I bought a clean 85 ramcharger with the stock 318. I have a set of 360 heads with the 2.02 valves. Do you guys think if I bolt on the heads, do a cam swap (nothing radical), add an aluminum intake and a small 4 barrel it will help this thing any?
I'm not wanting to do anything but make it a daily driver, but it is way too slow for me the way it is.
Thanks,

It'll help a little... it needs some compression..
I did the same thing years ago to my 318

I just bought a 2 owner 85 318 Ramcharger myself & it is a dog (weighs exactly 4300 lbs without me in it). For the effort it really needs a 360 or a 5.9. Yes your mods will help but you might not get as much benefit as you would like, maybe maybe not but yeah I'd go ahead & do some parts swapping, that's the name of the game. The lack of cubes vs weight and low compression is hurting us on this. I'd suggest a Hughes cam and extensive dist mods. EDIT & headers/free flow (mandrel) ex/muffs

I run a whipalsh roller cam/comp 901 springs in my 85 truck with the nv4500 5 speed/3.21 gears. plenty of torque and very streetable in a daily driver truck as much as a car.

that 85 block is a roller block with a flat tappet cam in there. so for the best bang for the buck IMHO.. go for a roller cam like the whiplash. it is for low comp ratio engines and works with stock TC/gears.

I also ran the lunati 60710 VooDoo roller cam in my truck, almost same specs and the whiplash but a stock smooth idle. ran it with the comp 901 sparings and it did vary well in my truck/stock TC/gears also.

I have run many 318s with 360 heads/stock intake/mopar q-jet/headers/stock HS-TC. also use a LD4B intake/600 eddy/holley street dom with q-jet/RPM intake with 750 eddy carb.

all good combos when tuned/dialed in on the engine.

the comp 901-16 springs are a drop on with stock retainers/seals and work with most mild cam for the 318. I saved a few coins over machine work and double springs for the roller cams I have used.. still kicking them hard daily.

a good set of hedamn 79170 headers/2.25 duels will help the 4-v swap out a little.

some will say no... but swaping in a stock high stall TC replacing the stock low stall TC in there will help with a little more off the line torque with the stock 3.?? gears and tire size??

best 120 bux I spent on all of my trucks and the first thing after 4-v/headers on. the play with tire size/gears when running auto trans.

with the #302 headed 318/whiplash roller/nv4500/3.21/235/75/15 tire it smoke 1,2,3 gears and gets 20+ mpg as a daily driver turning 1600 rpm at 55mph-right in the cams sweet spot.


before changing anything bump the timing as much as it will take to see if it gains any lowend torque off the line.. about all you can do for the stock 85 lopo 318 in a 4x4.

oh FYI in 85 the 318 got a bump in comp ratio with the closed chamber #302 heads and a taller comp higth on the piston to bump it to 9.0 to 1 comp ratio.

the 360 head will drop that a little but it makes up for it with rpm/flow with the right cam combo. again the 340/360 whiplash in the teen with 360 heads.

You are better off making use of the 318 heads even if it they are left stock. A light milling for a little more compression is a inexpensive mod that will help with a slightly larger cam. While a few upgrades to the head would be good for power, IE; good valve job, 1.88 / 1.60 valve size upgrade and then Bowl work in that order but not so absolute as at once...
Being it is a truck AKA Heavy, you can best apply torque increasing measures rather then seek HP. Your on the street trying to move a heavy thing so a decent head with good port velocity is important. You'll loose it a bit with the larger ports and valves of the 360 head.

As mentioned earlier, the price of the roller cam is pricey but there are a little nicer. You'll have to justify the expense.

After that, like the crew said, a dual plane, 600 CFM carb, headers and a upgraded ignition will enable you to go far with even modest cam sizes.