Mopar 318 camshaft changes for performance

more information to help choose the best camshaft for your 318

[@paulshea2560]

Great video 👍Learned alot ,thanks for the details on duration, The numbers can get really overwhelming for me. Cam shopping is a area where I always Questioning my self.Your video was great thank you again. Have a great Easter.

[@jonathoncouchey7151]

The camshaft in my 318 is an xe256h cam from comp. It's has a 108lsa 212 /218 duration @50. and .447 int/.455 exh.

[@tl5108]

It’s a 110 LSA isn’t it?

[@saltycrowgarage7215]

Is this on stock valve train?

[@jonathoncouchey7151]

@@saltycrowgarage7215 I went with comp springs. You could run stock and be fine.

[@marcosathens8140]

Good Information! & thanks for sharing. I used to be a Mopar man myself. When I got married, I got out of cars. Now divorced, I have "Sticker shock" how much Mopar car & parts are. I am looking for a Fairly cheap A-body & Small block to build. In my past(1980's) I had two darts & two 340, 4 speed Dusters. Miss them. Great cars.

[@sidewyndersshed1676]

I can't count how many times I have said "Be right back" then hit the wrong button on the phone. 🤣 Stuff happens. Do you have an editing app for your phone? (And have you gotten the screen fixed?) Again, excellent info. 👍

[@paulshea2560]

Could you do a video on duel point Distributors ?,I recently got a brand new Mallory duel point Distributor from a friend who was cleaning out his garage. Just wanted to know what the True gains are over single point ..

[@slantfish65sd]

Yes I will do a video on this subject as soon as possible

[@nickmellinger5247]

Great video. My son and I are building a 99 318 magnum stroker motor to replace the 3.9 v6 in our 1992 2wd 5 speed Dodge Dakota sport. My dilemma is that he wants it radical but I want to make sure it's a nice driver with plenty of vacuum for the power brakes. Camshaft selection is the issue. You showed in your video different inches of vacuum advertised in the Edelbrock catalog but didn't say how many inches is required to properly maintain power brakes. It's going to end up a 390 stroker being overbored .030 and I think a 4 inch stroke. Engine quest heads 9 to 1 compression. AX15 transmission and 8.25 chrysler rear which I'm sure both will need replaced as I don't think they'll handle the power. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Nick

[@slantfish65sd]

Hey Nick, thanks for the watching the video and thank you for appreciating the video. The vacuum booster needs about 18 inches of vacuum in order to operate but I have seen some of them operating with as low as 12 inches of vacuum. So that's kind of varies depending on the vacuum booster and maybe a couple other factors like the brakes themselves or the the size of the master cylinder piston. The other thing is that you can run a vacuum canister store, a vacuum storage canister and a vacuum and or a vacuum pump. If you do, that will probably take care of any lack of vacuum with using a more radical choppy cam. As far as that, 8 1/4 rear axle is concerned. You can upgrade to like an eight and three quarter Mopar or you can keep taking a quarter and get a sugar grip or a what's known as a commonly known as a lunch box locker. These are pretty inexpensive and they actually work pretty well. When you do that you will make that eight and a quarter even stronger. However, there's also another option getting a 9 1/4 Mopar rear axle out of like a Durango or a Dakota similar that will make that drivetrain just a little bit stronger. As far as the transmission is concerned, the AX15, it's not a bad unit, but like you say it's not the strongest

[@nickmellinger5247]

@@slantfish65sd Awesome thanks for the advice. I think we might just upgrade the 8 1/4 rear with the lunchbox locker and new axles from Nitro gear and while I have it apart I might put on some 3.91 gears. I am leaning towards keeping it or maybe trying a 9 1/4 out of a Duango because of the 6 lug wheels and keeping its looks. Thanks again!!

[@tl5108]

@@nickmellinger5247 8.25 is pretty strong if you have a suregrip or locker in it. I wouldn’t worry about blowing it up behind your 390

[@jimjungle1397]

The 0.050" duration is duration from and to 0.050" cam lobe lift, not valve lift. SAE duration (sometimes used for advertised duration) is measured from and to 0.006" valve lift, so with SAE duration, the rocker arm ratio comes into play. The Performer RPM and Torker Plus camshafts call for adjustable rockers or pushrods because they come with anti-pump up lifters. These lifters have less plunger travel and their pushrod cups are farther down in the lifter bodies. Also with Mopars, the standard base circle of the cam lobes maxes out at 0.475" valve lift, but 0.480" lift cams can often be tolerated with standard lifter and some milling. The old discontinued Torker Plus camshaft had lower lift than the Performer RPM cam, but still came with anti-pump up lifters, requiring an adjustable valvetrain.

[@slantfish65sd]

Thank you for pointing this information out the reason why I didn't put this information out is because I don't want to scare away the newbies and overwhelm them have you put any of this information to work on any of the engines that you have built would like to see these

[@williamcole464]

I'm wondering if a stock 68 340 type cam can be used with a 87 Diplomat roller tappet ? The cam is a reproduction from Summit. Any advice from you would be great.

[@williamcole464]

I should add that it is a 87 318, and the cam is new in the box from Summit

[@slantfish65sd]

I really like your idea of using a 340 in the 87 318. I think it is a great idea, however there are a couple of things you do need to know and understand very thoroughly. The that 318 uses roller lifters and I think you even said that in your post. The roller lifters and roller lifter cams are ground in such a way that they do not turn the lifter in its bore the flat tappet cams like that 340 cam are ground in such a way that they are turning the lifter in its bore as the lifter is riding on that cam so to use the 340 cam in the 318 you will have to use flat tappet lifters and different push rods. Really? You can probably get away with using just about any push rods from an earlier 318 or 360 that has the flat. Tap it lifters also, I hope that helps you have any other questions feel free to ask and thank you for watching

[@gregacri8211]

I have stock 318 small block in 1977 D100; thinking of making your "top five" mod's to the engine during rebuild; what cam shaft would you suggest; nothing to radical; just looking to fresh up old engine and maybe wake it up a bit; thanks! - Greg

[@slantfish65sd]

Hey Greg, first of all I want to say thank you very much for watching the videos and thank you very much for the comments. I do need to tell you though if you want me to pick you a camshaft I don't mind doing that. Matter of fact it kind of look forward to it. However, we're going to need to get technical. I'm going to need a lot of information about the engine you intend to modify and I need a lot of information about the vehicle it's in now. You've said in your post it's a 1977 d100 so that gives me a little bit of information but I need to know quite a bit of information. Like is the engine stock right now? What modifications are you planning for it? According to your post you're going to do a lot of stuff that I have already recommended if you want like a good all around. Camshaft that can be a good general purpose camshaft that will work in a lot of different applications with the Mopar LA engine. I would recommend off the bat not knowing anything about your truck or your engine. The 340 camshaft there's several companies that make reproductions of this camshaft probably your best bet as far as the quality and good service would be Hughes engines there are Mopar only company. They have a website you can just google it. It's not that hard to find. From what I understand, they mostly do regrinds on factory camshafts and their grind them to different lifts and rations and valve overlap so I think it's worth your time to check them out and see what they've got. One thing to know is that some of the reproduction? 340 camshafts don't have exactly the same specs as the original 340 cam. They may be just slightly different. Oh and one other detail. They're back in the day. When the 340 was new there was two different camshafts. There wasn't a camshaft for the automatic cars and then it was one for the six pack manual transmission cars. The one for the manual transmission cars. Nobody well, nobody that I know of makes a reproduction of that cam, but there are quite a few companies that get close to it so that may be another thing to think about. If you want the exact specs of the cam I can get those for you later. Hope this helps. Any further questions feel free to ask

[@setha360]

Mistake everyone makes on camshaft is top end power, Trucks you want low end torque, so RV cam, race cars full throttle are not truck cams.

[@razoreyes45k]

One basic truth on Flat Tappet Camshafts for all Mopars: If you just want to cruise, your choice of brand doesn't matter. If you want to take advantage of the power Chrysler intended for your engine to have, search a cam based on the .904 Lifter principle/design. Most replacement Hyd. Flat Tap and Solid cams are designed using a Chevy .842 Lifter, essentially giving your engine the same characteristics as a Chevy. Why feed your Mopar a Chevy cam ? Get a Chrysler .904 ground camshaft. They accommodate more lift at lower Duration @ .050 and have more aggressive Ramp profiles.

[@slantfish65sd]

Thank you for noting that. I appreciate you watching the video very much. I've also listed that fact on a few other videos as well

[@slantfish65sd]

But also I was just trying to put out the basics out there for the newcomers and the newbies. The ones who aren't very well versed on a lot of this stuff

[@barneywarwick9804]

What is the best cam for a 92 318 does carb give more power than fule injection can the Magnum 318 make 400 hp what all u got to change

[@slantfish65sd]

Hey Barney if you can give me more detailed information about the engine and the vehicle it's going in or it is in and what you're going to be doing with it. This all of this can help out tremendously. Somebody picking a cam out of a catalog without knowing any of these details. Really really is very Russian. Roulette okay so best thing to do if you can. Just get me the information on the vehicle. The engine and what you're going to be doing with it. I'm going to need to know some stuff like the gear ratio for the rear axle or axles. If it's four-wheel drive is it going into a truck with four-wheel drive or is it going into a two-wheel drive truck? Can you give me an approx? You know you don't have to give me exact weight but if you can give me an approximate weight that will help out tremendously. Also if I would if you could tell me about a little bit more about the engine like is it got stock heads is it got aftermarket heads on it or you going to be putting aftermarket heads on it? You know is it you know fully rebuilt? Is it not etc etc etc. You know I'm going to need to know a lot more detail to pick out a cam for you. Okay and I can't just give you a generalization of like any you know any cam and by any manufacturer as far as fuel injection or carburation to get to the 400 horse. Mark, your most likely going to have to go with carburation. You can do it with fuel injection, but it may be a little more costly and it may be something that you have to do with some dino time and a lot more tuning programming however, your heads cylinder heads while they do flow very well and there's nothing wrong with them. They're excellent. Really your biggest hurdle you're going to have to overcome to get to 400 horsepower is that the magnum heads have their intake manifold. Bolt orientation is vertical straight up and down that limits what intakes you can get and use for this setup. Unfortunately there's only two or three intakes out there available and they're all pretty expensive now. And that's another thing, I don't know what kind of money you're willing to spend either here. Furthermore, if you're willing to step up to the plate and go with an aftermarket head getting to the 400 horse, Mark is going to be a lot easier because you're not going to have any of the limitations that the magnum head the stock magnum head imposes. So the best thing you can do is probably an aftermarket head like an Edelbrock or something along those lines. Guess we are talking more money. More expense but there is also another option of taking your original heads and having the heads drilled for the LA intake bolt pattern. Now if you do that that opens up the intake selection tremendously and the aftermarket heads a lot of them feature that. Then you can still run the pedestal style rockers and magnum comes with and you can run a LA style intake and you can have a single plane intake high rise that will get you a lot closer to 400 horsepower. It can be done, but getting the 400 horsepower with a 318 is a little harder to do.

[@doglife3894]

What are the the 2 small holes on the camshaft where it sits in the bearings

[@slantfish65sd]

The two small holes you're referring to on the camshafts journal are oiling holes. They line up with the oil hole in the camshaft bearing and gets a shot of oil run through there and then that cam bearing and camshaft journal or lubricated there is also one of the cam journals. I think it is the number four cam journal that has the two holes in it that line up with the pressurized oil passage that lines up with the bearing oil holes and as the camshaft is turning headlines up with those holes in it shoots oil into the camshaft in that journal and then as the camshaft turns at all gets pushed into and also shoots into the passage for the oil to go through into the rocker shafts. But I want to also say thank you very much for watching the video. Really appreciate it if you want more information about this get yourself a manual about Mopar LA engines. They will usually have a schematic that will show the way the oil travels through the engine through all of the oiling passages and will show you how it starts out from the oil pump up through The oil filter then the main bearings which then it goes from the main bearings through the raw bearings. There's also some that goes on up into the camshaft and then it also goes up into the rocker shafts

[@doglife3894]

We installed a cam for a 1978 318 engine and did not had those holes.

[@robertpake4371]

Can you simply install 340 heads and intake . or does the compression drop .

[@slantfish65sd]

Hello Robert, first of all let me say thank you very much for watching the video and thank you for your comments. As for your comment, can you simply install three 40 heads and intake or does the compression drop okay? Yes, you can install the 340 heads and the intake typically most of the time when we're talking stock 318 bottom end. Pistons block crank rods. All of that and 340 heads put on a 318 usually will result in a compression drop. However, there are several items that can play into that now. If the particular heads you've got in mind have a smaller combustion chamber, whether that's been done by milling the heads down or their aftermarket heads and they had a smaller combustion chamber to begin with. That's something to think about. The combustion chamber size is important. There are books out there and there is information online that tells you how big that combustion chamber will be. Roughly how big it'll be according to the casting number and different casting numbers can have different combustion chamber sizes. Some smaller, some larger now also too. Something that plays into this is the bore size of that 318. If that bore has been altered like it's been bored out some that can play into that that can have an effect if the block has been decked, meaning the the deck of the block where the cylinder head bolts on. If that's been milled down that can have an effect on the compression as well. And also the depth that the Piston sets in the bore if it's 5,000 of an inch down in the bore then that's going to be better than it's sitting 120,000s down in the bore or if it's zero deck, meaning the Piston as is zero flush with the top of the deck. Another thing that can play really importantly into this is the camshaft the amount of overlap it has in degrees of crankshaft rotation. So say if a camshaft has three degrees of overlap then it's not going to have very much overlap and it's not going to make much effect on your static compression ratio. Now, if you get a cam that has more overlap a lot of your performance camshafts do then that can affect compression ratio even more and can bleed off more compression. However, let's keep something in mind. The flow capabilities of your average 340 head is going far exceed the the limitations of the lower compression. So yes the compression will drop but your flow capabilities will go up tremendous amount and if you want to retain some of that compression then you need to be looking at thinner head gaskets but before you start buying anything you need to be measuring and checking things out. So start getting out the calipers and start looking at everything. Start checking things out and start doing a little math. There are websites where you can upload all of these numbers like the thickness of your head gasket when it is compressed your combustion chamber size, your depth of your piston and the bore. The bore size everything and they'll tell you what your compression ratio will be with a given head. It's very informative and it's very helpful. The 360 that I built has a compression ratio of 8.996.1 and yes, the head's got milled down but if it were my engine, I would be looking at getting more air flow instead of being terribly concerned about your compression ratio. Pressure ratio is very important but air flow is really important. Even more important. Furthermore, you need to be checking if the valves on the 340 heads will clear the bore of your 318, especially if the engine hasn't been bored at all. If it's stock more, you need to check and make sure that the valves can open and close without there being any kind of interference. Usually there isn't usually but on a stock. Bore 318 340 heads the valves tend to get shrouded by the cylinder wall so you lose a little bit of flow there I know that was long-winded but there's a whole lot of ground to cover when you start talking about compression ratios and you start talking about cylinder heads and everything like that. Your idea isn't bad. It's actually a really good idea. It's just there's a lot of details you got to cover. Thank you again. If there's anything else you need let me know

[@gearhead1234]

I’m sure those cam features mentioned in your catalog are based on a 360… in a 318, it will behave differently and make less power.

[@slantfish65sd]

Actually no your wrong improving lift , duration and knowing about those things as well as valve overlap and what they can do in an engine the using Otto cycle it's been proven in lots and lots of times on dyno sessions and at the race track now I will agree that if you go to big on a given part cam heads intake header's etc.etc. you can sometimes have disasterous results however if you plan things out accurately you can actually make considable even huge power gains however, I do accept there are people out there who call themselves Mopar people and they absolutely hate and just have so much hate and anger and hatred for the 318 and engines like it that they will not accept a 318 being modified in any way and making any sort of horsepower or any sort of considerable gains or anything like that. So if honestly though, if you don't really have anything good to say, just keep it to yourself okay?

[@Kman.]

Hughes builds nothing but cams for *MOPAR.* I'm running the Whiplash in mine. I'm sure others do well, but you're not going to go wrong with the Hughes Whiplash...they're made exclusively, & specifically for *MOPARS.*

[@slantfish65sd]

Absolutely there cans are great

[@Kman.]

@@slantfish65sd Great channel I don't do a/thing but DRIVE 'em! lol In hindsight, it would have been nice to have this knowledge growing up...could have save myself a _LOOOOOT_ of money thru the years!

[@rexmasters1541]

The only change a 318 motor needs is to be scrapped and replaced with a 340.

[@slantfish65sd]

Good day to you sir, first of all, I'd like to thank you for watching the video and it also like to thank you for for commenting because you see him when you comment on a video, it doesn't matter what the comment is. It helps out the channel so jokes on you. You might think you that have upset me or make me angry in some sort of way but you really haven't so I've known about people like you for a very long time. It's Charles attitude that really keeps the car collecting in the car hobby and the Mopar car hobby out of the reach of normal people. So honestly people like you I don't really understand to me. When everybody gets to have fun with it then everybody gets to appreciate it and then everybody gives it some reverence and some respect instead of looking at it. Like some sort of you know something that they cannot possibly get into or that they cannot possibly get near or have anything to do with or anything like that. The reality is is that the 340 was a production engine that was built only 5 years and was only put into a limited amount of cars. Three team was built since 1957 to 2002. Sure of the 57 to 67 version was a polyhead. The later versions after that were the LA wedge head combustion chamber heads, but they still were 318s so I'd like to leave you with one part in comment if you would go check out Gary's garage on KZbin might be very eye-opening for you. That is if you can see I'm imagining somebody like you is so blinded by the BS that you have a lot of trouble seeing so anyway. Maybe somebody will interpret everything for you all right? Have a great day!

[@GenXBiker73]

Well said 318 Rules

[@bmac3394]

The only difference is the cylinder bore. All else is performance parts, bolt ons. Do the same with a 318 as the 340 and you will have the same performance, just down a few numbers.

[@setha360]

The heads on a 340 had larger valves, like the X heads 202 valves, the 318 lean burn 302 heads work nice , blocks 318 to 340 is like 1/4 inch, 318 nedds higher compression pistons like a 340 had.