i am rebuilding my 318 for my 84 dodge prospector i have had the block bored 40 i have a set of 360 j heads a melling mtc-1 cam and im working on a getting a stock 4 barrel intake from a friend and maybe some headers later but im wondering what type if carb would get the best fuel milage and horsepower also i have some eldelbrock sure seat valve springs and have done a gasket match on the heads and o little porting before i take them to my machinist also is this a good cam choice or should i go with like a comp 260 or something i just want a little input from someone else on what else i can do to get the most out of my engine thanks

 

I've never been good with cam specs and picking the right cam but I beleive that comp cams has a program that you can enter all your specs in and it will tell you which cam(s) you should consider.

If you are porting the heads, you might as well look into polishing them as well. Polished heads will flow better and not trap as much fuel in the pors of the metal.

As for a carb, a 600-650 should be good. Holley has a program that you can go through and it will tell you what carb(s) you should be considering.

 

Unless you have a pro do the porting I would not do it.. Just do a little clean up. You can do more harm than good and money can be spent in better ways on a street motor for a good exhaust system. Just the J heads and a good 3 angle valve job will be a big improvement over the 318 heads.. I have the perfect carb for you. Aftermarket Carter AFB model 9636 very good condition. 625cfm made for Mopar with the correct linkage arm & elect choke. $125 + ship. Had it on my 360 for a while and switched to the big 800 cfm Thermoquad

 

i do have some help with the port and polish my brother did heads for years and hees showing how to port and polish i just dont have the buffers yet to do the polish part my exhaust is already 2 1/2 duals but im looking into getting some truck headers as far as the carb goes i have a manual secondary carter but im not sure what cfm it is im still checkin into that i also have a 650 holley layin around and a 750 edelbrock (junk in my opinion] and an old quadrajunk carb i just dont know if im gonna use one of them or get a different one but let me do some more research. istill may try to buy your carb but it may be a little while before i can afford it money is tight this day and time.

 

ok cool

 

ok finally i got enough to hopefully finish my build i just got my heads back from the machine shop today and my machinist told me i did real good on my port work he even offered my some side work doing it for some of his customers.my short block is built, all i got left to do is slap the heads and intake on and stick it in the truck. ill check in later to let everyone know how it works

 

ok the engine is built and in the truck.i wound up using a 600 cfm edelbrock carb and i think i got everything adjusted pretty close. it sounds pretty good all i got to do is tweek the carb and start doing the body work so i can paint.

 

NICE!

 

What did you use for a cam? Specs?

 

All Icould find on the melling MTC-1 shaft he said he used was its a stock replacement/rv style cam... Very conservative specs... all stock valve train parts can be used..

 

i did wind up using the mtc1 melling cam 420 444 lift it idles very well and gives enough grunt to know its there i also used edelbrock sure seat springs. a lot of people dont like the idea of the 360 heads but sofar they seem to help. even tho my milage may suffer from it. but im happy with my build and thats all that matters. next i want to upgrade my ignition and maybe some roller rockers later on.

 

As long as you are happy with it, that is all that matters.

Just remember that with more power, you may need to build up/rebuild some other items like tranny and rear axle.

 

i did put a shift kit in my 727 and gave it a good cleaning and paint job while i had it out and i have another 727 that im looking into rebuilding for a spare as far as the rearend goes i may change gears later and i thought about putting a spool in it and making it a posi track. im not even sure whats back there right now but its all a work in progress im slowly upgrading things as i go. ive had this truck about 8 years now and im finally getting it the way i want it

 

You'll have either an 8.25, 9.25 or D44. There is an axle ID picture in the resources section.

A spool would keep the wheels locked to one another all the time. A posi has some give. If its going to be a daily driver, I would go with a posi/sure grip/limited slip over a spool.