You should deck the block. It's already in the mill. It don't hurt to run the piston out of the hole.

As for intakes, he's going to run a 3.9 gear and a 3k converter. Pissing away power with anything else, if he gets the correct cam.

The best non magnum stock head for a 318 would be a worked over 302 casting if you can find a set that isn't cracked.

Smallest fastest burn combustion chamber on a stock head. This gets your CR up and the fast burn chamber makes it pump gas friendly.

Dulcich got 400 HP out of a 318 with a heavily ported set of 302's but porting is $$$ unless you have the tools and talent and the castings are on the fragile side even unmodified.

It's one thing if this is a let's see what we can do with a 318 project but if budget is tight the cheapest/fastest path to your goal is to put those 360 heads on a 360 short block and add bolt on parts to taste.

Kevin

I know you said no Magnums. I think you need to look at the EQ magnum heads with the available 2.02 intake valves. They are already a 62cc chamber and take the LA intakes so you can keep your Performer. With the Magnum style rockers, you can also play with ratios. In bench tests, these flowed as well or better than the Edelbrock aluminum heads.
Here is Hughes version:
http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/produ...mp;partid=24235

I have been running a set for three years now. Only issue I had was clearance for the alternator but I solved that with spacers.
Craig

I think the iron ram head would be a better starting point and gives you room to grow. I wish they were available when I built my 360.
When I did that engine I started with a set AeroHead 2.02" valve 360 heads with hardened exhaust seats, These were unported and the valve spring seats were not cut for dual springs. They also were much larger chambers than advertised, and the quench areas were about 0.010" different between the heads. I had one head milled 0.040", and the other 0.050" (was using KB-232 quench dome pistons.) Then I spend at least an 12 hours porting the heads and cutting the valve spring seats, plus enlarge the long head bolt holes for oil flow when using head studs.
I also think the stud mount adjustable rocker gear for the iron ram/magnum heads is less expensive than the adjustable shaft mount rockers. On the stock heads, you might be able to use the stamped rocker arms, but at higher lifts and valve spring pressures I have seen the pushrods blow through the pushrod cup of the rocker arms.
When building any non-stock engine, I always measure for the correct pushrod length. Don't just buy an off-the-shelf set unless you have already measured and verified they are the correct length you need. Different heads and valve job (height of valve stem), cams, lifters, block and head milling, gasket thickness, and rocker arms, will make changes to the pushrod length needed.

For a cam, I would looks at something like Hughes SEH2428AL.
For a piston, the KB-167.
Cylinder head chamber volume of 62-64 (Compression below uses 64cc)
Mill block 0.010" so piston is 0.002" below deck
That should give about 9.5:1 compression depending on head gasket.
A bit pricy, but the Cometic C5917-036 is 0.036" compressed and 7.713cc volume which would result in a 0.038" quench distance, and 9.58:1 compression.
Using Hughes head flow numbers for the 1.920" intake Iron ram head (227 cfm @ 0.500 intake, 187.3 @ 0.500 exhaust), The Dynomation5 shows 350+ HP @ 5600-5700 RPM, and 375+ torque @ 4600 rpm (with a dual plane intake and small tube headers.) I had to guess at the port lengths, header lengths, and port cross section sizes, but I think it should be in the ball park. Low end torque is decent with 300+ ft/lbs @ 1600 rpm
The 600 cfm carb is OK, but looks to be giving up some power (maybe 10 HP? in the upper RPM range) compared to a 700 cfm carb.
Not sure how exhaust manifolds will affect this? I pluged in small short runners in the exhaust model and it looks like only about a 10 HP loss? (seems like a small loss to me?)

I forgot to add that a larger cam will add a little bit to the top end power (maybe 20 HP?), but torque below 5,000 starts dropping off quite a bit with the 9.5:1 compression. If this is more of a track car with gear and high stall converter, then a cam in the 230 duration range might work better? The smaller cam I listed would be better for a hot street car.

Junkyard jewel: http://www.hotrod.com/articles/318-small-block-build/