Ok,long story short,I made the first pass down a dragstrip tonight since 2006,when I had to sell my old Iroc.I've since had some nastiness in my life,but after the dust settled I purchased my current 87 Berlinetta in 09'.I started this car at the rear,and moved forward.It has a 9" with 3.89 gears,a well built TH400 with a Daaco 10" convertor,(I know,thats not a great convertor,but I'm not having one custom built until I finish the big engine),a Spohn crossmember with a custom built torque arm that is adjustable.The car is pretty gutted,but still has all the interior and an 8 point cage.The heater,console,etc. is gone,as well as the headliner,carpet insulation,etc.Manual brakes and steering,no hood,and 28x10.5 slicks.
Here is my mystery,as I stuck the engine together out of TOTAL junk.It's a .060 350 4 bolt,factory steel crank,.120 dome pistons,with GM X rods.It's fresh,but nothing too great in there.I pieced this POS together with Fel Pro 1010 head gaskets,a geardrive,(I know they are junk but I had one and didn't have a timing chain set)and a "mystery cam",that I bought from a local engine builder.He had lost the cam card,and it had set on his shelf for years.All he remembered for certain was that it was a custom grind that showed up incorrect,and that it was a flat tappet solid.I bought it for $50,and all I know for certain is that its a .549 lift straight pattern cam.I topped all this trash off with a set of mildly ported 113 TPI aluminum heads heads,that took a little casting "cleanup" to clear the domes on the pistons.I'd like to say that I precisely checked the cc of the chamber,but I just ground enough of the spark plug "nub",to clear the domes.For an intake,I stumbled across a Weiand Team G at a swap meet that someone bored the holes for a fogger WAY too big on.I bought it,never bolted down with holes in it,for $20.I welded and cleaned up the offending holes,and bolted it on.With a Holley 750DP,a Pro Comp HEI,and 1 5/8" Ebay headers,I have WELL under $1000 in the whole setup.(I took the shortblock in on trade and freshened it with stuff I had)

Sorry for the long post,but the POS engine pushed my car to 12.43@108.4.
Can someone shed light on why?I left the house with hopes that the car could land in the 13's,mid 12's never crossed my mind.The heads are trash,although I know that I'm carrying enough compression to squish a railroad spike.I'm only looking for philisophies on why this thing runs so well,I already know that it's junk and won't last for more than a few passes.Just hoping some of the more knowledgable guys will share their thoughts.

 

My explanation is that it probably did so well just because of the gearing and the fact that you bored it .060 over. Otherwise you are the best potpourri engine builder to ever live!

 

What kind of rubber?

 

He said 28x10 slicks.

 

Oh, for some reason I could not find where it said that.

 

Some people can do wonders with second hand junk that nobody else wants. It just happens to be a good combination of parts to go fast.

When I bought my car back in 1999, it had an old school 383 stroker with some ugly smogger heads on it. Best I was able to get out of it was 14.0. After the first season of racing it, I yanked out the 700R4 and mild converter and installed a TH350 with a 3800 stall 10" converter. I also yanked the heads off and installed some old school camel heads with big valves. The first pass down the track in the second season netted me a 12.0. Everyone was asking where I hid the nitrous bottle. I managed a bunch of high 11 second passes that season before blowing up the engine at the last race of the year. The stock rotating assembly just didn't like spinning to 7000 rpm. I went big block after that. That was all on 3.27 gears. The 383 could have been faster if I had some deeper gears in the diff.

 

.060 over 350 with domed pistons, cam, mild head work really is all you need to get into the 12's, AND slicks im surprised you didn't run faster. Thats a large bore for a 350. Its no big mystery it is what is. Just because you used second hand, and mystery parts doesn't mean that it would be any different than an engine built with brand new top of the line parts. Maybe it wont look as nice or last as long but like I said it is what it is. Congrats on the time slip.

 

I have a 496 going togethor,SLOWLY.I was just amazed that this combination ran so well,the olny science or matching of parts that took place was the price factor.Maybe the old corvette heads are better than I give them credit for,but I sure haven't heard anything good about them,and this is my first rodeo with them.If I wasn't so confident it would cause an oildown,I'd spray the snot out of this thing just to see what she'd do.

 

I have almost the identical set up as you but instead of a SBC I put a stock bore 396 with a Lunati braket mster II and a 780 vacuum secondary carb, TH400 with a 3200 ATI converter. Oh and I'm using the stock oval port heads. These things weigh about 75 pounds a piece. 8 point roll bar, subframe connectors, a 7.5 posi with 4.10 gears and 9x15x30 M/T ET dragslicks finish up the drivetrain. The car weighs 3135 with me sitting in it. My first pass was a 13.98. Since then I've installed a 2-step, MSD Pro billet distributor and reworked the carb using ProForm main and throttle bodies, and adjustable secondary metering block. My best thus far has been an 11.66 @ 114 mph. Nothing but tuning, timing, experimenting with tire pressure and cooler thermostats.

This last weekend I bought a Moser 9" with 31 spline axles and 4.56's on a spool. I am hoping for some improvement but I also know that the 7.5 isn't long for this world if I kept making more power.

Like Alky and Irock somewhat alluded to. Its not how much you spend. It's how you spend what you got.