Hey guys, I bought this engine in ebay,this was in Uniontown (Pennsylvania), as the seller is a 318, 1963. As a friend is a 383. Someone can tell me? Could it be a Plymouth Fury? Gracias... www.myspace.com/elvisrock55
318 engine. Also called 318 Wide Block. It's a small block. The 383 big block has he distributor in front of engine. Great engine. Same as the Fury engine from 57/58, but without hi lift cam, dual four barrell induction and dual point dizzy.
Yes all these guys are right, It is a 318. But a 318 like no other. Discontinued, Very Hard to find parts for. There is Big reason why Chysler stopped producing that engine and went to the NEW 318 that they kept for many many years. Enough said........
Not that hard to find parts for, uses a lot of LA 318 components, has a steel crank, bolts to modern small block transmissions and looks tres cool, Enough Said.
Get it! A Poly 318 will put out the power all day long, and to the people that consider it a boat anchor or a "truck" engine, have YOU driven a car with a Poly 318, or properly known as a 318A engine?
Actually the 318 A was replaced by the 318 LA because the A is a heavy casting, like its 50s contemporaries. The LA is a light weight casting. Nothing wrong with an A, those chrome valve covers are cool also!
I thought the LA replaced the A because the wedge heads work better, are lighter, etc. The blocks for both engines are very similar, they just have holes in different places for the head bolts and stuff.
The poly heads actually flow quite well. Mopar switched because the wide heads didn't want to fit in the "new" A-body cars. The wedge heads are also cheaper to produce. The deck height and bore spacing is the same as the 318-340-360 LA series, but the water p***ages in the deck are different. Rebuilds are kind of a pain due to the fixed rocker towers on the heads. Rocker oiling can also be an issue if the engine has sat very long. Personally, I love em. I had 2 66 Furys and a buddy had a 65 Coronet with that engine. Surprising power with a 500cfm Holley 2bbl adpated the the stock intake. Never got my 2X4 setup finished, but I'll bet they go like hell...
Actually, guys, the blocks are the same. The wide heads will bolt right on a later 318 block, just use the cam that goes with the heads. A little grinding on the pushrod holes is needed, but no biggie. Those old poly heads flow better than any but 340 heads. I dream of a poly headed 340 block with a 360 crank. Put it in a '57 Belvedere hardtop and go cruisin!
Like all decisions, there wasn't a single reason for the outcome. A**** the reasons were the weight, cost of manufacturing, size (LA fits into an A-body), as well as the fact that all the engineering had already been done on the 273. The poly was never a exploited as a performance motor as the 273 LA and other LA motors were so I don't think a fair comparison can be made regarding the heads. Interesting purchase. Someone's old hot-rod motor for sure.
That's a 1962-67 engine, since the crank flange has a "normal" LA 6 bolt flange. The 1957-61 engines use the unthreaded 8 bolt flange.
Thank you all for responding. It's a 318, say special? I put it in my 55 belvedere ch***is with the automatic box powerflite. I've never driven a car with this engine type. Do you think they can give good results?
It can. It might already be built up. They can take a big overbore if there's no core shift & a 360 crank with cut down mains yield between 349 & 402 CID.
Not so sure it's that easy to bolt them on to an LA block, try it and let us know how it works. Pretty sure the coolant p***ages and oil p***ages are in different locations between the two.
Everything (well, almost) you need to know about building a poly engine: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/poly318.html .
Thank you all for your interest. I hope this engine will not give me any problem. A pictures of my proyect:
Four lights of packard 56... this is how the project is now. I hope you enjoy it. Greetings from Spain!!!
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