318ci Budget Engine Build - Big-Block On A Budget

To top our 383, we used the "516" casting cylinder heads that came on the motor. These heads offer a great quench area and big intake valves. we had the exhaust valve seats machined for 1.81-inch valves from "906" casting cylinder heads.

Installing the larger exhaust valves was easy, cheap, and greatly benefits power output. We scavenged our valves from a cracked set of "906" heads we had in the shop.

Do you need to install the factory oil slinger on the crank? Some engine builders say no, but we feel installing the oil slinger can't hurt and actually may help prevent front main seal leaks.

Installing a windage tray is an easy and cheap way to gain a few horsepower by keeping the engine oil off the crank and rods. The rest of our oil system consists of a factory HP pan and new Melling oil pump.

After checking piston-to-valve clearance, we bolted the cylinder heads on this engine with new Fel-Pro head gaskets.

Here's a cool trick to line up the pushrods while installing the rockers. Simply use the engine's dipstick to keep the pushrods in place. This is way easier than trying to line them up by hand while bolting rocker shafts in place.

When painting the engine, we didn't want to paint our new intake and valve covers. By using an old intake and valve cover set, we saved some time by not having to tape those areas off.

YearOne has the correct paint for your Mopar engine. While we didn't go with the proper turquoise color because we like orange better, the Street Hemi orange paint that YearOne sells is the factory original color and looks much better than the rattle-can paint the auto parts store carries.

Once the paint dried, we bolted on our nice valve covers and other accessories, like the fuel and water pump.

We chose an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and 650-cfm Edelbrock carb for our 383. These parts are a nice match for the mild cam in this motor, building plenty of midrange torque without sacrificing peak power.

Now complete, we look forward to installing and testing our budget 383. All told, we spent just under three grand on this engine, and our combination should easily produce 350 hp, making our A-body a blast to drive. And with gas prices in our area topping four bucks a gallon, we're sure to be happy with our small-displacement big-block.