318 v 340 v 360 Which is best?

[Kev]

Then we switch off the fan, kick back a little, then turn the fan on again and away we merrily go 'til the next time... 8)

[MrNorm]

Well, I don't know about hypers being 'Junk'!!

There are plenty of people using them and making good power. If used wisely and appropriately they are good pistons that are a lot better than stock factory cast pistons.......and some people still use those! They have tight tolerances and when not installed according to the instructions you can run into problems like rings butting etc, and they are not ideal for nitrous or forced induction. But it depends on your usage
Mopar Muscle built their 400HP 318 using KB hypers, and believe me Steve Dulcich forgot more about building engines than I'll ever know!!

So, I think they are great value and good pistons.......but - I totally agree that you need to think ahead and get the best you might need in the future. Personally I got a set of CP forged pistons (VERY nice pistons) for mine for long term durabilty at the power levels I'll be making, plus allowing for if I ever wanted to hit the sauce!!! But they are twice the price....

Like I said...you pays your money......!!

[AllKiller]

Get a stock 360 and spend your money stroking it out, simple

[Anonymous]

The ally Indy max works out to ?2500 which isn't much more than a MP siamese which is steel

500ci + short motor for what? ?5k ish maybe less, absolute bargin i'd say and the stroked 360 would cost what maybe ?2500/?3000 done right

Indy no longer do the max in steel

[Mick]

To my knowledge, the only difference between regular big valve 340 heads and W2 is the W2's have canted pushrods, which makes them better when ported but stock they dont flow anymore.
Mick

[Holly]

I believe the W2s have more metal in them, to allow for more aggresive porting, too.

[Blue]

W2 heads have a totally different intake port shape to a regular small block head, don't know how they flow in unported form mind...

[Anonymous]

The simple original question is whats best, 318, 340 or 360?
The simple answer is the 340.
You can do anything to any engine, money being the limit. So the simple answer, in its purest factory form, the 340 is the best.

[Holly]

Yeah, and I think the other alternatives have been thoroughly explored now, lol

[MrNorm]

To my knowledge, the only difference between regular big valve 340 heads and W2 is the W2's have canted pushrods, which makes them better when ported but stock they dont flow anymore.
Mick

You are thinking of the T/A heads Mick!!

W2's as Blue said are totally different, not only intakes but exhaust too. Glidden won the Pro Stock championship with a set of these bad boys, and 30 (?) years later they are still GREAT heads. They flow about 260cfm out of the box, which is more than you'll ever get with a set of ported X or J heads, and they are not hard to port to much higher flows.
Mine have been on the flowbench (I've got the graphs) and flow over 300cfm, and that is pretty serious air whatever way you look at it.

You do need some W2 specific parts to run them (rockers, intake manifold, ideally W2 headers too) but if you are starting from scratch those don't cost any more really.
Bang for the buck they are still hard to beat, only thing I'd change would be ideally a closed chamber head. I'd give the new aluminium Magnums a look, they flow pretty well but still not as good as a W2 (and more $$).

Wouldn't put W2's on a stocker though, not a good match. You either need a pretty tasty 340-360 or a stroker.

[Anonymous]

Hi Folks, bin busy, so I'm a bit behind. A good debate so far! Not sure about the slagging Hypers are gettin. They are better than stock cast pistons, in the weight department alone, etc etc. Most US engine builders say buy the best pistons you can afford, next buy good rods. If you are running a cast crank, you are in dangerous territory. As we all know, the heads make the power, the SHORT motor does the donkey work. Only ever seen one 340 for sale in the UK, not cheap, so its between the 318 an 360. Zillions of 318's, never seen one running a ten. So by default the 360 wins easy. Why build one? I do it for a living, its too much grief for most people, just buy a crate motor. A 380horse 360 is still under 4grand, dollars of course! Its about time we had a recognised importer of crate motors in the UK. Ok, the long and short of it, you have to build to a budget, that way you know what parts you can use, this ultimately decides the output of any engine build. Big blocks make cheaper power, thats why they are more popular with much more Kudos, 452 cubes( +60, 440) sounds ten times better than 360 cubes. I seem to remember in our very own Mopar publication, that stroking the small block with iron heads for street use, was a waste of time and money. Has this been proved wrong? Enough already, cheers Baccboy.

[MrNorm]

I seem to remember in our very own Mopar publication, that stroking the small block with iron heads for street use, was a waste of time and money. Has this been proved wrong?

Who said that? Try telling that to a guy I know running low 11's in his Dart with a mild SB stroker and ported iron heads......definitely not a waste of time. However.....definitely a restriction using stock or ported stock heads (or stock Edelbrock heads for that matter). You need some flow to take advantage of the cubes. Personally I would not run stock heads, hence my W2's (which are iron by the way - I'm assuming you meant stock heads rather than just iron?)

[Anonymous]

Hi Mr. Norm, your avatar makes me feel dizzy, could you slow it down a tad? Would this be an UK based Mopar running low elevens with a small block? If so I raise my hat to him!!!(or Her). I'm glad you mentioned W2, that brings me onto my next topic. Back in the mists of time, when the W2 was being developed for the smallblock, did you know? an IRON ovalport head was also being developed for the bigblock engines! I assume it would have been calledW1 or W3. Anyhow two versions were being trialled by our very own Weslake Engineering here in the Garden of England(Kent). A radical closed chamber design and a more conventional open chamber, as in 906, 88cc. It had the heat crossover passage as per the 906 etc. What was Mother mopars intention for this Head? One can only assume it would have superseeded the 906 for street use if not for the fuel/insurance crisis of the early Seventies. Anyone wanna know more of this truly wonderful creation? Probably would have been called 'predator', only 35 years earlier! Cheers Baccboy.

[MrNorm]

Baccboy, your internet connection is too fast, that's why my Avatar is spinning too quickly (imagine what I feel like!!! I get dizzy)

The 11 sec Dart is in the US, not over here. Even so, he is limiting his performance with those heads, but everyone makes compromises. I wouldn't mind an 11 sec compromise!!

Weslake (Sir Harry!) knew his stuff alright - he did some work on the Hemi heads too (which never made it to production), plus didn't he do some smallblock stuff for Mopar too - wasn't there an Indy weslake SB mopar???

[Blue]

Believe it or not, a friend of mine (Tim Fennel) had a 440 with a pair of those experimental Weslake "W" heads on, had a single carb "rat roaster" intake on it too. He sold it years ago and I think it ended up in an orange Aspen, havn't seen it for many years but chances are the motor is still around somewhere in the UK....