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New2Mopar Nov 17, 2010 02:29 PM
1965 Plymouth Sport Fury HELP!!!
 
I just picked this car up and am wondering what I should do with the engine. It is a stock 318 and is in good running shape. I am torn between keeping everything stock (2 bbl, duals, etc......) or adding a few upgrades (4 bbl, intake, headers, etc...) for some power. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am in the process of rebuilding the transmission and I think I will keep this completely stock as well.........no shift kits or torque converters. Suggestions on this will be welcome also.

Thanks guys!

pjjaramillo Nov 17, 2010 06:10 PM
Ultimately, this should be your decision. What will you have more pride driving; a pristine completely original cruiser car, or a gnarly souped-up fast car? Either way, it's an awesome car.

"Never leave 'em stock, baby!" -Tim Allen

...But that's just one opinion

1966sportfury Nov 17, 2010 09:41 PM
if its a 318 yhat came with the car. it would be a poly or (wide block) 318. 2 bolts hold the valve cover on. the problem is 4bbl intakes are tough to find. headers are even harder to find.
if it has 5 bolts to hold the valve cover its a LA block much easier to find parts for.

440roadrunner Nov 18, 2010 08:23 AM
Originally Posted by 1966sportfury (Post 58632)
a poly or (wide block) 318. .
Just a minor point---I wish folks would stop calliing these a "wide block." The fact is, the block is no bigger for an A than an LA. If you pull the heads, it actually is a little difficult to tell them apart

Another easy way to tell them apart, is the A (early) engines had scallops on the exhaust side of the valve covers, the LA (late) engines are straight sided.

Poly engines are a great old engine. One night at Carlsbad, when my old Roadrunner ran 13.1's a guy I knew showed up with a Poly built for stock class, running a 2 barrel. Clicked off 13.0's on the national record at the time.

1966sportfury Nov 18, 2010 12:57 PM
"(When it came to the LA engine we made all the tipped to the intake manifold and inline as viewed from the front of the engine giving it a wedge shaped
. The reason we went to such a change, which triggered totally new cylinder heads and manifolds for the engine was that the engine was designed to go into the Valiant car. The Valiant car was originally not designed to take a V-8 engine. So we were really limited in every which way about getting the engine in place and the older A engine was simply far too wide at the cylinder heads in order to go into the car. So we put the wedge head engine, cylinder heads on top of the A engine and that was what we needed to do in order to get that engine into the Valiant)"

the engine is wider do to cylinder heads, and also the A block is about 50 lbs heavier.

New2Mopar Nov 22, 2010 02:13 PM
Howdy Bob,

Thanks for the info. I am still trying to get things cleaned up under the hood to make sure it is indeed a 318. All signs point to that but I am having a tough time locating the casting number. I believe they are somewhere near the distributor but haven't seen them yet. I will check the number of bolts holding the valve covers on. Any other tips like that are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for the help.

John

Skwerly Dec 5, 2010 12:21 PM
Yea I’d stick with that 318, those are cool! I’m rebuilding an LA 318 that should put out somewhere in the 330 HP range. That isn’t much, but it’s in an old cruiser so I’m not worried about time slips. I just want to pass the occasional Chevy :D.


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