Lost hot idle oil pressure and started getting a dull knock in the lower end so I threw a short block together with my best 318 block best 8 pistons out of 100 or so on my shelf, and fresh rings, bearings... and did just one or two little tricks.

1 milled the block to 9.544 and the pistons were zero deck, they would just touch the heads but not stop it from turning when turned by hand with no gaskets. I checked for piston to valve interfearance with no gasket and 1.7 rockers on the stock cam, nothing touched with the lifters bottomed so I put on the .039 felpros and factory 1.6 rockers and bolted it together (I checked the VJ for a good seal and polished the ex valves in the drill press and progresively finner sand paper). I put a .050 shim under the springs to reduce float and pump up. Other than that it was bone stock with a zero deck tight quench high compression. I pulled the clutch fan for an electric and put on some 265-65-20s in place of the stock 22-75-16s to get the RPM down. It runs 1500@60 MPH. And on the way to Seattle I ran the cruise at 75 mph and had the AC cranked, it down shifts a lot less, leans out the fuel trim about 10-15% from before the swap and throttle position is down about 2% at same cruise speeds. Less knocking (no pingin at all) now than before even in the 100* heat pulling steep grades. It pulls harder above 2000RPM. It went from 120-130 PSI on the old motor to 160-170 on the new one. Best of all it got 21 MPG.