Best Engines of All Time: Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth 318 V8 (LA Series)

well here's one for the mopar fans chrysler certainly made many great engines and quite a few of which are famous including the 426 hemi and the 440 v8 however we're going to focus on a lesser celebrated workhorse of the chrysler lineup the la series 318 v8 that was produced in vehicles trucks commercial vehicles and marine and industrial applications from 1967 all the way to 2002 the waffen fitted with a two barrel carburetor and many times producing less than 150 horsepower the 318 was nonetheless a workhorse of chrysler's lineup and for many years could be found under the hood of everything from imperials to fifth avenues to new yorkers to dodge aspens darts diplomats and various plymouths like the fury grand fury and satellite let's talk about a few of the details of this engine what to look out for and why it's so durable before we get started on the la-13 the first thing to note is that chrysler produced an a-engine 3 18 cubic inch v8 from 1957 to 1967 at which point it was replaced in all vehicles by the la or light a block 318 v8 this engine began life as a plymouth exclusive in 1957 and 1958 but beginning in the 1959 model year it was used in many other chrysler division products the a series powered a number of stunning virgil exner styled cars including the 1957 and 58 plymouth fury where it could be optioned with two four-barrel carburetors producing 290 horsepower this was the highest horsepower a series engine that chrysler produced and made the plymouth fury something to be reckoned with on the streets in spite of what later would be thought of as a relatively small displacement engine the a series 318 had a 3.91 inch bore and 3.31 inch stroke making it an over square design meaning an engine where the bore exceeds the stroke dimension as chrysler entered the 1960s company leadership thought it was time to replace the a series engine with a more low cost lightweight reduced size engine hence the la or light a series 318 v8 which actually started life as a 273 cubic inch engine introduced in the 1964 model year the 273 was a bit of a hybrid of old and new as it carried over the old a engines crankshaft bearings bearing caps vibration dampener timing chain and connecting rods this engine had a 3.63 inch bore and 3.31 inch stroke and could be found under the hood of chrysler products from 1964 through the late 60s in 1969 in order to make the engine more cost efficient as well as physically smaller the historical polyspherical heads from the a series engines were ditched in favor of wedge heads which were not only smaller but also lighter new processes at chrysler's block foundry enabled thinner wall castings for the block and reduced the overall block weight by about 50 pounds versus the previous a series engine spark plugs were also relocated when compared with the a series engine to be above the exhaust manifolds enabling easier and quicker service as anyone who serviced a b series engine even in some of the later full-size cars on chrysler products will note the spark plug locations are often not ideal for replacement but these 318 engines and the overall la series engines are very very easy to service as a consequence of this change the la series engines also preserved the a engine's tap it bore machining in order to reduce overall tooling expenses in general the result of these changes from the a series to the la series were a lighter smaller cheaper engine to produce all with equal if not better reliability and despite its relatively small size this little 273 cubic inch engine made everywhere from about 180 horsepower up to 275 horsepower in the 1966 cars 1969 was the final year for the 273 it was really superseded not only in production but also fame by the 318 v8 let's talk now more about the 318. the 318 was introduced in america in 1967 and in canada in 1968 and it was introduced with the same amount of horsepower and torque as the hemispherical head design that it replaced in the a series that is 230 horsepower and 340 pound-feet of torque throughout the course of its lifetime the 318 was generally more of a workhorse engine often outfitted with the carter bbd two-barrel carburetor making somewhere under a lot of times even 150 horsepower the malaise era but it did have a number of performance variants and higher horsepower versions as well these included variants used in police cars they were often outfitted with four-barrel quadrajet or thermal quad carburetors starting in 1978 and unlike the slant 6 which waited until 1981 to get hydraulic valve lifters the reliable 318 always had hydraulic lifters from the start of its production making it reliable and allowing owners to have one less adjustment to tune some small revisions were made in the 1969 model year to further improve reliability particularly for the heat riser valve or used replaceable bushings for the valve shaft and a stainless steel internal seal to shield these bushings as the years went on from the late 60s the 318 generally remained reliable but it did spawn a few interesting variants shall we say the engine received chrysler's lean burn setup for a late 1977 launch in all states except california and this proved somewhat troublesome for owners a principal achilles heel of the system was the spark control computer which resided on the side of the air cleaner and was exposed to numerous thermal cycles because of its placement in the engine compartment some of these vehicles also had a tendency to have rough idle conditions or stumbling or stalling because of the overall lean fuel mixture conditions however many of these teething pains were solved over the years and a version of the lean burn setup was used on the chrysler 318 v8 all the way through the end of the embodies run in the late 80s and proved to be quite reliable another unfortunate setup which sat atop an otherwise very reliable 318 v8 was the fuel injection system employed on the 1981-83 imperials this setup proved so troublesome that chrysler offered free carburetor conversion kits to all imperial owners and many took them up on this offer moreover the kit was not a simple intake swap it was a complete change of many different systems including a new fuel tank new fuel pumps new intake new computer new dashboard and it was so labor intensive that it took chrysler dealers about 20 hours to convert a standard fuel injection imperial car over to a carbureted version the car also repeatedly soured frank sinatra's relationship with lee iacocca after frank had many troubles with his own imperial after he had placed his name on it for marketing purposes however the 318 continued to soldier on in its other forms as being a reliable engine and in 1985 it switched from original hydraulic lifters to roller hydraulic lifters and also got a new camshaft helping increase engine durability at the same time the compression ratio was raised from 8.7 to 1 to 9 to 1 and it gave it a little more horsepower now the 318 was making a whopping 140 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque it stayed at that level until production was sunset and passenger cars in 1989 though it continued on in trucks in 1988 the dodge trucks actually got a different fuel injection system this one much more simple than the imperials with a single throttle body injector and this raised horsepower to 170 and torque to 280 foot-pounds of torque chrysler also added swirl intake ports in 1988 to fuel-injected engines to take advantage of this new setup the last hurrah for the 318 came with the magnum truck engines that were introduced in the 1993 model year in the dodge ram dakota and the vans these magnum engines employed sequential multi-port injection replacing the old throttle body injection which provided more accurate fuel delivery and enabled more horsepower to come from the engine and the magnum engines consequently produce far more horsepower than the carbureted variants of the 318 producing a net 230 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque in the year that they were introduced overall the magnum blocks were physically the same as the earlier la 318s although there were some differences in terms of the oil passages all in all however the chrysler 318 engine is one of chrysler's best workhorses that it ever produced with engines routinely running 200 000 miles plus if they're properly maintained and though they often didn't make much power they were generally very reliable and delighted customers except in that wonderful imperial fuel injection form so if you're looking for a chrysler product that doesn't have much power but can deliver it reliably and provide an enjoyable overall experience pick one up with a 318 engine and you'll be impressed with not only the smoothness and durability but also the fuel economy that they deliver especially for the time hope you enjoyed this segment on chrysler's la 318 v8 thanks again for watching and until next time take care thanks for watching this video on 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Channel: Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History

Views: 117,556

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Id: JMZOtn_4ryA

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Mon May 30 2022