridge
😂
Oh ya ,, the ‘ol 273 heads , yup they work good just like you said .
Restricted to 330 cube for the class ( mostly 327 and 302 ) I built a 318 , kb flat top 273 heads with adjustable rockers and small block Chevy valves and the real help in circle track rpm was we could use the 2bbl single plane factory iron intake . We won 9 out of every 10 races for 3 years .
318 ‘s are kind like the Rodney Dangerfield of small blocks
( no respect ) ,,, lol
Hell yeah!
Hey Jamie, they do make prescription safety glasses. I've had a few times crap, usually dust, got around my glasses and in my eyes. Your eyeballs will thank you!
Yeah, that would be smart.
I have a bone stock '67 318 and never understood the ''boat anchor'' comments about the 318's.
This engine performs well imo, even after 150.000 miles, maybe it has to do with the closed chamber heads.
Super reliable also, and will take abuse well.
I’ve had some damn good 318s. I’ve had some turds too. But in general, I really like them.
I have to say. I have ported out 318 heads with 318 sized valves on my brothers truck and my truck. They pull real strong and have alot of torque.
Great job Jamie. Enjoy the video.
This is great Thankyou and Merry Christmas!
👍 Great video Jaime congratulations on your Subs.
Thank you!
Thank you for a very informative video. I learned a lot.
Really interesting explanation - thanks Jamie.
Great technical 411 here. Thanks Jamie 😎
I'm a fan of the battery jacket. Mostly they are great when youre just standing around in the cold. If you're working, you don't really need it. But when you have to wait for a ride or a dog to pee, they are pretty nice.
Agreed! It’s useful to warm up in the morning standing in the shop. Oh, and also after lunch. I always get cold after lunch.
@@DeadDodgeGarage When I worked outside all day, every day, I would always get cold after lunch. Turns out your body discovers you ate something that needs to be digested and warming the extremities must wait until that work is done. I also perfected the twenty minute nap.
I built a La 318 once, I pit came out bored .040 over and I put 273 heads a good cam and intake and carburetor, it was a very good running small block. I raced it occasionally, worked it regularly. I kept everything I did a secret and surprised everyone with how fast it was.
Jamie has my approach to building performance engines. My favorite performance engine rebuilds are the ones where I get to port factory heads.
Oh yeah. Absolutely the way.
The more you know. It will be awesome to see the final results of this!
Squish and swirl! Things that some "car guys" don't understand. I totally agree on the valve seat thing... Too many re - played myths. Tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline beginning in 1924 as a cheap octane booster. The valve seat protection is actually debatable, and Chrysler flathead sixes had hard exhaust seat inserts from the 1920s until the end of production.
Even though the 1950's represented real strides in engine performance, it was also a time of cost cutting, and newer engine designs lacked the hard valve seat inserts that were surprisingly common on 1940's and older engines. Remember also that into the 1950's, "regular" gas was unleaded..... You payed extra for "Ethyl" Old engines like unleaded just fine. Now, todays Corn fed gas..... Not so much !!
All I can add to this is that I run ethanol fuel in all of my classics. I have for years. And still… those valve seats keep hanging on.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Yup, no real affects on valve seats from that. The main issue I have with ethanol is degradation of rubber parts. There is a slight lean condition created by running ethanol laced fuel in a carburetor that was calibrated for straight gasoline. Not too big a deal.
Thanks for the info 👍🇺🇸
hi Jamie great ep good luck with the rebuild ok.
8:52 . . I'm not a MOPAR guy. Is there a reason _ALL_ of the exhaust bolt holes have been filled and moved?
That’s a special race head with dual header patterns. One gets used, one doesn’t. Not sure they had to be filled though, I don’t know if they go to water or not. End bolts on factory heads do.
@@DeadDodgeGarage . . ah, I see. Thank you. It almost looks like the one set of holes could maybe mount a small block Chevy header. Was that the purpose?
Jamie, sorry for being out of the loop, but whatever happened to that purple '69 Charger you had? Love your videos man
That wasn't his, he was driving it back for Tom at rocket restorations
He does have a red charger as well as one in primer
Ah ok, that makes sense, I do know about the other Chargers
Yeah, what Lovejoy said. Haha.
I put a set of "fast burn" or police/swirl heads on my 68, 318. (Heart shaped) I used thin gaskets and stock pistons hoping for a quench. All stock cam and WOW it woke that sucker right up. I didn't even put in the bigger valves not trying to build big power just wanted it to be quicker. Quench is the way to go.
Nice!
Thanks! Really enjoyed the video!
Unobtainium - 78 RC brake boosters
apparently all brake boosters for 78 ramcharger are shielding wolverine’s skeleton - and mine is kaput
any advice? thinking replacing with universal/aftermarket or maybe even hydro boost - any recommendations?
Not an OEM fanatic nor daddy warbucks - just effective, reasonable cost :)
go sniper efi!
Find one that fits… aftermarket type may be the way. That’s my go-to for the disk brake swaps. It’s much better than the original type. And you mustn’t have heard that I hate the Sniper 😅
Rock auto has a Booster for the 84 D series. Should fit. Or bone yard for 83 down. My 78 came with a Hydro system. It also came with a Mitsubishi Diesel.
Jamie do you open the throat area under the valve up to between 85 and 90 percent of the valve diameter? You can tell I’ve been watching Eric Weingartner and Charles Servedio videos again 🙄👍🏻
I just knock down the ugly bits and dips and smooth things out. That sounds too much like actual math. Haha.
Mopar knowledge 😃
So if I was to put 273 heads on my 85 318 block I wouldnt be able to use an aluminum air gap intake because of the bolts and bolt holes ? also would I still be able to use my none adjustable rockers arms in 273 heads ? also I know I would have to grind down the edges of the ports on the heads so there is no sharp ledge since the air gap has 340/360 ports
64-65 273 heads have the wrong pattern. 66-67 273 heads have the right pattern. You can use your non-adjustable arms. You would definitely want to fix the port mismatch. Jamming big intake port into small head port is a bad move.
Something else to try is to grind some off the quench pad where the valves open. You may gain some combustion chamber cc (negligible) but make it easier for the intake to flow into the chamber. Round off the sparp edge is all. Also helps with quench flow into the chamber. Very little needs to be removed, just some extra time.
Yep, un-shrouding the valve. I haven’t messed with that.
With the 79 318 smog motor in the Cordoba do you think that the easier to find 302 heads would give an advantage over stock?
You’ll get the compression bump so that’s good. If we just slap the heads on you won’t end up with a functional quench pad though. It’s not the end of the world, and they can still get a mild open up job on the intake side. Just not nearly as much.
I heard somewhere, might have been UTG, might have been Nick's Garage, that there is no such thing as a "special high nickel block" at Mopar because all Mopar castings used high nickel iron.
Also, did you see Hagarty built a blower slanty for a 62 Lancer wagon? No details yet, just a teaser vid.
Precisely! I do believe that was Tony. They’ve done at least a couple videos on that Lancer build.
I have always loved the 318, most durable engine in V8 form even made. I have always wanted to build a boosted one for drag and Drive events in a lightweight car like a Valiant, Dart or Auster, maybe even an Aspen for something different. But if the stock durability translates well to boosted builds it should run well with a decent build
The 273 never got the praise they kinda deserved. Every bit as good as a 289 or 283. When I had my 66 formula s I always wanted to do the hop up, d dart 273 for it, but never did.
This is why I’m building one for my Barracuda! If it’s a boat anchor I’ll be the first one to say so - but I don’t think it will be…
It should be a fun journey. Some of those southeastern gassers are plain ol nasty.
'64 Valiant Post
All scrap parts 318
318 Roller Short Block
0.420 OEM 360 Cam
302 Heads (Minor Work)
OEM Alum Intake (Minor Work)
Carter BBD (Tuned)
Runs well for what it is.
Quicker than '72 Rallye 340.
Hell yeah!
I´ve seen these rockers used with homebrew SEE THRU valve covers. Guy took a grinding disc to some old ones that were dinged up anyways and cut nice openings. For stability he left a little 1" connection in the middle, took some silicone stuff and glued some plexiglass above- done. Seethru valve covers. Good stuff.
Sleep over it, why install such fancy never to be seen again? You for shure have a valve cover heap, a place where they just hang out and collect. Give them a visit and cut some up You was to throw aways anyway. I´d for shure make me a pair and watch the thing idle… I like to stare into laundromats, too… Merry Christmas!
Wow. Haha. I have seen a few sets of see through covers online. It’s not for me…
I have a 67 coronet with the original 318 and #920 heads. Out of curiosity would you please measure the volume of the #920 head combustion chamber? I've found answers on the internet that vary between 57, 59, 62, 65, and 66CC. It would be good to see what yours measure. Also, the valve seats on my coronet were ruined after leaded gas was pulled off the market. It probably took 5 years and 20,000 or 30,000 miles for that to happen though. Dad had the hardened valve seats put in about '94. I have a 500cfm AVS2 on mine. I really like the AVS2. I had a 600cfm 4160 on it for a few years. Was good wide open throttle, it idled OK, but light throttle always had a bit of hiccup. I understand it, but I figured that carb would just work better on a bigger motor with automatic transmission. What cam will you be installing? (Speedpro cs-644 revs good, great street manners, but 0 lope) What pistons? KB-167? Thanks for making the video.
Yep, KB167. They just got here. The CC spec given for the 920 (and all of the others) is a range. The “minimum” is 57 CC. 57-64 is the range given in the chart I found. The AVS2 is the absolute best carb available for a regular driver car. I am a strong believer and recommend them to everybody. Ah, the cam is a custom grind from Oregon Cam Grinding. I gave the specs in the first video on this build (a lot of which was dedicated to the car, the green 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.)
Burritos, heated jackets and ever changing coiffure....... I thought this was a car channel. Happy Holidays! Cheers! 😎👍🏎🏁🏁🎄🎁🎀
Sometimes 😅
Great information brother hood thanks
Great video, Jamie! Two questions, who does your machine work (I need some done on the Magnum bottom end), and was that a 5.2 Magnum piston you were holding in the demo?
318 piston, and Johnson Machine in Tumwater. They’re awesome.
@@DeadDodgeGarage Thanks! and interesting, looks identical to the 5.2 Magnum pistons sitting on my bench, same forward notch, same weird angled outer edge. Is that an early 318 piston for the closed chamber heads?
This is a great video and it's always Burrito time.
I used my stock retainers on comp 901-16 valve springs on my 920's. They look very similar to whatever you got and have had no issues. Inside dimensions what made me nervous. .060 smaller(.030 each side) if I remember correctly? But again.. fine. I'm probably wrong but was that a
4-71 blower in the background !? Anywho.. thanks!
It sure was… I thought that might sit on a 273 or 318 quite nicely. That’s a future nightmare.
Ok cool ! I almost bought one (4-71)thinking the same thing. Didn't mention only reason I used stock retainer is $$$ issues. Doesn't seem to be the case here. And BTW...How do you join the super secret pizza party gold club party team anyway? Apologize.. it's probably easy.. I'm just a bit of a dinosaur
Thanks!
My experience is the late magnum heads, are really prone to have sunken valves. Great video!
Huh. 90s Magnum heads? That’s very interesting. I’ve seen plenty cracked. Like… all of them actually. But never a sunken valve that I’ve noticed.
@DeadDodgeGarage i have a pair of magnum heads with sunken valves and cracks. They are perfect for practicing porting, keeping my bench grinder from walking across the floor and not much else!
Good info on quench and the 302 heads!
Would one of those 273 heads be good on a 360? Or is the extra cubes not good with the smaller valves?
If you’re building specifically to the low RPM range, it can work quite well. There have been various 360 builds over the years with even the standard 318 heads. Small chamber for a compression bump and small ports for velocity. It’s not a combination for screaming high RPM horsepower.
I’m at work I’ll be back later!
A truly Dead Dodge, great video Jamie
Where do you get your machine work done? I'm in PNW too and need some work done.
I’m kind of afraid of blowing up the spot so to speak. Haha. So I don’t mention them in videos - but I use Johnson Machine in Tumwater.
IDK the workings you'd have to do to make it happen, but id love to see your skills and experience throw together a build with the 400hp 318 recipe that Dulcich did a while back with hotrod mag! Looking to build a little bit milder version of my own in the future
I’ve read that article many times. Haha. I actually want to dyno this car when it’s done if possible, so we know what we’ve got. It *won’t* be anywhere near 400. And we’re running manifolds. But I’d like to know, for science!
congrats on 50k subs.
Thanks!
Question Would this be a good build for a 1985 stock 318/4spd/3.21in/ 31x10.5 W150?
Absolutely! Keep your cam on the conservative side (like we did) and use a dual plane intake like this Performer. You should have all kinds of low end torque.
@@DeadDodgeGarageSweet !
Hey buddy. Where did you get all the knowledge on Mopars?
I mentioned in another video a owned a 72 Duster 318. Bought back in the day. 🚗
Lots of reading, lots of videos. I’ve probably gotten more knowledge from Uncle Tony and Steve Dulcich than anyone else.
Fond memory porting 66 273 heads my goggles fogged so I tipped them up on my forehead. After doing this several times I forgot to tip them down and got a cast iron sliver in my right eye. 1hr drive to emergency 2hr wait on surgeon the cast iron had turned to rust. Any how I concur good choice for this app.
Ugh… yeah, not ideal. I had something embedded in one eye for 3-4 days that thankfully turned out to be carbon based. Optometrist told me about the possibility of rust rings.
Jamie fantastic again pal
as a kid i took a 318 worked it over 12.5 .half piston grate big sold cam. cut up 340 x heads 780 Holley worked over 391 gears 4 speed... it rev like a Dirt bike... run it did hurt lots of feelings with it.. good times
Impressive. Never seen a dome piston 318… yet…
3:22 hey this is "old"Jamie.
4:12 I don't know that core plug looks new?
15:39 exhaust valve recession "was" a thing back in the day because the fuel refineries had not come up with a suitable replacement to lubricate the valves against the seats. For a awhile it MTFE, then it was found that was hazardous to and switched to something in the same chemistry tree that was safe and works as well as lead. That time where there was no lubricant was about ten years. Every time a machine shop saw a set of pre 80's heads they would wring their hands at the money they were gonna make.
Interesting. That core plug shouldn’t be sitting like that tho. It was a new steel plug like 20 years ago, never painted, now seasoned.
Back in the '80's I started off with SB 's '77 Sport Fury with a 318. And was looking for closed chamber 273's but gave up and went to B/RB's
In my stash I have a 69 273 from a step van. I’ve never taken it apart, does it have these same heads?
Negative, by ‘69 they were the typical open chambers found on 318s.
@DeadDodgeGarage thanks I won't waste my time. I'll save that for another project. That stepvan oil pan is weird as ate the motor mounts.
Enjoy your videos immensely,! Your like the Weird Al Yankivich of auto mechanics! Lol
Haaaahaha. I like that a lot. Thanks!