Description
Even Mopar guys seem to relegate 318 small-blocks to one of two fates: leaving 'em running happily bone-stock in beaters or tossing 'em in the dumpster after an engine swap. Sadly, the most ubiquitous LA engine has always been viewed as the useless punk of the family. At the risk of generalizing, they are almost never built as performance engines.
Introduced in 1967 as a two-barrel engine with a bore and stroke of 3.91x3.31, the 318 was an enlarged version of Chrysler's
LA small-block that debuted in 1964 with 273 ci. Their image was soon trampled by the performance 340 in 1968 and later strangled by abysmally low compression and regressive smog equipment. They are rarely considered for a rebuild because performance pistons are hard to come by, and even if they weren't, most small-block Mopar fans faced with the financial hurdle of a total rebuild will spend a few bucks more to pick up a 360 engine core, which are still a dime a dozen.
