KingDustin's 1971 Charger Build

[kingdustin]

Are you actually Royalty or did you name yourself like King Ezekiel in The Walking Dead? 
The K member that you have is actually the same from 1970-72. These are the same for the 318-383-400-440. There was a different K member for the slant six and yet another for the HEMI. Why the hell did they do this? It makes no sense to me at all. They should have stamped out a single K member for all engines and just made the bolt on metal brackets specific to each engine type. Nobody called me to consult on that decision though. I think this began in the mid 60s and even if they had called, I was busy nursing on my mother and trying to learn to speak.
Regarding the topic of  "Keeping the 318 in case I sell"....I used to instantly respond to any numbers matching slant six, 318 references as WHO cares about originality with a 318 car sort of tone. Personally I still feel that way but some people do not. Some people either glom onto that lexicon thinking it makes them sound like a "player" in the classic car world OR they really find it special to have an original engine regardless of the performance.
Me? I yanked the original 318 from my Charger to swap in a 440 in 2001. I sold the engine with zero regrets. To me, the car is worth more with a performance engine than it is with a 318. There are exceptions and this may be an opinion that isn't shared by many: A LOW mileage car in excellent condition, AKA a Survivor will likely always garner more money and attention if kept original.

Hahaha it's an old nickname from high school actually. That's good to know, my summer goal is still to drive it, it won't be pretty but I'm hoping it will run.

That does make a lot of sense. I'm really not trying to restore to factory specs or anything. I'll be using a lot of new (or new to me ) parts. Is there a decent market for the 318s? I thought about rebuilding it first but if it's not worth the money then no sense in that. Same with the trans too.

[Kern Dog]

With the abundance of 318s, it has become popular to swap in stroker cranks to get around 390 inches! The 318 seems to fit in everything so that is pretty cool. Guys want silly money for .040 340 blocks while the 318s are often free if the owner just gets tired of storing it.
One day I might build a 318 stroke mill with Magnum heads. That could be a 400HP engine that idles nice while still scaring the passengers!

[Bronzedodge]

Welcome Dustin!  Good to see some younger blood around.  I'd swap in the 440 with no regrets as well.

But..   I'll agree with KD about the 318's.  They are under appreciated.  There was a fella back in the late 70's - early 80's making stroker 310's the hard way - welding up cranks.  Bob Mullen, Mullen and Co?  There was a book about Chrysler engines that mentioned it.  He would select 72 and earlier 319's and bore them 070" to 090" over, not sure where displacement ended up.     Friend of mine built a regular 75 318 with more compression and a TRW reproduction 340 cam.  Man, it ran like a 440 with a manual trans in his Dart.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread.    

[Kern Dog]

A 318 has a bore of 3.91. If the block is solid and sound, you can take it out to 4.00 which is the same as a 360. Add a 4 inch stroke crank and BOOM shakka-lakka, you have nearly 400 inches.