Dodge Aspen R/T 318
Active Member
hello all,Jim here..where I’m at with my 318 today is where a lot of you were at 25 years ago..I have a 1971 318 engine that runs great,I know it has low compression somewhere in the 8:6:1 range..as of this time I’m going to leave the pistons down in the hole and live with the compression that the engine has now..I do want an engine that performs well,my first upgrade i just purchased was a set of 391 rear gears which will be installed this new week,my 78 aspen has a 8/34 rear and I figured that the lower rear gears would help greatly getting the 318 moving off the line..my next move is to purchase an rpm intake with a 650 Holley,a set of good headers and a good free flowing exhaust,msd distributor and wires..I want to use the stock heads and would like your opinion on the necessary upgrades to the stock heads to help wake the engine up and and make it breath better, also can you please recommend a good performance cam that will work well with the lower compression of the engine and the bolt on upgrades I have I have listed..don’t want to use 360 heads,don’t want to upgrade to a 360 and as of this time would like to work with the lower compression and upgrading the stock 318 heads..i would appreciate any other suggestions you may have on what I’m trying to achieve..I know this isn’t going to be a powerhouse but would like to hear your input on how well you think this will perform..thanks, Jim..