Depends on how much power you want out of it...you can't really have
both though... I redid a 352 engine way back when.... putting on an aluminum
high rise intake manifold and a holley 4 barrel....those two alone made a
huge difference...for power.... fuel economy .. .well for those old engines
without all the crap on them.. it was pretty good....you might get away with
2 two barrels, or even 3 two barrels....depending on the cfm size you get...
   With todays announcement of higher gas prices.... gas maybe getting up
over the 3.50 a gallon mark...(eventually) you may just want to rebuild the
318 as stock and run with it that way..Those were good engines in the
day...maybe take off some of the pollution crap...
   I guess it depends on how much you are towing (boat weight) and how
often (your location)  Up north, our boats get put away around early
oct....that engine just might last you til you decide to get a new truck.

Fwed

Back in the day, one of cam manufactures (I think Crower) made a RV cam
for the Small block (318,340,360)series. It was a replacement for the
stock cam so nothing special needed to be done to the engine....Believe
it or not these engines were used for the frame mounted RV's (small 25'
with the van nose stuck on it) The cams may still be manufactured today
by someone, seeing how these engines are still popular. These cams
offered more low-end torque than stock. Back in 1975 a friend of mine
had a Dodge Tradesman van (long)that he pulled a Powerboat with and he
added the RV cam, Dual plane manfold (Eldelbrock I think) and a small
Holly four barrel (450 or 500 CFM) I know your saying FOUR BARREL!
Really the two primarys are smaller than the stock two barrel. Oh and a
RV torque convertor (around 1200 RPM stall) Before he did this when we
would go through the mountain passes here in Calif. we had to get
behind the big Rigs...it had no guts!!! And after we could keep up with
the regular traffic.

HTH, Rick

My advice... FWIW... forget the idea.  If you live anywhere that has
smog inspections you will need to stick with at least 2001 engine
specs; easier to rebuild the engine in the truck than to try to sneak a
1974 engine past the smog inspector.

I can easily see why you'd want to try what you suggest, but maybe
getting a similar year core engine from a junkyard would be a better
plan; save the old 318 for an old car project (maybe a Dart/Valiant?)

nate

Much better idea would be to rebuild the engine in that truck. The 74
will not have all the provisions for sensors and accessories that the
current engine has. The blocks are different enough that the new parts
will not bolt on. If you live in an area with inspections it won't pass
that either since most areas like that have rules about what you can
swap, every rule I have seen says that if you use a different engine in
a modern vehicle it must be the same year or newer than what is there
already, UNLESS you take it to a place and have it certified to meet
current standards.

I wish they get a clue here in Calif. and quit the inspections, the air
is the same as when I was a kid!! And they charge way too much at 50$
The state is still run buy Nazi-hippie-Demos. I guess they think the
air stops at the border of the state. Till the whole world gets on the
same page with car emissions were just pissing in the wind! Sorry about
the rant...

Rick

The best way to get more power out of a 1974 318 is to put Magnum heads
and a modern engine management computer on it.

In other words, rebuild the 318 in the 2001 Ram when it gets tired
(which it *might* do in about 400,000 miles, if you abuse it) rather
than dump money into the 74. Yes, you COULD rebuild the 74 short block
and drop it under all the Magnum goodies, but you'd have to adapt it
with AMC lifters to actuate the Magnum valvetrain (the 74 can't accept a
roller cam without modification) and a dozen other little details.

Take the 74 engine, find a set of the good "xxxx302" casting heads from
a mid-80s 318, put them on it, put a 4-barrel carb on it, and stick it
in a nice Duster or Dart and have a really fun car.