Educate me about the 318 Mopar

i would avoid that like the plague
get a later engine, its smaller, and easier to get bits for. something from the 70s. not expensive as lots of muscle car boys have em sitting around because they've gone for bigger engines. they did a 360ci engine too , (same physical size) any bigger and they go to the 'big block' which are , bigger, obviously.

I wondered what Datman was smoking until I twigged that the 318 in question was the flamin' polyhead.

Leave the polyhead to restorers and nostalgia rodders. Almost nothing is available for it.

The 318LA / Commando and the later Magnum version are good little engines. As has been said you can get a 360 in the same package and thats what most people do since more displacement means more power basically for free (and a better torque curve)

I wouldn't dismiss the 318 though. You can pick em up for next to nothing since everybody who has one wants a 340, 360 or a big block but they can be built same as any other small block Mopar and they can run well.

A couple of the magazines have had 318 budget builds (no point in doing anything else with a 318) recently and derived good power from them. last one was 377 BHP which in a Cortina would go well. One before that was like 420 BHP. I forget. I see a lot of engine build features and really so long as the parts are available not much else matters because the engine doesn't care what brand name there is on the rocker covers, a 2 valve pushrod V8 is a 2 valve pushrod V8 at the end of the day, they do the same job.

Harris66 is right though, a small block Chevy will always be cheaper to build.

To fit in a Cortina or Capri I would get a small block Ford though. I'd get a 5.0 HO from a '87 and later Mustang.

Why?

They are smaller and lighter than the Chevy, and cheaper to build than the Mopar. The distributor is at the front which means you can tuck the motor up nice against the bulkhead and the sump (on the Mustang) is the right shape to miss the steering rack and crossmember in the Cortina 3/4/5. Castlemaine Rod Shop sell exhaust manifolds which fit the small block V8 Ford in a Cortina, also sell other parts which will help in your swap.

The 5.0 version comes as standard with forged pistons, reasonable heads, reverse flow cooling system, roller cam, tough bottom end, etc. and is a good base for a mild (300-400 BHP) street engine.

your off-the shelf boxes are the A904 (and derivatives) and TF727A 3 speed auto boxes, or the A500 series (and derivatives) 4 speed overdrive automatic. The A518 is the "best" of these. I don't think the bellhousing is the same as the modern Mopar Hemi so those boxes won't fit without adaption.

The manual boxes for these engines are the poverty 3 speed and the A833 / New Process 4 speed. Avoid the 3 speed manual and the 4 speeds are sought after by restorers so will be pricey. They are also well rare.

Keisler does a 5 speed conversion kit using the Tremec trans and I have heard of people using the Dakota V6 manual bell housing to fit a Supra 5 speed box behind them (poss also thr 6 speed?) although you will need to machine your own clutch pressure plate spacer and maybe the spiggot bushing as well.

I was going to start looking at the cost of conversion parts for one of the 302's into the escort but I'm begining to think that maybe it'll be a touch tight for the headers against the struts

Anyone seen it done?