ok have a 85 318 taking off the lean burn and puting my electronic ign set up from local yard on it. Have eldebrock performer 4bbl intake with eldebrock 600 carb. Engine has 85k original miles. Getting new gaskets in it. Now i want to put a cam in it but i have the stock heads/valves what would be a good choice for this? i like cam noise lol id like some power gain most deff. but not too much mpg loss. Im new into this and now sure whats a good cam for this. Any help would be good thanks.

 

Get camquest6 freedownload, and go to town with it.
You might have to edit the cyl hd flow section to better represent your specific head.
But very accurate. Then you the best cam specs you want to decide on a cheaper cam than comp.

 

I would get the modernized equivalent of the old 340 STOCK cam. ONE BIG MISTAKE many many make is "they want the sound" but once you HAVE that sound, you often have an undrivable, horrid thing that gets no mileage, is a dog at low RPM, and so on

 

i like the sound but im not going after a cam for that, i just want to get a little more hp out of this motor

 

I am running 3 scenarios with my 318,

stock 302 heads, with bowl porting and 1.88" intake and single plane intake 4bbl (650 Holley)with port matching, cams and headers, stock 8.5:1 CR

340 X heads with performance grind, same intake and carb and headers, and decking and gasket to about 8:1 CR

340X heads with worked a bit with bowl and grind, same intake and carb, stroker and bore to 392ci, 9.5:1 CR


comp cams was showing me the following hp / torque values,

324 / 374
385 / 390
400 / 495

 

im going for a buget build /well just refreashning with new gaskets/water pump/belts/electronic ignition/4bbl/performer intake. Ive been getting told that the stock 302 heads arnt worth gasket/port matching or getting bowled seeing there prone to crack?

 

So forget the 340 X heads. Just got a quote back to fix them and prep them, over $700.

**** it. I am going to just breath life into the 318 I got and be happy with what I got.
New cam ($150)
Some perf grinding and stock small valves. Maybe a bit of bowl cleanup. ($300)
Port matching at both intake and exhaust for dual plane intake ($250)
Holley dual feed 650 is ready to go (free)
I will work those exhaust manifolds a bit as well.
Dual exhaust with 2.5" ($300)
For about $1400 including paint and gaskets, I should see that wimpy 2bbl at around 160hp, come alive to about 275hp.
Sound reasonable?