Re: Suped 318 or 360

From: TommFern@aol.com
Date: Sat Apr 29 2000 - 11:39:31 EDT


In a message dated 4/29/00 2:09:18 AM Central Daylight Time, acolona@i-55.com
writes:

<<
 I wasn't gonna jump in on this one, but oh well. a 318 will outrun a 360 any
 day of the week as far as durability. also, the shorter stroke makes it a
 better suited engine for racing. the only reason a 360 works as well as it
 does is because these trucks are heavy and the 360 is a torque motor. it's
 always been known as the "work" motor. ask any "old" Mopar fan and he'll
 tell you the 318 and 340's were the horsepower makers, and will walk circles
 around a 360. take a 360 and a 318 and put them both in 3200 pound sports
 cars, and you'll never want to hear the word 360 again. that's why the ford
 302 is one of the best small blocks ever built. you can't kill them, and the
 stroke/bore design allows them to run some serious times. they have 302
 mustangs that run 8's, and I bet you if anyone told them to dump it for a
 351 they'd laugh in their face. yes, cubes are better, but only in the right
 combination. if I want to pull stumps out the back yard, I'll get an r/t.
 but since I'm looking for a motor that's gonna run like a bat out of hell
 and last till hell freezes over, gimme a 318.
>>
   I can only agree partially. Yes, the 318 does have slightly better angles
to work from. The durability I feel is also better IF your thinking of
putting 200,000 miles on it. But I've run both and the 360 will out
horsepower and TQ the 318 in almost every application. This is especially
true when it comes to our applications, which are so limited based on the
computer. The best way to help is just to add cubes. Nobody is spinning their
motor to 8000 rpm the last time I checked. I used to run mid 13s on the 318,
now I run 12s on the 360.
  I have been involved in the 5.0L world for some time. I can tell you those
guys would almost always prefer the 351 windsor over the 318. First, it's a
much stronger block. The mains,webbing are much more meaty. This is
undebateable. The 351 also lends itself to much easier stroking. Talk about
bad rod angles, take a look at a 302 stroked to a 347. A lot of shops don't
even reccomend it anymore. The reason those guys are using the 302 is one;
the rules, and two; the added expense of putting in the 351. Remember, the
351 has a taller deck height which means a cowl hood, different
bracketry,distributor,etc. all the fast guys on the cheap were running
stroked windsors on gas. They were cleaning up.
Tom(11s dak)



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