What you guys are missing is the thinking at the time. By the mid-80's the Dakota was coming, and it was designed for a big engine being the V6. Mopar had already scrapped all the old big block tooling. V8's were on the way out (brilliant, huh?). While they were tooling up for turbo 4's, things were changing and at least Ford and Chevy had their pony cars to respond with. Mopar was divesting in V8's, so they did nothing to develop them. As things changed, they realized 8's were going to be around for more than just big tow trucks, so the Magnum line was planned. Again, why invest in the LA line? That would only steal thunder from the Magnum line when it was introduced. Also, every improvement had to be emissions-certified, and that was major corporate money. By the late 80's their only v8 market was the truck line, and their sales were dismal, so why leech money off when they could pour it all into the Magnum and the new Ram. Seriously, it was all about the money. They added the TBI and opened the rear coolant passages in the intake strictly in response to tighter emissions requirements. That's it. The late 80's were a great time of development for Mopar, but it was at the expense of the LA v8's. The minivan and K cars were making tons of cash. They developed the Viper for $150 million bucks, and while Chevy got attention with their 454 SS truck, Mopar had Carroll Shelby pushing thier cars and they beat Chevy by one model year with the '89 Shelby Dakota, a 175hp, 318-equipped Dakota. It was the first to ignite the sport truck wars. Anyway, the 318LA was always a utilitarian engine of the group. It made good low end power for towing. Even with the small ports and valves, you can add 100hp with a decent cam, free-flowing exhaust, and a 4-barrel induction system, or in the case of the tbi model, a factory 360 tbi or aftermarket unit. What Mopar did with the Magnum line was standardize on 360-size heads and intake, something we have been doing with 318's all through the 70's and 80's
