Hello everybody. My name is Carlos and I've joined this forum because I need your help. My brother owns a 1973 Plymouth Duster that needs some work. He's in Iraq right now so I wanted to fix it up for him as a surprise on his return. Now, I don't know much about Mopars so thats why I came in here. Its a 1973 Plymouth Duster w/ a 318 3 spd on the column and thats pretty much it. We are going to re-paint it and build up the engine. So my question is....do I have to get a new block to make a solid 340? or can I use the same block that it was right now? I'll post up some pics later. Like I said this car is his and we're basically fixing it up for him as a thank you for serving our country. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I know I'll have more questions for all of you later. Thanks.

Carlos A.

 

You would have to replace the block. however there are a lot of things you can do to the 318 to give it a little performace boost. just getting the heads/intake/headers ported, putting in a more aggressive cam, a bigger carb, and running a larger exhaust will do wonders.

 

I'd agree with the previous post, if the engine is solid, spend the money on it and not a replacement. The 1958 Plymouth Fury was a big heavy car and it had a 318 (the old engine with rear distributor) with 2 fours and a torqueflite.
Your newer 318 has a lot of untapped potential.
Wow, is this guy gonna be surprised.
Serving your country is the thing to do, strong people, strong country, end of story.

 

I agree with MGD. Your 318 is a good foundation to build on. Buy a stroker kit, and work with that. The key to good power is compression in your engine. Get the block machined, and get pistons that sit flush with your deck. Your heads should have smaller combustion chambers. RPM Edelbrock heads are a very good cheap head. Compression=power in N/A engines.