318 Mopar rebuild

Hey Guy's my son is looking at buying an 87 D150 4x4 it has a 318 with a 3spd auto. The truck seems to run ok but with a 147k on it I would emagine there may be some issues? Now I don;t know much about mopar engines so I thought I would get some opinions on what to look out for on an engine with this sort of miles.. As I said the engine seems to run ok. I was thinking that maybe it could stand to be freshened up a bit? The truck stock made a 140hp which imho needs a bit of a boost. Anyone have a good cheap recipee to wake this puppy up? I am also kicking around doing the trans over at some point to tighten up the shift points..
Thanks


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not real sure what you want to do or what you are calling freshening up ? i did some research on building a 318 for my roadrunner and found that punching it .030 over and using a set of early 70 (pre smog) heads with 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves along with a set of headers would produce upwards of 400 hp. I never did build that engine after buying the heads . Decided to go with a 400 bb . But an intake & carb swap along with a set of headers will wake it up.

Yea I read that same artical in PHR and to be honest I thought the bang for the buck in Hp was great! Although I am with you in that there is no replacment for displacment ! Torque is King in a truck! Especially if you might tow or plow in the future.. I was hoping some crusty Mopar Vet. would post up with some real experiance but o biggy if they don't I liked that artical and will use it in the rebuild when it comes time....

Can be a nice plant. My 323 has the 340 hp cam. Lift is 429 /444, and factory adjustable shaft roller rockers. The heads are 051's off a 5th ave plus side, modern combustion heart shape chamber, 1.88/1.60 valves, and 58 cc compression. Great 6.123 rods, factory pistons sit a little deep around .070 is uncomon.

The trick for these are the Magnum head swap. Same as the vortec swap all you need is a coresponding intake . Mopar older heads were always bad flow. the magnum is a fine street head . If you dont mnd loosing the factory shaft rocker design. Then drop the chevy 1.94 intake valve in there along with a gmp series 2 v6 beehive valve springs at rebuild time. Drop on gmparts that make a killer mopar valve train.

A Edelbrock streetmaster 318 low single plane is one of the better intakes for the 318 engine. Pulls in the -4500-5000rpm range. Performer pulls to 5500- , the RPM sucks on the low end, but revs to 6500+ on the high.

The 51s with go 275-280 hp and the Mags will go 320, use headers and 3.73 + gear.

Now were talking! This is what I'm after! So Spinn in as far as bang for the buck goes whats your opinion for the cheaper set up? Is the stock factory valve train up to the job with just a valve spring change?

You need to be sure the hydraulic lifter preload is correct after any changes are made to the head gasket thickness, the head or block decks being milled, valve jobs, that sort of thing. The hurdle you face w/the stock 318 valve train is it's not adjustable. You can measure for different length push rods and/or shim the rocker stands but an adjustable rocker set-up like was used on the 273 is the better solution IMHO. Adjustable rockers and the different pushrods that go w/them are also available from the aftermarket.