Hobby Stock is cool! If I am not mistaken (could be off on the knowledge), don't they run claimer engines? Your buddy John, being a professional hoarder... just means that he has his OWN legal private (not for profit) JUNKYARD. Nuttin' wrong with that at all! After all, what one person sees as junk, could be treasure to someone else!! And more than likely he has the hard-to-find stuff. Sounds like that 85' Ram (if it's a 4wd) the gear/tire setup are a major factor for the 318's poor mileage. Either a "warned-over" 318, or a long armed 360
matched to the gear ratio/tire setup will net you better mileage. One thing the 85' is NOT the most aerodynamically built truck.

its a 2WD. the problem over there is the neighbors (& therefore the police) see it as junk rather than "treasure"!. when I get my camera issues sorted out I will send you a pic. right now I'd trade the truck for an A body DD even one that needed some work. A guy I built an eng for sold it to me so I had something to get around in when that guy T boned my 65 Dart. He had purchased it from the original owner & it has never been wrecked (but does have some issues). EDIT there are even 3 pretty good sized stainless steel autopsy tables sitting in his yard! I'm gonna bring one home for a parts tray (they roll on 4 wheels) and cut some round pieces out of the other two to make some snazzy wheel covers

Yep, I know the feeling about pesky neighbors, too! Ran into the same problem with my 86' F-150. Always sticking their noses over the backyard fence, but when a robbery occurred, they - DIDN'T SEE A THING !! The autopsy tables would work well for wheel covers, especially for the salt flats (Bonneville) and make good teardown/assembly tables (handy drain opening on it). As far as the BB swap, I will measure the engine bay carefully with a mockup to see how much clearance I am dealing with. Best to measure many times and cut once, than the opposite. Thanks for all the great input.