Mopar Muscle Association UK

hi all,
i've bought a 318/904 to fit in my '63 vauxhall cresta gasser project. the motor's from a 72 plymouth scamp and is stock. i'm collecting parts as cheap as i can to give it some more 'pep'. it'll never be a race car, i'm just after..... more, lol. so far i have lined up a nos lunati voodoo 60403 cam, new lifters, chevy fenderwell headers (i have sbm head flanges to swap over), 360 heads, a weiand dual plane inlet and a 750 vac sec holley. the stock electronic dizzy will be getting an uprated hei module and e-core coil. i have also lined up a 2500 stall convertor and will fit a shift kit to the box.
now don't give me the 'those heads will make the low compression even worse' crap, i know that but the increased flow/valve sizes outweigh that loss more than not so...
apart from that does this pile of mismatched parts sound reasonable?
neil.
ps the cresta has a mk2 jag' axle with early jensen interceptor lsd and 3.77 gears.

HEI coil
standard motor products DR35 works great.. certainly kicks a considerable amount of ass.... for next to no $$ just use a short plug lead for your king lead....job done


if you are feeling flush spend $20 on the Wells...

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/che ... +coil,7060

in theory if you have the distributor you can make a very competent ignition system for $60


can facilitate similar Spark energy at a 45 thou plug gap as a MSD6AL on a motor with a sensible effective CR...
use the 5 pin HEI if you want start retard.... ground the extra pin and it takes out 10 Degrees instantly...which is nice....!
or wire it to trigger off something else.... Knock sensor, NOS trigger button etc etc

dave

i'll be copying the conversion i saw on 'for a bodies only' dave. the hei module screws under the stock electronic mopar dizzy body using it as a heat sink so almost out of sight. there's 2 tiny boles that get thread tapped in them and they line up with the module as if designed for it, lol. i got the coil and module for under £12 off ebay. the coil is a ch-msd one, lol. i got 2 modules so i can get home in the event of a failure too.
neil.

nice...

the guy with the lunati camshaft didn't reply to my request for a courier price.... twice, so i resorted back to rock auto and ordered a 340 cam, lifters, double roller timing set and full gasket set. i ordered a 340 gasket set not 318 as the head gaskets are the same and the 360 heads have bigger ports so the 318 inlet and exhaust gaskets wouldn't work. a 360 gasket set also wouldn't work as the sump gaskets are different to 318/340 due to the bigger mains.
neil.

i've just bought a set of kb399 pistons for the 318. they're the domed top ones which will help regain some of the lost compression with the 360 head's bigger chambers. it should be quite 'sporty' i hope.
neil.

re the new pistons... i had 2 choices to regain the lost compression. 1) these domed pistons or 2) turbo the engine. the pistons are (even with the cost of a rebore) much cheaper and although the turbo choice would make more power, to be honest i don't need it.
there.... i said it, i don't 'need' more power
neil.

I looked at them and the KB167 flat tops for my hemi 6. same bore different stroke 6x 720CC cylinders
ended up with a sealed power piston that was still hypereutectic but could be had from summit cheaper, basically a copy of the KB167

they ended up with a 40 thou dome the 399s were a risk with my semi hemi head, that big lump in the middle and my odd angled valves, the valve reliefs were in the wrong place...
A too tall flat top with the edge cut worked well. i built mine at 12.5:1 cammed to give effective/dynamic CR of about 9:1
no issues with detonation worked on a domed headed engine with minimal quench. potentially could have been right old a pinger if it was wedge or heart shaped chamber. my chambers are a bit like buckets more like a poly 318 head than a la318 head

Dave

the pistons arrived yesterday and they're shiny, mmmmmm
neil.

the cleanest and shiniest they will ever look

Dave999 wrote: Thu Jun 26, 25 9:48 am the cleanest and shiniest they will ever look

that's for sure, lol.

we collected all the parts from stu today at the pod. unfortunately he toasted his trans' so was out of the running. he did say the car was performing better with his new heads etc so that's good. he also had a pair of nice chrome direct connection valve covers for sale (wouldn't clear his new rockers) so it would've been rude not to have them too, lol.
neil.

Good to meet you, Mate. Hope the parts work out for you.

yes mate, always good to put a face to a name i'll definately make good use of them all that's for sure.
cheers, neil.

i ordered a hv oil pump, van/truck pickup tube and rings for the kb pistons yesterday. i went for the van/truck pickup as they have a rear bowl sump. we'll alter my car sump to suit and this'll give more clearance over the front (transverse) spring crossmember in the nash.
neil.