500 Horsepower 318

The 318 always impresses us. Maybe it's because we love an underdog or because we like making a lot of power from engines that typically have low performance expectations. Whatever it is, our case in point is this new, fresh-from-the-dyno, .030 over 318 that belted out 500 horsepower and 445 lb-ft of torque. This engine was built for a customer who will be put it through its paces racing it in a vintage SCCA/Trans Am racing class, think T/A Challenger and AAR Cuda. Class rules mandate a max displacement of 325 cubes and an "old school" intake manifold, aka, no air gaps. One of the best things about this engine is that it makes all this power with basically of-the-shelf parts. Nothing exotic or hard to come by, just carefully selected parts, combined with meticulous machining and assembly. Here's the parts list, dyno run video and dyno graph. In addition to the great power, pay attention to the torque curve which super flat and super fat! This engine is going to give the competition fits, and we know it will be reliable because we dialed it in over 22 pulls!

Block: Factory 318, 030 over
Pistons: Icon forged 10.5 compression
Crank: Eagle 4340 forged 3.31 stroke
Rods: Eagle forged H-beam
Cam: PIE custom ground 242/254, 110 LSA
.575 intake (1.6 rockers); .579 exhaust (1.5 rockers)
Carb: 750 Holley XP
Heads: PIE Level 2 MAXPORT MAGNUM Iron