The Ramcharger arived this evening.... Finally.....


I have a Haynes in hand, and according to the vin, this should be a 318 2bbl.
Looking at the options and years available the book does not show a 4bbl available in a 318 till 80s or so...

The under hood stickers say 318/360 4bbl medium duty cycle California. This is also a Manual 4spd Ramcharger.
Yes it has a 4bbl carb on it... No adapters (factory) intake.

What eng. Should it be, The 5th vin dig. Is (E)

Any good guesses? How do I determine the engine size, and how do I check to find out what performance parts are on this eng. What head codes are desirable, etc?

a 78 ramcharger would have a 318 2bbl or 360 4bbl. no factory 318 4bbl exsisted until the 80's. it could easily have a 360 intake and 4bbl swapped on. no real way to tell what performance parts it has on it over the net without pics at least.;)

look on the driverside of the block tword the rear below the exhaust manifold to see if its really a 318 in there. it will say on the block what it is.:D

Waaaaa Fullsize,,,,, it is a 318 4bbl.
With rotten freeze plugs.....
None of my books say this could be a 4bbl. But here it sits.... In fact I have atleast two under hood stickers saying this is possible. I will email pics of them to some one to post if they would like.



Later...

someone swapped the 4bbl on there.;) call a smog guy, he'll know if there was ever a 318 4bbl.

I am looking at a hood sticker..... Factory sticker.. 2 of them...

Does any one have a very reasonably priced 360 flywheel lying around or a 360 truck/van oil pan and pickup?

I figure she (318) has at least 116,220 miles. It least that is what the little jiffy lube decal shows..


Later… all

According to SOME sources, '78 was the first year for the 318/4bbl Police Fury. Others say '80. It would be strange if that is in fact a police engine package in your Ramcharger (not supposed to be in trucks until early '80s) but Dodge did lots of strange things. So did the others; used to have a '77 Ford truck with a 460 Police Interceptor engine (it came with 4.88 gears in back, too) and supposedly that engine was never offered in a pickup. Here's the key; if you have 1.88" intake valves and 1.60" exhaust, that's what it is. Casting number should be '596. These were really 360 heads used on factory 4 bbl. 318's. Your intake should have a 360 cast into the top of a runner. It should have a Thermoquad. Allegedly on some 318 Police engines they changed the piston pin height to recover some of the compression loss from the 360 heads.

Those 318's run forever. Years ago I put a set of valvestem seals on one for an old man that had put over 250,000 miles on it - it'd never been touched. After the new seals went it, that engine used NO oil and was running strong when the old fellow passed away. A neighbor up here ran his for 450,000 miles before a rebuild (nothing wrong, just nervous about that much mileage on oem parts) and now has over 750,000 on it....

Which runner would say 360, and do I need to pull the valve covers to see the casting number?


Also, I have acces to a police car, 318,78-79 Is it better than a standard 318 car?

Now you got me jumping......


Later.....

Not sure which runner. My iron 360 manifold was made in '75 and has no such casting mark. There is a date cast into the manifold; if it matches the date cast into the block, you've got a factory oddity; otherwise it's been swapped on. You will need to pull the valve covers to get the casting numbers off the heads. Besides the 360 heads/intake, the only unusual feature of the 318 Police engine was the alleged piston pin height change. More info is here: http://www.allpar.com/squads/ where they say '79 was the first 318/4bbl.

Police cars came in different trim depending on what their purpose was. Most not much different from civilian cars. Interceptor specials often had some pretty trick parts, including suspension, brakes, etc. Follow the links from that page above.

Found the cast year in the manifold. 78 Can not read the first bunch of numbers. I pulled the valve covers, little sludgy, but not as bad as I would have figured. Am I looking for a long number, or a couple of numbers?

Thanks for the help. I will also check out the page you gave me.

Would it help to tell you the Blue sticker on the inner fender says 318 of the 318/360 4 family?

Thanks....

It should be a 7-digit number; usually only the last 3 are used to ID parts. From the 78 on the intake, and the fenderwell sticker, it sounds like an original 318/4bbl. There were a bunch of different 360 head castings that could validate this combination; I'll try to post some of them this evening when I can get to the books. Congratulations! Another lucky winner of the wierd-shit-they-didn't-document super lotto!! ;)

Best I can tell, the casting numbers on the heads are>>>> 4027593 <<<<<< I found those to be a 318 head, I think....



Later....