Just bought my first project car - '68 Barracuda notchback with a 318, nothing fancy. It runs pretty strong but I plan on pulling the engine out to dress it up, paint the engine bay, re-wire, etc. I'd like to bulk it up a little, but nothing too crazy or budget busting. I have a Holley 4150 670 cfm 4-barrel Street Avenger carb I'd like to use in place of the existing Carter 2-bbl. I also want to slap some headers on it too. Questions: (1) What do you all recommend for the intake manifold with the 4-bbl carb? (2) are there any additional upgrades/changes that I will need with this set up? (3) what do you recommend for headers - doesn't look like a lot of room on the driver's side given the position of the steering linkage. Any and all thoughts/recommendations appreciated.

 

TTI headers, dual plane intake and a repo 340 cam

 

I saw your description of the car and I would suggest concentrating on the chassis. I find the engine work fun but if you do it first you may end up with a completed engine waiting too long for install.

My experience has shown me to make a plan first and "try" and stick to it, if you can time and money will be saved. A full and complete inspection of the car and all it's components will give a clearer view of what may need the most money and keep you within your budget.

I have been down this road many times with my three twenty something boys and it was hard to keep them focused on the plan when they were teenagers.

My greatest joy was seeing them come to love the North American V8, not a tuner in the bunch.

 

Welcome to the forum... I do love those Barracudas.... Be sure to check out the Mopar of the Month contest... Keep us posted on your progress and we do love pictures..... Hint.... Hint.....

 

You might not even gain enough to worry with headers. There was an exhaust test reposted over at FABO

But I agree. a low- to mid range dual plane such as Ed "Performer" a 340--ish cam and about a 600--650 vacuum secondary carb. If you don't cruise long distance at high speed, consider dropping the rear gear some

I have a 3.7x gear in mine, and with the tires on it, runs about 3300 at 70, "just right" for short hops, and "just right" to jump into it

 

the cam TVlynn said i had one in a 360. it would pass every thing, but a gas station.

 

Check this out:

http://voices.yahoo.com/performance-...28.html?cat=27

 

That article has at least one huge flaw. "Slapping" 360 heads on without at least milling them...........which can generate intake fitup problems.........are not gonna gain you anything except reduced compression

I'm also not convinced that a 4bbl without a cam change will gain much of anything. The cam in a stock 318 is pretty dismal.

Decent DUAL exhaust, not necessarily requiring headers

My current "backyard budget" 318 is fairly snotty. "340 ish" cam, Performer intake. I do have headers but they are coming off.

 

Great link. Im keeping this one. Very informative. Thanks for posting that.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied - great info. Couple of thoughts - the article referenced by Skwerly was great. That's pretty much what it looks like I'll be doing (and what you guys recommended) and the fan idea is one I hadn't thought of. It brought to mind a similar article I recently saw in a mag (forget the name) which was along the same lines, but much more detailed. I will try to get a link posted here in the near future. I'm afraid of replacing the heads, but will take a closer look at that.

440roadrunner - why are you nixing the headers?

Coronet 500 - good advice, and I'm already taking it. First thing I did was replace the distributor which cleared up some spark issues. Right now I'm spending most of my time on the body, patching up the rust spots. Not many of those but I'm cutting them out, welding in new steel and then I'll be prepping it for a friend's paint shop. The chassis is strong, as is the trunk liner and the floor boards. I want to get the engine out as much to prep and paint the engine bay as anything else. It already had new rear quarters when I got it, so I had a headstart there. Grill, nose and front valance came off last night - we'll be reconditioning those off the car and trying to get them up to snuff without buying replacements (except for the valance, which is a mess). We'll turn to the interior once the paint's done, engine's back, new wires installed throughout (probably going to use Painless or Ron Francis for that) and the new vinyl top is on.

 

That article I referenced is from Mopar Muscle magazine, September 1, 2004, "318 Engine Build - A Parts Book 400HP 318," written by Steve Dulcich. Go to www.moparmusclemagazine.com/technical articles and you should be able to find it from there.

 

Search around for a thread over at FABO. title is something like "restricted mufflers" or "muffler restrictions" or some such.

Someone put together a pretty good test that was linked there from another site. The took about every type of SB Mopar manifold, shortie and long headers and tested them all at "about" the 300 hp level. There was VERY little difference at that HP level.

 

Hey Dad, 400 horsepower is way cool. I saw these 318 stroker kits, how much HP do you think we'll get with 390 cubes, I'll get a job and pay for most of it, whatta ya say huh Dad.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

yes! i'm very familiar with that buildup and if that's not inspirational to 318 owners, i don't know what would be.

 

Welcome!

 

It is interesting to read peoples thoughts about mopar's LA 318 engine. In my world it's a very potential piece of iron. We run a 318 standard bore and stroke all iron in a Plymouth Volare -76, no turbo or nitro ****. This season we ran 12.15 in the quartemile. Forged crank, forged rods, forged pistons, solid roller camshaft and steel roller rockers. We have found out that cylinder nr 4 and 6 are oval with compression loss as a result! We are planning to fix that and aiming for high 11's in next season.
Our gool is to be the fastes 318 all iron, no turbo or nitro ****, F-body in the world. I forgot to mention that our business is modifying LA-cylinderheads. On the flowbench they outflow most of the aftermark alu heads! You are welcome to visite our sight Moparhead.com

 

Also, i had forgotten to mention: unless you are going with a really healthy cam, i think the Holley 4150 670 cfm is going to prove a tad too big for the engine. maybe not, but it's worth looking into because over-carbing a V8 sucks.