ok i just got a nice 454 std deck block. stock bore 4.25'' and stroke 4'' i am building this to replace my sb. so here goes!
i will keep my th350trans and it's 4000 stall. also i have a 12 bolt with 4.10s. all in the car now. I was thinking of this combo tell me what you guys think ? keeping the stock bore . useing 12to1 pistons ,comp 260/260 dur 629/629 sold lift cam 3000 to 7000,merlin cast iron heads 119cc with 2.30/1.88 valves,merlin single plane intake 3000 to 7000 rpm 950 cfm race carb, and hooker super comp headrs. Full roller rockers. so let me know if you guys think this combo will make some good power?

thanks for any help !

 

Should make plenty of power, esp. above 400 rpm. Going to be tough getting that to the ground though.

What are your plans for the car?

I would go with a little less compression. Big Blocks can make lots of power with less than that. We are running a 427 in our street strip car (1955 Bel Air) It runs about 10.5:1. We can run it on pump gas if we back it off, but we usually mix it with race gas. It pushes the 3800lb car at 94 mph through the 1/8 leaving off idle and pulling the front tires.

What are you needing help with? Unsure of?

 

i just wanted to make sure i was not picking the wrong cam ect. it's a full time drag car never see's the street.

 

Cam looks about right, if your going for bracket car I might take the duration up just a smigion like 265/270 and around a 108-110 LSA, this will kep you from blowing off the tires on less than ideal track conditions and help you mph like a son of a gun.

it's going to want and spin into the 6500-7K range to utilize the slightly larger cam, but if you cant stick the track (which will be hard with all that heavy azz steel under the hood) your gonna lose everytime unless you pull a duck for that round. 60's are key to a winning car. more mph is also a good pysch tactic and will be utilized in my next combo, basically you'll have 2 cars running 10.50's at say 128mph, that one car gets up and running right out of the gate and by the 1000' he thinks your not catching him, mean while your car also runs 10.50's but at say 134mph and your car wont come on until just after the 1/8mi., by the 1000' mark your already sliding into him with that extra mph-that he does'nt expect-he'll try to dump you at the stripe and you'll drive on by for the win...simple as that LOL!! nother lil secret outta the bag.

Are you tubbed or running a small tire yet?

 

i have 29x10.5 slicks on 15 x 10 rims stuffed back there. I was also so thinking of this cam it's a comp sportsman 262/270 dur 635/637 lift rpm range would be 3600 to 6800 . i was going with the 12 to 1 piston but i was told that big blocks make good HP on 10 to 1 also ? what do you think? thanks IHI for taking the time to help !

 

also how can i get it to hook hard off the line?

 

LCA's Aftermarket control arms, Adj. Tourgw arm so you can get the pinion angle dialed in (that makes the biggest difference)

Buy some cheap shocks for the rear, drill a hole in the fronts if they still work ( worn out ones would be good in the front)

Remove the front sway bar, keep the back, Lighten up the front as much as possible, move battery to rear, Of course, you need a cage, and sfc.

Get the slicks good and hot, and launch. You will have to play with the pinion angle to get it right.

 

That depends upon the slicks you're using. For the Hoosier Quicktime Pro DOT's I have, getting them good & hot only aids the tire salesman.

 

True, we run MT ET slicks, and if they are good and hot it will spin for about 60ft before it hooks hard. Most of the treaded compounds such as your Hoosiers require less of a burn out.

 

When you start getting into that high of a duration, you need the extra compression staticly to compensate for pressure bleed off during valve overlap. Say you build this motor at 10:1 using the Comp cam which looks good IMO depending on LSA, you would (and I'm throwing this out there very loosly) drop the overal compression to about 8.5:1.

Hillbilly example I guess is like wanting to maintain 60mph going down the hwy, but you see a big hill ahead. So you mash the throttle to build up more speed so when you start at the base of the hill, by the time your reach the top your still at 60mph-even though you had to go upto 70mph initally. Cams and compression-same principal, the higher compression is just a "reserve" to compensate for compression loss with bigger duration bumsticks since the valves are hanging open longer.

Minimum I'd shoot for is 11.0:1 so you could still run premium pump gas with the iron heads, my buddy is running his 496 with a 274/282 cam with 10:1 pistons in a lighter car and is .3 slower than I am, so you can see what a dramatic effect this has in the big picture-combination/parts working together scheme of things.

If this is going to be a track only car that your going to use to make money, stay away from back woods, hole drilling, use worn out this or that garbage. Your only going to get out of your car what you put into it, so do alot of investigating and try to buy the best you can afford-even though that stills takes some time-in the end ots worth it. It's taken me 4 years to get this junker where it's at today and I have alot I'd like to do, just not the excess funds to do them right away.

Last year many of the drivers I raced with running small tires talked about, and most actually went through with tubbing their cars saying "there's no way a small tire car can be competative in Modified or Top class racing" my mods are listed in sig and now that I got everything figured out this year finally, these same guys told me I'm making the stock in 3rd gens go up with every good showing at the strip. Currently 12 points out of #1 for Mod track points out of 220 drivers and was leading the Summit Super Series for my track (have'nt seen new results since last weekend), and this is the first year I'm money ahead-waay ahead.

It takes time and money, and you'll soon learn who to listen too, who's full of sheeot, and then put it all together and make your own conclusions.


Side note: I've run Hoosiers full slicks& DOT rubber/ as well as M/T slicks. M/T tires did not like big burnouts, if I saw smoke I did too much-theey just liked to be cleaned off and barely hazed

Hooseir slicks with D05 compound are the same way as M/T's full slicks

Hooseir DOT QTP's with the C07 compound have always required a slightly longer burnout than a comparable slick with softer compound (D05), but they hold up ALOT longer when doing the street strip thing

During the summer months you do not need big burnouts, the track is already hot enough, once you start doing a John Force all you do is make the track and the tire slip on each other since oil from both will be coming to the surface quickly with the heat.

 

thanks for the info . IHI you really know your ****! but like you said it took 4 years to get your car to this point . one last Q? what do u think i'll get out of this thing in the 1/4 mile . i race in epping NH.

 

Realistically there's far too many variables to guess, that's why we always just say take it to the track. I was amped up when I first intalled this new drivetrain, made some passes only running 12.00's, found some little things and picked up .8 to get it running like I thought it should.

It's all going to depend on the exact combination of parts you choose from the engine internals themselves, to the convertor, gearing, tire size, tune, car weight when finished, fuel system, chasis, what acc. you have driven off the motor, exhaust or lack there of, etc...Would hope you'd be in consistant mid-high 11's once you get it all worked out.

That's the one thing to be emphasised, you can throw a 1000hp motor together, but if the stuff behind it and working in conjuntion with it dont work together, you could easily get your azz handed to you by alot smaller motored car that's working perfectly, my buddies 496cid powered malibu is a perfect example of that only running mid 11's in a stripped 3300lb car, his sheeot is all mismatched and was told that by everybody before he started buying parts, he learned the hard way and will have to buy everything all over again....nothing like spendin money twice

 

i hear ya thats why i'm asking for peoples thoughts . i want to do this right once i also am shooting for low 11s . we will see ? by next year i'll have the motor in the car and i'll find out if i did things right or not.

 

Interesting about the tires. On our car (1955 bel air), if I didn't see smoke coming into the cockpit, I knew the burnout wasn't good enough. If I didn't get smoke rolling, it would spin the tires out of the hole. And our track is always hot and humid. And they are 31x10.5w MT ET Drags.

 

Depending on how the car is set up you may need: different compound, stiffer sidwalls if not running tubes, if using a soft sidewall then run tubes, chasis tuning.

Heavy cars dont like the soft compound tires especially in the summer months as they will wrickle up/take alot of the hit at the line and literally collapse on themselves. Talk to any tire manufacturer and seasoned racer, you will see most if not all will concur with the small burnout issue. These newer compounds used in todays slicks do not require the burnouts of yesteryear to accomplish the same goal: deadhooking.

Look into the car and the overall set-up to see where gains can be made, sounds like your putting an awful lot of stock in those tires that are masking a bigger problem. If it hooks consistantly that way great, but you can hook consistantly and put less wear on the motor/car/tires by sorting out the minor problems.

 

Yeah, it hooks great with a good burnout. The car is still fairly untuned, but has been pretty consistant. The only big thing we need to do right now is a looser converter. It will only foot brake to about 2500, then it pushes trough. With the tires hot and leaving the line at 2500 it pulls the tires about 6", pretty good for an all steel foot brake car, I thought.

 

oh, and they are the W's not sure the compound, and we don't run tubes.

 

That's what you want in a footbrake car is a tight convertor, that way nothing is "lost" fromt he time you see the last yellow and mash the gas, until the car moves. Many guys that run loose convertors and footbrake constantly fight incocnsistant R/T/60's due to having the convertor set up srong for the application since with a loose convertor, the motor will "get a run" at it before it engauges and gets you moving, which will slow down your R/T...actually it will slow down the cars R/T, you will still be hitting the light the same, car just takes that split second longer to react to it.

If it's just getting on the track and you have'nt really spent time tuning things (chasis wise) then it will just be a matter of time fiddling with this or that until you stumble on the "real" combination. Wheelies slow you down, but are cool, so if you can tune that out of the car you will be money ahead on race day. Not very often big wheel standing cars are ever in any bracket finals since thee are soo many things taking place on the hit that can cause variance, and a sport that can come down to .000X, ANY variance is bad.

 

True, but hey, I went 3 rounds the first time the car was run., and I mean the first time, got the motor in, back half and cage, and on the way home we stoped at the track and ran it.

Yeah, it definalty needs some tuning, but I think it will end up on the street more than the track next year

A 1955 Bel Air diserves some street time.