  3C 318 is a z=1.574 radio-loud quasar. The small physical size of its radio
jets indicate that these jets were triggered relatively recently. In addition
to the ultraviolet continuum emission being reddened by dust, detections with
IRAS and SCUBA show it to have an exceptionally high far-infrared luminosity.
We present CO(2-1) observations of 3C 318 made with the IRAM Plateau de Bure
Interferometer. We detect CO(2-1) emission with a FWHM=200 km/s at a
signal-to-noise ratio of 5.4. There is evidence for positional (~ 20 kpc) and
velocity (~ -400 km/s) offsets between the molecular gas and the quasar which
may be due to the quasar experiencing a major merger. The mass of molecular gas
inferred from our observations is M_{H_2}=(3.0 +/- 0.6) x 10^{10} M_sun. This
molecular gas mass is comparable to that in sub-mm-selected galaxies at similar
redshifts. The large molecular gas mass is consistent with the primary source
of heating for the cool dust in this quasar to be massive star formation with a
star formation rate of 1700 M_sun/yr and a gas depletion timescale of 20 Myr.
Our observations support the idea that star formation episodes and jet
triggering can be synchronised.
