The Brown Bomber of your Dreams

[jeremy]

In the comments of another video the owner says this was a factory big block car, but he wanted to play around with the 318.

[Nacho-RT74]

Original Gold Stripe? That would be GRRRREAT, really uncommon

But is incorrectly installed. Way off on quarters

[jeremy]

I noticed it wasn't centered on the side marker lamps. What a silly mistake to make.  The car is too nice to have a screw up like that holding it back.  

[DynoDave]

Looks like fun! Freshened 318, aluminum Edelbrock heads, high rise single plain intake, headers, Comp Cam, 4 speed, and a 6500 rpm redline. Doesn't get much more fun than that.

[jeremy]

Dyno test with an earlier cam.

300ish numbers are low by modern standards.  I haven't driven a RWD car with even this much power though, and I doubt a Charger with 3-400 hp and no driver aids is less of a widowmaker than a 1st gen Viper.  Thinking ahead to what I want to do with my teen, I'm a "once and done" guy but I'm guessing a stroker kit and heads would put it over the 400hp mark.  At 51 years old though I wonder how long the rings would hold up if I just swapped in a new camshaft and good heads.  If I have to tear down the motor, it's stroker time.  I'm not doing that more than once.    

[DynoDave]

Feb 24, 2023 11:37:15 GMT -5 jeremy said:

300ish numbers are low by modern standards.  I haven't driven a RWD car with even this much power though...

A current Charger with a V6 is in the low 300h.p. range. It's a much heavier car, but benefits greatly from 8 forward gears, among other things. And they are quite entertaining to drive.

While our cars are lighter than a modern Charger, with fewer forward gears it would be a close race. With a proper torque converter and rear gears, that 318 will be a fine little engine on the street. The down side is with small cubes, you have to climb the rpm range to get to where the power is in that bigger cam and with those better breathing heads. It needn't be gutless on the bottom end of it's power band, but where the bottom of that power band is will certainly move up in rpm. The converter and rear gear help you get into that power band more quickly. The downside is that with only 3 forward gears and no overdrive, it costs you top end, and can make highway driving less enjoyable / economical. Thus are the compromises of making power with 50+ year older technology Vs. today's modern muscle. EFI, variable cam timing, better cam design, better factory heads, higher compression ratios, better gearing, etc. etc. all make the modern powertrain tough to beat.

As for rings and your current 318, I'm in the same boat with the 305 in my Trans Am. In my case, I know the shortblock is in good shape...good oil pressure, good compression, no oil consumption, etc. The factory pistons provide a reasonable 9.3:1 compression ratio, which is good enough for what I'm doing, and will actually go up just a touch with the heads I'm using (they have a few CCs less chamber volume). So I'll leave the shortblock alone aside from re-sealing it, adding a windage tray and a better cam. I'll top it with better factory heads, intake and exhaust. Along with a looser converter and better rear gears, it will be fun on the street. No world beater mind you, but that's not the goal. It's just a fun cruiser. In the case of the small block Chevy, if I really wanted to make a lot more power, I'd have to have a crazy cam (you can make 400 h.p. that way, but it would be a miserable engine to live with on the street), or move to a 350 with it's larger bore and room for bigger valves. (Not to turn this into a SBC lesson, but when creating the 305 in the late '70s, Chevy went the route of a small bore and long stroke, believing this would create the best low end torque with small cubes. But the small bore limits valve size, which can be a limiting factor in an all-out build. The 318 does not have this issue [305 bore and stroke are 3.736 in × 3.48 in Vs the 318 at bore & stroke of 3.9062 in X 3.312 in.]. As a result, the 318 has more performance potential so to speak, all else being equal).

[jeremy]

I'm wondering how streetable the Gary's Garage 600hp 318 Barracuda is. I need my car to be easy to live with, but I'm not looking for 600 hp in it. I'm not even sure how much I can safely drive. I don't know anyone IRL with a fast car. I used to know a mechanic who said he put a 600 hp motor in a full size truck, drove it once, and it scared him so much he pulled the motor.

Even 600 hp is kinda lame in Tesla world, but 3rd gen Chargers don't drive themselves.

It's so strange to see a middle aged woman at the grocery store in a driving appliance that she can safely blow my doors off with, without having to learn any driving skills.