somone please tell me what the difference is between a 318 and a race 318 ?  

Money! Seriously, what do you mean by a race 318?
Mopar was involved with a 318 motor for the Indy 500, but that was back in 1964 and was a long time ago, so I am not sure what you are refering to.  

A weird question. I'm not sure where to go with this.


A 318 is just an engine. What you do with it is another story. There was an industrial model. A few stronger parts inside it.  

Back in the eighties they sold what they called race 318 blocks which had thicker cylinder walls but there flaw was the 'main caps'.

See when the 340 was introduced they had not only streched the bore [among other improvements] they beefed the main caps as with the 360 also.
So here comes this race 318 block that still has regular lil 318 caps and boy did they split when pushed. They discontinued this casting.
If you ask me the r3 covered any needs class wise.

Or you could build the hell out of a 318, then go race it, and there you have it...
a 'race' 318.  

Not to be confused with the current r3 block, which is baised on a 340 cast iron block and can be bored to 4.22 inches.  

An early 318 Race block 4104230-318-6 is considered to be a pretty good block.  I own one in one of my Barracuda's.  It was built as a mild street motor.  It was in the car when I bought it.  Some of these were 4-bolt main blocks.  Those should have an X cast on the right side.  Mine does not, so I assume it is a 2-bolt.  I do not have any personal experience with racing one, but from all I read, they are pretty strong.  I do not have any accurate info on how far they can be bored.  If you don't own one, or cannot get one cheep, then consider an R3 block if you want a serious race engine.
Don  

The original R block has a maximum bore size of 4.07 without sonic testing.
The reason for the development of this block was  strength, people could run very high compression with this block and nitrous and other power adders, such as blowers and turbos. Block was good for high RPM use.  

You Are the closees one for the info I need here are more numbers   Dr Side4104230-318-15  Pas Side dn 2-24-82      FRT rt 2m318  03170530   I do not know what the bore and stroke is  I have open chamber heads to put on it 1.78 in 1.50 exst  or I have heads from a 79 LRE truck 360 Hp  i cuuld use   The car is an 80 rd runner With a 2.2 Rear 4 spd overdrive trans  650 holley  edelbrock performer duel plain manifold  my end results should be torque from idle to 4700 and gas miliage in the 22-25 range what do you think i need to do     thanks     kw mopar426      keep the sport alive  !!!  

If your after fuel economy with some performance benifits go with the 318 heads with a mild port and polish.
Cam, Mopar purple shaft 248/256, 410/425 lift, good from 1000rpm to 5000, advance it 4 degrees because of the long gear your using.
Performer intake with the 650 will work fine, and a nice set of headman 1 5/8 headers.
I really like the 80 Aspen/Volare R/T/Road Runners, these cars handle very well and do get great fuel economy.  
P.S. make sure you upgrade the ignition system to a Mopar electronic ignition.  

THanks for the input sounds like good advice.right now I have a 185,000 six in it and i have to slip the clutch to get it moving.but at 70 in third gear I only turn 2000 rpm speedometer is off  about 15 to 20 mph odometer is off 4 miles in 10 and it is electronic already with silver box!